His father, Hisl, had once shed blood within his own clan, so he fled to Madinah and entered into alliance with the Banū ʿAbd al-Ashhal. Because of this pact with the Yemenite folk—namely the Anṣār—his people began to call him “al-Yamān.”¹
He and his son Hudhayfah were present at the Battle of Uḥud. There al-Yamān was martyred when some of the Companions, not recognizing him, killed him by mistake. In the confusion of battle the fighters were concealed by their armor and kept their faces covered; without a clear identifying mark, a man might unwittingly kill even his own brother.
When they charged al-Yamān that day, Hudhayfah kept crying out, “My father! My father! O people!” Yet the blow was struck in error. Hudhayfah later donated his father’s blood-money to those who had killed him, treating it as charity.²
Al-Wāqidī said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ established a bond of brotherhood between Hudhayfah and ʿAmmār.” Ibn Isḥāq reported the same.
Isrāʾīl narrates—from Abū Isḥāq,³ from a man, from Hudhayfah—that he came
(1) Al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, vol. 3, p. 380; Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba, vol. 2, p. 223; and al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, vol. 2, p. 152 (by the author).
(2) Related by al-Bukhari 7/297 and Ibn Saad 2/45, both through the chain of Abu Usama Hammad ibn Usama, from Hisham ibn Urwa, from his father, from Aisha, who said: “On the day of Uhud, when the idolaters were routed, Satan—may Allah’s curse be upon him—shouted, ‘Servants of Allah, your rear!’ The foremost ranks turned back and clashed with the rearguard. Hudhayfa noticed that his father al-Yaman was among them and cried, ‘Servants of Allah, my father, my father!’ She continued: ‘By Allah, they did not refrain until they had killed him.’ Hudhayfa then said, ‘May Allah forgive you.’ Urwa added: ‘By Allah, Hudhayfa remained possessed of goodness until he met Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.’
In the version of Ibn Ishaq, recorded in Ibn Hisham’s Sirah 2/87–88 through Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada, from Mahmud ibn Labid, Hudhayfa said, ‘You have killed my father!’ They replied, ‘By Allah, we did not recognize him’—and they spoke the truth. Hudhayfa said, ‘May Allah forgive you.’ The Messenger of Allah intended to pay the blood money, but Hudhayfa donated it to the Muslims, which only increased his standing with the Messenger of Allah.
(3) In the printed edition the word has been corrupted to “ibn.”