The client of ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth narrated from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Jurashī and ʿUqbah ibn Asīd (1), from al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr, from Nāʾilah bint al-Farāfiṣah al-Kalbiyyah—the wife of ʿUthmān—who said:

“When ʿUthmān was besieged, he spent the very day on which he was killed (2) fasting. When the time came for him to break the fast, he asked the besiegers for fresh water, but they refused and said, ‘Help yourself to that rukiyy (3).’ The rukiyy was a pit inside the house where refuse was thrown.

“So he did not break his fast. I went, during the last part of the night, to some neighbor women whose connected rooftops (4) adjoined ours and asked them for fresh water. They gave me a jug of it, and I brought it to him, saying, ‘Here is some fresh water I have brought you.’ He looked and saw that dawn had already broken and said, ‘I have entered the morning while fasting.’

“I asked, ‘From where could you have eaten? I have seen no one bring you food or drink.’ He replied, ‘I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, looking down on me through this roof. With him was a bucket of water and he said, “Drink, O ʿUthmān.” I drank until I was satisfied. Then he said, “Drink more,” and I drank until my thirst was completely quenched (5). Then he said, “Know that the people will find fault with you. If you fight them you will triumph, but if you leave them be you will break your fast with us.”’ She continued, ‘They entered upon him later that same day and killed him.’

Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī and ʿAbd Allāh, the son of Imām Aḥmad, (7) reported: ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to me; Yūnus ibn Abī Yaʿfūr (8) al-ʿAbdī narrated to us, from his father, from Muslim Abū (9) Saʿīd, the client of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (10):

ʿUthmān manumitted twenty slaves, then called for a pair of trousers, tied them on—something he had never worn in the pre-Islamic period nor in Islam—and said, ‘I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, together with Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, in a dream. They said to me, “Be patient, for tomorrow you will break your fast with us.”’ He then called for a copy of the Quran, spread it open before him, and was killed while it lay open in front of him.

I say: He—may Allah be pleased with him—put on those trousers that day only so that his private parts would not be exposed if he were killed, for he was exceedingly modest; even the angels of heaven were shy before him (11), as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, stated. He also set the Quran in front of him and was reciting from it,