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Category:Sahaba

Bilal redirects here. For other uses, see Bilal (disambiguation).

In Muslim history Bilal ibn Ribah (Arabic: بلال بن رباح) was an Ethiopian born in Mecca in the late 6th century, whom Prophet Muhammad chose as his muezzin. He was among the slaves freed by Abu Bakr and was known for his beautiful voice with which he called people to their prayers. His name can also be spelled as, "Bilal ibn Riyah" or "ibn Rabah" and he is sometimes known as "Bilal al-Habashi" or "Bilal the Ethiopian". He died 638 - 642 when he was just over sixty years old.

Early life

Very little is known about Bilal's early life. Everything that is known comes from Muslim sources. He was of very humble parentage, and was one of the first inhabitants of Mecca to accept early Islamic revelation.

Genealogy

His father was called "Riyah" also spelled as "Ribah", and his mother "Jumanah", also spelled as "Hamamah". His agnomen was "Abu Abdillah" and "Abu Umar". Narrators described him as very dark in complexion, slender, very tall, thick-haired and having a sparse beard.

Life as a slave

Bilal was a slave owned by Umayah ibn Khalaf and/or Umayah's son Safwan ibn Umayyah of Jumah, a Quraish subtribe. Among his tasks was tending herds of camels.

Bilal first heard of Muhammad when his master spoke to guests with anxiety, rage, and malice in his voice. Bilal overheard them say,

"Muhammad was never a liar, magician, or mad, but we have to describe him this way until we turn away from him those who rush to his religion."

Bilal understood his masters to have three main reasons for disliking Muhammad:

1) Muhammad opposed the traditional religion of Quraish,

2) they were afraid that the economic status of the Quraish would diminish if people were to stop coming to Mecca to worship the idols, and

3) that they disliked the pride of Banu Hashim for having a prophet from their tribe.

However, when Bilal heard Muhammad preach, he decided to convert to Islam.

Bilal's master Umayah ibn Khalaf considered the acceptance of Islam by one of the Banu Jumah slaves as a shock. Umayah reportedly said, "It does not matter. Indeed the sun this day shall not set but with the Islam of this stray slave," and began to torture Bilal in order to force him to recant his new faith. Reportedly, Bilal endured various tortures, including being stripped naked and laid on hot coals, to make him renounce Islam. Bilal refused.

According to Ibn Ishaq, the 8th century biographer of the Prophet, Bilal's master reportedly, "would bring him out at the hottest part of the day and throw him on his back in the open valley and have a great rock put on his chest; then he would say to him, 'You will stay here till you die or deny Muhammad and worship al-Lat and al-Uzza" (pre-Islamic goddesses).

Other sources state that he "was made to lie down naked on the burning sand of the Arabian desert; a heavy stone was put on his chest which made breathing difficult for him. And as if it was not enough, some heavily built persons used to jump upon the stone, trying to crush him to death. Still the only sound heard from Bilal was "Ahad! Ahad! (One God! One God!)"

Bilal remained beneath the rock. By sunset they raised him up and placing a rope around his neck, took him around the mountains and streets of Makkah. Bilal kept saying, "One ... One."

This torture was repeated every day. They said Bilal could go free on the condition that he said the name of Al-Lat and Al-'Uzza. But Bilal answered, "One ... One" They said to him, "Say as we say." Bilal answered them "Indeed my tongue is not good at that."

One of them said "Tomorrow, speak well of our gods, say, 'My lord is Al-Lat and Al-'Uzza,' and we'll leave you alone." Bilal shook his head and said, "One... One." Umayah ibn Khalaf kicked him and shouted, "What bad luck has thrown you upon us, O slave of evil! By Al-Lat and Al-'Uzza, I will make you an example for slaves and masters."

Later Abu Bakr went to them while they were torturing Bilal and shouted at them,

"Have you no fear of Allah that you treat this poor man in such a way -- how long do you intend continuing like this!"

With a sneer, Ummaya replied, "It is you who have corrupted him -- save him from it!"

Abu Bakr said, "Are you killing a man because he says, 'Allah is my Lord?'" Then he shouted at Umayah ibn Khalaf, "Take more than his price and set him free."

Umayah accepted the offer, reasoning that selling Bilal was more profitable to them than killing him. Abu Bakr paid their price. They said, "Take him, for by Al-Lat and Al-'Uzza if you had refused to buy him except for one ounce of gold, would have sold him to you."

Abu Bakr answered, "By Allah, if you had refused to sell him except for a hundred ounces, I would have paid it."

Abu Bakr took Bilal home, cared for him, nursed Bilal back to health and permitted him to practice Islam freely. Muhammad later freed Bilal completely.

Living with Prophet Muhammad

Adhan

Muslim tradition supplies the story of how the adhan came to be used to announce the times of the five daily prayers. In two AH, a Muslim named Abd Allah ibn Zaid had a vision in which he tried to buy a wooden clapper to summon people to prayer. But the man who had the clapper advised him to call out to the people instead and to cry:

God is most great! God is most great!

I testify that there is no god but God

I testify that Muhammad is the Apostle of God

Hasten to prayer! Hasten to prayer!

Hasten to salvation! Hasten to salvation!

God is most great! God is most great!

