The martyrdom of Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him)

It is narrated from Umarah bin Khuzaymah bin Thabit that his father, Sayyiduna Khuzaymah bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him), was present at the Battle of the Camel but did not draw his sword. Then he took part in the Battle of Siffin and said: I will never go astray until Ammar is killed; then I will see who kills him, for I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "A rebellious group will kill you." So when Sayyiduna Ammar was martyred, Sayyiduna Khuzaymah said: Now (the truth) has become clear to me. Then he advanced and fought until he was martyred. The one who killed Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) was Abu Ghadiyah al-Muzani, who struck him with a spear and he fell; on that day he was fighting at the age of ninety-four. When he fell to the ground, another man rushed at him and severed his blessed head. Then the two of them came quarrelling, each claiming: I killed him. Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "By Allah! These two are quarrelling over nothing but the Fire." Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) heard this, and when the two men had left, he said to Amr bin al-As: "I have never seen the like of what you did! A people sacrificed their lives for us, and you tell them that they are quarrelling over the Fire?" Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "By Allah! That is exactly how it is, and by Allah, you too know this. And I wish that I had died twenty years before this event."

Muhammad bin Umar said: Abdullah bin Ja'far narrated to me from Ibn Abi Awn that Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) advanced when he was ninety-one years old, and he was older by birth than the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Three men advanced towards him: Uqbah bin Amir al-Juhani, Umar bin al-Harith al-Khawlani and Sharik bin Salamah. They all reached him while Sayyiduna Ammar was saying: "By Allah! Even if you were to beat us until you drove us as far as the palm branches of Hajar, we would still know that we are upon the truth and you are upon falsehood." Then they all attacked him together and martyred him. Some people claim that it was Uqbah bin Amir who killed him, while it is also said that it was Umar bin al-Harith al-Khawlani who killed him.

Muhammad bin Umar said: What is agreed upon concerning Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) is that he was martyred alongside Sayyiduna Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) at Siffin in Safar of the year 37 AH, when he was ninety-three years old, and he was buried there at Siffin.

Rabi'ah bin Kulthum narrates from his father that he said: I was at Wasit al-Qasab in the house of Abd al-A'la bin Abdullah bin Amir when the doorkeeper said: This is Abu Ghadiyah al-Juhani asking permission to enter. Abd al-A'la said: Bring him in. When he entered, he was wearing short garments; he was a tall, lean man who did not look like the people of this Ummah. When he sat down he said: We used to count Ammar bin Yasir among the best of us. Then he said: By Allah! I was in the Mosque of Quba when suddenly he said something such that, had I found any helpers against him, I would have trampled him until I killed him. Then, on the day of Siffin, he (Ammar) came walking on foot at the head of the battalion, until, between the two ranks, a man was struck with a spear and fell, and the helmet slipped off him. I struck him, and behold, it was the head of Ammar bin Yasir. The narrator said: A freedman of ours said: I have not seen a man more manifestly misguided than him (Abu Ghadiyah).

Abu Bakr bin Muhammad bin Amr bin Hazm narrates from his father that when Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him) was martyred, Amr bin Hazm went to Amr bin al-As and said: Ammar has been killed, and I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "A rebellious group will kill him." On hearing this, Amr bin al-As got up in alarm and went until he reached Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him). Mu'awiyah asked: What is the matter with you? He said: Ammar bin Yasir has been killed. Mu'awiyah said: Ammar has been killed, so what? Amr said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "A rebellious group will kill him." At this Mu'awiyah said to him: Did we kill him? Rather, Ali and his companions killed him, who brought him (onto the battlefield) until they threw him among our spears (or he said: our swords).
This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim), but they did not record it with this wording.

It is narrated from Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami that he said: We were present at Siffin. Whenever we had a truce (ceasefire), these people could go into the camp of those, and those into the camp of these. I saw four men going along: Mu'awiyah bin Abi Sufyan, Abu al-A'war al-Sulami, Amr bin al-As and his son. I heard Abdullah bin Amr saying to his father Amr: We have killed this man, while the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said about him what he said (as a prophecy). He asked: Which man? He said: Ammar bin Yasir. Do you not remember the day when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was building the mosque? We were carrying one brick at a time, while Ammar was carrying two bricks at a time. When he passed by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You are carrying two bricks at a time while you are exhausted and drenched in sweat. Listen! A rebellious group will kill you, and you are of the people of Paradise." Then Amr went to Mu'awiyah and said: We have killed this man about whom the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said what he said! Mu'awiyah said: Be quiet! By Allah, you are always entangled in your own words. Did we kill him? Rather, Ali and his companions killed him, who brought him among us.