The killing of Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) at Siffin, and the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "The rebellious group will kill Ammar"

It is narrated from Ibn Abi al-Hudhayl (may Allah have mercy on him) that Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him) was a very strong and hardy man; he used to carry stones two at a time (during the construction of the mosque). When news of this reached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) met him and struck his chest with his blessed hand (out of affection); then he (peace and blessings be upon him) began shaking the dust from his head, saying: "Alas, O son of Sumayyah! A rebellious group will kill you."
Imam al-Harith narrated the like of it from Abd al-Warith through Abbas bin al-Fadl.
And Imam Abu Ya'la mentioned it from Abd al-Warith through Ja'far bin Mihran within a longer hadith.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A rebellious and transgressing group will kill you."
The chain of this hadith is sahih (authentic); Imam al-Harith bin Abi Usamah recorded it in his Musnad, and hadith on this theme are also found with tawatur (mass transmission) in Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim and other books of hadith.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said to Sayyiduna Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him): "The trial (fitnah) has certainly come about, so tell me a saying that you yourself heard from the blessed tongue of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)." At this Sayyiduna Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say concerning Ibn Sumayyah (meaning Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir, may Allah be pleased with him): "Alas for Ibn Sumayyah! A rebellious and transgressing group will martyr him."
The chain of this hadith is jayyid (good), and Imam Abu Ya'la recorded it in his Musnad.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A rebellious group will kill Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him)."
In the chain of this hadith, Layth bin Abi Sulaym is da'if (weak) due to the weakness of his memory; however, this report is definitively sahih (authentic) on account of its supporting narrations and other sahih and reliable chains, and it enjoys general acceptance among the hadith scholars.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that two men came to Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him), disputing with each other about the killing of Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him) and the entitlement to his war gear (salab). Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) said (expressing his disgust with them): "Both of you withdraw from this matter and leave it, for I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: 'Quraysh have become set against Ammar (that is, they go to extremes in their hostility to him); the killer of Ammar and the one who strips him of his belongings are in the Fire of Hell.'"
The chain of this hadith is sahih (authentic), and Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal recorded it in his Musnad.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin al-Harith (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: On the return from the Battle of Siffin I was riding with Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him), between him and Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him), when Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) said (addressing his father): "O my father! Did you not hear the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: 'Alas, O son of Sumayyah (Ammar)! A rebellious group will kill you'?"
Musnad Ahmad: 6499; the chain of this hadith is sahih (authentic).

