I was soon married to Ruqayyah, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and people would say:

[The finest spouse for Ruqayyah is ʿUthmān. ʿUmārah ibn Zayd used to say:] (1)

[rajaz]
The loveliest pair mankind ever saw—
Ruqayyah and her husband ʿUthmān.

On this Saʿdā bint Kurayz said (2):

[ṭawīl]
Allah guided ʿUthmān through my words unto guidance;
He directed him, and Allah leads to the truth.
With sound judgment he followed Muḥammad,
a resolve that would never turn away from truth. (3)
The Envoy of truth then married him his own daughter;
they were as a full moon mingling with the sun upon the horizon.
My life be your ransom, O son of the Hāshimites;
you are Allah’s trustee, sent to all creation.

He said: The next day Abū Bakr arrived with ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn, Abū ʿUbaydah, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Asad, and al-Arqam ibn Abī al-Arqam; they accepted Islam, bringing the number who had gathered around the Messenger of Allah to thirty-eight men.

He emigrated to Abyssinia among the very first, taking with him his wife Ruqayyah, daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He later returned to Makkah and then emigrated to Madinah. When the Battle of Badr occurred, he stayed behind in Madinah to nurse the daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; nonetheless, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ allotted him his share of the spoils and his reward, so he is counted among those who fought at Badr. When she passed away, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ married him to her sister Umm Kulthūm, who likewise died while in his company.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“If we had another daughter, we would surely marry her to ʿUthmān.” (4)

He attended Uḥud but withdrew with those who turned back, and Allah has expressly declared His pardon for them. He was present at the Trench and al-Ḥudaybiyah—where the Messenger of Allah ﷺ pledged on his behalf with one of his own hands—and then at Khaybar, the compensatory ʿUmrah, the Conquest, Hunayn, Ṭāʾif, and the expedition of Tabūk; he also equipped the Army of Hardship (5).

It is related from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khabbāb that on that occasion he supplied three hundred camels complete with their saddles and pads, and from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Samurah that he came that day with a thousand gold dinars and poured them into the lap of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said, “Nothing ʿUthmān does after this day will ever harm him,” (6) repeating it twice.

He performed the Farewell Pilgrimage with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and the Prophet passed away well pleased with him. He then accompanied Abū Bakr and was an excellent companion to him,