2579 – ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar informed us; he said: Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad informed us; he said: Saʿdān narrated to us; he said: Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Khaythamah, from Masrūq, from ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—who said when ʿUthmān was killed:

“You left him like a garment spotless of any stain, then you brought him ⦗1438⦘ and slaughtered him as a ram is slaughtered. Why was this not done before?”

Masrūq said to her, “This is your doing; you had written to the people, commanding them to march out against him.”

ʿĀʾishah replied, “No—by Him in whom the believers believe and the unbelievers disbelieve—I did not write to them so much as a single line, black or white, until I sat in this very place of mine.”

Al-Aʿmash said: They used to think that the letter had been forged in her name.