Imām Aḥmad said:
Wakīʿ related to us; Sufyān related, from Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, from Abū al-Bakhtarī, who said:
On the Day of Ṣiffīn ʿAmmār declared, “Bring me a drink of milk, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told me, ‘The last drink you will take from this world will be a drink of milk.’” So he drank it, then advanced and was killed (1).
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī likewise narrated to us, from Sufyān, from Ḥabīb, from Abū al-Bakhtarī, that ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir was offered a draught of milk, whereupon he laughed and said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ told me: The last beverage I shall drink before I die will be milk” (2).
Al-Bayhaqī transmitted—through ʿAmmār al-Duhnī, from Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, from Ibn Masʿūd—who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “When people fall into discord, the son of Sumayyah will be with the truth” (3).
It is well known that ʿAmmār fought in ʿAlī’s army at Ṣiffīn and that he was killed by Muʿāwiyah’s men from Syria. The one who actually struck him down was a man called Abū al-Ghādiyah, a person of humble stock; some maintain that he was a Companion. Abū ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (4) and others list him among the Companions. He is Abū al-Ghādiyah Muslim; some say he was Yasār ibn Azyhar al-Juhanī of Quḍāʿah, others that he was Muzanī, and still others that there were two men bearing the name (5). He first settled in Syria and later moved to Wāsiṭ. Aḥmad recorded one ḥadīth from him, and other scholars another. They state that he was the killer of ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, and he himself described the deed without any embarrassment. We shall give his biographical notice when discussing ʿAmmār’s death under Muʿāwiyah at the Battle of Ṣiffīn. Those who claimed he fought at Badr are mistaken.
Imām Aḥmad also said (6): Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us; al-ʿAwwām narrated to us; he said: Aswad ibn Masʿūd narrated to me, from Ḥanẓalah ibn Khuwailid al-ʿAnazī, who said:
While I was with Muʿāwiyah, two men came to him disputing over ʿAmmār’s head, each saying, “I killed him.” ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr said, “Let one of you willingly yield the claim to the other, for I heard the Prophet ﷺ say: ‘The rebellious party will kill him.’” Muʿāwiyah retorted, “Take your madman away from us, ʿAmr! And why are you with us at all?” He replied, “My father lodged a complaint against me with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he said, ‘Obey your father as long as he lives and do not disobey him.’ Therefore I stay with you, though I do not fight.”
Imām Aḥmad further said (7): Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us; al-Aʿmash narrated to us, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ziyād, from…