he should be told: “The foremost of his merits was his acceptance of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—as truthful and his embrace of Islam; the Prophet’s giving him both his daughters in marriage; and the fact that he did so only by revelation from heaven. Ibn Abbās narrated that the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said, ‘Allah Most High has revealed to me that I should give my two noble daughters in marriage to Uthmān ibn Affān.’”
Muhammad ibn al-Husayn (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—first gave him Ruqayyah in marriage. When she died, the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said to Uthmān (may Allah be pleased with him), “O Uthmān, Gabriel (peace be upon him) has informed me that Allah—Glorious and Exalted—has given Umm Kulthūm to you in marriage for a bridal gift equal to Ruqayyah’s and on the same terms of companionship as hers.”
Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—stood by the grave of his second daughter, who had been married to Uthmān (may Allah be pleased with him), and said, “Is there no father of an unmarried woman—no brother of an unmarried woman—who will give her in marriage to Uthmān? If I had ten daughters, I would give them all to Uthmān in marriage. I gave him my daughters in marriage only by revelation from heaven.”
Know, then—may Allah have mercy on you—that Uthmān is called Dhū al-Nūrayn (the Possessor of Two Lights) because, from the time of Adam (peace be upon him), no man other than Uthmān ibn Affān (may Allah be pleased with him) ever married two daughters of a prophet, one after the other. For this reason, he was called Dhū al-Nūrayn. This is one of his noble merits.
Another is that Abd al-Rahmān ibn Samurah said: “During the expedition to Tabūk, Uthmān ibn Affān came to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—with one thousand dinars in his sleeve. He poured them into the Prophet’s lap—peace and blessings be upon him—and then departed.”