Ammar ibn Yasir Builds the Masjid: The Prophecy of the Fi'ah al-Baghiya

During the construction of Masjid al-Nabawī, the Prophet ﷺ himself participated in the physical labor alongside the Companions. When the Ṣaḥābah saw him working, they were moved and composed an impromptu verse:

"La'in qaʿadnā wa-n-nabiyyu yaʿmalu, la-dhāka minnā al-ʿamal al-mudhlilu", "If we sit down while the Prophet ﷺ is working, then this from us is a truly shameful and misguided deed."

And so they threw themselves into the work.

❧Two Stones

ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir was carrying two large quarry stones, not modern bricks, but the heavy fieldstones used in construction. Everyone else was carrying one. He was covered head to toe in dust, struggling under the weight. In a joking, exaggerated way, the kind of remark you make when you want to get a laugh while acknowledging your burden, he said to the Prophet ﷺ:

"Yā Rasūlallāh, {يَقْتُلُونَنِي} yaqtulūnanī! They're killing me! They're giving me two stones while they only carry one!"

He was not serious. This is the humor of the Ṣaḥābah with the Prophet ﷺ, they had a relationship that included laughter and warmth. It also shows us that exaggeration in obvious jest is not a lie in Islamic ethics: everyone understood it was a figure of speech.

The Prophet ﷺ smiled. He reached over and brushed the dust off of ʿAmmār's body, an act of personal tenderness. And then he said:

"Lā, yā bna Sumayyah. They are not killing you. Rather, the people who will kill you will be {الْفِئَةُ الْبَاغِيَةُ}, al-fiʾah al-bāghiyah. The group that has overstepped the bounds."

Notice: the Prophet ﷺ did not call him ʿAmmār. He called him yā bna Sumayyah, "O son of Sumayyah." A deliberate honor. Sumayyah bint Khayyāṭ was the first shahīd in Islām, she died before even her husband Yāsir, tortured to death by Abū Jahl in the open desert of Makkah. By calling ʿAmmār ibn Sumayyah, the Prophet ﷺ gave him the most distinguished title possible: he is the son of the first martyr of Islām. From that day onward, the Companions called him by this name.

He also said: "li-n-nāsi ajrun wa laka ajrān", "The people get one reward; you get two rewards," because he was carrying two stones.

And he said: "wa ākhiru zādika sharbatan min laban", "And the last provision you shall take in this world will be a cup of milk."

❧The Fulfillment

ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir died a very old man, in his late sixties, during the civil war that erupted after the Prophet's death. He chose to fight on the side of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib against the forces of Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān at the Battle of Ṣiffīn.

Before the battle, he was sitting in his camp and drank a cup of milk. He went from there into battle and was killed by an arrow from Muʿāwiyah's forces.

Exactly as the Prophet ﷺ had said: his last drink was milk, and the fiʾah al-bāghiyah killed him.

❧The Theological Significance

When ʿAmmār was killed, the Companions of ʿAlī's side recalled this ḥadīth and cited it as evidence that ʿAlī was closer to the truth in that dispute than Muʿāwiyah. And this is indeed the Sunnī position: ʿAlī was the more correct party in the civil war; Muʿāwiyah was sincere but mistaken. Both get raḍiyallāhu ʿanhum. Neither is condemned.

There were three groups of Companions in those civil wars:

1. The ʿAbādilah, ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar, who refused to fight on either side and withdrew. When ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās was asked: "Are you with ʿAlī or with ʿĀʾishah?" he replied: "I am with Muḥammad ﷺ." He was not going to take partisan sides. Ibn Taymiyyah said this group was the one truly on the truth.

2. ʿAlī's side, closer to the right, with the ḥadīth of ʿAmmār as evidence.

3. Muʿāwiyah's side, sincere but having erred in this particular dispute.

This is the balanced Sunnī understanding, without demonizing any Companion, but without pretending the dispute had no right side.

❧Note on Prophetic Knowledge

The Prophet ﷺ said this during the construction of the masjid, when ʿAmmār was in his twenties. ʿAmmār lived for another forty-plus years, participated in every major expedition of the Prophet ﷺ and of the early caliphate, before finally dying as the Prophet ﷺ described. Before his death, the prophecy was a cryptic phrase about a fiʾah bāghiyah, it could have referred to a disbelieving army, to any Muslim faction, to any number of things. Only at the moment of his death did it all snap into place, and the Companions understood what had been predicted decades before.

This is characteristic of prophetic predictions: they are given in terms specific enough to be verifiable, but open enough that they are only understood after their fulfillment.