Abū al-Ashhab reports from al-Ḥasan: “I myself saw them hurling stones at one another inside the mosque until I could no longer make out the sky. One man lifted a codex that had been kept in the apartments of the Prophet ﷺ and shouted, ‘Do you not know that Muhammad has disavowed those who tore their religion apart and became sects?’ ”

Salām relates: “I heard al-Ḥasan say: ‘ʿUthmān came out to deliver the Friday sermon. A man rose before him and said, “I adjure you by the Book of Allah!” ʿUthmān replied, “Woe to you—do you not already have the Book of Allah with you?” The man sat down, but another stood up to protest, and then another, and another, until they were many. They began pelting one another with stones until I could no longer see the face of the sky.’ ”

Bishr ibn Shaghāf narrates from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām: “While ʿUthmān was preaching a man rose and insulted him, so I rebuked him and drove him back. Another man then said, ‘Do not let Ibn Salām’s presence stop you from vilifying Naʿthal, for he is one of Naʿthal’s partisans.’ I replied, ‘You have uttered a monstrous word against the caliph—after Noah himself.’ ” (The verb wadhaʾtuhu means that I rebuked and suppressed him.) They called ʿUthmān ‘Naʿthal,’ likening him to an Egyptian named Naʿthal who had a long beard; naʿthal is also the term for a male hyena. ʿUmar used to be likened to Noah in his sternness.

Ibn ʿUmar said: “While ʿUthmān was delivering the sermon, Jahjah al-Ghifārī got up, seized the staff from his hand, and snapped it across his knee. A splinter pierced his leg, and the wound turned gangrenous.”

Someone else recounted: “They then surrounded the house and laid siege to him. Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm relates from his father: I heard ʿUthmān say, ‘If you think it just to place my legs in irons, then put them in irons.’ ”