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Companions · Dhun-Nurayn · Third caliph

عثمان بن عفان

Uthman ibn Affan

Married two daughters of the Prophet ﷺ, financed the hard hours, and gave the ummah one written Qur'an.

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The account

Uthman ibn Affan was wealth wedded to shyness. The Prophet ﷺ said: "Shall I not feel shy before a man before whom the angels feel shy?" He married Ruqayyah, led an emigration to Abyssinia with her, and after her death married her sister Umm Kulthum: two lights, Dhun-Nurayn. His money moved the story at its hinges: he bought the well of Rumah and made it public water, and he equipped the army of hardship until the Prophet said nothing would harm him after that day. At Hudaybiyyah he was the envoy into Makkah, and the false report of his death triggered the Pledge under the tree; the Prophet pledged for him with his own left hand, calling it Uthman's hand.

As third caliph he expanded the two sanctuaries and, when recitation disputes spread with the conquests, commissioned the single written mushaf from the compilation kept since Abu Bakr, sending copies to the garrison cities. Every printed Qur'an on earth descends from that decision. Besieged in his house in the first fitnah, he refused to shed Muslim blood in his defense and was killed while reciting; the tradition remembers his blood on the Book he unified.

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Shall I not feel shy before a man before whom the angels feel shy?

Muslim 2401

Nothing will harm Uthman after what he has done today.

Tirmidhi 3701 (hasan)

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