Chapter: The Cause Behind the Killing of Uthmān ibn Affān—may Allah be pleased with him—and Why He Was Killed

Muhammad ibn al-Husayn—may Allah have mercy on him—said: If someone asks, “You have related that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned a tribulation that would occur after him, and then said concerning Uthmān, ‘Follow this man and his companions, for on that day they will be rightly guided.’ Tell us, then: who were his companions?”

He is told: His companions were the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, for whom Paradise was attested and whose qualities are mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel. Whoever loves them shall prosper, and whoever hates them shall be wretched.

If he asks, “Name them,” he is told: Ali ibn Abī Tālib, Talha, al-Zubayr, Saʿd, and Saʿīd—may Allah be pleased with them—as well as all the other Companions living at that time—may Allah be pleased with them. All of them were rightly guided, just as the Prophet ﷺ said. All of them condemned his killing, regarded what befell Uthmān—may Allah be pleased with him—as a grave atrocity, and testified that his killers would be in the Fire.

If someone asks, “Who, then, killed him?” he is told: Groups whom Allah, Mighty and Majestic, condemned to wretchedness through killing him, out of envy and aggression toward him. They sought to provoke tribulation and sow rancor among the nation of Muhammad ﷺ because of the wretchedness already decreed for them in this world; and what awaits them in the Hereafter is far worse,