“You shouted, ‘Change him!’—and so you were changed (1)
by a scorching year and a war like blazing fire.
What grievance had you against surplus garments,
against male and female servants, and against gold?”

He added:

Abū Ḥumayd, the brother of Banū Sāʿidah—who had fought at Badr and who had distanced himself from ʿUthmān—said that when ʿUthmān was killed he declared:

“By Allah, we never intended to kill him, nor did we imagine the affair would reach the point of murder. O Allah, I pledge before You that I shall never do such-and-such (2), and I will not laugh again until I meet You.”

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (3) said: ʿAbd Allah ibn Idrīs related to us, Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid related to us, from Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim, from Saʿīd ibn Zayd ibn ʿAmr ibn Nufayl, who said:

“I remember the time when ʿUmar had bound me and his sister because of Islam; and had anyone apostatized on account of what you did to Ibn ʿAffān, he would have had grounds to do so.” Al-Bukhārī recorded this likewise in his Ṣaḥīḥ (4).

Muḥammad ibn ʿĀʾidh (5) transmitted, from Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, from Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr, who said:

ʿAbd Allah ibn Salām heard a man say to another, “ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān has been killed and not even two goats have locked horns over it.” Ibn Salām replied, “Indeed, cattle and goats do not butt heads over the murder of a caliph, but men clash over it with weapons. By Allah, there will be people killed because of him who are still in the loins of their fathers, not yet born.”

Layth (6) reported, from Ṭāwūs, that Ibn Salām said: “On the Day of Resurrection ʿUthmān will be allowed to judge between the killer and the one who abandoned him.”

Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Maḥāmalī related: Abū al-Ashʿath narrated to us, Ḥazm ibn Abī Ḥazm narrated, “I heard Abū al-Aswad say: I heard Abū Bakrah say (7): ‘To fall from the sky down to the earth is dearer to me than to have any share in the killing of ʿUthmān.’”

Abū Yaʿlā (8) recorded: Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿArʿarah narrated to us, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād al-Hanaʾī narrated to us, al-Barāʾ ibn Abī Faḍālah narrated to us, al-Ḥaḍramī narrated to us, from Abū Maryam, the nursling of al-Jārūd, who said:

“I was in Kūfah when Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī rose to address the people and said, ‘O people! Last night I saw a wondrous vision in my sleep. I saw…’”