Life of the Prophet (pbuh) Through the Eyes of the Companions - Bilal
By Abdul Rahman Chao | 2026-01-15T10:06:59.103499+00:00 | Topic: Seerah
Life of the Prophet Through the Eyes of the Companions - Bilal
Opening and Introduction
All praise is due to Allah and we seek (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ) His help, we seek His guidance and we send eternal salutations and blessings upon Muhammad (peace be upon him).
The First Meeting: Bilal's Conversion to Islam
The Prophet (peace be upon him) was one time in a cave and he was sitting with Abu Bakr. And while he was sitting there, a man passed by the Prophet, passed by the cave, and the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "Dear shepherd, do you have any milk for us?" So the shepherd said, "Well, what I have is not really mine, but I have one sheep and I have some milk for it, but if you take it, then I might not have enough for it." So the Prophet (peace be upon him) took the sheep and he immediately saw how the sheep was filled with milk.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) milked that sheep and he drank to his fill. Then he milked it again and then he passed it to Abu Bakr and then he drank it. Then he gave it to this other person and he drank it. And then when this person left, that sheep had more milk than before. Obviously, a miracle of the Prophet (peace be upon him). At that very end of that meeting, the Prophet (peace be upon him) invited this person to Islam. And that person accepted Islam and the Prophet (peace be upon him) said to him, "Go ahead and hide your Islam."
Hide your Islam. And as you know, during the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), when Islam first came out, the Prophet (peace be upon him) understood the dangers of announcing Islam so publicly at that time because he might be met with aggression, etc. So he didn't want everyone to know. So that person accepted Islam and he went on his way. That person was Bilal. That person was Bilal.
Understanding Passion Narratives
This story about Bilal is not very well known. Most of the time when we think of Bilal, we hear of the passion narratives regarding his suffering. So when we say the word passion narrative, that's a theological term. It means the suffering of individuals for their religion. So you hear in Christianity, for example, they will say passion of Christ. Maybe some of you have heard that, the passion of Christ. It doesn't mean, oh, you know, he had lots of love and passion. It means the suffering of Christ. So the narratives that you find in hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him), most of the time when people talk about Bilal, it's always about the passion narratives.
The First Seven Who Announced Their Faith
How his suffering went, what they did to him when he became a Muslim, and what happened, so on and so forth. So Bilal went along his way and he was hiding his Islam. But after a while, it was okay for the Muslims to announce their faith. Some people chose to announce their faith and some people chose to hide their faith. But the first seven people who announced their faith, obviously, the first person is who? The Prophet (peace be upon him). He wouldn't ask his followers to go public unless he did it himself because that would be unfair. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) and Abu Bakr and Ammar ibn Yasir, his mother Sumayya, who later passed away, was martyred, Miqdad, Suhaib al-Rumi, and Suhaib actually has a really interesting story because he's actually originally Arab, but he lived in the Byzantine lands.
So he was known as the Roman. As you know, the Byzantine Empire was Roman, the Eastern Roman Empire. So he was known as Suhaib al-Rumi, the Roman. And so we have the Prophet (peace be upon him), Abu Bakr, Ammar, Sumayya, Miqdad, Suhaib, the Roman, and Bilal.
Protection and Persecution
As for the Prophet (peace be upon him), when the Mushrikeen, the pagan Meccans, when they started persecuting him and attacking him verbally, and they tried to physically attack him as well, the Prophet's grandfather and uncle held them at bay. So, in other words, it was sort of like the whole, you know, you have a family connection and if they can protect you, then no one can harm you. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) had protection. Abu Bakr also had protection from his tribe of Banu Taym. So the other five actually endured a lot of suffering because they did not have a tribe or a clan to protect them.
The Companions Who Capitulated Under Pressure
So they endured a lot of suffering. However, the interesting thing is that the Prophet (peace be upon him), in a hadith, he tells us that these five individuals towards the end, all of them capitulated. And what I mean by capitulated means when the Prophet (peace be upon him) saw that they were being punished and saw that they were being persecuted, he knew that there had to be a greater deal of patience, right? A greater deal of tolerance. And he never espoused the idea that if you end up uttering an evil word or a word of disbelief, that that's shame on you. The Prophet (peace be upon him) didn't have that kind of viewpoint towards his companions. He knew that the suffering was very, very great and therefore he understood that some people under immense pressure, they will cave in.
So if you look at Ammar ibn Yasir, the pagan Meccans, they actually brought his mother Sumayya, who was one of the seven, as well as his father and they would beat them and whip them and hit them in front of Ammar. And of course, you know, for a son to see their own mother and father
attacked in public and whipped, etc. It's a completely unsettling feeling. It's really so offensive and so heartbreaking. And of course, he said a word so that they would leave him alone, right? And that's what the pagans used to do. They would come and they would punish and they just want them to say something like, say something against Muhammad, or say that you believe in al-Lat, these are four of the pagan Arab gods that they had. So say something, right? So that at least we can walk around and say that, ha ha, you capitulated, right?
Bilal's Unwavering Faith
Except for Bilal. Bilal was the only person who did not cave in, right? In fact, the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him), it tells that, he tells us that except for Bilal,
(They would give him to the children, and they would parade him around the valleys of Mecca while he was saying: "Ahad, Ahad" (One, One), and he was insignificant to his people for the sake of Allah)
In other words, he had reached a point, he felt so insignificant, and this is one point that I want to bring up. Sometimes when we make a sacrifice, our intentions get corrupted. We sort of almost want to be recognized for our suffering. We almost want people to know, look at me, you know, I've suffered, look at what's happened to me, right? And social media right now, these days, doesn't really help. When people go online and start telling everyone their sad, sob stories, and you know, just, turns into a musalsal, right? A soap opera.
