‘Uthmān bn ‘Affān
The third mirror we place before the Ummah is the life of the man of two lights, whose modesty was so profound that the angels themselves were said to feel shyness before him, whose wealth was spent without calculation for the sake of Allāh, and whose blood was shed while he sat reciting the Qurʾān in his own house.
ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān
Abū ʿAbdullāh ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayyah ibn ʿAbd Shams ibn ʿAbd Manāf al-Qurashī al-Umawī. His mother was Arwā bint Kurayz ibn Rabīʿah. He was born in Makkah six years after the Year of the Elephant and was martyred in Madīnah on a Friday in the middle of Dhū al-Ḥijjah of the year 35 AH, at the age of eighty-two by the most reliable accounts.
Ibn Saʿd records that he was of medium height, handsome of face, with a thick beard, large joints, and a fair complexion that carried a light yellowish tinge. He dyed his beard with ḥinnāʾ and katam. Adh-Dhahabī opens his biography in Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ by calling him “the Amīr al-Muʾminīn, Dhū an-Nūrayn, the one who equipped the Army of Difficulty, the compiler of the Qurʾān, the one of profound modesty and abundant generosity.”
He was among the earliest to accept Islām, brought to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ by Abū Bakr. He migrated twice—first to Abyssinia with the first group of emigrants, then to Madīnah. The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ married him to his daughter Ruqayyah; when she died after Badr he married him to her sister Umm Kulthūm. Thus he became known as Dhū an-Nūrayn—the Possessor of the Two Lights—an honour given to no other man.
His generosity was legendary even among the Companions. When the Army of Difficulty was being prepared for Tabūk, he came with seven hundred camels fully equipped, then added more until the number reached a thousand, and he poured a thousand dinars into the lap of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ turned the coins over in his hand and said, “Nothing will harm ʿUthmān after what he has done today.” He purchased the well of Rūmah and made it a free endowment for the Muslims. He expanded the Masjid an-Nabawī at his own expense. The reports of his spending are many in Ibn Saʿd, Ibn Kathīr, and the books of Maghāzī.
His modesty (ḥayāʾ) was of a degree that the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ himself testified to. Al-Bukhārī and Muslim record that the Prophet ﷺ was reclining with his thigh uncovered when Abū Bakr and ʿUmar entered and he remained as he was; when ʿUthmān entered he sat up and arranged his garment. When ʿĀʾishah asked about it he said, “Should I not feel shy before a man before whom the angels feel shy?”
He remained behind at Badr by the order of the Prophet ﷺ to care for Ruqayyah in her illness, yet the Messenger still assigned him his share of the spoils and the reward. He was present at Uḥud and the subsequent campaigns, and his counsel was sought in the major affairs of the Ummah.
When ʿUmar was dying he appointed a council of six, and the choice settled upon ʿUthmān. The people gave him the bayʿah.
Lisān ad-Dīn Ibn al-Khaṭīb, says in Raqm al-Ḥulal fī Naẓm ad-Duwal, describing the moment and the years that followed:
فَبَايَعُوا مِنْ بعْدِهِ عُثْمَانَا
أَسْمَى قُرَيْشٍ رِفْعَةً وَشَانَا
مَنْ ذا الذي يَعْدِلُ ذَا النُّورَيْنِ
صِهْرَ رسولِ اللَّهِ مَرَّتَيْنِ
عثمانُ ذُو الحياءِ والسَّكِينَهْ
والرُّتْبَةِ العاليَةِ المَكِينَهْ
الشامخُ المجدِ بغيرِ لَبْسِ
خيرُ رجالِ آلِ عبدِ شَمْسِ
فقامَ بالأمرِ قِيَاماً حَسَنَا
وواصلَ الغزوَ وأحْيَا السُّنَنَا
وعَظُمَتْ في عهدِهِ الخِلافَهْ
وكانَ للإلِهِ ذا مَخَافَهْ
وافْتُتِحَ المَغْرِبُ في أيَّامِهِ
وهَزَّ نصرَ اللَّهِ منْ أعْلامِهِ
وجرَّ مَرْوَانُ عليهِ الحَرْبَا
يا شَرَّ ما جَرَّتْهُ تلكَ القُرْبَى
فاخْتَلَفَتْ عليهِ أهلُ مِصْرَا
وأَوْسَعُوهُ ضِيقَةً وحَصْرَا
ولَقِيَ البَلْوَى بالاسْتِبْصَارِ
والصبرِ واسْتَسْلَمَ للحِصَارِ
وانْتَهَزُوا فُرْصَتَهُ وقَتَلُوهُ
يا بِئْسَ ما جَاءُوا بهِ وفَعَلُوهُ
وضَرَّجُوا مِصْحَفَهُ في حِجْرِهِ
مُفَوِّضاً لرَبِّهِ في أَمْرِهِ
“Then they pledged allegiance after him to ʿUthmān,
the most exalted of Quraysh in rank and standing.
