Like a person who is guilty and embarrassed to go out of his house...

Like a person who is guilty and embarrassed to go out of his house, preferring to sit at home?4 You are the same man from whom in the battlefield even the bravest would run away. Now these cowards have taken over you? Why? It was then that he explained: that was my duty then. My duty now is this. During the next twenty five years, ‘Ali continued to remain, what could be called a peace-seeking and conciliatory man.

When people began to riot against ‘Uthman (the same riot which led to ‘Uthman’s assassination), ‘Ali was not among the rebels. He acted as a mediator between the rebels and ‘Uthman. He endeavored to reach a settlement according to which, from one side the rebels’ request (which was a fair request regarding a complaint about one of ‘Uthman’s governors who was being oppressive towards them) would be taken care of, and from the other side ‘Uthman would not be killed.

This is reviewed in the Nahj al-Balaghah and has surly been mentioned in history. ‘Ali (‘a) says to ‘Uthman, “I fear that you will become the murdered leader of these people. If you are killed, murder will continue to be an option for these people.

A rebellion will emerge among Muslims that shall never be suppressed.” Therefore, even during the final stages of ‘Uthman’s caliphate, which were, in fact, the most turbulent and chaotic years of his successorship, ‘Ali becomes the intermediary between ‘Uthman and the rebels. At the start of ‘Uthman’s succession to the caliphate, as a result of the deceit commited by ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf5 only two people, from the initial six, remained as candidates: ‘Ali and ‘Uthman.

The story behind this was that ‘Umar6 formed a council consisting of 6 people responsible for choosing his successor. three people stepped aside, one in favor of ‘Ali who was Zubayr7 , one in favor of ‘Uthman who was Talhah8 and one in favor of ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf who was Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas9 . Three people were left. ‘Abd al-Rahman said, “I am not volunteering.” This left only two people and the voting was left to ‘Abd al-Rahman.

Whoever ‘Abd al-Rahman votes for will have four votes (because he himself had two votes and each of the two volunteers had one vote) and according to that council, he will be chosen as the Caliph.