He said: A man from the Anṣār came in to ʿUthmān. The Caliph said, “Go back, my nephew; you are not the one who will kill me.”
The man asked, “How do you know that (1)?”
He replied, “Because the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—had you brought to him on the seventh day after your birth; he performed the tahnik (rubbed softened date on your palate) and prayed that you be blessed.”

Another Anṣārī then entered, and ʿUthmān said to him exactly the same words.

Next Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr entered, and ʿUthmān said, “You are my killer.”
Muḥammad retorted, “And how do you know that, O Naʿthul?”
He answered, “Because the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—had you brought to him on the seventh day so that he might perform the tahnik and pray for your blessing, but you soiled yourself….”
Muḥammad thereupon sprang at his chest, seized his beard, and jabbed him with the small spear-heads that were in his hand. This report is extremely odd and contains objectionable elements.

It is, however, established through several independent chains that the first drop of his blood fell upon the verse: “So Allah will suffice you against them, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing” ⦗al-Baqarah 2:137⦘. It is also narrated that he had reached that very verse in his recitation when they burst in on him—something quite plausible, for he had placed the mushaf before him and was reading the Quran.

Ibn ʿAsākir (2) relates that when he was stabbed he said, “In the name of Allah; I place my trust in Allah,” and when the blood began to flow (3) he said, “Glory be to Allah the Most Great.”

Ibn Jarīr records in his History (4), with his chains of transmission, that when the Egyptians found that letter with the courier on the way to the governor of Egypt—instructing that some of them be killed, others crucified, and others have their hands and feet cut off—it had been written by Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam in ʿUthmān’s name, basing himself on the divine words:
“Indeed, the recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive to spread corruption in the land is that they be killed, or crucified, or have their hands and feet cut off on opposite sides, or be banished from the land. That is disgrace for them in this world, and in the Hereafter they will have a mighty punishment” ⦗al-Māʾidah 5:32–33⦘.
In Marwān’s view, those who had risen against the Commander of the Believers ʿUthmān—may Allah be pleased with him—were among the corrupters on earth, and indeed they were; yet he had no right to pre-empt ʿUthmān, write in his name without his knowledge, forge his script and seal, and dispatch his servant on his camel after a reconciliation had been reached between ʿUthmān and the Egyptians appointing Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr as governor of Egypt—contrary to all that. When they discovered this letter, which contradicted the agreement, and assumed it to be from ʿUthmān, they were outraged; and, already bent on evil, they returned to Madinah, parading it before the leading Companions. Others then joined them, until some Companions thought the order had truly come from ʿUthmān—may Allah be pleased with him. When ʿUthmān was questioned about the matter in the presence of a number of eminent Companions and the mass of Egyptians, he swore by Allah the Almighty—he who was truthful, upright, and rightly guided—that he had neither written that letter nor dictated it, nor even knew of it.
They said, “Yet it bears your seal.”
He replied, “A man’s handwriting—and his seal—can be forged.”
They said, “But it was found with your servant…”