I'm not talking about like, you know, people being mean to them. You know, my friend said this to me, and they said that to me, and she was this, and he was that, right? The fact that Bilal said, he didn't view himself as something so significant. In other words, it's not that he had low self-esteem. It means that he had resigned himself. He was so okay with what would happen to him. Whether they killed him, or tortured him, or beat him, or whipped him, it didn't matter to him anymore.
The Philosophy of Endurance
It's not that he gave up, it's that he thought that by making a huge scene, by resisting, it would have a negative image, right? So he was just like, okay, you know what, whatever. You want to do this to me? Go ahead. I don't care anymore. He doesn't care. And that's why they say, when, you know, the enemy that you should fear the greatest is the one that has nothing to lose, right? And he was someone that he had nothing to lose anymore. When someone doesn't care, they don't have anything to lose, well, be careful. Because they will just go full force.
So even with the people torturing him, even the kids, the kids would take him, and they would parade him around, and they would mock him, and they would make fun of him, and he would just say, one, one, one God, one God.
The Islamic Concept of Suffering
So what does this story actually mean to us? I mean, honestly, when I hear, when I think about this story, I can't help but feel the idea of what it means, of what suffering actually means, the idea of suffering. Suffering is not something that brings a person reward by itself. If you contrast that with Christianity, there is this notion of, you know, suffering is what is in and of itself the redemption. The suffering of Christ, that is the redemption in and of itself. That there had to be, because mankind had sinned, there has to be some payment, right? And therefore Jesus has to pay the price of his life, right?
In Islam, Allah is not concerned about the physical suffering in and of itself. The physical suffering is not what brings the reward. It's how you react to that suffering. Let me say that again. Suffering in and of itself in Islam is not something that brings you the reward. It is how you react to that suffering. So if you react with rage and disappointment and mockery or whatever it is, then you're not going to get reward for it. In fact, you might be accountable for that. And if you react in patience and with reliance in Allah, therefore that's where the reward is. That's where the reward actually is.
Social Media and Public Grievances
So why am I bringing this up? We live in a time right now where with the advent of social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, more on Facebook, you have people who publicly talk about their grievances. They publicly talk about what they've been through, the pain that they've been through, and there's really nothing wrong with it. But when that becomes the object of Facebook likes, when that becomes the object of this is what we're looking for, this is a way of raising awareness. That's not called raising awareness. That's called you just want to talk about your pain.
There's nothing wrong with talking about pain, but you should be careful of the reason why you're doing this. And the thing with Bilal was he was completely against that form of self-exoticization. The idea of, oh, it's about me, I need to talk about my pain in order to make it relevant. And a lot of people, they don't understand that just because you hear someone complaining about their pain, it doesn't mean that by you not talking about your pain, that your pain is somewhat less. It doesn't mean that. Your pain is legitimate, but it doesn't become more legitimate because you brought it up, right? And that's what it means by this hadith.
The Methods of Torture
He was not someone who was so obsessed with, you know, wailing and crying and making a huge scene and making a movie. So when these five people were being tortured, the way how they used to torture these five was actually very graphic. But for the sake of the audience, I don't want to, you know, gross you out, but the general gist is, the hadith tells us that they would make them wear iron
chain mail. You know, like the knights, the chain mail, the heavy metal, not the music. They would wear the chain mail and they would bring them out in the hot sun and they would let that metal cook them. Okay.
I want you to think about that. They used to let that hot metal cook their skin. And they used to bring them in the worst of the Meccan heat and they used to strip them of their shirts from top and they used to make them lie on the hot rock. You know, for us, this is something that is so left field. This is something that is very, very difficult for us to understand because, you know, we don't live in a time where people are doing this kind of, you know, may Allah protect us. You know, this sort of brazenness and barbarism, you know, this is what they used to do. These are what the pagans used to do and it doesn't change the fact that, you know, when we talk about suffering, you know, we have to be balanced. You know, the Prophet (peace be upon him) endured the worst kind of punishment. Anyways.
The Torture of Bilal
So when Bilal was taken, they put a hot rock on him and he would say, the pressure of that rock was so severe, he wasn't able to say, there is no God worthy of worship except Allah. He was only able to say, "one, one." If you think about it, that's like the only sound that could come out of his breath because of the pressure on his chest. And what drove the Meccans mad, what drove the Meccans really mad is the idea that this slave, this Abyssinian slave, who is worthless in their eyes, who should be subservient and obedient to the superior Arab race in their view, is, how dare he, how dare he not only disobey us, but how dare he mock the predominant culture and religion by believing in Allah. That to them was more offensive than anything else. It was an issue of honor. It was an issue of power. It was a power and weakness dynamic. Right?
Now, of course they would have loved to have assaulted the Prophet (peace be upon him). Of course they would have loved to have assaulted the other companions. But they couldn't because they were protected by their tribes. Bilal didn't have a tribe. He was a slave. So it was that kind of racism, it was that kind of intolerance and bigotry that drove them to that. How dare you? Who do you think you are?
Abu Bakr's Purchase of Bilal
And so this torture went on for a while. And Bilal, he was one day being tortured by Umayyah ibn Khalaf. Umayyah ibn Khalaf. Umayyah ibn Khalaf was torturing him and as he was messing with him and punishing him, Abu Bakr heard about it. And as you know, Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) was very, very wealthy. So Abu Bakr, excuse me, came to Umayyah and he said, "How much would it take for me to purchase Bilal?" And so Umayyah ibn Khalaf said, "How much are you going to give?" So Abu Bakr said, "No, no, no, you name the price." So he said, "Five silver coins." Now I know
The Story of Bilal ibn Rabah
Alright everyone, we're going to talk about the story of Bilal ibn Rabah.
