Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

O Allah, curse the killers of ʿUthmān and the fighters of ʿUthmān! O Allah
we would reprimand him and he would reprimand us. Whenever anything
from him would emerge he would reprimand us and we would reprimand
him. They thus made that a path to Fitnah. O Allah, You do not let them
die but with swords. 1
Furthermore, when they gathered and came from Egypt, Kūfah, and Basrah,
it had not passed the imagination of any of the Ṣaḥābah M that events will
escalate so rapidly and eventually culminate in the assassination of the Khalīfah
as a wronged martyr. 2 As soon as he was killed Madīnah became gloomy upon
its people and the seniors amongst the Ṣaḥābah were overtaken by shock and
momentarily lost their perception. 3 ʿAlī I would say:
لقد طاش عقلي يوم قتل عثمان وأنكرت نفسي
I lost my mind the day ʿUthmān was killed, and I resented myself. 4
Subsequently, ʿĀʾishah, Ṭalḥah and Zubayr M united upon seeking retribution
for the blood of ʿUthmān I, especially because each one felt some sort
of compunction due to them falling short in standing by his side and helping
him as they ought to. Similarly they had never thought that he would be killed,
whatever the situation, and that anyone would be so bold to attack the Khalīfah
of the Muslims in the capital of his Khilāfah. Had they known that, they would
have taken measures to put an end to the roots of the Fitnah and bar whatever
might contribute to it. 5
However, there is no accuracy in the claim that when the Fitnah occurred the
Ṣaḥābah I became either forsakers or fighters. 6
1 Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī 2/692.
2 Maqtal al-Shahīd ʿUthmān p. 194.
3 Tārīkh al-Khulafāʾ p. 160.
4 Mustadrak Ḥākim: chapter regarding knowing the Ṣaḥābah M: sub-chapter regarding the virtues
of Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān: ḥadīth no. 4527. He has graded the ḥadīth authentic.
5 Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah 4/323.
6 Firaq al-Shīʿah p. 4.
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