you have deceived me; you appointed him only because he is your son-in-law so that he might consult you every day about his affairs. He kept delaying the matter until ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said to him:

“Whoever breaks his pledge only breaks it to his own detriment; but whoever fulfills the covenant he has made with Allah, He will grant him a tremendous reward.” (al-Fath 48:10)

There are other such reports that conflict with what is authentically established in the Ṣaḥīḥ collections; all of them are to be rejected, as are those who relate or transmit them. Allah knows best.

What we are to presume about the Companions is the very opposite of what many of the Rāfiḍah and the dull-witted storytellers imagine—people who have no ability to distinguish between sound and weak reports, between what is upright and what is unsound, between what is remote (1) and what is correct. Allah is the One who grants success in reaching the truth.

The scholars of sīrah have differed as to the exact day on which ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān—may Allah be pleased with him—received the bayʿah (pledge of allegiance). Al-Wāqidī reported from his teachers that the pledge was given on Monday, the night before the last day of Dhū al-Ḥijjah in the year 23 AH, and that his caliphate formally began with Muḥarram of 24 AH. This is a very unusual report.

Al-Wāqidī also narrated, from Ibn Jurayj (2) on the authority of Ibn Abī Mulaykah, that the pledge to ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān occurred ten nights into Muḥarram, three nights after ʿUmar was killed. This account is even stranger than the first.

Similarly, Sīf ibn ʿUmar (3) related from ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī that the members of the shūrā agreed upon ʿUthmān three nights into Muḥarram of the year 24 AH. The time of ʿAṣr had arrived, Ṣuhayb’s muʾadhdhin had given the adhān, and the people had assembled between the adhān and the iqāmah; ʿUthmān then came out and led them in the ʿAṣr prayer.

Sīf also transmitted from Khulaid ibn Zafar (4) and Mujālid that they said: ʿUthmān was appointed caliph three nights into Muḥarram of the year 23 AH. He came out and led the people in the ʿAṣr prayer, increased their stipends by one hundred, and received delegations from the provinces; he was the first to institute this practice (5).

I say: The outward sense of the narrative just mentioned indicates that the pledge took place before the sun reached its zenith. However, once the people in the mosque had pledged their allegiance to him he was taken to the House of the Shūrā—as was noted earlier in the differing reports—where the rest of the people gave their bayʿah. It appears, therefore, that the bayʿah was not completed until after midday. On that day Ṣuhayb led the Ẓuhr prayer in the Prophet’s Mosque, and the first prayer the Caliph, the Commander of the Believers ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, led for the Muslims was the ʿAṣr prayer, as al-Shaʿbī and others have mentioned.

With regard to the first sermon he delivered to the Muslims, Sīf ibn ʿUmar narrated from Badr ibn ʿUthmān, from his uncle, who said: When the members of the shūrā pledged to ʿUthmān, he came out—the most downcast among them—went to the pulpit of the Prophet ﷺ, and addressed the people. He praised Allah, extolled Him, invoked blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ, and said: “You are in an abode that is passing and you have only the remainder of your lifespans before you, so hasten to meet your appointed times with the best deeds you can perform, for indeed