‘Uthman’s assassination (the problem of hypocrisy) The first...

‘Uthman’s assassination (the problem of hypocrisy) The first difficulty that presented itself was the assassination of ‘Uthman, of which ‘Ali used to say: “We have a vague future ahead of us.” ‘Ali had inherited a caliphate, of which the previous caliph had been murdered in a revolution, the rebels of which would not permit his burial and who had many complaints. And now this revolutionary group has joined ‘Ali. What did other people think?

Not all people had the same views as that of the revolutionaries’. Also, ‘Ali’s thoughts did not match those of the revolutionaries or of the rest of the people.

On one side was ‘Uthman and his associates, together with all the inequality, injustice and cruelty, all the advantages given out to relatives and bonuses bestowed upon friends, and on the other side were the angered groups who had gathered from different cities (Madinah5 , Hijaz6 , Basrah7 , Kufah8 , Egypt9 ), who were constantly protesting and criticizing. But ‘Uthman would not surrender himself.

‘Ali is an ambassador between the revolutionaries and ‘Uthman, which in itself is another peculiar story. Although ‘Ali disagrees with ‘Uthman’s tactics, he also opposes ‘opening doors’ to Caliph killing.

He does not want them to kill the Caliph as it would lead to rioting amongst Muslims, which itself has a long story.10 He is critical towards ‘Uthman and tries to dissuade him from the path he has taken trying to lead him towards the right path, so that this might extinguish the fire within the revolutionaries and to stop the rioting.

Neither did ‘Uthman nor did his associates agree to change their way, nor did the revolutionaries stop the upheaval which, consequently, resulted in ‘Uthman’s assassination. ‘Ali knew that ‘Uthman’s murder would become an issue that caused mutiny.

This is especially interesting in view of the strange fact that has been discovered by sociologists, historians and researchers who have studied Islamic history that some of ‘Uthman’s associates and followers played a part in his assassination (the Nahj al-Balaghah also explains this issue). They wanted ‘Uthman to be killed, for conflicts to be triggered in the Muslim World, so that they may use this to their advantage (these are present in the texts of the Nahj al-Balaghah ).

Mu‘awiyah*,* in particular, played an important role in ‘Uthman’s murder.