Elevated By Islam – Bilal (RA)

Want to stay in hoonah saphira when we let him in surely unforeseen elements a yachtie our Medina, Maria de la, la la la la la, la, la La, La La La La La La La La sharika Masha de nom hamedan obtuvo Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

The Prophet alayhi salatu was Salam said in an authentic narration that Pharaoh Sudan, he said

that the best of the people of color, people who are dark skinned are three.

And he named them and he said they are Bella loon for lokman

major. Mola rasulillah salam, they are Bilal

Luqman, the famous of man and that that's mentioned in the Quran, and another Sahaba, whose name is Ninja, who was the freed slave of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. bilello de la one who is the Sahabi I want to share something from his life with you guys. And he is such an inspirational personality. Just the statement of the Prophet alayhi salaatu wa Salaam should tell you how great of a personality he was the Prophet said that he is one of the top three.

But there is a lot more to him than just that. I'll start a little bit by mentioning something of his physical characteristics below the low one who was dark skinned, but also extremely handsome. And he had Hazel Hazel brown eyes. He also was characterized as having puffy here. So you can kind of think of him having an afro.

And he had a really beautiful voice. He was renowned to have a really beautiful voice. And that's why one of the reasons why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam chose him to be his mother than the person who would call the Adhan. That's a very dignified position. This is a position that holds a lot of honor, carries a lot of weight in Muslim communities, the position of being the more than, and it's an iconic position. And the Prophet alayhi salatu. Salam specifically chose Bilal to be the muslin

along with another companion, or the other one. His full name is Bella livanova. His nickname is Kenya was Abdullah. He was born in Makkah in the year five ad.

So he was 10 years younger than the profits or loss alone. He was about 10 years younger than the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He was half Arab and half Abyssinian. So his father was an Arab slave robber. And his mother was an Abyssinian slave. Her name was hamama. So he was born into slavery, his parents were slaves. And in any other point in time, in any other situation, besides the situation that he was in, he would have continued to live the life of a slave, he would have grown up a slave and die, the slave and any kids he would have had, would also would have been slaves, and the cycle would perpetuate.

But Bilal rhodiola, one who was chosen by Allah to be the Companion of the Prophet, and this shackle of slavery was broken, as we'll see.

Below the Allahu because he was a handsome man, he was a strong man, he was a prized slave. So he was in the house of one of the leaders of Quraysh, one of the enemies of the Prophet omiya, Aleph, this man was one of the seven leaders of Quraysh that were sworn enemies of the Prophet. And my fear is if you want to imagine an islamophobe, right, if you want to imagine, you know, the GOP front runner, or number two in the GOP race, right, but make it a little worse, and make him related to the Prophet. That's my year right there. So my year, he Bilal rhodiola, one who hears Amaya cursing the Prophet, he hears my ear, cursing the Prophet, and commenting on what the Prophet is saying,

He's saying, you should worship only one God, and you should be good to the orphans should be good to the slaves should be good to the poor. And when he is saying this, you know, and making a mockery of what the Prophet is saying, but Bilal hears this and from the mouth of this islamophobe Bilal only allow one who accepts Islam. And as we'll see in his life, he is a man of courage. He is a man who is brave, he stands up for what he believes in. So once he accepts Islam, he's not hiding it. He tells me that I am on the religion of Muhammad and as you can imagine, Amaya did not take that you know did not take kindly to it.

What actually he proceeded to happen was my ears started to punish me lol and torture him physically. Because without was, of course

slave. So what what am I gonna do? Oh my I would drag Bilaal for the long run who, across the streets and take him to outside the city on the outskirts of the city with the sand of the desert is even harder, because there's no shade to make it a little cooler and he would put Bilaal on that sand. And then after that he will put upon him rocks that are heavy, and the rocks Firstly, they wouldn't actually put them on the sand to make them warm as well to heat up the rocks. Right. So he's been crushed, and he's been burned, and they will put shackles on him. And all this time below are the one who continues to say, I hadn't.

I hadn't had which means one in a law is one God is one continues to say that

as a way of mocking oma young, and also as a show of his of his resolve. omonia year continues, and he comes and he taunts biller and he says either you die here

or you disbelieve in Mohammed, you have no other option is one of those two.

And Bilaal looks them in the face and says, I hadn't heard.

