Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib said: It reached me that, when Abu Bakr asked Umayyah ibn Khalaf concerning Bilal, “Will you sell him?” he replied, “Yes, I will sell him in exchange for Nistas, a slave of Abu Bakr who possessed ten thousand dinars, male and female servants, and livestock. He was a polytheist. Abu Bakr had invited him to Islam on the condition that he would retain his wealth, but he refused, and Abu Bakr came to dislike him. Then, when Umayyah said to him, 194/b “I will sell him in exchange for your slave Nistas,” Abu Bakr seized the opportunity and purchased Bilal from him.”

The polytheists then said, “Abu Bakr did this for Bilal only because Bilal had previously done him a favor.” Thereupon Allah revealed:

“And no one has any favor due from him to be repaid (19), but only seeking the Countenance of his Lord, the Most High (20). And he will surely be well pleased (21).”

“And no one has any favor due from him to be repaid” (1): that is, no one has done him a favor for which he must recompense and repay him. “But only seeking the Countenance of his Lord, the Most High”: meaning, he does not do this in repayment for a favor someone has done him; rather, he does it seeking the Countenance of his Lord, the Most High, and desiring His pleasure. “And he will surely be well pleased”: with what Allah, Exalted is He, will grant him in the Hereafter of Paradise and honor, as a recompense for what he did.