Bilal ibn al-Harith

Bilal ibn al-Harith (d.ca.682) was a sahaba. His full name was Bilal ibn al-Harith ibn 'Asim ibn Sa'id ibn Qurrah ibn Khaladah ibn Tha'labah Abu 'Abd ar-Rahman al-Mazani.

Life

Bilal was an Abyssinian (i.e. Ethiopian) who was taken as a slave in his teens. He was among the early converts to Islam. When his master Umayyah tried to whip him into renouncing, he only said "No God but God" repeatedly even when a heavy stone was placed on his chest. Abu Bakr sent a representative to buy him from Umayyah who promptly sold him for ten dinars. As he counted the money, Umayyah laughed and told Abu Bakr he would have sold him for three (dinars). Abu Bakr retorted he would have paid 100.

He came to Muhammad in the deputation from Muzaynah in 627, and carried the banner for Muzaynah on the day of the Muslim Conquest of Mecca in 630. About Ibn al-Harith it is narrated in the book of "hadith", "Sunan Abi Da'ud, Book 19":

[Muhammad] assigned as a fief to Bilal ibn Harith al-Muzani the mines of al-Qabaliyyah, both those which lay on the upper side those and which lay on the lower side. The narrator, Ibn an-Nadr, added: "also Jars and Dhat an-Nusub." The agreed version reads: "and (the land) which is suitable for cultivation at Quds". He did not assign to Bilal ibn al-Harith the right of any Muslim. [Muhammad] wrote a document to him:

"This is what the [Muhammad] assigned to Bilal ibn al-Harith al-Muzani. He gave him the mines of al-Qabaliyyah both those which lay on the upper and lower side, and that which is fit for cultivation at Quds. He did not give him the right of any Muslim." [The narrator Abu Uways said: A similar tradition has been transmitted to me by Thawr ibn Zayd from Ikrimah on the authority of Abdullah ibn Abbas from [Muhammad] . Ibn an-Nadr added: Ubayy ibn Kab wrote it.] ["Kitab al-Kharaj, Wal-Fai' wal-Imarah" (Tribute, Spoils, and Rulership), "Sunan Abu-Dawud, Book 19"]

He later lived in Basra (modern day Iraq), and died in 682 in the last days of the reign of the caliph Muawiyah I. ["Asad al-Ghabah fi Ma'rifah as-Sahabah" by 'Izz ad-Din ibn Muhammad, better known as Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari]

Notes

ee also

*Sahaba

External links

*http://www.bogvaerker.dk/Bookwright/rijal.html