…so when he came, he said, “Step aside.” He then whispered something to him, and ʿUthmān’s face began to change colour.

Abū Sahla relates: When the Day of the House arrived and I was inside with him I said, “O Commander of the Believers, will you not fight?” He replied, “No. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ placed me under a covenant, and I am patiently holding myself to it.” Imām Aḥmad alone transmitted this report.

Aḥmad has also narrated it (1) through Wakīʿ, from Ismāʿīl, from Qays, from ʿĀʾishah, in similar wording; Ibn Mājah likewise recorded it (2) by way of Wakīʿ.

Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād said in his book Al-Fitan wal-Malāḥim (3): ʿAtāb ibn Bashīr narrated to us, from Khuṣayf, from Mujāhid, from ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—who said: I entered upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while ʿUthmān sat before him, confiding in him. I could not make out anything of their conversation except ʿUthmān’s words, “Is it wrongdoing and aggression, O Messenger of Allah?!” I did not understand what he meant until ʿUthmān was killed; then I realised that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had been referring to his murder.

ʿĀʾishah continued: I never wished that any harm should reach ʿUthmān but that the same harm should reach me; yet Allah knows that I did not want him killed. Had I desired his death, I myself would have been killed—and that was when her litter was struck with so many arrows that it resembled a hedgehog.

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (4) narrated: Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar told us, from ʿAmr ibn Abī ʿAmr, the client of the Muṭṭalib family, from Ḥudhayfah, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared:

“The Hour will not come until you kill your own leader, strike one another with your swords, and the vilest among you inherit your worldly goods.”

Al-Bayhaqī said: Abū’l-Ḥusayn ibn Bishrān informed us, ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Miṣrī told us, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Sulamī narrated to us, ʿAbdullāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, al-Layth related to me, from Khālid ibn Yazīd, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, from Rabīʿah ibn Sayf, who said that he once sat with Shufayy al-Aṣbaḥī and heard him say: I heard ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr say, I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:

“There will be twelve caliphs among you: Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq—he will remain after me only a short while; and the bearer of the Arabs’ millstone, who will live nobly and die a martyr.” A man asked, “Who is he, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb.” Then he turned toward ʿUthmān and said, “As for you, the people will ask you to remove a shirt with which Allah has clothed you. By Him who sent me with the truth, if you take it off you will not enter Paradise until a camel passes through the eye of a needle.” (5)