second son was Hussain and Muhsin was the third. The first two sons lived and became very famous Muslims, but their third son died in his infancy. The two daughters were Zainab and Umm Kulthum. The former was married to Abdullah ibn Ja’far, Ali’s nephew, while the latter was married to Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Caliph of Islam. Through her children, Fatimah’s descendants multiplied and spread throughout the Islamic world. Her sons Hasan and Hussain not only became very famous Muslims, they also became great symbols of Islamic bravery and heroism. Thanks also to Fatimah, today there are hundreds and thousands, if not, millions of Muslims across the Islamic world who proudly claim to be the descendants of the Prophet. Even great political dynasties such as the Fatimids of Egypt and North Africa considered themselves to be the progeny and inheritors of the Prophet through Fatimah and Ali. To have a genealogical link to the Prophet through Fatimah often provided individuals, as well as various political and mystical groups, with much needed recognition and legitimacy throughout Islamic history.
More importantly, today Fatimah is very popular across the Muslim world due to her startling qualities as a perfect Muslim daughter, a devoted wife to her husband and an exemplary mother to all her children. Throughout Islamic history, Muslim women of all shades and colour have looked towards her life and thought for inspiration and guidance. Along with Aishah and Khadijah, she must be considered one of the most famous and influential women in Islamic history. That is why I have ranked her very highly in this book. She passed away six months after the death of her father, at the age of around twenty-seven. In accordance with her wishes, she was buried under the cover of darkness by her husband and two other Muslim ladies in Jannat al-Baqi, one of Madinah’s most famous cemetries. Her greatness was such that the Prophet once said: ‘One day, (the) angel came and told me the glad tidings that Fatimah will be the leader of women in heaven.’
DURING THE EARLY days of Islam, several non-Arabs embraced Islam and became prominent companions of the Prophet Muhammad. Through their hard work and sheer devotion to the message of Islam, these hitherto unknown and obscure men suddenly became leading figures of the early Muslim community, firstly in Makkah and then in Madinah. They included Salman al-Farisi, Suhaib al-Rumi and Bilal ibn Rabah. The son of a notable Zoroastrian priest and dihqan (landlord), Salman was abducted in his childhood and brought to Syria in chains. Subsequently he embraced Christianity and was eventually sold as a slave to a Madinian Jew. He became a Muslim in Madinah and met the Prophet before the Battle of Khandaq. Thanks to his unflinching devotion to Islam, he later became one of the leading members of the early Muslim community. By contrast, Suhaib came from Byzantium although the historians disagree about his ancestry; some say he was a Roman, while others suggest he was of Arabian origin. Either way, he renounced all the joys and pleasures of this world to become a Muslim at a time when it was not fashionable to be a Muslim in Makkah. His love of, and devotion to, Islam won him much acclaim within the early Muslim community. Perhaps the most devoted and dedicated non-Arab to embrace Islam, however, was Bilal. Born into slavery, he rose to become one of Islamic history’s most celebrated figures.
Bilal was born to an Abyssinian slave girl of Banu Jumah tribe of Makkah. He was brought up by his mother and worked as a slave labourer during his teenage years. When Bilal was in his early twenties, he was sold to Umayyah ibn Khalaf, a powerful Makkan chieftain, as a slave. Known to have been very dark, tall, slim and bushy-haired, Bilal lived with his master in Makkah and acquired something of a reputation for his scrupulousness and integrity even before he embraced Islam. When Prophet Muhammad started promulgating Islam in Makkah, Bilal was around thirty years old. The Prophet first invited members of his own family to the new faith including his beloved wife Khadijah, his daughters and his cousin Ali and adopted son Zaid, before approaching his best friend, Abu Bakr. None of them doubted his truthfulness and they responded positively to his call. It was not long before the Prophet gathered around him a sizable following in Makkan despite the opposition of its ruling elites. When the Prophet began to publicly invite all the people of Makkah to the truth of Islam, people like Abu Bakr, Ammar ibn Yasir, his mother Sumayyah, and Miqdad followed suit and publicly declared their new faith. This shocked and infuriated the Makkan elites so much that they began to persecute the new believers.
