ভূমিকা
Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Voice of Human Justice (Sautu'l 'Adalati'l Insaniyah) God! Be a witness Ayesha's army forced its way into the city of Basra during a very cold night. They killed many citizens in the masjid. Then they entered the house of Uthman bin Hanif and maltreated and insulted him. Talha and Zubayr resented very much the treatment meted out by the soldiers to Uthman bin Hanif because he too was one of the distinguished companions of the Prophet.
(We have already written in detail in “Hazrat Amirul Mo'mineen” part III that the ill-treatment with Uthman bin Hanif at Basra was done on Talha and Zubayr's orders). They went to Ayesha and expressed their grief over that incident. In reply she ordered that Uthman bin Hanif might be put to death. The order was about to be complied with when a woman cried: “O Mother of the Faithful! For God's sake take pity on the son of Hanif. Just have regard for his being a companion of the Prophet”.
Ayesha thought over the matter for a while, and then said: “All right. Do not kill him but make him a prisoner”. (Tarikh Tabari etc.) An officer of Ayesha's army however said: “Beat him (Uthman bin Hanif) severely and pull the hair of his beard”. The soldiers beat him mercilessly, pulled the hair of his head, beard, eyebrows and eyelashes and then made him prisoner.
Talha and Zubayr began roaming about in both the armies and delivered speeches asking the people to take revenge of Uthman's murder on Ali. While Zubayr was delivering one such speech a man belonging to the tribe of Abd al-Qais stood up and said to him: “Please keep quiet for a while because I want to say something”. Then he addressed the Muhajirs who formed part of the people of the camel in these words: “O Muhajirs!
You are the people who embraced Islam earlier than others and are, therefore, superior to them in this respect. After the Prophet's death you chose a man for the caliphate without consulting us. After his death you chose another man as caliph without consulting us and we accepted him. After the second caliph the question of selecting his successor was decided by a six-man committee and you took the oath of allegiance to Uthman without consulting us.
Then you were dissatisfied with him and killed him without consulting us. Now you have taken oath of allegiance to Ali without consulting us. We have not declined to accept either of them as Head of the State and have endorsed your choice.