There is no god but God

According to Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Zaid went to Muhammad with his story and Muhammad, approving, told him to ask an Ethiopian named Bilal, who had a marvelous voice, to call the Muslims to prayer. As Ibn Ishaq told the story (in Albert Guillaume's translation):

When the Apostle was told of this he said that it was a true vision if God so willed it, and that he should go to Bilal and communicate it to him so that he might call to prayer thus, for he had a more penetrating voice. When Bilal acted as muezzin, Umar I, who later became the second caliph, heard him in his house and came to the Apostle... saying that he had seen precisely the same vision. The Apostle said 'God be praised for that!'

Though slightly different versions of the story exist, all agree that Islam's first muezzin was Bilal. Bilal felt deep love for Muhammad, and he is quoted as reciting some lines of poetry in his own language, Ethiopian, in the praise of the Prophet of Islam. Hassan bin Thabit al-Ansari has translated it into Arabic:

"When noble traits are described in our country, thou art pointed out as a model among us."

Migration

In 622, the year of the Hijra, Bilal also migrated to Medina and over the next decade accompanied Muhammad on all his military expeditions, serving, tradition says, as the Prophet's mace-bearer and steward, but also as a muezzin revered by Muslims for his majestically sonorous renditions of the adhan. Bilal also carried Muhammad 's spear, which was used from 624 onward to point the direction of prayer.

He was present at the Battle of Badr, where he killed the man that tortured him earlier, Umayah ibn Khalaf. He was also present in all of the major events and battles, including the battles of Uhud and Khandaq.

Bilal's finest hour came in January 630, on an occasion regarded as one of the most hallowed moments in Islamic history. After the Muslim forces had captured Mecca, the Prophet's muezzin ascended to the top of the Ka'ba to call the believers to prayer - the first time the call to prayer was heard within Islam's holiest city.

After Prophet Muhammad

There are contradictory reports about what happened to Bilal after the death of Muhammad in 632. What seems clear is that at some point Bilal accompanied the Muslim armies to Syria.

After Muhammad's demise, Usama ibn Zaid continued a military expedition to Syria, as commanded by Muhammad. However, it is very uncertain if that is the army Bilal accompanied.

Sunni view

Some Sunni sources say that after Abu Bakr gained power after Muhammad, Bilal acted as Abu Bakr's muezzin but subsequently declined to serve his successor, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, in the same capacity.

Other Sunni authors say Muhammad's death signaled the end of Bilal's career as a muezzin, and that he called the faithful to prayer only twice more in his life - once in Syria, to honor the visiting 'Umar, and a second time, in Medina, when he was specifically asked to do so by the Prophet's grandsons.

Shi'a view

The Shi'a claim that he stopped reciting the adhan and moved to Syria due to Ali's right being usurped and Muhammad's will being ignored, and that the conflicting stories are made to cover up this fact. The author of Isti'ab writes, "When the Prophet died, Bilal wanted to go to Syria. Abu Bakr told him to remain in his (personal) service."

It is written in Kamil Baha'i that Bilal did not say adhan or iqamah for Abu Bakr and did not pay allegiance to Abu Bakr as a caliph.

Shaykh Abu Ja'far al-Tusi has narrated in lkhtiyar al-Rijal a report that Bilal refused to pay allegiance to Abu Bakr; and 'Umar caught hold of his dress made of hide and said, "Is this the reward of Abu Bakr; he emancipated you and you are now refusing to pay allegiance to him?" Bilal replied:

If Abu Bakr had emancipated me for the pleasure of Allah, then let him leave me alone for Allah; and if he had emancipated me for his service, then I am ready to render him the services required. But I am not going to pay allegiance to a person whom the Messenger of God had not appointed as his caliph.

Umar then "dealt harshly" with him and said, "You should not remain here among us." That is why after the Prophet's death, Bilal could not remain in Medina, and migrated to Syria. (ref) The source does not specify "dealt harshly".

Some of Bilal's poetry on this subject is as follows:

By Allah! I did not turn towards Abu Bakr,

If Allah had not protected me,

hyena would have stood on my limbs.

Allah has bestowed on me good

and honoured me,

Surely there is vast good with Allah.

You will not find me following an innovator,

Because I am not an innovator, as they are.

Death

Bilal died there between 638 and 642, though the exact date of death and place of burial are disputed.

The scholar Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti writes in his Tarikh al-Khulaf:

He (Bilal) died in Damascus in 17 or 18 AH, but some say 20 AH, or even 21 AH when he was just over sixty years old. Some said he died in Madinah, but that is wrong. That is how it is in al-Isabah and other works such as the Tahdhib of an-Nawawi. (ref)

Legacy

If there is some disagreement concerning the hard facts of Bilal's life and death, his importance on a number of levels is incontestable. Muezzin guilds, especially those in Turkey and Africa, have traditionally venerated the original practitioner of their noble profession, and African Muslims as a whole feel a special closeness and kinship to him; he was an Ethiopian, after all, who had been exceptionally close to the Prophet, and is a model of steadfastness and devotion to the faith. The story of Bilal, in fact, remains the classic and most frequently cited demonstration that in the Prophet's eyes, the measure of a man was neither nationality nor social status, but piety.

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