Al-Bayhaqī (1) states: It seems that al-Bukhārī left the wording out because of what Muslim (2) transmitted through Abū Naḍrah, from Abū Saʿīd, who said: “Someone better than I informed me that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, while ʿAmmār was digging the trench, kept wiping the dust from his head and saying:
‘Alas, son of Sumayyah! A rebellious faction will kill you.’
Muslim likewise relates it (3) in the narration of Shuʿbah, from Abū Maslamah (4), from Abū Naḍrah, from Abū Saʿīd, who said: ‘Someone better than I—Abū Qatādah—told me that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir:
“Woe to you, son of Sumayyah; the rebellious faction will kill you.”’
Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (5) reports: Wahīb narrated to us from Dāʾūd ibn Abī Hind, from Abū Naḍrah, from Abū Saʿīd: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was digging the trench, the people used to carry one brick apiece, whereas ʿAmmār—still convalescing from an illness—would carry two bricks at a time. Abū Saʿīd added: ‘My companions told me that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would brush the dust from his head and say, “Woe to you, son of Sumayyah! The rebellious faction will kill you.”’
Al-Bayhaqī (6) comments: Thus Abū Saʿīd distinguished between what he personally heard and what he heard from his companions. He adds that the reference to the trench is probably a slip, or else the Prophet ﷺ said it to him both while building the mosque and while digging the trench. Allah knows best.
I say: Carrying bricks during the excavation of the trench is hardly plausible; it appears the narrator became confused—Allah knows best. This ḥadīth is among the signs of Prophethood, for Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him foretold that ʿAmmār would be killed by a rebellious faction, and indeed he was slain at the hands of the people of
= The narration is included, but the report that specifies this is not up to al-Bukhari’s standard. It was transmitted by al-Bazzār via the chain of Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind from Abū Naḍrah from Abū Saʿīd, who mentioned it in the context of building the mosque and interpreted it “labnah labnah” (brick by brick). He then said: “My companions told me, and I did not hear from the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) that he said: ‘O Ibn Sumayyah, the rebellious faction will kill you….’” This isnād meets Muslim’s criterion, and Abū Saʿīd specified who narrated it to him. Indeed, in Muslim and al-Nasa’ī, via Abū Salamah from Abū Naḍrah from Abū Saʿīd, we read: “Someone better than me—Abū Qatādah—narrated it to me,” and so on. Al-Bukhārī confined himself to the portion he heard directly from the Prophet (peace be upon him), excluding other transmitters; this attests to his precise understanding and thorough investigation of the hadith’s subtleties.» End of al-Ḥāfiẓ’s remark.
I said: This is among the strongest evidence that the Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar concurs that this phrase is not in al-Ṣaḥīḥ, so how could he record it in al-Fath? In fact, the editors took the main text (matn) from one source and the marginal notes from the manuscripts. In sum, what the author Ibn Kathīr stated is correct, and the phrase should be omitted from printed editions of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī. (Bishr).
(1) In al-Dalā’il (2/548).
(2) Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (71–2915), “Trials and Portents of the Hour,” chapter “The Hour will not occur until a man passes by another man’s grave and wishes he were in the deceased’s place.”
(3) This is the narration immediately following the previous one, numbered (72).
(4) In some editions: “from Abū Muslim,” which is a scribal error. The correct transmitter in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim—whose biography appears in Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (11/14)—is Saʿīd ibn Yazīd ibn Musaylimah al-Azdī al-Ṭāḥī al-Basrī.
(5) Musnad al-Ṭayālisī (2168).
(6) In Dalā’il al-Nubuwwah (2/549).