She retorted, “No—by the One in whom the believers believe and the disbelievers disbelieve—I have not written them so much as a black mark upon white parchment before taking my seat here.”
Al-Aʿmash said: “People concluded that the letter had been written in her name. This chain is authentically linked to her. Incidents like this make it perfectly clear that those Khārijites—may Allah disfigure them—forged letters in the Companions’ names and sent them to distant regions, urging the people to fight ʿUthmān, as we have already explained. To Allah belong all praise and favor.”
Abu Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (1) reported: “Hazm al-Quṭʿī narrated to us; Abū al-Aswad, the father of Sawādah (2), narrated to us; Ṭalq ibn Khashāf (3) informed me. He said:
‘When ʿUthmān was killed we scattered among the Companions of Muhammad ﷺ, asking them about the circumstances of his death. I heard ʿĀʾishah say, “He was slain wrongfully; may Allah curse his murderers.”’
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Anṣārī (4) related—from his father, from Thumāmah, from Anas—that Umm Sulaym, when she was told of ʿUthmān’s killing (may Allah have mercy on him), said, “Indeed, they have drawn forth nothing after him but blood.”
As for the statements of the leading Successors on this matter, they are far too many to recount in full. Among them is the saying of Abū Muslim al-Khawlānī when he encountered the delegation involved in the killing (5): “You are like them—or even more guilty. Did you not pass by the land of Thamūd?” They answered, “Yes.” He said, “I bear witness that you are like them, for Allah’s caliph is more honored in His sight than His she-camel.”
Ibn ʿUlayyah reported—from Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd, from al-Ḥasan—who said (6): “Had the killing of ʿUthmān been guidance, the ummah would have milked it for milk; but it was misguidance, and so the ummah has milked it for blood.”
Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir (7) said: “The killing of ʿUthmān [ibn ʿAffān] was not in accordance with the truth.”
What follows is a sampling of the elegies composed for him (may Allah be pleased with him). Mujālid narrated—from al-Shaʿbī: “I have never heard a eulogy for ʿUthmān more beautiful than the words of Kaʿb ibn Mālik (8):
[from the ṭawīl metre]”