So he's not breaking in my ear is trying very hard to break him. But he's not breaking at all until the point that the even the leaders of Quraysh who are not Muslims, they can see that this man is not going to break your and you will end up killing him. There's actually a narration from what aka mo nofal Wanaka. If you know a bit of the biography of the Prophet was the Christian priest, they used to live in Makkah, who was the cousin of Khadija. So what a cop actually passed by Bilal. And he saw this entire thing happening. He saw my torturing him to the point of almost killing him. And he would hear Bilal say I hadn't I had and waratah who is a Christian priest, he would say, yeah,

Bilaal, he would say I hadn't had the ability. Indeed, Bilal, you're right ahead on ahead, that's exactly who Allah is. And he would say a suburban will say, Be patient, and he will say, well let enough CBD oil to move Whoo

hoo, ha, Nana, and he would tell the leaders of Quraysh that if you guys killed this man, I'm gonna make a sanctuary out of him. I'm going to make him I'm going to, you know, make this guy and a struggle, I'm going to make that a sanctuary so people will forget about it. So eventually, the leaders of courage were telling Oh, my you gotta stop this, because he's now becoming not just a person who believed in Muhammad, but he's becoming a symbol of that movement, and you don't want to offend these flames. So at the same time, also, overcapacity comes to him, and offers to free blood purchase below and send him free. Now, keep in mind, this is a practice that is absolutely foreign,

at that time of purchasing a person who's a slave. And then instead of using them as a slave for labor, you turn around and you say to that person, you're free to go, I want nothing from you. That is an unheard of practice, at that time in history. But a worker comes and says, name, your price, and I'm going to pay your price. And he pays a hefty sum to free below.

And then finally, Bill is free. And he is able to move, move on with his life later on when he was a little older. And when Omar The second key live is in power after the death of the Prophet after that after the death of a worker.

Omar asks Bilal, and he would say why would you say I had to know? What was the reason for that? Did you know something? Why didn't you say Allahu Allah? Why didn't you say ramen ramen? Because the people of Quraysh did not like the name of Allah ramen, the Most Merciful. They did not like that. So Bilal said, you know what I that's actually all I knew of Islam.

That's all I knew of Islam. This these two names I had done I had, that's all I knew.

What shows you like this goes to show you that you don't have to know a lot. To be strong. And be resolute and be powerful in your Eman. This is a hobby who came to the Prophet, and he asked him that old messenger of Allah Tell me something. pornography is filled Islamic covenant, the US Aloo on who had an Iraq, tell me something that after this, I don't need to ask anybody for anything.

Right. And what are the profits awesome. Tell him, he said.

Amen. To be loved. Say I believe in a lot. So must have him and then be strong, right? Don't waver. Don't give up when it's hard to be strong and be resolute that you see you don't have to know a lot

To do that, and beloved Lila one who even though he learned a lot, and became one of the great Sahaba, the great companions of the Prophet, but at that point in his life, his knowledge was very limited, but his resolve was unlimited. And that really is the key below the last one who as we see, and as we discuss most of his life, or as we keep talking about his life, you will see this man has got unlimited resolve. And the strength of character is what, above any everything we can learn from below the line, one who

I'm going to talk about his wife next. And this is important, his wife, her name was highlight within two hours Halla bent out, if you know a little bit of the Sahaba the companions, you will think that this is the sister of who of the man, right of the man himself is one of the top 10 Sahaba, one of the one of the top 10 companions of the Prophet, he is the cream of the crop. And of the rough man, even yourself is not just the cream of the crop from the perspective of Islam, but also in his lineage, his family. This is the one of the most procedures, one of the most noble families of flourish in Makkah. And guess who they marry their sister off to?

To a freed slave, who was the son of two slaves? Who has no property? Who doesn't have anything?

In terms of materialistic stuff, he has nothing.

But they marry their daughter, their sister of the man marries his sister off to Bilaal.

Think about that for a minute. How incredible that is. You see what that shows us that the Sahaba were not shackled by what unfortunately, a lot of us are shackled by right. We're shackled by, you know, some constraints about race constraints about class, you know, socio economic status as they say. We're shackled by that. Right sometimes is legitimate. Right. I'm not discrediting concerns that a father may have about a potential,

you know, son in law, I'm not discrediting any of that. But sometimes those concerns become paranoia.

And they become they go far too much into into the realm of basically paranoia, there's nothing there's no other way to pull it. And what you find is that the Sahaba, were not like this. They were liberated from these kind of these constraints. They were not shackled by racism. Now, keep in mind, by the way, that this is not how they were always before Islam, the Arabs, the Quraysh. They're extremely proud of their lineage. They're proud of being Arabs, they're proud of their of their forefathers. If you study Arabic poetry, I recently started studying with one of my teachers, a lot of the Arabic poetry, and most of the time, they're talking about their family, their fathers and

their families, and how brave they were in battle. These are proud people.

