and Qays ibn ʿUbādah, Abū Juḥayfah Wahb ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Suwayʿī, Yazīd ibn Sharīk, Abū Ḥassān al-Aʿraj, and others: each of them said, “I asked ʿAlī, ‘Is there anything the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entrusted to you that he did not entrust to the rest of the people?’ He replied, ‘No, by Him who splits the seed and creates life—nothing except an understanding that Allah grants a servant regarding the Quran, and what is written on this parchment.’ I asked, ‘And what is on this parchment?’ It contained: the regulations of blood-money, the emancipation of captives, that a Muslim is not executed in retaliation for a disbeliever, and that Madinah is a sanctuary between ʿAyr and Thawr.
It is likewise recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (1) in the narration of al-Aʿmash, from Abū Wāʾil, from Sufyān ibn Muslim, from Sahl ibn Ḥanīf, that on the Day of Ṣiffīn he said:
“O people, be suspicious of your own opinions when it comes to religion. I remember myself on the Day of Abū Jandal: had I been able, I would have rejected the directive of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. By Allah, since the day we embraced Islam we have never slung our swords over our shoulders for any cause that pulled us forward without leading us to something we recognized—except for this affair of ours. In it we close one breach only for another to open, and we do not know how to handle it.”
Ahmad (2) said: “Wakīʿ narrated to us; Sufyān narrated to us, from Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, from Abū al-Bakhtarī, who said: ʿAmmār stood on the Day of Ṣiffīn and said, ‘Bring me a drink of milk, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The last drink you will take in this world will be a drink of milk.”’ ”
Imam Ahmad (3) also said: “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us; Sufyān narrated to us, from Ḥabīb, from Abū al-Bakhtarī, that ʿAmmār was brought a drink of milk, whereupon he laughed and said, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ told me: “Your last drink (milk) when (4) you die will be milk.”’ ”
Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Dīzayl said: “Yaḥyā narrated to us; Naṣr (5) narrated to us; ʿAmr ibn Shimr narrated to us, from Jābir al-Juʿfī, who said: I heard al-Shaʿbī from al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays: ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir then charged the enemy. Ibn Ḥawwāʾ al-Saksakī and Abū al-Ghādiya al-Fazārī charged at him: Abū al-Ghādiya stabbed him, and Ibn Ḥawwāʾ severed his head.”
Dhu al-Kalāʿ had heard ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ saying that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, “The rebellious faction will kill you, and the last thing you will drink will be a sāʿ of milk.” Consequently Dhu al-Kalāʿ would say to ʿAmr, “Woe to you (6)! What is this, O ʿAmr?” and ʿAmr would reply, “He will come back to our side.”
When ʿAmmār was killed—after Dhu al-Kalāʿ had already fallen—ʿAmr said to Muʿāwiyah, “I do not know at whose death I am more pleased: that of ʿAmmār or that of Dhu al-Kalāʿ. By Allah, had Dhu al-Kalāʿ lived on after ʿAmmār’s death, most of the people of Syria would have inclined [toward ʿAlī] and would have spoiled our army.”
He added: “Men kept coming, one after another, to Muʿāwiyah and ʿAmr declaring, ‘I am the one who killed…’