The Death of Umayyah ibn Khalaf: Bilal's Voice, Divine Justice

Dr. Yasir Qadhi narrates the death of Umayyah ibn Khalaf, the Qurashī slavemaster who tortured Bilāl ibn Abī Rabāḥ, and the extraordinary Divine justice in how it unfolded.

❧Umayyah's Cowardice and His Escape Attempt

Umayyah ibn Khalaf had been terrified of this battle from the beginning. The Prophet ﷺ had once told him directly: 'If I meet you outside Makkah, you will not live.' Deep down, Umayyah believed him. He had tried to bribe his way out of the army, had been shamed into going by his peers, and had spent the entire battle looking for a way to survive. When the Quraysh began to flee, he spotted his best friend from the days of jāhiliyyah: ʿAbdur Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf.

❧ʿAbdur Raḥmān and Umayyah: A Friendship from Jāhiliyyah

ʿAbdur Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf and Umayyah ibn Khalaf had been close businessmen in Makkah. Their friendship persisted even after ʿAbdur Raḥmān converted. The only tension: ʿAbdur Raḥmān had changed his name from ʿAbd ʿAmr to ʿAbdur Raḥmān. Umayyah refused to use the new name because the Quraysh rejected ar-Raḥmān: 'wa hum yakfurūna bi-r-Raḥmān'. As a compromise, he called him ʿAbd al-Ilāh, 'Servant of the God.' ʿAbdur Raḥmān agreed. So Umayyah always called him ʿAbd al-Ilāh.

Now on the battlefield, Umayyah grabbed ʿAbdur Raḥmān with two hands: 'O ʿAbd al-Ilāh, take me as a prisoner! I'll give you as many milking camels as you want!' (Milking camels were among the most valuable possessions.) He had his son with him. ʿAbdur Raḥmān is a businessman even on the battlefield, and it was a perfectly ḥalāl transaction. He threw aside the armor he was carrying and began leading Umayyah and his son as prisoners toward the Muslim camp.

❧Bilāl Intercepts

They had not yet reached safety. The battle was still ongoing, technically still on the field, in a gray zone regarding the rules of war (which had not yet been revealed for most specifics). And out of the crowd, Bilāl ibn Abī Rabāḥ saw them.

The same man who had stood on the burning sand and the hot pebbles and pressed a rock on his chest while Umayyah commanded: 'Aḥad, Aḥad.' The same voice that had called out Aḥadun Aḥad now called out:

'Umayyah ibn Khalaf, ra's al-kufr! Lā najautu in najā!', Umayyah ibn Khalaf! The head of kufr! Over my dead body if he escapes!

ʿAbdur Raḥmān began pleading: 'These are my prisoners, Bilāl! I have them in custody! Calm down!' But Bilāl raised his voice louder and louder until he attracted a group of Anṣār. He pointed: 'This is the man who did what he did to me. You all know what this man is.'

The Anṣār surrounded ʿAbdur Raḥmān and his two prisoners. ʿAbdur Raḥmān tried to shield Umayyah with his own body, he was not going to fight fellow Muslims, but he tried to block them. The Anṣār went underneath his arms, around him, through him. In the process, a sword caught ʿAbdur Raḥmān's foot. He carried that wound as long as he lived. Both Umayyah and his son were killed.

ʿAbdur Raḥmān would say for the rest of his life: 'May Allāh have mercy on Bilāl, not only did he stop me from getting the ransom, he also cost me the armor I had thrown away!' He lost everything he had gained that day because of Bilāl. He never stopped saying it with a kind of rueful affection.

❧The Body of Umayyah

When the battle was over and the Muslim army went to collect the bodies, they found Umayyah's body. He had died on a bed of pebbles, the same hot desert pebbles he would lay Bilāl on under the midday sun. Allāh had deposited him there.

When they tried to lift the body, the flesh began to decompose and fall apart, they could not pick it up. Every attempt, the same. They had to leave him where he lay. To cover a dead body they took those same desert pebbles and poured them over him, burying him in the very substance of Bilāl's torture. He was the only member of the Quraysh killed at Badr who did not receive a normal burial.

'Kamā tadīnu tudān', as you do unto others, it shall be done unto you. This is the Sunnat Allāh, the routine of Allāh in how He deals with His creation. The same voice that called Aḥadun Aḥad was the voice that ended Umayyah's life. And the same pebbles that burned Bilāl became Umayyah's grave.