and on your camel.” ʿUthmān replied, “By Allah, I was unaware of any of that.” Yet after each answer they said to him, “If you wrote the letter, you have committed treachery; and if you did not write it but it was written in your name while you knew nothing of it, then you are incapable—and someone like you is unfit for the caliphate, either because of betrayal or because of incapacity.”
Their argument is false in every respect. Even supposing he had actually written the letter—though in reality he had not—this would not harm him, for he might have deemed it in the best interest of the ummah to curb the power of those rebellious insurgents who had risen up against the Imām. And if he truly had no knowledge of it, what incapacity could be ascribed to him when he had never seen the letter and it had been forged in his name? He was not infallible; both error (1) and inadvertence were possible for him—may Allah be pleased with him.
Rather, these ignorant rebels were obstinate, treacherous, oppressive slanderers. After this they resolved to besiege him and tighten the noose around him: they withheld provisions and water, barred him from going to the mosque, and threatened him with death. Hence he reminded them that he had once enlarged the Prophet’s Mosque—yet he was now the first to be barred from it—and that he had endowed the Well of Rumah to the Muslims—yet he was now the first whose access to its water was denied. He also told them that he had heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say:
“The blood of a Muslim who testifies that there is no god but Allah is not lawful save in one of three cases: retaliation for murder, a married (adulterer), or one who abandons his religion and separates from the community.”
He declared that he had killed no one, had never apostatized after embracing faith, and had never fornicated—neither in the pre-Islamic period nor in Islam. Indeed, he had not even touched his private parts with his right hand after pledging that hand to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him; in another narration, after using it to write the chapters known as al-Mufassal. He then recounted other virtues and merits, hoping they might deter them and bring them back to obedience to Allah (2), His Messenger, and those in authority among them. But they persisted in their oppression, preventing anyone from entering or leaving his house until matters became dire: his circumstances grew straitened and his supply of water ran out.
He therefore appealed to the Muslims. ʿAlī mounted in person, carrying water skins, and with great effort managed to deliver them to ʿUthmān—despite the harsh words, the frightening of his mount, and the grievous abuse he suffered from those ignoramuses. He had rebuked them in the strongest terms, saying (3) among other things, “By Allah, neither the Persians nor the Byzantines treat a man as you are treating this (4) man; by Allah, when they take someone captive they feed him and give him water.” They still refused his plea until he threw his turban into the middle of the courtyard.
Umm Ḥabībah then arrived, riding a mule and surrounded by her attendants and servants. They asked, “What has brought you?” She replied, “He holds the testamentary trusts (5) of the Banū Umayyah—property belonging to orphans and widows—and I wished to remind him of them.” They called her a liar, subjected her to harsh abuse, cut the strap of the mule (which bolted), and she nearly—or actually—fell. She was almost killed had the people not rushed to her and seized her mount. The affair became extremely grave (6). Nothing remained of water for ʿUthmān and his family except what the family of ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm could secretly smuggle to them by night. To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.