Bilal (Islam)

Bilal Ibn Rabah , (in Arab rear RTL بلالبنرباح), more known under the name of Bilal Al-Habashi, was one of the first companions of the prophet Mahomet and the first Muezzin of the Islam. It would have been the first Black and the first slave to embrace the Islam after its stamping by Abou Bakr.

Noble Abyssinian roots

In Arabia, around Mecque, lived many tribes of idolâtres of which the rich person and powerful tribe of stockbreeders and farmers of the Jumuh Outlaw. Stripped of morals, these tribes were devoted to the raids, plunderings and slavery. Rabah was one of the slaves of the Jumuh Outlaw. Its integrity, its morality and its irreproachable control had been worth to him the supervision of the property of the tribe.

In 571 of the Christian era, the Abyssinie (Ethiopia) was a great power directed by Gabra Masqal, Negus (king) of Aksoum (or Axoum). Negus had entrusted the expansion of its empire in the area to Abrahah Al-Achram, Christian prince chief of the Abyssinian army. After having subjected the Yemen of which he became king, Abrahah Al-Achram is freed from the authority of Negus and solved to annex the area mecquoise. It builds, with Sanaa (capital of Yemen), a splendid orthodoxe cathedral that the Arabs called Al-Qalis . In order to recover the trading profits of the Arab pilgrimages towards the Ka' aba, Abrahah Al-Achram proposed to them its new cathedral like place of pilgrimage. Offusqués, the Arabs profaned and burned the cathedral. By will to destroy commercial competition more than to avenge the insult, Abrahah Al-Achram went on Mecque with 60.000 men and thirteen elephants in order to destroy the Ka' aba.

Noufayl Ibn Habib, chief of the tribe of the Outlaw Kath' amndt, tried to stop them without success. They attacked the procession of Hamamah, the niece of Abraha (the girl of its sister). Adapting the spoils, they offered Hamamah to the Jumuh Outlaw who reduced it in slavery. Thus Hamamah met Rabah. With known their affinities, Khalaf, the chief of the tribe, Maria. Two wire, Bilal and Khadid, and a girl, Ghufrah, were born from this union. With died of Khalaf, his/her oldest son, Omayyah, fear and respected, succeeded to him. His/her father deceased, Bilal, become man, had been responsible for his family. Appreciated of Omayyah, it was named with the supervision of the property and the temple of the idols of the tribe.

The conversion of the guard of the temple of the idols

When Mahomet revealed its message, few followers answered the call but large was their enthusiasm. The anxious chiefs of tribe to be able to them sought to kill Mahomet and thus to destroy the incipient Islam. Contrary, their obstinacy revealed their fear of this new belief, and contributed to the extension of the Islam to the other social classes. Bilal, then supervising temple of the idols, believed in these statues worked by the man. However, like the others, it was shaken. How these stone statues, incompetents to protect itself, could be the creators of the world? Forced to accept the idolatry, the few doubts which remained to him were revived by the call of Mahomet. Bilal knew that Mahomet often came to request close to the Ka' aba at the fallen night. Finally convinced of the veracity of its message, he hastened towards the Ka' aba where he found Mahomet and his cousin, Ali, in prayer. Their finished prayer, it embraced the hand of Mahomet and made Chahada to convert with the Islam.

Omayyah Ibn Khalaf was of these chiefs of tribe who conspired against the Islam. When he learned conversion from Bilal, he entered a terrible rage and ordered to him to disavow its new belief. Bilal refused: “I do not fear to affirm my faith. I do not have null intention to abjure it. I am your slave but I remain free to choose my belief”. These words multiplied by ten the anger of Omayyah which unchained against him all its violence and solved to torture it to make it abjure. But contrary, this treatment reinforced the faith of Bilal. In front of its resistance, Omayyah imagined a torture which would result from its abjuration or its death. It made take along Bilal in the desert, extend on extreme stones and pose on its chest an enormous rock burning all while making it whip. But with its great disappointment, in spite of its weakness, Bilal found the force to murmur only “Ahad” (Allah is One). This scene of daily torture had ended up attracting spectators and the resistance of Bilal forced admiration. The more Omayyah persisted in its cruelty, plus Bilal took refuge deeply in its belief, hoping for death a such divine delivery.

Delivered on request of Mahomet

The mishap of unfortunate Bilal was on all the lips of the area mecquoise. Mahomet worried for him. He sought the means of leaving it this situation. He ends up asking his companions: “If one of you can buy and free Bilal, this problem would be perhaps solved”. It is Abû Bakr which engaged there. At the end of protracted negotiations during which he proposed to exchange Bilal against one as of his more robust slaves, Abu Bakr succeeds in convincing Omayyah to sell Bilal to him. The legend says that Abu Bakr would have bought the freedom of Bilal against nine silver coins. And Bilal joined Mahomet.

