For this reason, the turmoil that befell the Muslim community through the killing of Uthmān was greater than that which befell it through the killing of al-Husayn. Uthmān was among the earliest and foremost Muslims, and he was a caliph who suffered injustice. He was wrongfully asked to step down (1), but he refused, and he did not defend (2) himself until he was killed. Al-Husayn—may Allah be pleased with him—did not hold authority; rather, he sought it until he realized that it was unattainable. He was then asked (3) to surrender himself (4) so that he could be taken captive to Yazīd, but he refused and fought until he was killed as a wrongfully slain martyr (5). Thus, the injustice done to Uthmān was greater, and his patience and forbearance [were] (6) more perfect. Both were wrongfully slain martyrs.
If someone were to compare Ali’s and al-Husayn’s pursuit of authority (7) to that of the Ismāʿīlīs, such as al-Hākim (8) and others like him, and were to say, “Ali and al-Husayn (9) were wrongdoers seeking
(1) A reads: “he says”; B reads: “that he be removed from office.”
(2) A and B read: “fight.” The word is omitted from M.
(3) N and M read: “so he was asked.”
(4) A and B read: “so that he might surrender.”
(5) A and B read: “wronged, a martyr.”
(6) The word kāna (“was”) is omitted from N and M.
(7) A and B read: “authority.”
(8) Al-Hākim bi-Amr Allāh, Mansūr ibn Nizār ibn Maʿadd ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Muhammad, was the sixth caliph of the Ubaydid Ismāʿīlīs, who styled themselves the Fatimids. He was born in Cairo in 357 AH and assumed the caliphate after the death of his father, al-Azīz, in 386 AH, when he was eleven years old. In 408 AH, aided by Muhammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Durzī, he began calling for his own deification and established a register in which the names of those who believed in him were recorded. Al-Hākim bi-Amr Allāh’s reign ended in 411 AH following his disappearance; it is said that he was assassinated. His rule was marked by cruelty, violence, and foolish, contradictory conduct. See his biography in: Wafayāt al-Aʿyān, 4:379–383; Muhammad Abd Allah Anān, Al-Hākim bi-Amr Allāh, 2nd ed., Lajnat al-Taʾlīf, 1379/1959; Grāf, “Al-Hākim bi-Amr Allāh,” Encyclopaedia of Islam; al-Aʿlām by al-Ziriklī, 8:246–247.
(9) N reads: “and al-Hasan,” which is an error.