Introduction

Hazrat Bilal’s (ra) father’s name was Rabah and his mother’s name was Hamamah. Hazrat Bilal (ra) was a slave of Umayyah bin Khalf. His title was Abu Abdullah however, according to other narrations, it is also mentioned as Abu Abdur Rahman, Abu Abdul Karim and Abu Amr. Hazrat Bilal’s (ra) mother was from Abyssinia while his father was from Arabia.

Historians have written that he was of Abyssinian Semite descent. In ancient times, certain Semitic or some Arab tribes migrated to Africa and settled there. Due to this, the complexion of their offspring resembled the natives of that region, but the specific characteristics and habits that are found in the people of that region were not adopted by them. Later on, some of them returned to Arabia as slaves. Since they were of a dark complexion, the Arabs used to think of them as Habshi, i.e., people of Abyssinia.

According to one narration, Hazrat Bilal (ra) was born in Mecca and was among the muwallideen. Those who were not of a purely Arab descent used to be referred to as muwallideen. According to another narration, he was born in Surat, situated close to Yemen and Abyssinia where many mixed-race people lived.

(Ibn Sa‘d, Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, Vol. 3, Bilal bin Rabah [Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, 2017] 174-175) (Ali Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-Ghabah fi Ma‘rifat al-Sahabah, Vol. 1, Bilal bin Rabah [Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, 2008] 415) (Roshan Satarey az Ghulam Bari Saif Sahib, Vol. 1, p. 145) (Ali Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-Ghabah fi Ma’rifat al-Sahabah [Mutarjam] Vol. 1 [Maktabah Khalil] 283)