Ammar ibn Yasir & the Family of Yasir (ra)

A slave family among the earliest Muslims, tortured together before one another’s eyes. Sumayyah and Yasir became the first two martyrs of Islam; their son Ammar survived to become a beloved Companion.

The first martyrs (EP 014)

Yasir ibn Amir was the first to die under torture.
Sumayyah bint Khayyat, his wife, rebuked Abu Jahal and was killed by him with a spear — the first martyr (shahid) of Islam.
As they suffered, the Prophet ﷺ passed by and said, “Be patient, O family of Yasir — your appointed place is Paradise,” though nothing could yet be done to save them.

Ammar’s ordeal (EP 014)

Perhaps 15 at the time, Ammar was tortured until he uttered words of kufr to make it stop, then rushed in anguish to the Prophet ﷺ. Asked how his heart was, he said “Firm in faith”; the Prophet ﷺ reassured him, and Allah revealed Quran 16:106 — one forced to disbelief while the heart is at peace with faith is not condemned.

Ammar’s honours (EP 014, 018)

“Iman has filled Ammar to his very bones.”
“Ibn al-Sumayyah is upon the fitrah; faced with two choices he takes the more correct.” (The Prophet ﷺ honoured him by his mother’s name.)
“You will be killed by the transgressing party” — fulfilled when Ammar, siding with Ali, was killed at Siffin (37 AH), taken as evidence that Ali’s side was the nearer to truth.

Cross-references

Muhammad ﷺ · Abu Jahal (Amr ibn Hisham) · Bilal ibn Rabah (ra) · Ali ibn Abi Talib (ra) · Jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic Arabia)

Sources

S004 — Yasir Qadhi Seerah EP 011 (early converts), EP 014 (torture & martyrdom).