2566 – And I, Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yaʿqūb, report: Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Ruwayyānī narrated to us; he said: Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā narrated to us; he said: al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī Abū Muḥammad narrated to us; he said: Abū ʿUbādah al-Zurāqī narrated to me; he said: Zayd ibn Aslam narrated to me, from his father, who said:

“We were with ʿUthmān on the day he was besieged. The people were gathered in the place where the funeral biers are set out, so tightly packed that if a pebble had been thrown it would have landed only on someone’s head. I saw ʿUthmān appear at the little window that overlooks the Station of Gabriel and he called out, ‘Is Ṭalḥah among you?’ ⦗1429⦘ They kept silent. He repeated, ‘Is Ṭalḥah among you?’ Again they were silent. A third time he asked, ‘Is Ṭalḥah among you?’ Then Ṭalḥah stood up.

ʿUthmān said, ‘I never thought you would be in a gathering, hear me call you three times, and still not answer. I adjure you by Allah, O Ṭalḥah: do you know that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was in Mecca, left all alone, and you and I were with him—no one else besides us—he said to you, “O Ṭalḥah, every prophet has a companion from his community who will be with him in Paradise, and this ʿUthmān is my companion in Paradise”?’

He replied, ‘O Allah, yes.’

Then ʿUthmān turned away from him.