of Allah ﷺ said: “Paradise has yearned for three men: ʿAli, ʿAmmār, and Bilāl.” (1)
Abū Rabīʿah ʿUmar ibn Rabīʿah al-Iyādī is weak.
Ḥusām ibn Miṣakk (2) narrated—from Qatādah, from al-Qāsim ibn Rabīʿah, from Zayd ibn Arqam in a marfūʿ report: “How excellent a man Bilāl is! He will be the leader of the callers to prayer on the Day of Resurrection, and the mu’adhdhins will have the longest necks of all people on that Day.” (3)
It also has other routes, all of them weak.
It is further related with a feeble chain in the mursal reports of Kathīr ibn Murrah: “Bilāl will be brought a she-camel from the camels of Paradise, and he will mount it.” (4)
Ibn al-Mubārak narrated—from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir (5): The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The chiefs of the black people are Luqmān, the Negus, Bilāl, and Mihjaʿ.” (6)
(1) Reported by al-Tirmidhi (3798), Book of Merits, chapter on the merits of Salman. He commented: “This is a hasan gharib hadith; we only know it through the narration of al-Hasan ibn Salih.” Al-Hakim (3/137) declared it sahih and al-Dhahabi agreed.
In both of their versions the name “Salman” appears instead of “Bilal”. Abu Nuaym also transmits it in Hilyat al-Awliya 1/190, adding a fourth person, al-Miqdad.
Al-Haythami cites it in Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid 9/344, stating: “Al-Tabarani related it, and its transmitters are those used by the two Sahihs, apart from Abu Rabiʿa al-Ayyadi.”
Al-Tirmidhi considered Abu Rabiʿa’s narrations acceptable. See likewise Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid 9/307.
(2) Husam ibn Misak: al-Hafiz writes in al-Taqrib that he is weak and almost to be abandoned. In the printed edition his surname “Misak” was misread as “Muʿayk”.
(3) The chain is weak because of Husam ibn Misak’s unreliability. Abu Nuaym also records it in Hilyat al-Awliya 1/147. Al-Hakim (3/285) graded it sahih but noted that Husam is the sole narrator of the report. The compiler of Kanz (33164) attributes it to Ibn ʿAdi and al-Tabarani.
Nonetheless, the wording “The muadhdhinun will have the longest necks on the Day of Resurrection” is authentic, supported by Muslim (387) in the Book of Prayer, chapter on the merit of the adhan, from the hadith of Muʿawiya.
(4) In the printed text the word has been corrupted to “tawala”.
(5) In the printed text the name was corrupted to “Zayd”; the correct form is ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Yazid ibn Jabir al-Azdi, al-Darani.
(6) The isnad is weak because it is mursal. Al-Hakim (3/284) transmits it through another line from Wathila ibn al-Asqaʿ with the wording: “The best of the blacks are three: Luqman, Bilal and Mihjaʿ, the freedman of the Messenger of Allah.” Mihjaʿ is not listed among the Prophet’s freedmen and was not Ethiopian; he was an Arab from ʿAk who was captured, then ransomed and manumitted by ʿUmar. See al-Isaba 9/297.