And they didn't take it like they didn't like the other men would marry into their their tribe or into their clan. They actually looked down upon that. But here is up their hand m&r off from a prestigious noble family from the Quraysh from the great tribe of Quraysh. And he's marrying his daughter off to Bilal who is freed slave. Because Islam change the Sahaba. They didn't see people as belonging to a family or a tribe. They see people as now this is a person of taqwa. This is a person who's strong, who's got resolve. This is a person who's willing to make sacrifices for a loss pantalones religion, even if he doesn't have a lot of materialistic, you know, material

materialistic goods, does not have a lot of money does not have status in the eyes of other people in our eyes. He's somebody who was amazing. Last month law says in the Quran, in Accra, Morocco, in the law here at Qualcomm, in the law, Holleyman hobby, that no doubt, the person who is a Chroma comb, the noblest, the best. in the sight of Allah is a token the person who has the most God consciousness, the person who is able to, you know, do exactly what God is telling them to do, and stay away from all that they've been told to stay away from. That is the person who has the highest standing, not the person like the comments, he says, lahmacun byton, not the person who has the

biggest house, not the person who has the noblest family, not the person who has the most wealth. It's the person who has the most dukkha fear and cautiousness of God and the Prophet also, you know, I'm trying

Going on this tangent because it's really important to understand the reality of this time. These are people who were not like this. They were, they will look at us as a person as black and they will say this person has no value they will look at as a person who was a slave and say this person is garbage. But then Islam completely transformed them. These are the teachings of Islam that completely changed these people. And the Prophet sets also them in the very beautiful Hadith that he said to us a hobby he said, in knuckleduster behavior in men a hammer, when I asked what Allah and tabula who, with taqwa he said that, look, you're not any better than a person who has read, meaning

somebody who's white, or somebody who was asked what was black, you know better than somebody who is white or black. The only way you can be better is inlanta. doula who taqwa is if you have more taqwa, if you have have more consciousness of Allah subhanaw taala. If you're able to practice this Deen with resolve, and you're able to be strong, even in tough times, that's how you become better.

So his marriage, even though we don't find a lot of details about his wife, just the fact that she came from this family, and just the fact that they open their arms and embraced beloved rhodiola, one who speaks volumes about how they work. And it sets up a very interesting contrast with how we are.

It really does. I have a cousin who lives in the south, in the United States. And she's having a hard time getting married. So in that state that she lives in, in the city, there's a lot of African Americans who are Muslims. And these are African Americans who are not converts. Some of them are converts. A lot of them are actually

kids have slaves who were Muslims. So they identify themselves as Muslims, like they don't say we're converts, they say that we're actually going back to the religion of our forefathers who were slaves. Right? So these are people as a strong community, if you go to their massage, the large majority of the people in the congregation are African Americans. So I said, Hey, you know, she's living in this, you know, city. This is how this is their community. What if there's a brother who is African American, right? And my cousin, obviously, she's Bugs Bunny, just like me. So and that statement, and that suggestion was shut down in like five seconds? Nah, that's not gonna work. Why

not? Well, you have no reason, you have no legitimate reason to just completely dismiss this. Maybe if it's a person, and you can say, Oh, this person doesn't have the education or the, you know, whatever. But just to dismiss the entire community of African Americans, just because they're African Americans.

That's, that's a, that is a sad reality. That's the sad reality. And far too often, that is the case in our communities. And I just wanted to paint the contrast between how we are, unfortunately, or a lot large number of us and how the Sahaba were the alone one home, Bella rhodiola, one who was elevated by Islam. He was somebody who was, who was nobody, he was a slave, the son of a slave, and he had nothing. But with Islam, he became an icon. He became an icon. Today we're talking about him, he became the muslin of the Prophet, the person who would give the Adhan and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam chose him to give as an

at very, very interesting times, when the Prophet made his first omura.

And at that time, Makkah, was still under the control of Quraysh. The Prophet salallahu alaihe salam told Bilal, to go on top of the Kaaba and call the Azhar and that infuriated the people of Quraysh. That was so difficult for them to bear to see this man of a person of color, who was used to be our slave. Now he is on top of the garba and calling the van.

But the profits awesome did this by, you know, purposefully, he did this to make sure that these constraints,

these constructs of racism, they're shattered, they're completely shattered just by this image of Bilal standing on the curb and giving them a year later, same thing when Makkah was opened, when the conquest of Morocco was complete, again, Bilal rhodiola rhodiola one who was commanded by the prophet to go stand on top of the Kaaba and give it done.