It is narrated from Hanzalah bin Khuwaylid (may Allah have mercy on him) that he said: I was sitting in the gathering of Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) when suddenly two men came, quarrelling about the head of Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) (about obtaining it or about having killed him), and each of them was claiming: "I killed him." Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: "One of you should willingly leave it (the responsibility for the killing) to his companion (that is, withdraw from it), for I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: 'A rebellious group will kill Ammar.'" Hearing this, Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) said (to Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As, may Allah be pleased with him): "O Amr! Will you not keep this madman of yours away from us? If this is his view, then what is he doing here with us?" He (Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr) replied: "Indeed, I am with you, but I am not fighting. The reason is that my father complained about me to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: 'Obey your father as long as he is alive, and do not disobey him.' That is why I am with you but do not take part in the fighting."
The chain of this hadith is sahih (authentic), and Allamah Shu'ayb al-Arna'ut declared it sahih (authentic) in his takhrij of 'Musnad Ahmad'.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that he said: "Know well! I certainly did not thrust with a spear, nor strike with a sword, nor shoot any arrow (during the battle)." He was asked: "Why did you do so?" He replied: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: 'Obey your father,' so I obeyed him (my father) (and at his command I was present on the battlefield but took no part in the fighting)."
Takhrij: This report is narrated in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal; one narrator in its chain is unnamed (mubham), but other sahih hadith support obedience to parents and avoiding fighting in times of trial.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu al-Ghadiyah al-Juhani (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: On the day of the Battle of Siffin I charged at Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him); I pushed him and threw him down from his horse, but a man from the people of Syria reached him before me and cut off his head. Then the two of us went to Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) to have a judgement made about the head, and placed it before him; both of us were claiming to have killed him and both were seeking the reward for it. At that time Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with them both) was also present there, and Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say concerning Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him): "A rebellious group will kill you; give the killer of Ammar the tidings of the Fire of Hell." Hearing this I withdrew my hand and said: I did not kill him; and my companion also held back his hand and said: I did not kill him. When Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) saw this, he turned to Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) and asked: What prompted you to say this? He replied: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say something, so I liked to say it too (on this occasion).
Imam Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili recorded this hadith in his Musnad; although its chain contains Yusuf bin Atiyyah, a da'if (weak) narrator, the core meaning of the hadith (that a rebellious group would kill Ammar) is established, on the basis of other supporting evidence, by sahih and mutawatir hadith.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that when the day of Siffin (came to an end) and the people began to go back, Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "A transgressing group will kill Ammar." Hearing this, Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) said to Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) (in astonishment): Have you not paid attention to what your nephew is saying? Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "I commend you to Allah's protection from falling into doubt." Are you really in some doubt? Did we kill him? He was only killed by those who brought him (with them onto the battlefield).
The chain of this hadith is sahih (authentic) and all its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy), while this report about Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) is narrated from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) through mutawatir chains.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin al-Harith bin Nawfal (may Allah be pleased with him) that he related: I was returning from Siffin with Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him). Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah and Abu al-A'war al-Sulami were riding on one side, while Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As and his son (Abdullah) were riding on the other side. I was right between them, and there was no one there besides me; sometimes I would speed up my mount and draw near to these, and sometimes I would reach those. I heard Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) say to his father: "O my father! Did you not hear the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say to Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) when he was building the mosque: 'You are indeed very eager for reward'?" He said: "Yes (may Allah be pleased with him)." And he (peace and blessings be upon him) had (further) said: "You are certainly among the people of Paradise, and a rebellious group will kill you." He replied: "Yes, I heard this saying." Abdullah asked: "Then why did you people kill him?" The narrator says: At this he (Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As) turned to Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) and said: "O Abu Abd al-Rahman! Do you hear what this one (my son) is saying?" So he repeated that statement. Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Woe to you! You keep stumbling in your speech. Did we kill him? He was only killed by those who brought him (with them to the war)."
The chain of this hadith is sahih (authentic), and Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal recorded it in his Musnad (6929).

It is narrated from Abu al-Bakhtari that on the day of Siffin, when the heat grew very intense, Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him) said (due to the severity of his thirst): "Bring me something to drink." Then he said: "Indeed, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: 'The last drink you will drink in this world will be a draught of milk.'" After that he advanced (onto the battlefield) and was martyred.
Imam Abu Bakr bin Abi Shaybah recorded it, and Imam Abu Ya'la also narrated the like of it through his own chain via Sufyan.

It is narrated from Zayd bin Wahb (may Allah have mercy on him) that Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him) used to be at odds with Quraysh and Quraysh with him. Then one morning some people of Quraysh attacked him and beat him, whereupon Sayyiduna Uthman bin Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) came out in a state of extreme anger, ascended the pulpit and praised and glorified Allah, the Lord of Might, and then said: "O people! What is the matter between me and Quraysh? May Allah Almighty do such and such to Quraysh (that is, call them severely to account for this act of theirs). They attacked a man early in the morning and beat him, whereas I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say concerning Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him): 'A rebellious group will kill you.'"
Imam Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili recorded this hadith in his Musnad, and all the narrators of its chain are thiqat (trustworthy) and reliable, while this saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) concerning Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him) is also established through other sahih chains and is well known in the books of hadith.

It is narrated from Maysarah and Abu al-Bakhtari (may Allah have mercy on them both) that on the day of Siffin Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him) kept on fighting but was not being martyred. So he would come again and again to Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) and say: "O Commander of the Believers! Is today not that (day of martyrdom)?" Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) would reply: "Go back (to the battlefield)." He did this several times. Then milk was presented to him and he drank it, whereupon Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "This is certainly the last drink I am drinking in this world." After that he advanced and fought fiercely until he was martyred, may Allah be pleased with him.
The chain of this hadith is hasan (good); Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal recorded it in his Musnad (18833) and Imam al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak (5664), and al-Hakim declared it sahih (authentic) on the condition of the two Shaykhs.

