The Caliphate of the Commander of the Believers ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān—may Allah be pleased with him—began on the first day of the twenty-fourth year after the Prophet’s migration.
On that very first day the Commander of the Believers ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—may Allah be pleased with him—was buried; according to one report the day was Sunday. Three days later (1) the allegiance was pledged to the Commander of the Believers ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān—may Allah be pleased with him.
Before his death ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—had decreed that the matter be settled by consultation (shūrā) among six men: ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf—may Allah be pleased with them all. He was unwilling to single out any one of them, declaring, “I will not shoulder your affairs in life and in death. If Allah wills good for you, He will unite you around the best of these men, just as He united you around the best among you after your Prophet ﷺ.”
As an expression of his scrupulous piety (2) he did not include Saʿīd ibn Zayd ibn ʿAmr ibn Nufayl, who was his cousin; he feared that kinship might lead people to favor him. For that reason he left him out, even though Saʿīd was one of the ten who were given the glad tidings of Paradise. In a report related by al-Madāʾinī from his teachers, ʿUmar explicitly excluded him, saying, “I will not bring him into the group.”
He then told the members of the council, “ʿAbd Allāh—meaning my son—will be present with you, but he has no authority; he will attend only to offer sincere advice and is not to hold any office.” He further instructed that Ṣuhayb ibn Sinān al-Rūmī lead the people in prayer for three days, until the council reached its decision; that the council members meet together under guard until the matter was concluded; and he appointed fifty Muslims to oversee them, placing Abū Ṭalḥah al-Anṣārī and al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad al-Kindī in charge and urging them to hasten the proceedings.
ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb also said, “I do not think the people will prefer anyone to ʿUthmān and ʿAlī, for the two of them used to write down the revelation before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ as Gabriel—peace be upon him—brought it.”
They relate that when ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—passed away and his bier was brought forward, both ʿAlī and ʿUthmān hastened to it, each wishing to lead the funeral prayer. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf said to them, “The matter is not yours; it belongs to Ṣuhayb, whom ʿUmar appointed to lead the people in prayer.” Ṣuhayb then stepped forward and performed the prayer over him. Those who descended into the grave with his son ʿAbd Allāh were the council members, except for Ṭalḥah, who was absent.
After the burial was completed, al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad gathered the council in the house of al-Miswar ibn Makhramah. Some say it was in ʿĀʾishah’s chamber, others, in the Treasury, and still others, in the house of Fāṭimah bint Qays, the sister of Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays; the first view is the most likely, and Allah knows best.