And again, this time the Prophet took Bilal with him, inside the Kaaba and the Kaaba had over 360 idols and Bilal de la one who and the prophets

Allahu alayhi wa sallam broke those idols. Now in this, the imagery here is amazing.

He was the man who used to be owned by the people of Makkah. He was the man who had no value. And now a few years later, he's back.

And now he is destroying the foundation upon which olmeca was built.

idol worship, he completely destroys that foundation, with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So he became he was just another person. He was a slave. He accepted Islam, once a hobby amongst many, but the prophets of Salaam, through his Islam, elevated him and made him into an icon for all times. And this was done by choice of the prophets of Salaam, purposefully, he was also a Lila, one who, one of the earliest of the Sahaba, one of the earliest of the people who accepted Islam and openly declared himself to be a Muslim. And also he was of the bravest, and the most courageous of all people below the law, one who and his courage By the way, you know, as Muslims, we should, as

people who are believing in the law in the last day in the messenger, that should increase us encourage, we should be more courageous to stand up for what's right to speak our minds to not fear criticism, to not fear, you know, consequences of what people are going to say that courage is part and parcel of our Eman below the one who is narrated by Abdullah even was rude another great companion in sha Allah who I'll talk about tomorrow. He said that kind of a woman of Hara Islam who Saba

that seven people openly declared their feet as Muslims openly said that we are Muslims, because everybody else was in hiding. They were hiding. They were kind of concealing their Islam.

It might happen if somebody in the GOP might wins the wins the presidential election there, right we might be going to the border and we like the Muslims. Anyway, that was a joke. So bill out of the 11 who

is one of those seven, right those seven are the prophets of Salaam wa Casa de amar, his mother sumaiya sohaib. Bilal and make that these seven people were the first seven who openly said that there are Muslims. Notice five of these seven are either slaves or they are ex slaves, just got recently got their their freedom, but still have no status in society.

So you see Islam, the earliest Muslims were actually underprivileged. They were underprivileged. They were people who didn't have any standing. But through Islam, Allah subhanaw taala raised their ranks.

And Abdullah and Massoud comments, and he said that the Messenger of Allah was protected because of his uncle. A worker was protected by his family. Everybody else was put to the test, and everybody else was tortured. And everybody else, the people of Quraysh, the polytheist, they were able to break them. They were able to break them, except bill and

everybody broke, except he was the one who kept saying I hadn't had I hadn't had until omiya broke.

And what's amazing, is that

these people would torture him, like I mentioned with the rocks, they would torture him by, you know, parading him around, and having little kids, you know, yell at him and scream at him and pelted with rocks and stones. And all the time he just think I don't know what I hadn't I had.

So panela. So

they tried to break him, but they couldn't because he was one of the bravest and strongest and most courageous people. His resolve was unbreakable, was unlimited. And this is a lesson for us. We need to we're living in tough times as well. We're living in times that are difficult, right? We're not being put to the test like Bilal, but we all have our different types of tests. We're not being crushed under a rock, but might be you might be crushed under expectations. But you see at the same time, how Bilaal preserved through his resolve, we have to be, we have to take the same example. We have to be strong and we have to preserve the war resolve as well and the Sahaba should serve as a

reminder for us to increase our resolve. He witnessed each battle with the prophets of Salaam. Each journey with the prophets of Salaam that he took every battle the Prophet participated in. Bella was there every journey the Prophet took Bilal was there.

And he was also a type of a personal confident of the prophets of Allah.

Like he would be in the house of the Prophet, when nobody else would be allowed to be there. He would go and see the Prophet when no other Sahabi would go into the house. He was very close to the prophet SAW Allah. So for example, there's a beautiful incident from the life of the Prophet where the Prophet is praying at night. And beloved rhodiola, one who comes to his house to tell him it's time for fragile, and then the Prophet, he finds the Prophet is crying. And then he asked the Prophet sallallahu Sallam that he had a surah attempt ki bapatla for Allahu la cama de dum dum become a matter. He said, O Messenger of Allah, you're crying here, while Allah has already forgiven

all of your sins. And the Prophet said that a fella akuna abdon, Shakira Bella, should I not be grateful, thankful? servando Bella, you see below the line, who the point I'm trying to make from this story is in the early hours of the morning, or just as the night is ending. These are personal times that people don't have guests coming over to their house. But Bilal is the one who is going to the profit house. And he is the one who's having this conversation with the prophet in his own house, because he was so close to the profits also. You know, the profit also because he was so close to him, the prophet really loved him below. And he told him that Oh, Bilal, I heard your

footsteps in Jenna. I heard your footsteps in gender. And in another narration, he said, How did you beat me to Gen Nabila?