Identified since like follower of the Islam and companion of Mahomet, Bilal underwent same persecutions as its co-religionists. At the time of the Hégire in 622 after J. - C., it followed Mahomet in Yathrib, future Médine, and worked with the other Moslems with the construction of the first mosque.

The first adhân

At the end of the construction of the first mosque, for Médine, it was necessary to call the faithful ones to the prayer. It is thus in year I of Hégire, that the decision was made as for the means of recalling the believers the hour prayers. On this subject, the Envoy of God and his companions reviewed some processes such as the use of the horn in force at the Jews, or of the bell to the manner of the Christians. The two ideas however were rejected. The opinion advanced by `Abd Allâh Ibn Zayd was retained.

“ Allahou Akbar! Allahou Akbar! (Allah is more Grand! Allah is more Grand) Ach-hadou year lâ ilaha illa lâh! (I testify that there is not a true divinity except Allah) Ach-hadou year lâ ilaha illa lâh! (I testify that there is not a true divinity except Allah) Ach-hadou ass Mouhammadan rasouloul-lâh (I testify that Mahomet is the messenger of Allah) Ach-hadou ass Mouhammadan rasouloul-lâh (I testify that Mahomet is the messenger of Allah) Hayya `went-salâ (Come to the prayer) Hayya `went-salâ (Come to the prayer) Hayya `alal-falâh (Come to the happiness) Hayya `alal-falâh (Come to the happiness) Allahou Akbar! Allahou Akbar! (Allah is more Grand! Allah is more Grand) lâ ilaha illa lâh ! (there is not a true divinity except Allah). ”

At the time of the choice of the Muezzin, Mahomet, which had noticed the splendid voice of Bilal, charged it with raising the Adhan. Thus Bilal Al-Habashi became the first Muezzin. In 623, with the Battle of Badr which saw the victory of the Moslems over the polytheists, it fought and killed its former Master, Omayyah Ibn Khalaf. It was still him which Mahomet charged with raising the first Adhân of Mecque, the top of the Ka' aba, at the time of their entry triumphing in the city. When the Ka' aba was open, only Bilal had the right to accompany Mahomet inside.

The exile of the muezzin

With died of Mahomet on June 8th, 632, Bilal was ploughed up. The adhan made it thus point out the memories of the prophet Mahomet it has request with Abû Bakr not to make the adhan, according to him. He refused to raise the Adhan because of his sadness. He asserted his freedom near Abû Bakr, left Médine to exile itself in Syria. It forever been able to marry in Médine because of its condition of slave and his color (According to the Tabari historian). He enlisted in the army raised by the second caliph of the Islam, Omar Ibn Al-Khattâb, and took part in the conquest of Jerusalem, into 638. On the Golan, whereas he refused to raise the Adhân since the disappearance of the prophet, Bilal reached the petition of Omar Ibn Al-Khattâb and launched a call if moving that all, in the neighborhoods, cried.

An announced death

Towards the end of its life, Bilâl settled with Damas, in Syria where it Maria. Some time before its death, Mahomet says to him in dream: “Why this distance, Bilâl? Isn't it time for you to visit me? ”. It immediately took the way of Médine from which it had moved away for seven years. On its arrival, it was accommodated in the joy by the family of Mahomet. Hussein and Hassan, the grandsons of Mahomet, asked him to raise the Adhân the next morning. At dawn, Bilâl went up on the roof of the mosque and launched a call which upset all Médine.

A little later Bilâl regained Damas. When its death was announced to him, Bilâl would have said to his wife: “do not say what a calamity! But say rather what a cheerfulness! Tomorrow I will join my beloveds, Mahomet and his Companions. ” Abû Nu `aym affirms in Hilyat Al-Awliyâ' , work encyclopedic, that Bilâl was the secretary of the Prophet and that it had the same age as Abû Bakr. It is buried with Damas close to Bab ace Saghir. Its birth dates and of death are the subject of dissension between historians. For some, it would have been born in year 53, for others, into 43 before the Hégire. On the other hand, they agree to say that there would have died during the caliphate of Omar Ibn Al-Khattâb, towards 641, but remain divided on its age (60 or 70 years).

The call to the prayer would have remained unchanged since the last Adhân raised by Bilâl Al-Habashî with Médine. Mahomet chooses the human voice like federator of the Islam and it is still the case today.

Sources

a) Bilâl of Africa, the Muezzin of the Prophet , translated and published by Abbas Ahmad Al-Bostani, published by the City of the Knowledge (Canada).

b) Ibn Hishâm, Have-Sîrah Year-Nabawiyyah , pages 1 and 2.

c) Ibn Al-Athîr, Usd Al-Ghâbah fî My `rifat Have-Sahâbah, volume 1, pages 243-245.

d) Ibn Hajar Al `Asqalânî, Al-Isâbah fî Tamyîz Have-Sahâbah , entered 736. An electronic version is available on www.muhaddith.com.

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