Bilal's Conversion to Islam
So Bilal was a slave. He was a slave to Umayyah ibn Khalaf. And Umayyah ibn Khalaf was one of the leaders of the Quraysh. And he was very, very wealthy. And he was very, very mean. And so when Bilal accepted Islam, he would torture him. He would torture him. He would put him in the sun. He would whip him. He would starve him. He would do all sorts of things to him. And Bilal would not renounce Islam.
And so one day, Abu Bakr was walking by and he saw Bilal being tortured. And he said to Umayyah ibn Khalaf, "Why are you doing this?" He said, "Because he accepted Islam." He said, "Well, how much do you want for him?" He said, "I want such and such amount." And so Abu Bakr paid him for Bilal.
And so the story goes that he asked for five silver coins. And so Abu Bakr paid him five silver coins. Now, five silver coins is not a proper translation. Uqiya is not really a coin, etc. Not really exactly, but we'll just take it as five silver coins. We'll just take it at that.
Abu Bakr paid it. And then immediately on the spot, he said to Bilal, "You are free." When Umayyah ibn Khalaf saw that, it angered him so much. Because he thought that this person would continue to be a slave. So it angered him and he said, "If you only paid me one silver coin, I would have given him freedom." He's basically trying to say that Bilal is worthless. You spent five silver coins and he's not even worth one coin. And with that, Abu Bakr said, "No, by Allah, if you had asked for 100 silver coins, I would have given you 100 silver coins." In other words, the price of humanity is worth much more than whatever money that you're going to bring to him. And with that, Bilal was a free man.
Understanding the Concept of Mawla
So if you look in the hadith books, they always say that Bilal is the mawla. The mawla of Abu Bakr. Mawla Abu Bakr. So what does mawla mean in this context? Mawla, so we have to understand that slavery during pre-Islamic time, as well as during the time of the Prophet, is very different from the slavery that happened in the United States. This talk is not about slavery. But I want to talk about the system of slavery and that was when a slave is purchased or sold, when he is set free by his master, if he doesn't have any children, that person who set him free is entitled to his inheritance. Why? Because he set him free. On the condition that this person doesn't have any children.
I'm sorry, doesn't have any children. Right? So let's say if Bilal got married and he didn't have any money or he didn't have any children, he didn't have anyone to inherit from, who would inherit from him? Abu Bakr. Why? Not because Abu Bakr is his father or because he's his master. No, it's because Abu Bakr is like a father to him because he freed him. He paid for that money and there are three things that can bring about inheritance. Three causes.
One is marriage. So when you marry someone, husband can inherit from wife, wife can inherit from husband. Number two, an-nasab, by lineage. If your father, your brother, your uncle, your son, you can inherit by lineage. And the third one, mawla. The freed man, the freed ex-slave, the person who freed him can inherit from him if he doesn't have anybody to inherit from them. Wallahu alam.
Umar's Recognition of Bilal
So when Abu Bakr freed Bilal, Umar ibn al-Khattab said, "Our sayyid," and sayyid in Arabic means our master, not like a slave master. It's an honorific word for our lord. Not capital L, but, and it's getting worse, it's not helping. I'm trying to explain it, it's not helping. So it just simply means our sir, our respected person, probably the only Spanish word that I can say right now. So our sir, or whatever, "has freed our sayyid, Bilal." In other words, yes, Bilal was a slave, but his status in Islam is forever enshrined as someone who had given up his life for the sake of Allah, who had given up all this torture for the sake of Allah, and so he holds a very special place.
Bilal's Background and Lineage
So who is Bilal? Who is Bilal? Let's talk a little bit about who Bilal is. Bilal, his father's name was Rabah. So Bilal, the son of Rabah. Rabah, his father, was taken as a captive, I don't know when, but he was taken and he became a slave to the tribe of Bani Jumah. Bani Jumah, J-U-M-A-H. So not Jumaa, Jumah. And the head of that tribe was Umayyah ibn Khalaf, the person who used to torture him.
Bilal ibn Rabah's mother, Rabah means like dove, like a pigeon. And she was originally, there is some historical proof, but we're not sure, that his mother was actually a former princess back in Abyssinia. That she was actually a princess and she was captured in war and sold into slavery, and that's how the kingdoms used to be back then. Princes become slaves and slaves end up becoming princes. You look in the history of Islam, there's an entire dynasty called the Mamluks. The Mamluks, the Arabic word is Mamalik. Mamalik means slaves. So these were slaves that were brought in and conscripted into the army, but over time these people, they rose in rank that they ended up becoming a kingdom themselves. The Mamluks.
Bilal's Birth and Physical Description
Bilal, when was he born? Historical sources tell us that Bilal was born a few years after the year of the elephant. What is the year of the elephant? That was the year where Abraha, interestingly, an Abyssinian king or leader, general, he tried to attack Mecca. That story is well known in the life of the Prophet. So he was born a couple of years after that. So he is a couple of years younger than the Prophet (peace be upon him).
