The Battle of Siffin and the raising of the Qur'ans

Fighting reached its peak between the army of the caliph ʿAli ibn Abi Talib and that of Muʿawiya ibn Abi Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with them) at Siffin on the Euphrates, until copies of the Qur'an were raised calling for arbitration. The fighting halted, and the strife of the arbitration began.

After the Battle of the Camel the strife moved to Syria, where the army of the Commander of the Faithful ʿAli (may Allah be pleased with him) met the army of the people of Syria under Muʿawiya (may Allah be pleased with him) at Siffin near al-Raqqa. The fighting stretched over days and nights, fiercest of them "the Night of Clamour," in which the weapons never rested.

When ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAs saw the tide turning, he advised raising the copies of the Qur'an on spear-points and calling for judgement by the Book of Allah to stem the bloodshed. The army of Iraq wavered between accepting and refusing, and ʿAli was compelled to accept the arbitration.

A faction of ʿAli's army rejected the arbitration — the Khawarij, whom he later fought at al-Nahrawan. Siffin — in which the noble Companion ʿAmmar ibn Yasir was killed — remained one of the greatest episodes of the Great Strife, over which Ahl al-Sunnah withhold their tongues concerning what passed between the Companions.