—and seized him by his upper arms (1) and asked, “Is this the one, O Messenger of Allah?” He said,
“This is he.” It was none other than ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān.
Ahmad (2) also recorded the report through Yazīd ibn Hārūn, from Hishām ibn Ḥassān, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, from Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah, in similar terms.
Abū Yaʿlā transmitted it from Hudbah, from Hammām, from Qatādah, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, from Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah; and Abū ʿAwn likewise related it from Ibn Sīrīn, from Kaʿb.
(3) Earlier we cited the ḥadith of Abū Thawr al-Fahmī in which ʿUthmān addressed the people from his house, declaring: “By Allah, I have never wearied myself with ambition, nor coveted authority, nor committed fornication in the Time of Ignorance or in Islam, and since I placed this right hand in pledge to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ I have never touched my private parts with it.” He also used to manumit a slave every Friday; if that proved difficult, he would free two on the following Friday.
His freedman Ḥumrān said: “ʿUthmān used to bathe every single day from the moment he entered Islam.” (May Allah be pleased with him.)
[Another ḥadith]
Imam Ahmad (4) said: ʿAlī ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated to us; al-Walīd ibn Muslim informed us; al-Awzāʿī reported, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, who related from al-Mughīra ibn Shuʿba that he entered upon ʿUthmān while the latter was under siege and said:
“You are the leader of the masses, and you can see what has befallen you. I place before you three options; choose whichever you will:
- Go out and fight them—for you possess numbers and strength, and you are upon the truth while they are upon falsehood;
- We break open for you a gate other than the one they control, you mount your beasts and ride to Mecca, for they will never violate its sanctuary against you; or
- Depart for Syria—the people of Syria are there, and Muʿāwiyah is among them.”
ʿUthmān replied, “As for going out to fight, I will not be the first to shed blood in the Ummah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. As for leaving for Mecca, indeed they would not deem it lawful to harm me there, but I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:
‘A man from Quraysh will commit sacrilege in Mecca, and upon him will rest half the punishment of the whole world’ (5),
and I do not wish to be that man. As for going to Syria, they are its people and Muʿāwiyah is among them, but I will never leave the land of my migration nor the neighborhood of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”
Imam Ahmad (6) also reported: Abū al-Mughīra narrated to us; Arṭāʾah—that is, Ibn al-Mundhir—told us; Abū ʿAwn al-Anṣārī related to me that ʿUthmān said to Ibn Masʿūd:
“Will you desist from what has reached me about you?” Ibn Masʿūd offered some excuse, whereupon ʿUthmān said, “Woe to you! I heard and committed to memory—contrary to what you have heard—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘He will be killed…’”