“O Allah, if the killing of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān was a good thing, then I have no share in it; but if his killing was an evil, I declare myself innocent of it. By Allah, if his death was good they will milk it for milk, and if it was evil they will suck from it blood.” (1)

Al-Bukhārī recorded this report in his Ṣaḥīḥ. (2)

[Another chain of transmission]

Muḥammad ibn ʿĀʾidh said: Yaḥyā (3) ibn Ḥamzah related, “Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Najrānī (4) narrated to me that, during the illness in which he died, Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān had one of his brothers present while he was whispering to his wife. He opened his eyes and questioned the two of them, and they replied with reassuring words. He said, ‘You are hiding from me something that is not good.’ They answered, ‘The man—meaning ʿUthmān—has been killed.’ He thereupon uttered the istirjāʿ, innā lillāh wa-innā ilayhi rājiʿūn (“Surely we belong to Allah and to Him we return”), and added:

‘O Allah, I kept myself apart from this affair; if it is good, then its reward is for those who were present, and I am clear of it; and if it is evil, then it falls upon those who were present, and I am clear of it. Today the hearts have changed, O ʿUthmān. Praise be to Allah who let me precede the trials—their leaders and their rabble alike. The truly fortunate one is he whose camel stumbles, for he eats his fill of fat and does little work.’

Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah said: Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUlayyah narrated to us, from Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, from Qatādah, from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, who said: “Had the slaying of ʿUthmān been guidance, the ummah would have milked it for milk; but it was misguidance, so the ummah milked it for blood.” This isnād is disconnected.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (5) said: ʿĀrim (6) ibn al-Faḍl informed us, al-Ṣaʿq ibn Ḥazn narrated to us, Qatādah from Zahdam al-Jarmī, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās once preached, “Had the people not sought retaliation for the blood of ʿUthmān, stones would have been hurled upon them from the sky.” This has been transmitted from him through other routes as well.

Al-Aʿmash and others narrated from Thābit ibn ʿUbayd ibn Abī Jaʿfar (7) al-Anṣārī, who said: “When ʿUthmān was killed I went to ʿAlī while he was sitting in the mosque wearing a black turban. I said, ‘ʿUthmān has been killed.’ He replied, ‘Perdition be upon them till the end of time.’ (8) — and in another wording: ‘Woe to them.’”