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Imam Aḥmad said (1): Hushaym related to us; Muḥammad ibn Qays al-Asadī related to us, from Mūsā ibn Ṭalḥah. He said: I heard ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān while he was on the pulpit and the muʾadhdhin was giving the iqāmah, yet he was still asking the people about their affairs and the prices in the marketplace (2).

Aḥmad also said (3): Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm related to us; Yūnus—meaning ibn ʿUbayd—related to us; ʿAṭāʾ ibn Furūkh, the client of the Quraysh, told me: ʿUthmān bought a piece of land from a man, but the man was slow to take his payment. ʿUthmān met him and asked, “What has kept you from receiving your money?” He replied, “You have taken advantage of me, and everyone I meet reproaches me for it.” ʿUthmān asked, “Is that what is holding you back?” He answered, “Yes.” ʿUthmān said, “Then choose between keeping your land or taking your money.” He then added, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Allah will admit into Paradise a man who is easygoing when he buys and when he sells, when he pays and when he seeks payment.’”

Ibn Jarīr narrated (4) that Ṭalḥah met ʿUthmān as he was on his way to the mosque and said, “The fifty thousand that I owe you are now ready; send someone to collect them” (5). ʿUthmān replied, “We have presented them to you as a gift, in honor of your noble character.”

Al-Aṣmaʿī said (6): Ibn ʿĀmir appointed Qaṭan ibn ʿAwf al-Hilālī over Kirmān. An army of Muslims—four thousand strong—set out, and a flooded wadi cut them off from their route. Qaṭan feared they would miss the engagement, so he proclaimed, “Whoever crosses the wadi will receive one thousand dirhams.” They threw themselves into the water and swam across (7). Whenever a man made it over, Qaṭan would say, “Give him his reward,” until all had crossed and he had distributed four million dirhams. Ibn ʿĀmir refused to reckon the amount for him, so he wrote to ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān. ʿUthmān wrote back: “Count it for him, for he only aided the Muslims in the path of Allah.” From that day on, such payments came to be called jawāʾiz (bounties) because of that crossing of the wadi.

Al-Kinānī composed the following verses about the incident:

May my family and my wealth be ransomed for the generous sons of Hilāl,
Though hardship lay upon them.
They were the first in Maʿadd to institute the bounties,
And the passing nights revived the practice once more.
Their spears numbered more than eighty and ten
Even before the spearheads had been fitted.