Companions of African origin: Bilāl, Umm Ayman, Usāma and others

In brief From the earliest days of Islam, men and women from Africa, especially from Abyssinia (al-Ḥabasha), held a prominent place beside the Prophet ﷺ. Their stories, reported in the authentic collections, show that nobility is measured by piety, not by origin or colour. The principle: piety, not colour يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَى وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ "O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you peoples and tribes so that you may know one another.

The noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most pious of you." (al-Ḥujurāt, 49:13) During the Farewell Pilgrimage, the Prophet ﷺ said: أَلَا لَا فَضْلَ لِعَرَبِيٍّ عَلَى أَعْجَمِيٍّ، وَلَا لِعَجَمِيٍّ عَلَى عَرَبِيٍّ، وَلَا لِأَحْمَرَ عَلَى أَسْوَدَ، وَلَا أَسْوَدَ عَلَى أَحْمَرَ، إِلَّا بِالتَّقْوَى "An Arab has no merit over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab, nor a fair-skinned person over a black person, nor a black person over a fair-skinned person, except through piety." (Aḥmad, al-Musnad, no. 23489; chain judged authentic) Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ, the voice of Islam Born in Mecca to an Abyssinian mother, Ḥamāma, Bilāl was the slave of Umayya ibn Khalaf.

He was among the first to declare his Islam. Tortured under the burning sun, he kept repeating: "Aḥad, aḥad!" ("One, One!") (Ibn Mājah, no. 150). Abū Bakr bought him and set him free. ʿUmar used to say: أَبُو بَكْرٍ سَيِّدُنَا، وَأَعْتَقَ سَيِّدَنَا "Abū Bakr is our master, and he freed our master." (al-Bukhārī, no. 3754), meaning Bilāl. He was the first muezzin of Islam. At Badr, he recognised his former torturer Umayya ibn Khalaf among the fighters of Quraysh (al-Bukhārī, no. 2301). The Prophet ﷺ once said to him: يَا بِلَالُ، حَدِّثْنِي بِأَرْجَى عَمَلٍ عَمِلْتَهُ فِي الْإِسْلَامِ، فَإِنِّي سَمِعْتُ دَفَّ نَعْلَيْكَ بَيْنَ يَدَيَّ فِي الْجَنَّةِ "O Bilāl, tell me of the most hopeful deed you have done in Islam, for I heard the sound of your sandals ahead of me in Paradise." (al-Bukhārī, no. 1149; Muslim, no. 2458) Bilāl replied that he never purified himself without then praying what Allah enabled him to pray.

He died in Damascus, around 20 AH according to the most widespread view. Umm Ayman, "a mother after my mother" Baraka, known as Umm Ayman, came from Abyssinia (Muslim, no. 1771). A servant of ʿAbd Allāh, the Prophet's ﷺ father, she cared for the child after the death of his mother Āmina. The Prophet ﷺ freed her and married her to Zayd ibn Ḥāritha; she was the mother of Usāma. After the Prophet's ﷺ death, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar went to visit her as he used to do. She wept: not because she did not know that what is with Allah is better for His Messenger, but because revelation from heaven had ceased.

And they wept with her (Muslim, no. 2454). Usāma ibn Zayd, the beloved of the Prophet ﷺ Son of Zayd ibn Ḥāritha and Umm Ayman, Usāma was very dark-skinned, unlike his father. The Prophet ﷺ rejoiced when a physiognomist recognised, from their feet alone, that they were father and son (al-Bukhārī, no. 6770; Muslim, no. 1459). While still very young, Usāma was appointed to command an army that included great companions. Some criticised this choice; the Prophet ﷺ replied that people had already criticised his father's command, that Zayd had been worthy of it, and that Usāma was among the people he loved most after him (al-Bukhārī, no. 3730).

The Black woman promised Paradise ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ reported that Ibn ʿAbbās said to him: أَلَا أُرِيكَ امْرَأَةً مِنْ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ؟ قُلْتُ: بَلَى، قَالَ: هَذِهِ الْمَرْأَةُ السَّوْدَاءُ "Shall I show you a woman from the people of Paradise? — Yes. — This Black woman." (al-Bukhārī, no. 5652; Muslim, no. 2576) She suffered from seizures and would become uncovered during them. The Prophet ﷺ offered her either to be patient and have Paradise, or that he pray to Allah for her cure. She chose patience, asking only that he pray that she would no longer become uncovered.

According to al-Bukhārī, her name was Umm Zufar. Waḥshī ibn Ḥarb, repentance Waḥshī was an Abyssinian slave of Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim. At Uḥud, he killed Ḥamza, the Prophet's ﷺ uncle, to gain his freedom. After the conquest of Mecca he embraced Islam; the Prophet ﷺ accepted his Islam but asked him not to appear before him again. At the battle of al-Yamāma, Waḥshī killed the false prophet Musaylima (al-Bukhārī, no. 4072). His story shows that Islam wipes out what came before it. A reproach from the Prophet ﷺ Abū Dharr reported that he insulted a man by belittling him because of his mother.

The Prophet ﷺ said to him: إِنَّكَ امْرُؤٌ فِيكَ جَاهِلِيَّةٌ "You are a man in whom there is still something of the Jāhiliyya." (al-Bukhārī, no. 30) What is less certain The identity of the man insulted by Abū Dharr: some accounts say it was Bilāl, but this detail is not in al-Bukhārī's version. The saying "Umm Ayman is my mother after my mother" is often quoted but is not established by a solid chain. The story of Bilāl refusing to give the call to prayer after the Prophet's ﷺ death, then giving it one last time in Medina, comes from criticised chains.

The date of Bilāl's death varies according to the sources (from 17 to 21 AH). Sources al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, nos. 30, 1149, 2301, 3730, 3754, 4072, 5652, 6770. Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, nos. 1459, 1771, 2454, 2458, 2576. Aḥmad, al-Musnad, no. 23489; Ibn Mājah, Sunan, no. 150. Ibn Saʿd, aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā; Ibn Ḥajar, al-Iṣāba fī tamyīz aṣ-ṣaḥāba; adh-Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām an-nubalāʾ.