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possess! He was the first muezzin of the Messenger and of Islam, a position which was aspired to by all
the masters and nobles of the Quraish who embraced Islam and followed the Messenger. Yes, Bilaal lbn
Rabaah.
Oh what valor and greatness are expressed by these three words Bilaal Ibn Rabaah!
He was an Abyssinian from the black race. His destiny made him a slave of some people of the tribe
of Jumah in Makkah, where his mother was one of their slave girls. He led the life of a slave whose bleak
days were alike and who had no right over his day and no hope for his tomorrow.
The news of Muhammad's (PBUH) call began and reached his ears when people in Makkah began
to talk about it and when he began listening to the discussions of his master and his guests, especially
Umayah lbn khalaf, one of the elders of the Bani Jumah, of which Bilaal was one of the slaves. How
often did he hear Urnayah talking to his friends for some time and to some persons of his tribe. Many
times they talked about the Messenger with words that were overflowing with anxiety, rage, and malice!
Bilaal, on the other hand, was receiving between those words of insane fury and rage the attributes
of this new religion. He began to feel that they were new qualities for the environment which he lived in.
He was also able to receive during their threatening, thunderous talks their acknowledgement of
Muhammad's nobility, truthfulness, and loyalty. Yes indeed, he heard them wondering and amazed at
what Muhammad came with. They said to one another, "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."
He heard them talking about his honesty and loyalty, about his manliness and nobility, and about his
purity and composure of his intelligence. He heard them whispering about the reasons which caused
them to challenge and antagonize him: First, their allegiance to the religion of their fathers; Second, their
fear over the glory of the Quraish which was bestowed upon them because of their religious status as a
center of idol worship and resort in the whole of the Arabian Peninsula; Third, the envy of the tribe of
Bani Haashim that anyone from them should claim to be a prophet or messenger.
One day Bilaal Ibn Rabaah recognized the light of Allah and heard His resonance in the depths of
his good soul. So he went to the Messenger of Allah and converted to Islam. It did not take long before
the news of his embracing Islam was spread. It was a shock to the chiefs of the Bani Jumah, who were
very proud and conceited. The devils of the earth sat couched over the breast of Umayah Ibn khalaf, who
considered the acceptance of Islam by one of their slaves a blow that overwhelmed them with shame and
disgrace.
Their Abyssinian slave converted to Islam and followed Muhammad. Umayah said to himself, "It
does not matter. Indeed the sun this day shall not set but with the Islam of this stray slave." However, the
sun never did set with the Islam of Bilaal, but it set one day with all the idols of the Quraish and the
patrons of paganism among them.
As for Bilaal, he adopted an attitude that would honor not only Islam, even though Islam was more
worthy of it, but also all humanity. He resisted the harshest kind of torture like all pious great men. Allah
made him an example of the fact that blackness of skin and bondage would not decry the greatness of the
soul if it found its faith, adhered to its Creator, and clung to its right.
Bilaal gave a profound lesson to those of his age and every age, for those of his religion and every
religion, a lesson which embraced the idea that freedom and supremacy of conscience could not be
bartered either for gold or punishment, even if it filled the earth. He was stripped naked and laid on hot
coals to make him renounce his religion, but he refused.
The Messenger (PBUH) and Islam made this weak Abyssinian slave a teacher to all humanity in the
art of respecting conscience and defending its freedom and supremacy. They used to take him out in the
midday heat when the desert turned to a fatal hell. Then they would throw him naked on its scorching
rocks and bring a burning hot rock, which took several men to lift from its place, and throw it onto his