The Call to Prayer (the Adhan)

Sarajevo has been called "the Jerusalem of Europe" due to its cultural diversity.  There are Islamic, Jewish, Catholic, and Orthodox Christian cultures throughout the city.  They have existed side by side MOSTLY without conflict for hundreds of years (more on the recent war later).  One of the things  about Sarajevo that I was really looking forward to was being able to hear the Islamic call to prayer.  5 times a day, mosques will broadcast a man singing the traditional call to prayer.  It is always in Arabic (much like Latin being sung in Catholic masses), and it is powerful.  The sunset call to prayer is especially ethereal.  (Yes, because of the time of day but also because that is when the GOOD guy is singing; the morning guy must be an intern or doing some sort of community service, for he is tone deaf).  It is spiritual, even though we are not Muslims.  Geoff and I find it comforting, and Liam is even drawn to its sound.  We stop what we are doing for that two minutes and just listen, reflect, center, and pray.   I hope that each of you gets to experience hearing the call to prayer at least once in your life.  It is truly an amazing experience.  Until you can hear the adhan live, here is the one we hear every evening.  The video is about 4 minutes long.  It starts out before our nearest mosque begins, but you can faintly hear other mosques doing theirs before ours starts up about 1 minute into the video.  Here is an English translation of what the adhan means:

God is great, God is great
I bear witness there is no deity but God
I bear witness there is no deity but God
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God 
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God 
Hurry to prayer
Hurry to prayer
Hurry to success
Hurry to success
God is great, God is great

There is no deity but God