How did you beat me to gender? What did you do that you're in front of me and gender? Amazing. And velocity alone is like, I'm not sure. And then he says, Well, what I do is I,

whenever I have I break my will do, right, whenever I lose my will do. I make will do. And then I pray to record immediately. And the Prophet said, we have the ability. That's it. That's how you beat me. Right? So Panda, the prophet loved him so much. And he was there's these beautiful moments that are all over the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam that we find with between him and Bilal, probably a long one who he was also dearly loved and respected by all the Sahaba all of them dearly loved him and respected him. It is narrated by Java ignore the lab. That kind of rumor. We are cool that Omar rhodiola one who are

the great Sahabi number two all time, right, goat number one is a worker so the greatest of all time. Number two is Omar. So Omar number two of all time is saying

Oba worker, Ceduna.

A worker is our master. He's number one.

Our takasi Donna

Jani Bella,

and he freed our master. Beloved,

do you see Omar is putting blood at that level.

And Omar was the one who like we said, is number two, all time.

So all the Sahaba loved him dearly and respected him extremely, to an extreme level, to the point where you find Omar odilo, who seen these beautiful things.

He after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had passed away. He, he refused to make them. He said, I'm not making a dime for anybody. I used to make a dime for the profit. I'm not making a dime for anybody else. And

he said to a worker as a DM, he said, Let me go. And let me go fight for the cause of Islam. Let me leave the city of Medina. And let me go out to the outskirts of the Muslim world, so I can fight. And a worker Sadiq pleaded with him and said, I need you to stay with me. I only have some more time some more years left in my life. I want you next to me. They were also very close to the Prophet, workers. And Beloved. So Bill

obliged and he stayed with a worker when a worker said the passed away. The same conversation happened with Omar. Omar is like I need you in Medina, I need you to be here. And below a lot of Ilan was saying I need to go out. I need to go to the outskirts of the city. And eventually I'm not the only one who allowed him to go.

But then Bilal saw a dream. And in this dream, he saw the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam, and he saw the Prophet asking him, when are you coming to visit me? When When are you coming to see me? So he decided to go to Medina. And he came to the to the muscles of the Prophet. Then he visited the grave of the Prophet and for Jolokia in the hood, he started crying next to the grave of the Prophet and he then went to

Allison and Hussein, the kids of Ali, the sons of Ali, and the grand sons of the Prophet, and he started hugging them. And he started kissing them. And they said, for color, Allahu Allah Al Naja he and nesma adanac SubhanAllah. These two Sahaba, these two young Sahaba, Hassan and Hussein. They said, Oh, Bilal, we really want to hear your then we're desperate to listen to you give us that. So he obliged us even though before that he has said, I'm not going to do it again. He's only making a banner for the profit, but on the special request of the Grand sons of the Prophet, he comes back and he gives us the return.

And he starts then, and he says, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. The people of Medina hear the sound of Bilal.

And Medina, like it's the the narrations describe it is digital Medina, the Medina shock. Then he said,

Chateau La ilaha illAllah.

It shook even more because people were crying.

And then, when he said, I showed the Mohammedan rasulillah, people started coming out of their homes crying.

They couldn't hold themselves. They couldn't hold their emotions. And they said, very sad. Rasulullah they were like, the prophet is back. Right? I mean, they were that's the kind of emotions they were feeling. And the scholars who would describe this narration they say, for Maria, Yeoman, actor, avakian when avakian will Medina burger Rasulullah. He's also a mythological young, that was the day like none other after the passing of the messenger. So awesome. We haven't seen people cry like this. That's the kind of effect that he had on the people of Medina SubhanAllah. And that's the kind of person he was, he was loved. He was iconic. He was a person who was strong, his resolve is

unlimited. And this aside, it's it's a, it's a lesson for all of us. That here is a man who was a nobody who had nothing, who was probably going to be in a perpetual cycle of slavery. But through Islam, he got free, he got liberated, and he got elevated to who he is today, all of us, even if we don't become household names, right? If we were to become attached to Islam, if you were to practice Islam, the way it's supposed to be practice, if you're going to be strong in our Islam, and now give up and it's hard. Then in the eyes of Allah subhanaw taala will be raised up and we'll be elevated as well as Botswana to give us an understanding of the fine so now, there's nothing more fabulous.

Salaam Alaikum