with their saddles and howdahs.

He continued: “I then saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ moving his hand like this”—ʿAbd al-Ṣamad stretched out his own hand in illustration, as though amazed—“saying, ‘Nothing that ʿUthmān does after this will ever harm him.’ ”

Al-Tirmidhī (1) narrates the same report from Muḥammad ibn Bashār, through Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī, from Sakan ibn al-Mughīrah Abū Muḥammad, the client of the household of ʿUthmān, and he remarked: “It is gharīb through this chain.” Al-Bayhaqī (2) likewise recorded it via ʿAmr ibn Marzūq, from Sakan ibn al-Mughīrah, adding that the Prophet ﷺ repeated the statement three times and that ʿUthmān had pledged three hundred camels, complete with their saddles and howdahs. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said: “I witnessed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the pulpit saying, ‘Nothing shall harm ʿUthmān after this,’ or he said, ‘after today.’ ”

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (3) reported: Abū ʿAwnah related to us, from Ḥuṣayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from ʿAmr ibn Jawān, from al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays, who said: I heard ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān say to Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, ʿAlī, al-Zubayr, and Ṭalḥah, “I adjure you by Allah: do you know that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Whoever equips the Army of Hardship, Allah will forgive him’? I equipped that army so completely that it lacked neither halter nor hobble.” They replied, “By Allah, yes.” Al-Nasāʾī (4) transmitted the same narration through Ḥuṣayn.

Section: Those who stayed behind with a valid excuse—the “Weepers” and others

Allah the Exalted says:

When a sūrah is sent down saying, “Believe in Allah and strive with His Messenger,” those among them who possess wealth ask your leave and say, “Leave us to stay with those who remain behind.” (86) They were content to stay with the womenfolk, and their hearts were sealed, so they do not understand. (87) Yet the Messenger and those who believe with him strive with their wealth and their lives; such people shall have every good, and they are the truly successful. (88) Allah has prepared for them gardens beneath which rivers flow, to abide therein forever—that is the supreme triumph. (89) Some of the desert Arabs came forward with excuses, asking permission, while those who had lied to Allah and His Messenger remained at home; a painful punishment will befall the disbelievers among them. (90) There is no blame on the weak, the sick, or those who have nothing to spend—provided they are sincere toward Allah and His Messenger; there is no cause for reproach against the doers of good, and Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful— (91) nor upon those who, when they came to you… (92)