fifty-nine million eight hundred thousand, taking into account the debt, the bequest, and the inheritance. We have highlighted this figure because al-Bukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ (1) contains a report that calls for closer scrutiny, and one ought to be alert to it (2). Allah knows best.
He accumulated this fortune—despite his abundant almsgiving and countless noble deeds (3)—from the spoils Allah granted him in jihad, from the one-fifth of the khums that was allotted to his mother (4), and from blessed commerce. It is also said that he owned a thousand slaves who paid him revenues, and that on some days he would give away all of those revenues in charity. May Allah be pleased with him and grant him His pleasure.
He was killed on Thursday, the tenth of Jumada al-Akhirah in the year 36 AH, having surpassed the age of sixty by six or seven years (5). He was brown-complexioned, of medium height, well-proportioned, and light-bearded—may Allah be pleased with him.
In that same year, 36 AH, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the Commander of the Faithful, appointed Qays ibn Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah (6) as governor of Egypt. Under ʿUthmān, the province had been governed by ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ. When the factions of Egyptian dissenters set out for ʿUthmān intending to kill him, the one who dispatched them—together with ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ, known as Ibn al-Sawdaʾ—was Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥudhayfah ibn ʿUtbah. After his father was killed at al-Yamāmah, the boy had been commended to ʿUthmān, who fostered him in his home, treated him with great kindness, and reared him upon worship and asceticism. Later he asked ʿUthmān to appoint him to office, but ʿUthmān replied, “When you become qualified, I will appoint you.” He therefore nursed a grievance (7) against ʿUthmān and requested permission to go on campaign; ʿUthmān granted it. He traveled to Egypt and fought alongside its governor, ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ, at the Battle of al-Ṣawārī, as mentioned earlier. He then began to disparage ʿUthmān—may Allah be pleased with him—(8), aided in this by Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (9). Ibn Abī Sarḥ wrote to ʿUthmān complaining of the two, but ʿUthmān paid them no heed. Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥudhayfah persisted until he incited the people against ʿUthmān; and when he learned that they had besieged ʿUthmān he seized control of Egypt and expelled from it