Who can equal the Possessor of the Two Lights,
the son-in-law of the Messenger of Allāh twice over?
ʿUthmān, the man of modesty and tranquillity,
of lofty and firmly established rank,
towering in glory without ambiguity,
the best of the men of the clan of ʿAbd Shams.
He undertook the affair with excellent conduct,
continued the conquests and revived the Sunnahs.
The Khilāfah grew great in his time,
and he was one who feared his Lord.
The Maghrib was opened in his days,
and the victory of Allāh shook forth from his banners.
Then Marwān drew war upon him—
how evil was what that kinship brought!
The people of Egypt turned against him,
and surrounded him with hardship and siege.
He met the trial with clear insight
and patience, and submitted to the siege.
They seized their opportunity and killed him—
how wretched was what they brought and what they did!
They stained his muṣḥaf with blood in his lap
while he entrusted his affair to his Lord.”
In the twelve years of his rule the conquests continued: Armenia, parts of North Africa, Cyprus, and further territories in the east were opened. The most lasting of his services was the standardisation of the Qurʾān. When differences in recitation appeared among the troops, Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān urged him to act. ʿUthmān gathered the Companions, called for the pages that had been with Ḥafṣah, and ordered Zayd ibn Thābit and others to prepare a single authoritative muṣḥaf in the dialect of Quraysh. Copies were sent to the major cities. The muṣḥaf we recite today rests upon that decision.
The later years were darkened by agitation. He refused to shed the blood of Muslims to defend himself. When the rebels surrounded his house he ordered those who wished to defend him to leave. He was killed while fasting, reciting the Qurʾān, the muṣḥaf open before him. His blood fell upon the page.
Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said in Minhāj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah (6/268):
«وَالْمَعْلُومُ مِنْ فَضَائِلِ عُثْمَانَ، وَمَحَبَّةِ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ لَهُ، وَثَنَائِهِ عَلَيْهِ، وَتَخْصِيصِهِ بِابْنَتَيْهِ، وَشَهَادَتِهِ لَهُ بِالْجَنَّةِ، وَإِرْسَالِهِ إِلَى مَكَّةَ، وَمُبَايَعَتِهِ لَهُ عَنْهُ لَمَّا أَرْسَلَهُ إِلَى مَكَّةَ، وَتَقْدِيمِ الصَّحَابَةِ لَهُ بِاخْتِيَارِهِمْ فِي الْخِلَافَةِ، وَشَهَادَةِ عُمَرَ وَغَيْرِهِ لَهُ بِأَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ﷺ مَاتَ وَهُوَ عَنْهُ رَاضٍ، وَأَمْثَالِ ذَلِكَ مِمَّا يُوجِبُ الْعِلْمَ الْقَطْعِيَّ بِأَنَّهُ مِنْ كِبَارِ أَوْلِيَاءِ اللَّهِ الْمُتَّقِينَ، الَّذِينَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا عَنْهُ.»
The Companions who loved him testified to his rank. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib washed him, shrouded him, and prayed over him. Adh-Dhahabī gathers the statements of the Salaf that ʿUthmān is the third of the Rightly-Guided Khulafā and the third in rank after Abū Bakr and ʿUmar.
This is the third mirror.
Look into it until your own modesty is deepened, your own hand opened in quiet generosity, and your own patience strengthened when the people turn against you for the sake of the truth.
Bārakallāhu Fīkum
