The torture of Bilal

Umayyah used to tie a rope around the neck of Bilal and would give this to the children to drag him and pull him around the mountains of Makkah, once he learnt about Bilal’s conversion.

It was often tied very tightly leaving blood stained marks. Umayyah used to put hot oil around the site of bleeding and would tie the rope even tighter to increase the suffering. He would also accompany the children and use a stick to hit Bilal as he worked. Each day he would put Bilal in the middle of the desert at the height of the sun without food or water and he ordered others to place a large rock on Bilal’s chest to prevent him from breathing easily. He carried on like this, remonstrating with Bilal to denounce Muhammad (saw) and would say, “I will never stop torturing you, until either you die or you declare Kufr in Muhammad (saw) and you return back to worshipping the Lat and Uzzah.”

 Bilal could not reply due to the pressure of the weight of rock on his chest. He could only say, “Ahadun Ahad”, “The One! The One!” This carried on until Muhammad (saw) heard about Bilal’s situation and requested Abu Bakr (ra) to release Bilal (ra) from his slavemaster, Umayyah Ibn Khallaf. Perhaps Umayyah would want some money for Bilal and would eventually free him. After eleven days of torture, Abu Bakr (ra) succeeded in convincing Umayyah to sell Bilal (ra) for seven Uwaaq of silver. In their eyes Bilal (ra) was now Abu Bakr’s slave. However, Abu Bakr freed him at once from the shackles of slavery. Bilal, reminding the people of Abu Bakr’s nobility, would say “I was the slave of Abu Bakr for a part of the day when he took me from Umayyah, fed me and washed me. Then he said to me, ‘O Bilal, you are not my slave. You never were my slave. (Go) You are now free.’”

Source:  The Road to Jannah The Struggle of Muhammad (saw) and the Sahabah (as) By Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad