4 of 5 · 2-8 AH / 624-630 CE · Madinah and Makkah · Badr, Madinah and the Ka'bah
Bilal ibn Rabah رضي الله عنه
Footsteps in Paradise
At Badr, Bilal saw Umayyah ibn Khalaf, the man who had tortured him, among the captives. The Muslims killed Umayyah in the fighting that followed. Bilal had said he would not live if Umayyah lived (Sahih al-Bukhari 2301).
One morning the Prophet ﷺ asked Bilal what deed of his in Islam he hoped would be rewarded, because he had heard the sound of his sandals in Paradise before him. Bilal said that he had done nothing greater than this: whenever he made wudu, at any time of night or day, he prayed with that purity as much as was written for him (Sahih al-Bukhari 1149; Sahih Muslim 2458).
When the Prophet ﷺ entered Makkah in the year of the conquest, he went into the Ka'bah with Bilal, Usamah ibn Zayd and 'Uthman ibn Talhah, and prayed inside (Sahih al-Bukhari 397). Bilal gave the adhan that day, and the sources say he did so from the roof of the Ka'bah.
A small regular deed done with sincerity can raise a person to a station that no one anticipates.
What is the quiet habit you keep that only Allah sees?
- Sahih al-Bukhari 1149 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih Muslim 2458 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih al-Bukhari 397 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih al-Bukhari 2301 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-NabawiyyahHistorical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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