Bilel — Bilāl — the Tunisian spelling of the Prophet's first muezzin.

Bilel is the Tunisian and Maghrebi French-influenced spelling of بلال (Bilāl). The name belongs first to Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ al-Ḥabashī, the freed Ethiopian slave who became the first muezzin of Islam. Tortured in Mecca for refusing to renounce his faith — laid out under a stone in the desert sun by his owner Umayya ibn Khalaf, repeating aḥad, aḥad ('one, one') — he was bought and freed by Abū Bakr. The Prophet ﷺ chose him to call the first adhān at the Prophet's Mosque in Madīna, despite the lisp that some of the Quraysh mocked.

Bilāl's elevation in the early Muslim community — a freed Black slave entrusted with the most public office of the new religion — is one of the foundational stories of Islamic equality. The name has been borne ever since across the entire Muslim world, with regional variants Bilal (Mashriq, South Asia), Bilel (Maghreb, French phonology), Bilali (East Africa). Notable Tunisian bearers include the footballer Bilel Mejri and the actor Bilel Briki.

The name opens with Bāʾ (ب), the house, travels through Lām (ل), the staff that climbs, and closes through Lām again. A bearer of Bilel is named into the prophetic-era story of dignity under pressure: the first voice to call the world to prayer.