129 – Yaʿqūb ibn ʿUbayd narrated to me; Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm informed us; Sawādah ibn Abī al-Aswad narrated to us, from my father, who said:

I was sitting in the mosque next to Abū Bakrah when a cloud passed overhead and the people began speaking about ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān. Abū Bakrah, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “By Allah, for me to be up inside that cloud, then come crashing down to the earth and be shattered, would be dearer to me than to have taken part—even with a single word—in the shedding of ʿUthmān’s blood.”