Documents of the Right Word

urden me with something incompatible with justice and taqwâ.”
When hadrat ’Uthmân married his son to Merwân’s brother
Hâris’ daughter, he sent one thousand dirhams of silver out of his
own property. As he married his daughter Rumân to Merwân he
gave them one thousand dirhams, too. Neither of these gifts were
from the Bayt-ul-mâl.
The allegation, “He donated one-fifth of the booties coming
from Afrikiyya to Merwân,” which Sayyed Qutb adopts from
Hurûfî books and Abbasid histories, is another falsification. In the
(hijrî) year 29 hadrat ’Uthmân sent Abdullah bin Sa’d to Africa
with one thousand strong army of cavalry and infantry troops
under his command. Upon this, bloody combats took place in the
Tunisian capital city Afrikiyya. Muslims won and obtained many
booties. Abdullah Merwân went to the Khalîfa with one-fifth of
the booties. The number of coins alone was more than five
thousand golds. It was a distance of several months’ travelling and
therefore it would be difficult and dangerous to transport all these
booties to Medîna. Merwân sold one thousand dirhams of these
and brought the remainder to Medîna. He also reported the good
news, which in turn earned him earnest benedictions. In return for
Merwân’s onerous trek and the good news he gave, the Khalîfa
forgave him for failing to deliver all the money he had received for
the property sold on the way. It was within the Khalîfa’s authority
to do so. Moreover, all this happened in the presence of the
Sahâba ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ anhum ajma’în’. If a person is sent one
thousand golds and he donates one or more golds as a tip to the
person who brings them, no one will call this extravagance. As a
matter of fact, Allâhu ta’âlâ commands that the zakât-collector be
paid as much as he needs. Another slanderous allegation is that
“he gave Abdullah bin Khâlid one thousand dirhams.” He ordered
that this person be lent some money. Abdullah paid his debt later.
When he heard that his son-in-law Hâris was doing injustice in
collecting the zakât from the merchants in Medîna, he dismissed
him from office and punished him.
’Uthmân-i-Zinnûreyn ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ would give the
uncultivated lands in Hidjâz and Iraq to people he trusted and to
his relatives, buy them agricultural implements and have them
cultivate these lands, thus providing arable land for the people. He
improved agriculture and reared vineyards and orchards. He had
wells dug and canals opened. The arid lands of Arabia became the
most fertile places in his time. This consequently brought safety
and peace to the country. Thieves and wild beasts were now
– 234 –