Rayṭa, the maidservant of ʿUsāmah, relates: I was inside the house when they burst in. Muḥammad came forward, seized ʿUthmān’s beard and shook it. ʿUthmān said, “Nephew, let go of my beard; you are tugging at something your father would have deemed too noble to harm.” I saw that he was embarrassed; he stood up and, holding the edge of his garment, he began to wave it, saying, “Back—go back!”
She continued: A man then approached from behind ʿUthmān with a fresh palm-frond and struck his forehead, and I saw the blood flow. ʿUthmān wiped it away while saying, “O Allah, let none but You seek retribution for my blood.” Another assailant struck him on the chest with a sword, knocking the life out of him. They fell upon him with their blades, and I watched them plunder his house.
Mujālid reports from al-Shaʿbī: A man of the tribe of Tujīb, one of the Egyptians, came while the people were surrounding ʿUthmān. He drew his sword and said, “Make way!”—and they cleared a path. He placed the tip of his sword against ʿUthmān’s abdomen. Naʾilah bint al-Farāfiṣah, ʿUthmān’s wife, grasped the sword to protect him, and the blade sliced her fingers.
It is also said that the man who killed him was called Ḥimār.
Al-Wāqidī states: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz told me, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd, that Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr climbed over the wall of ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm’s house into ʿUthmān’s dwelling. With him were Kinānah ibn Bishr, Sūdān, and ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥamq. They found ʿUthmān beside Naʾilah, reciting the Qur’an. Muḥammad stepped forward, grabbed his beard and said, “You Nāthil—Allah has disgraced you!” ʿUthmān replied, “I am not Nāthil; I am a servant of Allah and the Commander of the Faithful.” Muḥammad retorted, “What benefit did Muʿāwiyah and so-and-so and so-and-so bring you?” ʿUthmān answered, “Nephew, release my beard; your father would never have seized what you have seized.” Muḥammad said, “What is intended for you is harsher than my grip,” and he stabbed ʿUthmān’s side with an arrowhead. Kinānah then raised arrowheads and drove one into ʿUthmān’s ear; it passed through until it reached his throat, and then he struck him again.