Martyrdom of Usman

because in that case I will be far from the land of the Prophet which is unacceptable for me.” In short, Usman did not allow anyone to take out weapons against the rebels and shed blood. Rather he said, “At this time, whoever abstains from taking out weapons, will be my biggest well-wisher.” He did not accept to part himself from the holy land of his beloved Prophet.

Prophet Mohammad had foretold Usman that he would be martyred. He had firm belief that it would become true one day so he was patiently waiting for it. On seeing the intensifying anger of the rebels, his belief further strengthened so he started preparing for the martyrdom. He fasted on Friday. Then he wore trousers which he had never worn before, he always wore tehmad30 (on the day of martyrdom, Usman, the epitome of modesty, wore trousers instead of tehmad so that during martyrdom any of his private body parts may not be accidently exposed). He also released twenty slaves and engrossed himself in the recitation of the Holy Quran. Up till now Husayn ibn Ali, Abdullah ibn Zubayr, Mohammad ibn Talhah and sons of many other Companions had stopped the rebels at the door of the house of Usman, which resulted in a minor fight. When the rebels could not find any other way to enter his house, they set the door on fire. A few of them climbed the surrounding houses and made their way into Usman‟s house. Usman was reciting the Quran at the time and he did not stop it. The rebels were furious, one of them kicked the holy book. Another man Kinana ibn Bishr struck Usman‟s forehead with an iron rod which made him light-headed and he fell down. His blood fell on the holy pages of Quran. A man named Amr ibn al-Hamiq then climbed on his

30 An unstitched piece of cloth wrapped around waist to cover the lower half of the body.