What did he look like? First and foremost, he was very dark. You've probably seen on YouTube they have this new cartoon for Bilal. It's like this light-skinned kid with dreadlocks. That is not what Bilal looked like. He was not this short little kid. He was actually very, very tall. In fact, Ethiopians are generally very tall people. They're not short. Not that there's anything wrong with being short, but Ethiopians are generally very, very tall people. He was very, very tall. He was not very muscular, but he was very, very tall. There was a slight, slight hunch to him. Slight hunch. He was hunchbacked, but just slightly forward. Lots and lots of hair. Think of Colin Kaepernick. Lots of hair. Big, big bushy hair. Lots of white hair as well. Lots of white hair as well. So I think of like Cornel West. Just big hair and white inside. Not very imposing. Not like Umar, who was very, very tall and imposing and huge. Bilal was skinny and tall, so this is who Bilal is. So you can imagine, he was not muscular like Umar or Hamza. He could fight them all. He was not too strong and he was tortured.
The Institution of Adhan
After he was set free, when they got to Medina, the Prophet (peace be upon him) was thinking about the call to prayer. And back in the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), there were some
suggestions that were brought up. How do we legislate the call to prayer? So there were people saying, we should bring a bell, like the Christians. And some people said, no, we should bring a horn, a shofar, like the Jews. They blow into a horn to signal some sort of prayer time. So the word for bell in Arabic is naqoos. So they suggested, can we just use the bell? And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "No, no, that's for the Christians." They use the bell. And until today, the Christians use the bell. Then they said, "How about let's use the horn?" And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "No, the Jews use the horn. We want to be unique." Then they said, "How about we light a fire on the highest house so we can really come to an agreement?"
So what ended up happening was if there was a salah, they would have a person that would walk around the neighborhood and he would say, as-salatu jamiah, congregational prayer, congregational prayer. He would say that. And this went on for a while. The problem is, not everyone could hear it. They would just sit there and wait. So they would sit there for an hour. They don't know when the salah is. Think about it. Imagine they miss Dhuhr and they don't know when Asr starts so they're just sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting. And then they would just go back and do their business.
The Dream of Abdullah ibn Zayd
Until one time, there was a man by the name of Abdullah ibn Zayd ibn Abd Rabbih. Abdullah, the son of Zayd, was in this dream. He saw a man or he was in this dream and he saw this man. He didn't identify this person. And this person had this bell and he wanted to buy this bell. And the man said, "What do you want to do with this bell?" He said, "I want to use it. I want to use it to call people to prayer." And so the man said, "Shall I not inform you of a better method?" And this hadith is authentic. He said, "To call people to prayer." So in the dream, this person taught him the adhan. It's 15 words. So 15. 15 phrases. I want to say word. So there is so he was so after he had this dream. He immediately went to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and informed him of this dream and the Prophet (peace be upon him) said that is a true dream from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And at that time Umar ibn al-Khattab came out of his house, and he heard the commotion and he's like "What's going on?" and they said and they told him what happened. He's like "I just had that dream, too. I had the same exact dream that I was going and then someone came and told me how to do the adhan." So the Prophet (peace be upon him) he said this is how we will make the Adhan that you will have someone that will stand at the top and they will read the Adhan.
Bilal as the First Muadhin
So who did the Prophet (peace be upon him) appoint? Bilal. Why? Because Bilal had a very loud and strong melodious voice. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) told Abdullah bin Zayd, the guy who had the dream, to teach those words to Bilal and this is how the Adhan, the call to prayer came into Islam. Now you might say "Are you telling me that the call to prayer was like from someone's dream?"
Yes, it was from someone's dream. It was a dream that was from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that was given to that person and the Prophet (peace be upon him) affirmed that dream. It's not like just someone just oh, yeah, I had a dream. You know had a dream someone came to me and told me these things, right? It was the Prophet (peace be upon him) affirmed. He says this is a true dream. Okay.
There's a Companion of the Prophet (peace be upon him), he says when Bilal used to make Adhan he said "I used to see him put his fingers inside his ears and I used to see him turn his face whenever he said Hayya al-salah, hayya al-salah, hayya al-falah, hayya al-falah." All right, you turn his face. Why? Because when you are saying hayya al-salah, when you turn your face the sound is moving in a different direction as opposed to only forward, right?
The Importance of Adhan
So that's what the point of the prayer, the call of prayer is to invite people to prayer and this is why the Adhan is such a blessed role. A lot of people don't understand how important it is to give Adhan. I'm not saying you need to go out to the street make Adhan. I'm saying in the masjid every time whenever Salat happens people are always running away from that brother. "You make the Adhan." "No, no, you make the Adhan." "No, you go ahead you make the Adhan." Why don't you want to make that? "Oh, you know, my voice is not good. I don't want to make the Adhan. I have a horrible voice."
The Prophet (peace be upon him) tells us in a hadith:
(Bukhari 615)
(If people knew the reward for Adhan and standing in the first line, then they could not find [any way to get it] except by drawing lots, they would have drawn lots for it) - Bukhari 615
If people knew the reward for Adhan and standing in the first line - not sister goes, I mean sister. No, it doesn't have to give the Adhan. But if the men knew how much reward it is to give the Adhan and stand in the first line (لاستهموا عليه) - In other words they would have fought for it that they would go and draw lots like lottery like put your name in the box and whoever gets it gets it. Now it's like "No, no, no brother you give the Adhan." "No, I don't want to give the Adhan." "No, no, you give the Adhan." It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. You give the Adhan.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) is telling us the reward of giving the Adhan and he says ولو علموا (and if they know), and if they knew about the reward of going and praying in a masjid for Fajr, they would have come to it even crawling ولو حبوا ولآتوهما and also the night prayer, right?(
The Role of Imam and Muadhin
So the Prophet (peace be upon him) tells us in a hadith, excuse me. He tells us that:
(The Imam is guarantor and the Muadhin is entrusted) - Tirmidhi 207
What does this mean? The Prophet (peace be upon him) is saying the Imam is liable. In other words when you're praying in a gathering, there's an Imam. If you make some mistake in your prayer so long as it's not like something that breaks the Salah like, you know, you pass gas or something. But let's say for example, you forgot to say (سُبحانَ رَبِّي الأعلى - Subhana rabbiya al-a'la) or you know, you might have maybe made some small mistakes in Salah because you're praying behind the Imam, the Imam will cover that for you. So even if the person praying behind the Imam makes some small mistake because you're praying behind the Imam the Imam's Salah will cover for you. In other words, the Imam is liable. It's a huge responsibility. So when you're standing and leading people in prayer, you better make sure that you are doing what is correct. Right?
