The word · History
بِلَالُ بْنُ رَبَاح
Bilal ibn Rabah
An enslaved Abyssinian tortured for his faith, freed by Abu Bakr, and the first to call the adhan.
Also written · Bilal · Bilal ibn Rabah · Bilal bin Rabah · Bilal al-Habashi · Bilal Habashi · Belal · Bilaal · Balal · First muezzin · Bilal the muezzin · Hazrat Bilal
The meaning
What Bilal ibn Rabah means in Islam
His owner pinned him under a rock in the midday heat of Makkah and he answered only with one word, ahad, one. Abu Bakr bought him and set him free. When the Muslims settled in Madinah and needed a way to gather people, he was given the call to prayer, and on the day Makkah was taken he climbed onto the Ka'bah to make it. The Prophet told him he had heard his footsteps ahead of him in Paradise, and Bilal explained he prayed after every wudu.
Evidence · Sunnah · Established in the authentic Sunnah
Read beside it
Rooms that name it
- He heard Bilal's footsteps ahead of him in ParadiseA Light · Abu Hurayra, of Bilal ibn Rabah · Madinah
- Fath Makkah: Idols FallThe Path · chapter 42
- Surah Al-BurujSurah 85 · The Constellations
Words that sit beside it
- Abu BakrThe Prophet's closest friend, his companion in the cave, and the first caliph.أَبُو بَكْرٍ الصِّدِّيق
- AdhanThe call announcing that a prayer time has entered, given aloud before each obligatory prayer.أَذان
- MakkahThe valley city holding the Ka'bah, where the Prophet was born and revelation began.مَكَّة
- Fath MakkahThe Prophet's return to Makkah in year eight, taken almost without a fight.فَتْحُ مَكَّة
- SahabahThe Companions: anyone who met the Prophet as a believer and died still believing.الصَّحَابَة
More from History
- Abu HurayrahThe Companion who narrated more hadith than any other, from about four years in the Prophet's company.أَبُو هُرَيْرَة
- Battle of Mu'tahThe first clash with Byzantine forces, in year eight, where three appointed commanders fell in turn.مُؤْتَة
- Hijrah to AbyssiniaThe first migration, when persecuted Muslims fled Makkah to a Christian king in Abyssinia.الهِجْرَةُ إِلَى الحَبَشَة
- Imam MuslimThe compiler of the second Sahih, a student and close friend of al-Bukhari.مُسْلِمُ بْنُ الحَجَّاج
- Khulafa RashidunThe four caliphs after the Prophet: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali.الخُلَفَاءُ الرَّاشِدُون
- Sahifat al-MadinahThe written charter the Prophet drew up on reaching Madinah, binding its tribes into one body.صَحِيفَةُ المَدِينَة