“Whoever deliberately kills a believer, his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide forever” (al-Nisāʾ 4:92).

The man retorted, “Do you not see that Allah says, ‘Fight them until there is no persecution’ (al-Baqarah 2:193)?”

Ibn ʿUmar replied, “We did that in the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, when the Muslims were few and a man could be persecuted for his faith—either they would kill him or enslave him—until Islam grew strong and no such persecution remained.”

When the man realized that Ibn ʿUmar would not concur, he asked, “What, then, is your view regarding ʿUthmān and ʿAlī?”

He answered, “As for ʿUthmān, Allah has pardoned him, yet you disliked that Allah should pardon him. As for ʿAlī, he is the cousin of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his son-in-law.” He pointed with his hand and said, “His house is right there where you can see.”

Al-Zuhrī narrates, from Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd Allah, who said:

Ibn ʿUmar approached us and declared, “Nothing in the affairs of this ummah has troubled me as much as my failure to fight this rebellious faction, just as Allah commanded me.”

We asked, “Whom do you consider the rebellious faction?”

He replied, “Ibn al-Zubayr: he rebelled against these people, drove them from their homes, and broke the covenant he had with them (1).”

Ayyūb relates, from Nāfiʿ:

A pole of a litter struck between Ibn ʿUmar’s two fingers at the Jamrah, and he fell ill. Al-Ḥajjāj came in to visit him; when Ibn ʿUmar saw him he closed his eyes. Al-Ḥajjāj spoke to him, but he gave no reply, so he became angry and said, “Is this man claiming that I am still on the first course (2)?”

ʿAmr ibn Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr reports that his grandfather told us:

When Ibn ʿUmar arrived for the Ḥajj, al-Ḥajjāj came in to see him after the point of a spear had wounded him.

He asked, “Who wounded you?”