On another supposition...

On another supposition, it is possible that each one of these preliminary takbīr s of the adhān points to a state: The first takbīr means: He is Greater than the attributive Essence; the second means: He is Greater than the attributive Attribute; the third means: He is Greater than the attributive Name; and the fourth means: He is Greater than the attributive Act.

Thus, it is as if the sālik says: Allāhu akbar [Allah is Greater] than your description of His Essence, or of His Essence-manifestations, and He is Greater than your describing Attributes, His Names and His Acts, or their respective manifestations.

In an elaborated speech quoted from Amīr al-Mu'minīn 'Alī (' a ) it is said: “…The other aspect is that Allāhu akbar implies negation of His quality, as if he (the mu'adhdhin = the one who speaks out the adhān )” says: “Allah's attribute, with which He is qualified, is far above being comprehended by the describers,” for the describers describe Him according to their own measure, not according to the measure of His Greatness and Majesty.

He is far above His quality being understood by the describers…” as the hadīth goes.[^1] Another important discipline of the takbīr s is that the sālik is to strive, and, by cordial austerities, he is to prepare his heart to be the place for the Majesty of Allah, the Glorified, and to regard Greatness, Glory, Sovereignty and Majesty to be exclusively ascribed to the Sacred Essence of Allah, the Most High, and to exclude the others from Majesty.

If he feels in his heart even a tiny bit of anyone else's greatness, without taking it to be the light of that of Allah's, his heart is sick and is controlled by Satan. It is quite possible that Satan's intrusion would cause the sovereignty of the majesty of other than Allah, in the heart, to be more than that of Allah's, and the heart would regard him greater than Allah. In this case, man would be counted among the hypocrites.

The symptom of this devastating disease is that man regards the pleasure of the creatures to be preferred to the pleasure of Allah, and in order to obtain the pleasure of the created, he would incur the displeasure of the Creator.

As-Sādiq (' a ) is quoted to have said: “When you say: Allāhu akbar , slight whatever is there between the high (heaven) and the earth, regarding it below His Majesty, because if Allah looked into the heart of the servant while telling the takbīr , and saw therein something contradicting his takbīr , He would say: “O you liar!