Abu Hafs and Kulthum ibn Jubayr informed us, from Abu Ghadiyah, who said: “I heard Ammar ibn Yasir speaking ill of Uthman and insulting him in Medina. So I threatened to kill him, saying, ‘By Allah, if Allah gives me the opportunity against you, I shall certainly do it.’ Then, on the day of Siffin, Ammar began charging against the people. It was said, ‘This is Ammar.’ I saw a vulnerable opening between his torso and his legs, so I charged at him and stabbed him in the knee. He fell, and I killed him. It was said, ‘You have killed Ammar ibn Yasir!’ Amr ibn al-As was informed, and he said: ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say’”—and he mentioned the foregoing hadith. Amr ibn al-As was then asked, ‘Here you are, fighting him!’ He replied, ‘He only said: his killer and the one who despoils him.’”

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among Muslim’s narrators. Abu Ghadiyah was al-Juhani, and he was a Companion, as a number of scholars have established. After citing this hadith and stating definitively that Ibn Ma‘in held Abu Ghadiyah to be Ammar’s killer, al-Hafiz said at the end of his biographical entry in al-Isabah: “The presumption concerning the Companions in those wars is that they acted upon interpretive judgment; and an erring independent jurist receives a reward. If this is established with regard to ordinary people, then it applies to the Companions all the more.”

I say: This is true, but applying it to every individual among them is problematic, since it entails contradicting the principle just mentioned by means of a hadith such as the one under discussion. For it cannot be said that Abu Ghadiyah, Ammar’s killer, was rewarded because he killed him on the basis of independent judgment, while the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Ammar’s killer is in the Fire!” The correct view is that the principle is valid except where decisive evidence indicates otherwise; such cases are excluded from it, as is the case here. This is better than dismissing an authentic hadith on its basis. And Allah knows best.

Among the strange things concerning this Abu Ghadiyah is what Abdullah ibn Ahmad narrated in Zawa’id al-Musnad (4/76), from Ibn Awn, from Kulthum ibn Jabr, who said: “We were at Wasit al-Qasab with Abd al-A‘la ibn Abdullah ibn Amir. There was a man with him called Abu Ghadiyah. He asked for water, and a silver-plated vessel was brought to him, but he refused to drink from it. He then mentioned the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and narrated this hadith: ‘Do not revert after me to being disbelievers—or astray,’ Ibn Abi Adi was uncertain, ‘striking