Abū Sa‘īd al-Khudrī  narrated that, as the Muslims were building the mosque in Madinah, ‘Ammār ibn Yāsir  would carry two bricks at a time while others lifted one. When the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم saw him, he began wiping the dust off ‘Ammār with his hands and said, “Woe to ‘Ammār, who will be killed by the transgressing party! He will be inviting them to Paradise, and they will be inviting him to the Fire.” To that, ‘Ammār replied, “We seek refuge with Allah from the trials.”297 Three decades after that prophecy, when the Battle of Ṣiffīn took place, ‘Ammār was killed by the army of Shām who transgressed against the Muslim ruler, ‘Alī, while seeking to avenge the murdered caliph, ‘Uthmān. Interestingly, the army of Shām did not claim that this hadith had been fabricated, but rather argued that those who called him to fight were the “transgressing party” ultimately responsible for his death.

This substantiates that forging hadith was unfathomable by the Companions, and thus, they did not question the authenticity of the prophecy and only differed on how to interpret it. Finally, moments before the Battle of Ṣiffīn, some milk was passed to ‘Ammār  which caused him to smile. He said, “The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم told me that the last thing I would drink before dying would be some milk.”298 Then he rose to meet the promise of his Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and fought until his death.