It is narrated from the daughter of Hisham bin al-Walid bin al-Mughirah, who was nursing Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him), that she related: Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) came to visit Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) in his illness. Then, when he took leave of him, he implored: "O Allah, do not decree his death at our hands (through our group)," for I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "A rebellious group will kill Ammar."
There is weakness in the chain of this report because one narrator (a shaykh) is unnamed (mubham); however, the prophecy that a rebellious group would kill Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) is established by other sahih and mutawatir narrations.

Umar bin Shu'ayb narrates from his father, from his grandfather, that Umm Abdullah bint Munabbih bin al-Hajjaj used to treat the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) with great kindness, courtesy and good conduct. One day he (peace and blessings be upon him) came to her and asked: "O Umm Abdullah! How are you?" She said: I am well, O Messenger of Allah! May my father and mother be ransomed for you, how are you? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I too am well and in good health." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "And how is Abdullah?" She said: He too is well, but Abdullah is a man who has (completely) abandoned the world. So on the day of Siffin his father (Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As, may Allah be pleased with him) said to him: Go out and fight. Abdullah said: O my father! How can you order me to fight when you have heard what (sayings about trials) there were in the blessed era of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)? Sayyiduna Amr said: I ask you by Allah, do you not know that in the last period of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) it happened that he (peace and blessings be upon him) took your hand, placed it in my hand and said: "Obey Amr bin al-As"? He replied: Yes! So Sayyiduna Amr said: (Then) I order you to fight. So he went out and took part in the battle. Then, when the flames of war blazed up, Sayyiduna Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) composed these verses:
The fire of war has flared up, so I have readied for it a horse with high withers and a strong back, which joins speed to yet more speed, and when the horses begin to pant from much running, it lengthens its stride; it is tall and broad of flank, and when it leaps out of the water it seems (in speed and strength) like a camel litter. And Sayyiduna Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) also said:
Had (my wife) Juml seen my standing and the scene of battle at Siffin, the locks of her hair would have turned white that day (from terror); that evening when the people of Iraq came as though they were spring clouds raised by the southern winds, and we came upon them in such a state, falling (upon the enemy), as though our swords were the waves of the sea mounting one upon another; whenever I thought they had turned their backs and fled swiftly, new troops of theirs would appear before us and squadrons would stand firm; so through the best part of the day our mill of war and theirs kept turning, and no one's shoulders turned (from the field); they said to us: In our view you should pledge allegiance to Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), and we replied: Rather, our view is that we should strike one another (with swords).
Imam al-Harith recorded this report in his Musnad; its chain contains Abd al-Malik bin Qudamah, who is da'if (weak); however, this story of Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both), that he took part in the battle and fought because of the command of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), is also mentioned in other reliable sources.

It is narrated from a man of Banu Sa'd that he said: At the Battle of Siffin I was standing beside al-Ahnaf bin Qays (may Allah have mercy on him), and al-Ahnaf was beside Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him). Then I heard Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) say: "My intimate friend (the Prophet) (peace and blessings be upon him) took a covenant with me that my last provision in this world would be a cup of milk mixed with water." The narrator relates: While we were in this state, dust suddenly rose up and people cried out that the army of the people of Syria had arrived, and the water-carriers stood up to give the people water. Meanwhile a girl came with a cup of milk; she handed the cup to Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) and he drank it. Then Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) gave the rest of his milk to al-Ahnaf bin Qays (may Allah have mercy on him), and al-Ahnaf then handed it to me. Then I said: "If your companion (Sayyiduna Ammar, may Allah be pleased with him) is truthful, then the time of his martyrdom has now drawn near." The narrator says: Then the enemy overwhelmed us and Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) advanced, and at that time I heard him say these words: "Paradise is beneath the spearheads; today I shall meet my loved ones, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and his party." That was our last time and meeting with him.
The chain of this report contains Ali bin Zayd bin Jud'an, who is da'if (weak), and also an unknown (unnamed) narrator; however, the mention of Sayyiduna Ammar's (may Allah be pleased with him) martyrdom and his drinking milk at the last moment is also found in other reliable sources and books of sirah, which support this incident.