Huzoor (rh): After him.
Questioner: Assalamu alaikum.Huzoor, we the Ahmadis, we claim that Hazrat Bilal r.a. was a son of Nigeria and he was taken from Nigeria and eventually reached Mecca.
Huzoor (rh): What a big compliment to Nigeria.
Questioner: What evidence there is or what are the grounds on which we base our claim?
Huzoor (rh): You tell us. Because it’s the first time I’ve heard of it. (laughter) You know in Punjabi they say, “whoever first speaks, it lies on him to go and open the door”. You know when somebody knocks, it’s a winter night and the houses are not well provided for in our country, they’re not heated. So this is a typical Punjabi “muhawara” in that economic set up. They say in the winter, when they hear a knock, everybody keeps quiet because you know whoever says who it is, he would have to go and open the door. So you have told me so you open the door and let us know what authority you have for this.
Questioner: I don’t know sir, I’ve just read it. This is our claim.
Huzoor (rh): That is the authority. Where have you read?
Questioner: I think Hazrat Khalifatul Masih III, in one of his speeches, he said that…
Huzoor (rh) I doubt it, I’ve never heard of it. Are you sure? Anybody else who might have heard this? You must have confused somebody else’s writing with that, I think. Anyway we have a friend from Nigeria, Mr. Hamid Zafar, he’s a missionary there. Did you ever hear this said in Nigeria, that Hazrat Bilal originally belonged to Nigeria? Never? It’s news to him.
Questioner: I’ll look into it.
Huzoor (rh): Oh, thank you, do it
(inaudible)
Huzoor (rh): Maybe yes. But I have heard Bilal-e-Habashi. If Habesha is not a general term applied here to all the coloured ones, then it means he did not belong to Nigeria, but to Abyssinia, see? This is a common phrase, Bilal-e-Habashi. That means perhaps, if anything, he belongs to Abyssinia, rather than Nigeria or any other country.
