in Paradise.’ So I purchased it with my own money and, by means of it, enlarged the mosque. Let anyone who witnessed that bear witness.” Several men answered his call.

He then said, “And (1) I adjure by Allah anyone who was with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the day of the Army of Hardship (Jaysh al-ʿUsrah) when he said, ‘Who will spend today a donation that will be accepted?’ I equipped half of that army from my own wealth. Let anyone who was present testify.” Several men responded.

Then he said, “And I adjure by Allah anyone who witnessed that the well of Rūmah was being sold to the wayfarer. I bought it with my own money and made its water free for the traveller. Let whoever witnessed this testify.” Several men responded.

Al-Nasāʾī (2) also transmitted this report through ʿImrān ibn Bakkār, from Khaṭṭāb ibn ʿUthmān, from ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq, from his father, from his grandfather Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī, with the same wording.

Ibn Jarīr (3) relates that when ʿUthmān—may Allah be pleased with him—saw what these Kharijites from the various provinces were doing by besieging him in his house and preventing him from going to the mosque, he wrote to Muʿāwiyah in Syria, to Ibn ʿĀmir in Basra, and to the people of Kūfah, seeking their aid in sending an army to drive those men out of Madinah. Muʿāwiyah dispatched Muslimah ibn Ḥabīb and commissioned Yazīd ibn Asad al-Qushayrī with a force; Kūfah sent an army, and so did Basra. When the rebels heard that these armies were marching toward them, they tightened the siege, and before the troops could draw near Madinah the assassination of ʿUthmān—may Allah be pleased with him—took place, as we shall recount.

Ibn Jarīr (4) also reports that ʿUthmān summoned al-Ashtar al-Nakhaʿī, and a cushion was placed for ʿUthmān in an opening of his house so that he could look out upon the people. ʿUthmān said to him, “O Ashtar, what do they want (5)?” He replied, “They want one of three things: either you step down from the caliphate, or you allow retribution to be taken upon you for anyone you have struck, flogged, or imprisoned, or else they will kill you.” In another narration they demanded that he dismiss his governors from the provinces and appoint whomever they chose; and, if he would not abdicate, that he hand over Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam so they could punish him for allegedly forging the letter to Egypt in ʿUthmān’s name (6). ʿUthmān feared that if he surrendered him they would kill him, thus becoming the cause of a Muslim’s death, while Marwān had done nothing warranting execution. He also excused himself from carrying out the retribution they demanded, saying that he was a man of frail body and advanced age. As for their request that he depose (7) himself, he declared that he would never do [that]; he would not take off a shirt with which Allah had clothed him, leaving the community of Muhammad to assault one another (and enabling the foolish among the people to appoint whomever they pleased, which would lead to bloodshed and the corruption of affairs—and events turned out exactly as he foresaw: the community was ruined and turmoil erupted). Among the words he said to them were: “What authority would remain to me if, whenever you disliked a governor, I dismissed him, and whenever you approved of someone …”