It has been observed that the menace of loudspeaker in mosques has been increasing steadily with high pitched loudspeakers fixed on the tall minarets of mosques. These loudspeakers are used not only for calls to prayers but also for naat khwani at early hours of morning and during Juma sermons. According to a report recently published in a national Urdu paper it has been attributed to Hazrat Aisha (RA) that sound ought to be limited to people listening in a room and ought not be heard by the people outside so as not to disturb them. On the contrary loudspeaker noise emanating from mosques in close vicinity competes with garbled high pitched noise reaching several miles beyond the mosque at all hours of the day. Sometimes tapes of high pitched noise are played in an empty mosque for all and sundry to hear the sound. It is said that according to a Hadees-i-Nabvi a time would come that people would be troubled by noise in mosques so as to distract them from going to mosques. Even today residences are avoided to be built close to a mosque due to this torture The situation ought to be redressed in public interest.
DR M YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore