Bilal ibn Rabah

Bilal ibn Rabah was born in Mecca on 5 March 580, into slavery. His life turned when he became a close companion of Muhammad, who saw past his bondage to something rare: a voice deep and clear enough to carry the new faith's summons. Muhammad personally chose him as Islam's first muʾazzin, the caller to prayer, a position that placed a formerly enslaved man at the ritual center of the community. He is often regarded as the first African or Black Muslim, a fact that carried its own weight in seventh-century Arabia. He died on 2 March 640, sixty years almost to the day from his birth, his voice…