So الإمام ضامن والمؤذن مؤتمن - And the مؤذن,the person who goes and calls the prayer, is entrusted. In other words, this is such an important responsibility that you need to know exactly what time Fajr comes in, what time Dhuhr comes in, what time Asr, Maghrib, Isha come in. You need to know exactly when it comes in. You need to know when is the time before Fajr that you give the Adhan so that people can get up for Suhoor. Right?
Bilal's Responsibility and Reliability
So Bilal being appointed that position shows how meticulous and responsible he was as a person with time. That he was so responsible with time that for five prayers every day until the Prophet's death he would make the Adhan on time. He would make the call to prayer on time. So there is a special reward for these people because every person that comes to pray because they hear the Adhan Bilal will get a portion of it because he's inviting them to the Salah and every person until the Day of Judgment who makes an Adhan and people who pray as a result of the Adhan, Bilal will get a portion of that because he's the one who's the first Muadhin and obviously the person who gets all the reward is the Prophet because he taught the whole world how to be good.
So and then the Prophet says, "Oh Allah," he made a dua, he said, "Oh Allah guide the Imams and forgive the Muadhins." Why guide the Imams? Because the Imam could make a mistake so they are the leader. So you have to guide them and forgive the Muadhins because the Muadhin might be a little wrong on the time sometimes so forgive them, right? Because they might forget, right?
The One Time Bilal Overslept
And during the time of the Prophet there was actually an incident where the Prophet was on an expedition and the Prophet was late and the Prophet asked "Who can watch the night for us so that we don't miss Fajr?" Okay, so Bilal said "I'll do it." So then Bilal stood there and waited and then he fell asleep. This was the only time Bilal fell asleep, the only time and then after that the Sun came out so bright the Prophet got up and he was like "Where where's the Adhan? Where did it go? What happened?" And then Bilal got up and he was like, "Oh I fell asleep." So the Prophet, you know didn't shame him like, you know shame shame, you know, he didn't do any of that. He just simply said "Okay Bilal get up make the Adhan, you know, make the wudu and you know, let's start praying, right?" So that was the only time that Bilal kind of forgot but one time out of all all those ten years that's a rare accomplishment, right?
Bilal as Treasurer
So another thing that the Prophet made Bilal in charge of was he was the official treasurer of the money of the Muslims so a person who is in charge of people's prayers on time make it on time as well as their money. You have to believe that Bilal was truly a trustworthy person. Right, and you have to understand why is why is this so significant? Because the Muslims organized their business around the salah times because the Muslims would organize their time and their life around the salah times. Right the people of the past once they got up for Fajr, they didn't go back to sleep. Not like us. Wanted to go back to sleep. Once they got up for Fajr, they would start working once farmers got up, they get up. They don't go back to sleep until 10. They get up and they go work.
So the people of that time they used to organize their business and their life around the salah and the fact that he is in charge of their wealth. Wow, it really highlights for you the great responsibility that yet this guy was literally the equivalent of dinging the stock market for them in the morning. And I mean, that's what it is. He wakes them up for Fajr. They go and do their business. He makes adhan they stop their business. They go and they go and pray and then they come back and then he makes adhan and he guides them throughout the entire night, and he's also the trustworthy person who watches their money. Right. It really is a huge responsibility. It just shows that the Prophet didn't care about the fact that Abu Bilal was a former slave that he was an Abyssinian that he was black. Absolutely not. The fact that he was trustworthy - that's good enough. That's the qualification, right? As long as you're trustworthy and you and you do your job, right? You are qualified, right?
Bilal's Special Achievement
Because he was so keen on making the adhan, Bilal was one time asked by the Prophet and the Prophet one time said:
(Bukhari 1149)
"(Ya Bilal, tell me the best thing that you've done in Islam)"
In another hadith the Prophet says "I heard in Jannah your footsteps ahead of me." So Bilal said "Every time I make wudhu after I make wudhu, I would go pray two rakahs or whatever how much I can pray." Right. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) affirmed that because Bilal told him that the Prophet (peace be upon him) affirmed it and thus now it is Sunnah for you to pray two rakahs after you make the after the adhan is made you go pray two rakahs, right? It's not like Oh Bilal made up something in the religion. The Prophet (peace be upon him) affirmed it. That's the point. Okay.
The Prophet's Love for Salah
The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to always look towards Bilal as the person who would bring him happiness. How? Whenever the Prophet (peace be upon him) wanted Salah, he would say:
(Abu Dawud 4985)
"(Ya Bilal, establish the prayer, bring us relaxation because of it)"
The Prophet (peace be upon him) would look forward to the adhan and he says (أَرِحْنَا بِهَا - أَرِحْنَا بِهَا) means bring us relaxation because of it. Like the Prophet (peace be upon him) treated Salah like it was a source of relaxation and enjoyment whereas in terms of the other worldly affairs the Prophet (peace be upon him) felt those things made him very very tired. But the fact that the Salah made the Prophet (peace be upon him) so relaxed and tranquil like the verse in the Qur'an:
"(Indeed the remembrance of Allah brings peace to the hearts)"
All right so this is who Bilal is. He was in charge and he was an spectacular individual.
