“Indeed, ʿAmmār b. Yāsir has been filled (1) with faith from the soles of his feet up to the lobe of his ear.” (2)
Yahyā narrated to us; ʿAmr b. ʿAwn (3) narrated to us; Hushaym informed us, from al-ʿAwām b. Ḥawshab, from Salamah b. Kuhayl, from ʿAlqamah, who said: I came to the people of Syria and met Khālid b. al-Walīd. He told me, “There was some exchange between me and ʿAmmār b. Yāsir over a matter, so he lodged a complaint against me with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The Prophet said, ‘O Khālid! Do not harm ʿAmmār, for whoever hates ʿAmmār, Allah hates him, and whoever opposes ʿAmmār, Allah will oppose him.’” (4) After that I sought him out and removed whatever was in his heart.
He—may Allah be pleased with him—has many reports highlighting his virtues. He was killed at Ṣiffīn at the age of ninety-one (5); others say ninety-three or ninety-four. Abū al-Ghādiya stabbed him and he fell; then another man leapt upon him and severed his head. The two disputed before Muʿāwiyah over which of them had killed him. ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ said to them, “Away with you! By Allah, you are arguing over something that will land you both in the Fire.” Muʿāwiyah heard this and reproached him for letting them hear such words. ʿAmr replied, “By Allah, you know that is the truth, and I would have preferred to have died twenty years before this day.”
Al-Wāqidī (6) said: Ḥasan b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿUmārah related to me, from Abū Isḥāq, from ʿĀṣim, that ʿAlī led the funeral prayer over him without washing the body, and that he also prayed (along with him) over Hāshim b. ʿUtbah. ʿAmmār was placed nearest to ʿAlī, while Hāshim was set toward the qiblah. They say his grave is there.
He was dark-complexioned, tall, broad-shouldered, with hazel eyes and straight hair, and he never dyed his grey—may Allah be pleased with him.
Al-Rubayyiʿ bint Muʿawwidh (7) bint ʿAfrāʾ (8) embraced Islam early. She would accompany the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on his expeditions, treating the wounded and giving water to the injured and others, and she transmitted many hadiths.
During this same year, in the days of Ṣiffīn, a vast multitude were slain. It is said that forty-five thousand from the people of Syria were killed, and twenty-five thousand from the people of Iraq. Another report says that forty thousand Iraqis were killed—out of one hundred and twenty