so that he might lead the funeral prayer over him, but he did not do so. The people said, “O Messenger of Allah, we have never seen you refrain from praying over anyone before this.” He replied:

“He used to hate ʿUthmān, and so Allah—Exalted is He—hates him.”

Al-Tirmidhī then said: “This ḥadith is gharīb. The Muḥammad ibn Ziyād in its chain is the companion of Maymūn ibn Mihrān, and he is extremely weak in ḥadith. Muḥammad ibn Ziyād, the companion of Abū Hurayrah, is a reliable Basran transmitter whose kunya is Abū al-Ḥārith; and Muḥammad ibn Ziyād al-Alhānī (1), the companion of Abū Umāmah, is a trustworthy Syrian transmitter whose kunya is Abū Sufyān.”

[Another ḥadith]

The ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir (2) narrated—through Abū Marwān al-ʿUthmānī (3): “My father ʿUthmān ibn Khālid told us, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Zinād, from his father, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ met ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān at the gate of the mosque and said:

‘O ʿUthmān, this is Jibrīl informing me that Allah has married you to Umm Kulthūm with the same dowry as Ruqayyah and with the same excellence in companionship.’ ”

Ibn ʿAsākir (4) also transmitted this through the reports of Ibn ʿAbbās, ʿĀʾishah, ʿUmārah ibn Ruwaybah, ʿIṣmah ibn Mālik al-Khaṭmī, Anas ibn Mālik, Ibn ʿUmar, and others; yet it is strange and rejected (5) along every route.

It is likewise reported with a weak chain from ʿAlī (6) that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“Were I to have forty daughters, I would marry them, one after another, to ʿUthmān until none of them remained.”

Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al-Umawī reported—from Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq, from his father, from al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah—who said: I asked the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, “Why do you describe ʿUthmān as ‘the arrow that flew highest’ (7)?” They replied, “Because no man, whether from the earlier or the later generations, ever married two daughters of a prophet except him.” This was recorded by Ibn ʿAsākir (8).

Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (9) narrated—from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Mulaykah—from ʿĀʾishah, who said: “I never saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ raise his hands—until the whiteness of his armpits became visible—except when he was beseeching Allah on behalf of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān.” (10)