Ibn ʿAwn said, “When the civil strife during Ibn al-Ashʿath’s revolt broke out, Muslim rushed into it, whereas al-Hasan held back; consequently al-Hasan’s standing rose while Muslim’s fell.”

I say: The true reckoning is in the Hereafter—both of them may yet be raised together.

Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani related that it was said to Ibn al-Ashʿath, “If you want men to be slain around you as they were around ʿĀʾishah’s camel on the Day of the Camel, then take Muslim ibn Yasar with you.” So he compelled him to accompany him (1).

Ayyub, reporting from Abu Qilabah, said that Muslim ibn Yasar told me, “I praise Allah before you that I was neither struck by an arrow nor did I wield a sword in it (2).” I said to him, “What of the one who saw you standing between the two battle-lines?” He replied, “Will he then say, ‘This is Muslim ibn Yasar—he would only fight for a just cause—so he fought until he was killed’?” Thereupon, by Allah, he wept until I wished the earth would split open and swallow me (3).

Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani also said, “Of the Qur’an reciters who went out with Ibn al-Ashʿath, I know of none who was killed without people’s disapproval of the place where he fell, and none who survived without regretting what he had done” (4).

Sufyan ibn ʿUyaynah said: When Muslim ibn Yasar died, al-Hasan al-Basri exclaimed, “Alas, what a teacher we have lost!” (5)

I say: Muslim—may Allah have mercy on him—has an extensive biography in al-Hafiz Ibn ʿAsakir’s History (6).