Bilal ibn Rabah

[1][2][3][4] He was a former slave and was known for his "deep, melodious, resonant" voice with which he called people to the daily obligatory prayers.

Should the nobles of the Quraish have simply wanted to belittle him for being of an African background, they would have simply made of his race, not his mother as in Arab custom, ethnicity is determined by the father, indicating that his father Rabah was an Arab by race and not an Abyssinian captured as a war prisoner, supporting the latter opinion.

This in turn can be opined as being a confusion as since Bilal was a slave of Abyssinian origin on his maternal side, the nobles of the Quraish, his owners refused to acknowledge him as a fellow Arab due to the longstanding political discord between the people of Arabia and Abyssinia, especially after the sack of the Kaaba by the Abyssinian army.

However, racism and sociopolitical statutes of Arabia prevented Bilal from achieving a great position in society.

"[11] Similarly, in his book The Life of Muhammad, William Muir states that Bilal "was tall, dark, and with African feature and bushy hair."

Bilal's Arabic appearance of having a raised nose, bushy thick non-curly hair with slightly lightly colored eyes, yet having been very strongly built with his chest being prominent, raised height, dark-skinned, features associated with having African ancestry can be attributed to the fact that his father Rabah was an Arab, and his mother Hamamah was an Abyssinian.

[7][12] Muir also states that noble members of the Quraysh despised Bilal and called him "Ibn Sawda" meaning, son of the black woman.

[13] When Bilal's master, Umayyah ibn Khalaf, found out about his faith, he began to torture Bilal.He put a big rock with iron on top on his chest.

[5][15][16][17] In the newly formed Islamic state of Madina, Bilal had become a prominent contributing member of the Muslim society taking on important roles.

A dream was seen by Abdullah ibn Zaid where an angel in the form of a man wearing a green garment taught the words of the adhan.

He said, "O Messenger of Allah, I saw a man wearing two green garments carrying a bell," and he told him the story.

[20] Bilal rose to prominence in the Islamic community of Medina, as Muhammad appointed him minister of the Bayt al-Mal (treasury).

[22] However, many early Muslim sources indicate that no serious fighting was expected,[23] and the future Caliph Uthman stayed behind to care for his sick wife Ruqayyah, the daughter of Muhammad.

[27] At the time of the Fajr prayer the Prophet (ﷺ) asked Bilal, "Tell me of the best deed you did after embracing Islam, for I heard your footsteps in front of me in Paradise."

"After Muhammad died in 632 CE, Bilal was one of the people who did not give bay'ah (the oath of allegiance) to Abu Bakr.

[33] Purnam Allahabadi, a Sufi poet from Pakistan, composed a Qawwali in which he mentioned how time had stopped when some companions blocked Bilal from delivering the Adhan (which he had seen in his dream), and appealed that it was incorrect.

[34] Because the companion Bilal was of an Abyssinian origin, he could not pronounce the letter "Sh" (Arabic: Shin ش).

A hadith of Muhammad reports that he said, "The 'seen' of Bilal is 'sheen' in the hearing of Allah," meaning God does not look at the external but appreciates the purity of heart.

[38][39] However, there exists another shrine,[40] believed to be the burial of Bilal, near a small village called al-Rabahiyya, in Amman, Jordan.

The story of Bilal is the most frequently cited demonstration of Islam measuring people not by their nationality nor social status nor race, but by their Taqwah (piety).

[additional citation(s) needed] In 1874, Edward Wilmot Blyden, a former slave of African descent, wrote: "The eloquent Adzan or Call to Prayer, which to this day summons at the same hours millions of the human race to their devotions, was first uttered by a Negro, Bilal by name, whom Mohammed, in obedience to a dream, appointed the first Mu'azzin.