Who Was Umayyah ibn Khalaf? Torturer of Bilal in Islamic History
Before the worldBefore Adam
The first nationsAdam to Ibrahim
Egypt and Bani Israilc. 1300–1000 BCE
Arabia before Islam523–570 CE
Enemies of the Prophet ﷺ610–632 CE
After the Prophet ﷺ632–1260 CE
The end of timeStill to come
Ten signs before the Hour
Isa ibn Maryam descends
A landslide in the east
A landslide in the west
A landslide in Arabia
The smoke
The sun rises from the west
The Beast of the earth
A fire from Yemen drives people to their gathering
Sahih Muslim lists ten major signs before the Hour without fixing their order. This follows a common order given by the scholars. Sahih Muslim 2901a ↗
Villains of history14 / 26
أمية بن خلف
Umayyah ibn Khalaf
Torturer of Bilal613–624 CE
Relied onOwning another man
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Undone byThat man's cry on the battlefield
He laid his slave Bilal on burning sand under a heavy rock to make him renounce Islam. Bilal only answered: 'One. One.'
How it ended
Killed at Badr, after Bilal recognised him on the battlefield.
The lessonBilal, the slave he tortured, lived to call the adhan from the roof of the Kaaba.
Stood against
Bilal ibn Rabah
Source
Authentic hadithSahih al-Bukhari; the torture of Bilal is from Ibn Ishaq.Sahih al-Bukhari 2301 ↗
Every villain in Islamic history, from Iblis to the Dajjal
Each entry is drawn from the Quran, authentic hadith (with links to sunnah.com), the classical commentators and the historians. Companions who fought Islam and later became Muslim are not included, nor are figures Muslims disagree about.