Only the Prophet and Abu Bakr were spared, as both of them were offered protection by their powerful relatives. Bilal was one of the first seven people to embrace Islam. As soon as he heard about Islam, he leaped at it like an arrow heading for its target. And since he was a slave labourer, he had no one to protect him from the wrath of his cruel master, Umayyah. When the latter discovered that Bilal had embraced Islam, he became so infuriated that he threw him out of the house and began to torture him severely. As one of Islam’s bitter foes, Umayyah tried every trick in the book to force Bilal to renounce Islam, but the latter did not budge an inch. And although others, like Ammar and Miqdad, relented for a period after being severely punished, Bilal the Ethiopian continued to defy Umayyah in an heroic manner. When the persecution of Muslims became very harsh and unbearable, some Muslims pretended to have renounced Islam in order to avoid being tortured and persecuted, but Bilal refused to do this.
According to the historians, Umayyah used to make Bilal sleep on the scorching desert sand, tie him up, place a heavy stone on his chest and leave him in the desert to suffer. The burning sand melted his skin and caused him excruciating agony and pain. In desperation, he would cry out for help only for Umayyah to appear and ask him to renounce Islam. When he refused, Umayyah screamed abuse and insults at him. His master would not leave him in peace at night, either. He was regularly whipped at night which caused his skin to split open, but the iron-willed Bilal remained defiant as ever. He would not renounce Islam come what may; his faith was as solid as a rock. The more he was punished, the more vigorously Bilal chanted, ‘Ahad’ -The One (God), ‘Ahad’ -The One (God), ‘Ahad’ -The One (God) – thus reiterating the fundamental Islamic belief that no one deserves to be worshipped and glorified other than Allah, the One and Only God, Who is the Creator, Cherisher and Sustainer of the entire universe. Since Bilal considered his battle against Umayyah to be a battle between the truth and falsehood, light and darkness, he was determined to win the contest for Islam. He may have been tall and slim but Bilal’s temperament was solid steel, and his steadfastness in the face of torture and cruelty came to symbolise the true qualities and attributes of a Muslim. So much so that stories of his remarkable struggles and sacrifices continue to inspire Muslims to this day.
The severity of the punishment inflicted on Bilal by his master shocked and horrified everyone in Makkah. Moved by his suffering and plight, Abu Bakr, who was a wealthy businessman and an early convert to Islam, offered to buy Bilal his freedom. Being a cruel and repulsive man, Umayyah was only too happy to accept Abu Bakr’s offer of money in exchange for Bilal’s freedom. Now for the first time in his life, Bilal was a free man who bowed before none, other than the One True God. Bilal was very grateful to Abu Bakr for his kindness and the Prophet was also delighted when he was told that Bilal was at last a free man. Islam – as promulgated by the Prophet – was against slavery and bondage, and Muhammad never failed to remind his followers that it was a truly detestable practice which has no place in a civilised society. He, therefore, actively encouraged his companions to free people from slavery for, according to Islam, all human beings are born free, enjoying equal status and freedom before God, irrespective of their race, colour and gender. This revolutionary message spoke to Bilal in such a powerful way that even Umayyah’s relentless persecution and punishment failed to undermine his love for Islam.
Though Bilal was now a free man, he knew living as a Muslim in Makkah would not be easy. Since even the Prophet and his prominent companions like Abu Bakr and Umar were not spared by the powerful Makkan chiefs, he decided to keep a low profile during this testing and tumultuous period in early Islamic history. He stayed with the Prophet as much as he could to study and learn about Islam in order to strengthen his faith and conviction. So, when the Prophet eventually left his native Makkah for Madinah in 622, Bilal followed suit. The Prophet and his companions received a warm welcome from the people of Madinah and Bilal helped to construct the masjid al-nabi (or ‘the Prophet’s mosque’), which