Standing with the Marginalized
We also have another hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) where the Prophet (peace be upon him) aligned himself with the poor and the weak. Okay, not like today, you know people don't want to be around poor people. Even the Prophet (peace be upon him) taught us in a hadith "Allahumma," right. Oh Allah give us the love of the poor people. The Prophet (peace be upon him) always loved the poor people. He didn't push them away.
And this one time Bilal and Suhaib and Salman - and notice how all three of these people are foreigners, immigrants. Salman is Persian, Bilal is Abyssinian and Suhaib is Roman and they've all - Suhaib and Bilal have you know, they've been through their fair share of punishment and persecution.
So they were sitting there and this is many many years later, many years later and this is during the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. Okay so this is after the Battle of Badr was fought, after the Battle of Uhud was fought, after the Battle of Khandaq was fought. You know, this was the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and there was a person called Abu Sufyan who was a chief of the Meccans who later became Muslim, he later became Muslim but at that time he was a huge enemy of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and he was playing games back in the day. "Oh, we didn't break the treaty. No, we were good." He was playing games. Excuse me so they said something and they were just saying among themselves and it's because they suffered because of the people of Mecca so they said "Haven't the swords, how come the swords of God have not reached this person yet?" In other words, "How is this guy still alive?" Okay, that's what they're trying to say. How is this enemy still alive? Like he still hasn't died yet Abu Sufyan.
This guy's been an enemy of Islam since the beginning for like what? 18 years, 19 years. He's you know, he's full-on enemy towards the Prophet (peace be upon him). And then Abu Bakr heard it and he said he said "Don't talk to Abu Sufyan, this is a leader of the Quraysh." Like Abu Bakr knew that Abu Sufyan was someone well respected among the Meccan circles. He was a leader, but Abu Bakr is just simply saying like, you know this person, you know he didn't do anything to you per se. Yes he was against Islam in the beginning, but you know, you can't just like hate on him just because of that, right? Sort of like Trump, right? You know you disagree with him, but you know, come on. Not that God forbid Abu Sufyan is our companion so then Abu Bakr went to the Prophet and told him the story.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) says because you said that Abu Bakr, because you said "Don't talk like that to Abu Sufyan because he is their leader and he is noble and he's you know, high and whatever." The Prophet (peace be upon him) says, you know, "You might have upset him, upset those three, Suhaib, Bilal, and Salman":
(Muslim 2504)
"(If you angered these three then you have made Allah angry)"
Okay, I want you to think about how serious this is. If you angered these three then you have made Allah angry. So Abu Bakr got so scared. He immediately went back to Suhaib and Bilal and Salman. He's like "I apologize I didn't mean to say that and be disrespectful because at the end of the day you know, it's not like Abu Bakr was dismissing their suffering. He was just saying hey, come on this guy is important. Don't don't don't make fun of him." But the Prophet (peace be upon him) is trying to say "Yeah, he might be a big shot but these people are still better in the eyes of Allah" right and there's a hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) that:
"(Allah gives victory to this ummah by its weak people)" - Nasai 3178
Allah gives victory to the ummah of Muhammad (peace be upon him) by its weak people. Those that that do not have lots of wealth, those people that are not strong:
"(Because through their prayers, their dua and their salah and their good intentions)" - Nasai 3178
Right, so Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala and as you know Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala is always on the side of those who are poor and weak because he knows what they go through. It's not saying that Allah doesn't like the rich people. It's saying that Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala has extra love for them. So even if you're a multi-billionaire, it doesn't mean you throw your money away so that Allah loves you. Okay, it doesn't mean that but it's just simply saying that the Prophet (peace be upon him) knew the importance of standing in support, standing in unity with those who are marginalized. To be in truth standing in truth with those who are marginalized, those who are oppressed and I want you to think about the current state that we are in the United States right now. We have a moral obligation to stand in truth with people who are marginalized and oppressed and silenced and harassed and persecuted that is our duty as Muslims. Okay, so that Abu Bakr went back and he said "I apologize. I hope I didn't anger upset any of you who would when I said that like don't talk like that." They said "No. No, we're not, we're not angry at all. Allah forgive you. We're not we're not angry at all."
Bilal's Philosophy on Enduring Suffering
Looking back, you know when you look at what Bilal went through and the fact that he was such a responsible person since the beginning remember I told you that he was not someone to make his suffering a public ordeal spectacle for people to look at and be like wow. They asked him they asked him "How were you able to endure all of this suffering? How did you endure this suffering that they did to you?" Ya Bilal. So he said and these words are so beautiful. He said:
"(I mixed the sweetness of iman with the bitterness of torture and the sweetness of iman overcame the bitterness of torture and therefore I didn't feel anything and therefore I was patient)"
How did I overcome this persecution and hitting and beating and slapping and whipping? I mixed the sweetness of iman with the bitterness of torture and the sweetness of iman overcame the bitterness of torture and therefore I didn't feel anything and therefore I was patient. Right when you hear this quote it really gives you perspective on what a strong what faith Bilal he really had such strong faith. It's just almost like superhuman. He's able to be in a state of torture and think about the beauty of Islam, the beauty of what Allah has guided him to and that sweetness is able to propel him to not
even have nerve pain anymore. Obviously, that's beyond that's beyond you know the normal capability of regular men and women.
