Uthman ibn Affan
عُثْمَانُ بْنُ عَفَّانٍʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān
Companion · Caliph · Early Emigrant
Biography
ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān رضي الله عنه was from the Banū Umayya clan of Quraysh, one of the most noble and well-connected families in Makkah. He became one of the earliest converts to Islām and was among those personally persecuted, though his lineage meant the Quraysh were more cautious in how openly they attacked him.
He was the first to emigrate for the sake of Islām, taking with him his wife Ruqayyah bint Muḥammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, the Prophet's own daughter. They were the first couple in the history of Islām to make the Hijra. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said of them: "They are the first family to emigrate in the path of Allah after Lūṭ and his family."
He was so universally respected by Quraysh, even by those who opposed Islām, that when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم needed to send a representative to Makkah during the standoff at Ḥudaybiyyah, he chose ʿUthmān. ʿUmar himself said: "Yā Rasūlallāh, you know me, but ʿUthmān has a better standing with them." The Quraysh would not harm ʿUthmān.
He married Ruqayyah; she died while he was nursing her at home during the Battle of Badr (he could not go to Badr because of her illness). After her death, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم gave his other daughter Umm Kulthūm in marriage to him, earning him the title Dhū al-Nūrayn (the one with two lights): the only man in history to marry two daughters of a Prophet.
After the death of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, a consultative council (shūrā) selected ʿUthmān as the third Caliph. He served from 23 AH to 35 AH, completing the compilation of the Quran in the standard Muṣḥaf and overseeing massive expansion of the Islamic state. He was martyred at home while reading the Quran, in Madīnah, in 35 AH.
Stories
The First Hijra: Fifteen Muslims Emigrate to Abyssinia
storyAfter a year and a half of public Dawah, more than a year of open torture, of camel entrails, of burning iron, of choking, of boulder and desert heat,…
Read the full story →Surah An-Najm, the Quraysh's Sajdah, and the Return from Abyssinia
storyThree months. That is how long the first Abyssinian emigrants lasted before a rumor brought them back to the very land they had fled. They had immigr…
Read the full story →The Return from Abyssinia and the Second Hijra of Eighty
storyThe first batch of Abyssinian emigrants, twelve men and five women, seventeen in total, returned to Mecca on a false rumor that Quraysh had accepted I…
Read the full story →Badr and Uhud Compared: The Theological Lessons
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: THE SAME PURPOSE, DIFFERENT TARGET Allah states a near-identical purpose for both battles, but aimed at two different g…
Read the full story →The Marriage of Hafsah bint Umar
companion biographyShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Ḥafṣah bint ʿUmar, born a few years before the daʿwah began, had married young, around eleven or twelve, to Khunays ibn…
Read the full story →Choosing Umar, Then Uthman, as Emissary to Quraysh
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: After the near-disaster of Khirāsh ibn Umayyah's mission, the Prophet ﷺ turned to a Companion of Qurashī blood, choosing…
Read the full story →Uthman's Mission Into Makkah
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: After ʿUmar declined to go himself, fearing his well-known enmity with Quraysh and having no clan left in Makkah to prot…
Read the full story →The Pledge of al-Ridwan Under the Tree
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: As ʿUthmān's absence stretched on with no news, dread spread through the camp and a rumour took hold and hardened, as ru…
Read the full story →Ibn Umar Answers a Kharijite's Charges Against Uthman
companion biographyShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Bitterness toward ʿUthmān is nothing new, the first to malign and ultimately kill him were the Khārijites. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukh…
Read the full story →Uthman Returns and Refuses to Circle the Ka'bah
companion biographyShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: News that the Muslims had taken the Pledge of al-Riḍwān reached Makkah, and Quraysh, rattled, according to al-Bayhaqī's…
Read the full story →The Terms of the Treaty, and the Two Camps of Arabia
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The treaty's terms, dictated largely by Suhayl and written by ʿAlī, were: a ten-year truce with no fighting between the…
Read the full story →Safiyyah Among the Wives: Slurs, a Boycott, and the Deathbed Tears
companion biographyShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: **A WIFE WITHOUT A CAMP** The wives of the Prophet ﷺ fell broadly into two camps, ʿĀʾishah's and Zaynab's, and Ṣafiyyah…
Read the full story →Miracles with Inanimate Objects: Stones and Food That Spoke
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The first category is miracles with inanimate things, not animals, food, or drink, but stones and the like. In Ṣaḥīḥ al-…
Read the full story →Financing the Army of Hardship: ʿUthmān, Abū Bakr, and ʿUmar
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Six months earlier the Prophet ﷺ had held the whole treasure of Ḥunayn and Ṭāʾif in his hands, and had given every coin…
Read the full story →The Two Envoys and the Miracle at Jurash
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Another story, from one of the tribes of Azd, and this one is a miracle, each of these small delegations carries its own…
Read the full story →The revelation of Sūrat al-Tawbah, barāʾah from the idolaters
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: As soon as Abū Bakr had left Medina, within a few hours, before he had even reached the *mīqāt* of Dhū al-Ḥulayfah, whic…
Read the full story →Historical context
The Establishment of the Islamic Hijri Calendar
historical note**The Arab Calendar Problem** Before the Hijra, the Arabs had no unified calendar. Unlike the Romans and Persians who had developed centralized calen…
Read the historical context →Those Not Granted Amnesty
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Before entering, the Prophet ﷺ named a handful, the books give six to nine, who were not covered by the amnesty: "kill t…
Read the historical context →The Fundraising for Tabūk: Generosity and the Mockers
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The Battle of Tabūk had no real fighting, it is a chain of a dozen small incidents from which benefit is drawn, and it o…
Read the historical context →The Emissary from Tanukh and the Three Signs
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: **A second approach to Heraclius** The lecture returns to Heraclius through a report preserved in Musnad Aḥmad. The sha…
Read the historical context →Why Surat at-Tawbah Has No Basmalah, and Who Ordered the Quran
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Before walking through the verses themselves, some background on the sūrah that carries the story of Tabūk. Sūrat al-Taw…
Read the historical context →The Grave of the Prophet ﷺ and His Two Companions
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The Prophet ﷺ was buried where he slept, Abū Bakr had reported that he ﷺ said the prophets are buried where they die, so…
Read the historical context →Was Abu Bakr Chosen or Appointed?
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: The Sīrah is usually reckoned to end not with the death of the Prophet ﷺ but with the election of Abū Bakr, and this is…
Read the historical context →Why the Fitna Among the Companions Is Left Alone
historical noteShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains: Asked whether ʿAlī gave the bayʿah, and asked often to teach the Khulafāʾ al-Rāshidūn in detail, the shaykh explains why…
Read the historical context →