Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ
The first muezzin in Islam and one of the early believers tortured in Mecca, whom torment only made firmer. Thrown on the burning sand he would say only: “One, One.”
In brief
- His name
- Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ the Abyssinian; his mother was Ḥamāma. He was enslaved to Umayya ibn Khalaf in Mecca.
- His Islam
- Among the first believers — the seventh of seven who declared their Islam openly.
- His freedom
- Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq bought him from Umayya and set him free.
- His call
- The first to give the call to prayer when it was ordained in Medina, and he called it from atop the Kaʿba on the day of the conquest.
- His glad tidings
- The Prophet ﷺ told him: “I heard the footfall of your sandals before me in Paradise” — for he never purified himself but he prayed two units. (Bukhārī and Muslim)
- His death
- In Damascus, about 20 AH, aged around sixty.
His story
Umayya ibn Khalaf would take him out in the noon heat, throw him on the burning gravel of Mecca and lay a great stone on his chest, saying: you will stay like this until you die or renounce Muhammad. He said only: “One, One.” Abū Bakr passed by, bought him, and freed him.
When Mecca was opened the Prophet ﷺ ordered him to climb upon the Kaʿba and give the call — and the meaning of it is plain: an Abyssinian slave once dragged through its valley now stood on its noblest place proclaiming the oneness of God.
After the Prophet ﷺ died he could not bear to call again; when he reached “I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God” his voice would break. He left the call and went out to Syria as a fighter, and called only once more, on a visit to Medina — and the people wept as they had never wept.