Bilal's Adhan at the Kaaba
After the Prophet (peace be upon him) retook Mecca, the Prophet (peace be upon him) commanded Bilal to stand on top of the Kaaba and make Adhan. Okay and check this out. When Bilal stood on the Kaaba and made the Adhan there were a couple of people who were not Muslim still so this is in the last year last year or half before the Prophet's death ninth year of hijrah so Artab bin Usaid ibn Abi al-As. He was there and he said "Alhamdulillah allathee qabada abhi hatta lam yara hadhal yawm." He said "All praise due to Allah that my father died to not see this." Like the racism lives on you know the the you know the the racism is strong in this one. You know my father. Thank God he didn't live to see this a black man on top of the Kaaba making Adhan the racism the bigotry and another person said Harith ibn Hisham "Amma wajada Muhammad ghayra hadhal ghuraab al-aswad mu'adhinan?" Muhammad didn't find any other muadhin except for this black crow.
They called him a black crow in other words. He was ugly and you know crows you know why we we as people don't like crows obviously for cultural reasons, but because crows are very opportunistic. Crows are opportunistic right whenever something's down the crow goes and tries to attack it right. You know they whenever you go after them and they fly away right, but they'll come. They're very opportunistic just like us. We're very opportunistic creatures, right? So they said look at this look at this Muhammad didn't find anyone else than this black crow to make Adhan. So not only it was an attack on the Prophet of his decision and choice to pick Bilal but it's also making fun of his voice as well as his skin color as well as associating him with a bird that people generally despise not like a peacock not like an eagle or a hawk right but that of a crow. This is dirty opportunistic. They thought that wow Bilal is being an opportunist right? He's going on top of Kaaba making a whole scene. You know like oh, I'm making adhan the Prophet (peace be upon him) appointed him and then some other people made some comments and then Abu Sufyan was actually very smart. He says "I'm not going to say anything I'm afraid. I'm not going to say anything." He knows Muhammad as a Prophet, right? He's like "I'm not going to say anything because I'm afraid that his Lord is going to tell him." He said "Allah is going to tell Muhammad what went on" and indeed Jibreel came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and told him of these three people this little conversation that they're standing like this Jibreel told the Prophet (peace be upon him) of this conversation. The Prophet (peace be upon him) invited these three people. He said "Is it not true that one of you said this and Abu Sufyan you said that the other one said that you know glad that my dad didn't live to see this day?" They're like "That is true." And then they were shocked a private conversation how did the Prophet (peace be upon him) know? Of course Jibreel Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala told Muhammad (peace be upon him) and immediately they all embraced Islam. Okay so there and especially the first two. As for Abu Sufyan, maybe he was already a Muslim by then, but he was very smart he's like "I'm not gonna say anything."
After the Prophet's Death
Bilal radiallahu anhu outlived the Prophet (peace be upon him) and after the Prophet (peace be upon him) passed away the sadness that overcame him was so severe that he wasn't able to give Adhan anymore. So he gave Adhan for some while during the time of Abu Bakr and then after that he said Abu Bakr "Leave me be. Let me go so that I would like to go to Damascus." Right. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help our brothers and sisters in Syria right now. So so he says "Leave me be I would like to go to Damascus," right? So Abu Bakr, you know said "Yeah go," you know because he was a Muadhin so he needs to find, you know some replacement so Bilal went and and the...
The Story of Abu Mahdhura
Here's another side story that's related to Bilal. When Bilal was giving the Adhan in addition to these three people that were kind of making fun of him there was actually another group of young boys that were not Muslim and they were like in their teens and they were walking around and they were making fun of the Adhan, okay. They're like, oh, you know, they're like making fun of the Adhan. Okay so the Prophet (peace be upon him) heard them and instead of saying like "How dare you mock Islam blasphemy, you know, put him in jail." You know, they're young, you know teenagers they're just being they're just being you know they're just being teenagers. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) heard, see the Prophet (peace be upon him) was able to see good out of these people. He heard that as they were making fun of the Adhan, he heard a really good voice among them.
So he did a live audition for them. So he says "Okay you come make the Adhan." So one person gonna make the Adhan, he's like "Okay next next next next next" until it was the 10th person. Okay, and this 10th person was called Abu Mahdhura. He was 16 years old and he did the Adhan. He was not a Muslim when he came to the Prophet (peace be upon him), the Prophet (peace be upon him) put his hand on his chest and Abu Mahdhura said "I swear by Allah when the Prophet (peace be upon him) put his hand on my chest I felt like my chest expanded and faith, Iman entered it. It was like a miracle and I made the Adhan and then immediately he embraced Islam on the spot and the Prophet (peace be upon him) appointed him to be the Muadhin of Mecca." So Bilal is the Muadhin of Medina and Abu Mahdhura how did he get this job? By making fun of the Adhan. Okay as a teenager. Right, but the Prophet (peace be upon him) didn't see it at all. Look at these little little stinky little kids making fun of that. He was able to be like, "Wow, that's a really good voice I want this guy." He was able to see the positivity.
The Quranic Verse About Human Equality
So I want to bring this to a close and this incident where those three people made fun of Bilal, right? Or two, actually two, right? Because Abu Sufyan didn't say anything. He was too afraid. This is the reason why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent down the verse in Surah Al-Hujurat:
"(O Mankind, we have created you from one male and one female and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you)"
The best of you are those who have the most Taqwa. In other words, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala defended Bilal. It's not by who you are. It's not by lineage or your skin color because you're a billionaire or because you got connections or you're a staff. It's about those who have more Taqwa are better in the eyes of Allah and in the eyes of Allah Bilal was better than all of them put together.
Bilal's Final Years
So Bilal later on lived in Damascus and he settled there and he died there and he's actually buried in Damascus by Al-Bab As-Saleel, a small door and he's actually buried there and we do have some narrations of him. He did marry I don't know if he married a Syrian or if he married someone from Mecca, but he didn't he didn't have children. Okay, so Bilal died without children.
