Oppression & Freed by Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra)
Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) bought Hazrat Bilal (ra) and freed him for the sake of Allah. With regard to the purchase, as has previously been mentioned, Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) paid 280 dirhams. According to some narrations, Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) bought him for five auqiyah, i.e., 200 dirhams. According to some other narrations, he bought him for seven auqiyah, i.e., 280 dirhams and according to yet other narrations, for nine auqiyah, i.e., 360 dirhams.
(Ali Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-Ghabah fi Ma‘rifat al-Sahabah, Vol. 1, Bilal bin Rabah [Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, 2016] 415)
In one narration it is mentioned that when Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) bought Hazrat Bilal (ra), he was lying under a pile of rocks and Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) purchased him in exchange for five auqiyah of gold. Upon this, people said to Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) that they would have sold him even if he were willing to give only one auqiyah, i.e., 40 dirhams. In response to this, Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) said, “Even if you would have been willing to sell him for a hundred auqiyah, i.e., 4,000 dirhams, I would have bought him for that price.”
(Shamsuddin adh-Dhahabi, Siyar A‘lam al-Nubala, Vol. 1, Bilal bin Rabah [Beirut, Lebanon: Mu’assisat al-Risalah, 2014] 353)
Hazrat Aisha (ra) relates that Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) freed seven such slaves, who were being oppressed. Hazrat Bilal (ra) and Hazrat Aamir bin Fuhaira (ra) were among them.
(Hakim al-Nishapuri, al-Mustadrak ala al-Sahihain, Vol. 3, Dhikr Bilal bin Rabah, [Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Kutub al- Ilmiyyah] 321)
Hazrat Jabir bin Abdullah (ra) relates that Hazrat Umar (ra) used to say, “Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) is our leader and he has freed our chief, i.e., Bilal.”
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab Fada‘il Ashab al-Nabi (sa), Bab Manaqib Bilal bin Rabah Maula Abi Bakr, Hadith 3754)
Mentioning the punishment inflicted upon Hazrat Bilal (ra) and the incident of Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) freeing him, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih II (ra) states:
“The slaves who accepted the Holy Prophet (sa) belonged to various nations. There were Abyssinians such as Bilal (ra) and Romans such as Suhaib (ra). There were Christians such as Jubair (ra) and Suhaib (ra) and idolaters such as Bilal (ra) and Ammar (ra).
“Bilal’s (ra) master would make him lie on burning sand and either place rocks on him, or have boys jump on his chest. Bilal (ra), who was of Abyssinian descent, was the slave of Umayyah bin Khalf, a Meccan chief. Umayyah would take him outside of Mecca at noon under the hot sun, make him lie down naked on the burning sand, place heavy rocks on his chest and say that ‘Accept the divinity of Lat and Uzza and renounce Muhammad (sa)!’ In reply, Bilal (ra) would say, ‘Ahad, Ahad’ that is, ‘God is One, God is One.’ Repeatedly hearing this response enraged Umayyah even further. He would tie a rope around Bilal’s (ra) neck, hand him over to deviant individuals and tell them to drag him across the stones in the streets of Mecca. As a result of this, his body would be covered in blood, but he carried on saying, ‘Ahad, Ahad’ that is, ‘God is One, God is One.’ After a while, when God the Exalted granted the Muslims peace in Medina and they were able to worship freely, the Holy Prophet (sa) appointed Bilal (ra) to call the Azan [call for prayer]. When this Abyssinian slave would say as-hadu an la ilaha illallahu instead of ash-hadu an la ilaha illallahu [I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah] during the Azan, the people of Medina, who were not aware of his circumstances, would start laughing.
“Once, when the Holy Prophet (sa) saw the people of Medina laughing at Hazrat Bilal’s (ra) Azan, he turned to them and said, ‘You laugh while Bilal (ra) calls the Azan but God hears his Azan in the heavens and is pleased.’ The Holy Prophet (sa) was indicating towards the fact that all they saw was that Bilal (ra) was unable to pronounce the [Arabic letter] sheen, but what value is there in a mere sheen or [Arabic letter] seen. God Almighty knows that when he was made to lay on burning sand with his bare back, and those treacherous people would stomp on his chest with their shoes and would ask whether or not he had learned his lesson, he would respond in his broken [Arabic] language and announce his continued belief in the Unity of God Almighty by saying ‘Ahad! Ahad!’ [God is One, God is one], thus proving his dedication, his belief in the Unity of God and his resoluteness of heart. Thus, his ‘as-hadu’ was of much greater value than the ‘ash-hadu’ of many people.
“When Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) saw how cruelly Hazrat Bilal (ra) was being treated, he paid his master and freed him. Similarly, there were many slaves whom Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) freed through his wealth.”
(Dibacha Tafsir-ul-Quran, Anwar-ul-Ulum, Vol. 20, pp. 193-194)