and he said to the people of the house:
“Do not kill them—may Allah pardon every man who does not fight.”
So have you seen how God poured down upon them
enmity and rancor after they had been united?
And have you seen how, once he was gone, all goodness turned away from the people
as a startled herd of ostriches flees in panic?

Hassān ibn Thābit also composed an elegy for him:
Whoever would taste death pure and unmixed,
let him attend the banquet held in ʿUthmān’s house.
They sacrificed a grey-haired man whose forehead bore the mark of prostration,
one who spent the night in glorification and Qur’an recitation.
Patience—may my mother and all she bore be ransomed for you—
for patience can sometimes profit in affliction.
They shall soon hear within their dwellings the cry:
“Allah is greatest! Vengeance for ʿUthmān!”

Section: An approximate list of those who died during ʿUthmān’s caliphate

• Aws ibn al-Sāmit ibn Qays ibn Asram al-Anṣārī, the brother of ʿUbāda; both had fought at Badr.

• Aws was the husband of Khawla bint Thaʿlaba—known as the woman who argued with the Prophet about her husband. The Messenger of Allah established a bond of brotherhood between him and Marthad ibn Abī Marthad al-Ghanawī.

• Anas ibn Muʿādh ibn Anas ibn Qays al-Anṣārī al-Najjārī—some report his name in the diminutive form Unays—took part in Badr and the subsequent engagements. He died during ʿUthmān’s caliphate.