his relatives and the members of his household during the last six years. He even wrote to Marwān granting him the one-fifth share of Egypt—or of Ifrīqiyyah—and he singled out his kinsfolk for financial favor. He interpreted this as upholding the family ties that Allah has commanded. He accumulated wealth, borrowed from the public treasury, and said, “Abū Bakr and ʿUmar left behind rights that were theirs; I have taken those rights and distributed them among my relatives.” The people found this reprehensible.

I say: Among the other grievances laid against him was that he dismissed ʿUmayr ibn Saʿd from Ḥimṣ—though he was a righteous ascetic—and combined the whole of Syria under Muʿāwiyah; that he removed ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ from Egypt and put Ibn Abī Sarḥ in his place; that he removed Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī from Basra and appointed ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿĀmir; and that he removed al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah from Kūfah and installed Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ.

Al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl reported: ʿAmr ibn Murrah related to us from Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd that ʿUthmān summoned a number of the Companions, among them ʿAmmār, and said, “I am going to ask you something, and I want you to tell me the truth. I adjure you by Allah: do you know that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, used to favor Quraysh over the rest of the people, and Banū Hāshim over the rest of Quraysh?” They remained silent, so he said, “Were the keys of Paradise in my hand I would give them to Banū Umayyah so that they might enter it.”

Abū Wāʾil related that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf had an exchange of words with ʿUthmān. He sent to him, saying, “Why did you flee on the Day of Uḥud, stay behind from Badr, and depart from ʿUmar’s practice?” ʿUthmān replied, “I stayed behind from Badr because the daughter of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was ill and I was attending to her. As for the Day of Uḥud, Allah has already forgiven me. As for ʿUmar’s practice, by Allah, neither you nor I have been able to match it.”

There had also been something between ʿAlī and ʿUthmān, so al-ʿAbbās intervened between them. ʿAlī said, “By Allah, were he to command me to leave my house, I would do so; but to compromise in such a way that the Book…"