Ammar bin Yasir’s speech in the Battle of Siffeen and Objection on
Amr e Aas

It is interesting to know that Ammar e Yasir, the commander of Amir al-Momineen’s army, not only guided the Iraqi Army with his speeches, but with the best of his ability, he also addressed all the Syrian people and the likes of Amr e Aas to warn them of their shameful fate.

          Ibn e Abil Hadid narrates from Nasr bin Muzahim Al Munqary:

‘In the battle of Siffeen, Ammar stood up and said: O Servants of Allah! Rise with me to fight against a group of people who wish to avenge the blood of an oppressor who oppressed himself as well. Indeed, he is murdered by such noble people who used to stop him from oppression and cruelty, and commanded him to perform good deeds. They are such that if their world remains secure, they will not care for the loss of their religion.

          They have objected on us saying: Why did you kill him?

          We said: For the Bid’ats (changes) that he brought in the religion.

          They said: He did not bring about any Bid’at.

They said this because he had let them stretch their hands in this world, in such a manner that they kept on eating and grazing and didn’t care even if the mountains departed from each other.

          By God! I don’t think that they are here to avenge any blood, but this nation has tasted the pleasure of ruling the world and they found it’s taste to be sweet, and they are well aware that if the right person rules over them, he will create a hindrance between them and their food and graze; and as this nation does not have a background in Islam which could make them deserving for the rule, they have deceived their followers and their last excuse was to claim that their leader was killed unjustly, so that they can become powerful rulers in this manner. And this is the deceit with which they have reached the present stage. And if it wasn’t for this deceit, not even a single individual would have made allegiance with them.

          Then Ammar moved while his companions were with him, and when he neared Amr e Aas, he said: O Amr! Did you sell your religion in exchange with Egypt’s rule? May miseries and despairs be your share as you have wished worse for Islam from a long time.

          Thereafter, Ammar said: O God! You know it better that if I understand that you will be pleased if I may jump in this sea, I will jump.

          My Lord! You are well aware that if I understand that you will be satisfied if I place a sword’s head on my stomach and insert it until it comes out from my back, I will do it.

          O Lord! I know, as per your own teachings, that there is no deed today that can be considered better than doing Jihad against this corrupt group, and if I understand that some other deed will satisfy you, I will perform it instead.

          Nasr says: Amr bin Sa’eed narrates for me from Sha’bi who said:

Ammar bin Yasir called Abdullah bin Amr e Aas and said: You sold your religion for this world; that too because of the demand of the enemy of Allah and Islam (Mu’awiyah), and chose the desire and lust of your criminal father over it.

          He said: It is not such, as I am here to avenge the blood of the innocent martyr, Othman.

          Ammar said: It is surely not such. As per the knowledge and information I possess regarding you, I bear witness that you do not intend the satisfaction of Allah by any of your deeds, and understand that if you don’t get killed today, you will die tomorrow, and witness that moment when Allah will give reward to His servants based on their intentions; what is your intention?[1]

          As we are about to mention, some of the Sunni clerics like Suyooti, has clarified in his book that the Prophetic prophesies regarding the martyrdom of Ammar e Yasir, are one amongst the continual narrations (Hadith e Mutawatir). It means that the narrators of these prophesies are in such great numbers that it is impossible to imagine that they would have faked this narration by gathering at one point and telling a lie.

It will be even more interesting to know that these narrations are narrated by Amr e Aas and Mu’awiyah as well!! Even though they narrated these narrations themselves, they did not pay heed to them and acted against them!

As their behaviour contradicted the sayings of the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.), with respect to their awareness regarding this narration, it clearly proves that they opposed the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) in the issue of caliphate and succession.