we will not be patient with it (1); by Allah, they never reached the water nor came away unharmed. Moreover, the sword had been sheathed with respect to the Muslims, yet they drew it against themselves. By Allah, it has stayed drawn to this very day, and—by Allah—I see it remaining unsheathed until the Day of Resurrection.

More than one transmitter said:
Al-Hasan al-Basri (2) reported: “I heard ʿUthman, during a sermon, command that pigeons be slaughtered and dogs killed.”

Sīf ibn ʿUmar (3) narrated that some of the people of Madinah kept pigeons while others used jalāhiqāt (pebble-bows). (So ʿUthman appointed a man from the Banū Layth to police the matter: he would clip the pigeons’ wings and break the jalāhiqāt.)—these are small bows used for shooting pellets.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (4) said: Al-Qaʿnabi and Khālid ibn Mukhallad informed us; Muḥammad ibn Hilāl related to us from his grandmother—she used to visit ʿUthman while he was under siege—that she gave birth to Hilāl. ʿUthman missed her one day, and it was said to him, “She delivered a boy last night.” She said: He sent me fifty dirhams and a shuqayqah sunbulāniyyah (5) —a fine Sunbulani cloak—saying, “This is your son’s stipend and clothing; when a year has passed, we shall raise it to one hundred.”

Al-Zubayr ibn Abī Bakr (6) narrated: from Muḥammad ibn Salām, from Ibn Daʾb (7), who said that Ibn Saʿīd ibn Yarbuʿ ibn ʿAnkathah (8) al-Makhzumi related:
“I went out at noon when I was a young boy, carrying a bird that I would release inside the mosque, which was still under construction (9). I saw an elderly man of striking beauty sleeping with a brick—or part of one—beneath his head. I stood gazing at him in wonder. He opened his eyes and asked, ‘Who are you, young man?’ I told him. Nearby another boy was sleeping; he called him but the boy did not answer. He then said to me, ‘Call him!’ I did so, and he instructed him with something. Then he said to me, ‘Sit.’ The boy went away and returned with a ḥullah—a suit of fine clothes—and with one thousand dirhams. He removed my two garments, dressed me in the ḥullah, and placed the thousand dirhams in it. I went back to my father and told him what had happened. He said, ‘My son, who treated you in this way?’ I replied, ‘I do not know; he was just a man sleeping in the mosque—the most handsome person I have ever seen.’ He said, ‘That was the Commander of the Believers, ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan.’”

ʿAbd al-Razzāq (10) reported: from Ibn Jurayj—Yazīd (11) ibn Khuṣayfah informed me, from Abū al-Sāʾib ibn Yazīd—that