Uthman saluted them and those present replied to his salutation...

Uthman saluted them and those present replied to his salutation, with the exception of Jabala. He said to his tribesmen: “Why have you replied to the salutation of a man who has done such and such thing”. Then he addressed Uthman saying: “I swear by God that unless you turn away your wicked favourites like Marwan, Ibn Aamir and Abi bin Sarah, I will put this chain round your neck”.

Allama Ibn Abi'l Hadid says that the people had become so daring that one day when Uthman was addressing the people holding in his hand the stick which was held by Prophet and Abu Bakr and Umar while delivering sermons, a person named Jehjah Ghifari snatched the stick from his hand, pressed it on his knee and broke it. In the beginning the people did not pick up enough courage to misbehave towards Uthman.

However, when the malpractices of Marwan and others continued to increase and Uthman, instead of restraining them from their evil deeds showed indulgence to them the disturbances and rebellion also became widespread. Till then only the people individually opposed and criticized Uthman and only one or two persons misbehaved towards him. However, as time passed on the entire Muslim nation became his enemy.

The people of Madina wrote letters to the Muslims of other cities on these lines: “If you are desirous of undertaking jihad you should come here, because the religion of Muhammad is being made corrupt by your caliph. Come and remove him from the caliphate”. The residents of all the cities turned against Uthman. By the year 35A.H.

the events took such a turn that the inhabitants of various cities wrote letters to one another suggesting that something should be done to get rid of Bani Umayyah and Uthman and all his governors and officers should be removed from their offices. The news about these activities reached Uthman also. He wrote letters to the residents of different cities and tried to reconcile them. Then he called his governors and senior officers and held consultations with them.

Some of them suggested to Uthman that he should rule justly and adopt the policies of Abu Bakr and Umar. Others minced their words and did not give any clear-cut advice. One of those belonging to the latter group was Mu`awiya ibn Abi Sufyan. There were still others who were not fit to tender any sincere advice because their suggestions were always based on selfishness.