Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

Basrah, amongst others. 1 Why should ʿUthmān I alone be criticised
then for appointing his relatives.
This is exactly what one of the rebels observed when he came to know that
ʿAlī I appointed his cousin, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās, over Basrah. He said
with resentment:
ففيم قتلنا الشيخ أمس بالمدينة
So why did will kill the old man yesterday in Madīnah, 2 i.e. ʿUthmān I.
2.
He can be criticised due to the blunders and transgressions of some of his
governors. In that case they were the ones worthy of criticism not him,
unless he approved of their wrongs and that did not happen. 3
Consider the case of ʿAlī I. He appointed some people and later
discovered that they were not as he assumed them to be in their
competence. He thus said:
وليت فالنا فأخذ المال،‏ ووليت فالنا فخانني
I appointed so and so and he took wealth, and I appointed so and so and he
breached my trust. 4
But no one is reported to have criticised ʿAlī I for the flaws and
blunders of his governors. Likewise should be the approach regarding
ʿUthmān I.
1 Al-Fiṣal fi al-Milal wa al-Ahwāʾ wa al-Niḥal 4/111; al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh 3/242; Minhāj al-Sunnah al-
Nabawiyyah 6/18, 184, 360; Tārīkh al-Islām 4/288; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 8/323.
2 Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 3/353.
3 Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah 6/248.
4 Al-Imāmah wa al-Radd ʿalā al-Rāfiḍah p. 312; Maqtal al-Shahīd ʿUthmān p. 189; Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq
10/361; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 7/326.
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