Lessons for Today
So I want to wrap this up and I want to bring this full circle into a couple of lessons that we can learn number one going back to the idea of going back to the idea of what we are seeing today in our country. Okay. Now I know that you guys already did a program yesterday, you know about the elections but the story of Bilal ibn Rabah is really a real-life example that we can use to understand what it means to suffer. What I want to say is when the Prophet (peace be upon him) gave Bilal the permission to hide his Islam the Prophet (peace be upon him) didn't pressure him to expose his Islam but the point is in our time and age you need to do whatever you need to do, okay, no one's gonna judge you. Those people that ended up saying some kufr statement in order to get away from those persecution, there's nothing wrong with it because Allah tells us in the Qur'an:
"(Except for those who were forced but their heart is filled with Iman) - Quran 16:106"
Right? So if you say like if someone, you know attacked you and you're like "Say Jesus is your savior." Okay, you know and they were attacking you non-stop and then you say "Yes. Yes. Yes, you know, Jesus my Savior." You're not going to be in trouble in the eyes of Allah because you didn't change what's in your heart but what am I trying to say? Is only you know your circumstances of what you need to do to protect yourself but I think what is more important is we as Muslims need to adopt a higher level of tolerance. No, I'm not talking about tolerance for other people which we should but I'm talking about pain tolerance bigotry tolerance inequality tolerance not saying that yeah, it's okay
but not using anytime we hear someone saying, "Oh, you know Muslims are like this. Oh my god oh my god, we're all gonna die." Like you need to have some have some resistance. Okay, don't be like a domino one hit everything falls. No more Salah. No more hijab. No more beard. No more masjid. Just close everything down. Have some resistance and stand up for a little bit, right? We're not saying you need to be like Bilal dragged around in chains and whipped. No, we're saying that have some higher threshold of tolerance. Have some tolerance. Okay, we cannot be that these kind of people who simply we hear one thing we hear some stories on the social media and immediately. "Oh my god. Oh my god, the world's coming to an end." This is not the way of the believer. The believer is not the kind of person that is so weak. Right. The Prophet says:
(Muslim 2664)
"(The strong Muslim is better than the weak Muslim)"
Right? There's nothing wrong with being weak, but we have to live out the example of the Prophet.
Number two, we should not ever adopt the narrative of victim all the time. "Look at us. Look at what they did to us. Look at what we've suffered. Look how we've endured this. Look at us we deserve recognition. We need this action. We need recognition. We need a day for this or no." We don't need any of that. We don't need any of that. When the Prophet went back to Mecca, he didn't say "Apologize to me for what you have done." The Prophet doesn't need no Memorial day for him to be, you know recognizes. "Yes. I am, you know legit now." So what am I trying to get to? When we constantly live the narrative of we are the victim, look at who we are, look how depressed we are it really puts us into this negative mentality of we cannot do anything. The best example I can give you is during the time of Pharaoh after 400 years of oppression by Pharaoh, the children of Israel for sure, their emotions were beaten. They were done but that's after 400 years, 400 years, 400 years of enslavement. Okay, so we as Muslims, we have undergone since the time of the Prophet, we have undergone tremendous tremendous persecution and wars and this and that and yet we are still here. Alhamdulillah. So we can, we can endure this. This too shall pass, right? And that is the when, look at Bilal, he didn't harp on his pain all the time. "Do you remember how I was whipped? Do you remember how I was tortured?" No, he propelled his energy forward to doing what is good being responsible for people's wealth, being responsible for the times of Salah. He didn't sit there and you know wallow in his self-pity and misery, you know, "Look at me I was a slave, you know, they treated me and this," no.
And we as Muslims when something happens to us, yes, we are upset by it we don't forget, you know, but we move on. We use that energy to propel ourselves forward and I think I think that's very very relevant to us in this time and age, especially with what's going on right now. Yes, you need to do whatever you need to do to protect yourself. Go ahead. No problem. Have a little bit more of a threshold for pain tolerance and whatever you see don't just immediately be reactionary and also
remember we will get through this. This is this is this is the way of the believer that you do not give up hope in Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala.
Conclusion
So inshallah we stop here, alhamdulillah, and if there's any questions online or if there are any questions here, go ahead and ask. No questions mean that everyone understood everything and is now ready for a test. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. All right, so inshallah we will stop here, alhamdulillah I think that we've covered a lot today with Bilal. It's I think there's a lot for us to think about like I said, you know we live in a time and age right now where there's a lot of uncertainty and I'm sure if you look back at the life of Bilal, what life did he have? He was a slave. What did he have to look forward to right? He was a slave what? Just continue working and be mistreated, right? But he didn't just wallow in his misery we have a lot to live for and it is our job to move forward and and and be positive and despite all this that's going on right now.
These are the things that we cannot change. Right. It's happened. It's happened, right? It's happened. We can't change it but what we can do is bring awareness. What we can do is to be standing in truth with those who are marginalized right to stand in truth with those who are oppressed even if we do not agree with them on their platform but the fact that they are being oppressed we can stand with them. All right, and that's that's something that we need to do and as long as we continue to move forward and do what we need to do and live out our message of Islam and and be positive people. I think I think there's a there's a lot of work we need to do still. Alhamdulillah. So we ask Allah to guide us. We ask Allah to protect us and our families. We ask Allah to give us the best that is in this world and in the next world. We ask Allah to bring unity to the Muslims. We ask Allah to make us among those who will hear the truth and follow it. We send our salutations and peace and blessings upon Muhammad (peace be upon him).