Mu'jam Kabir Tabarani 115 — Waththab told me (he was one of those whom)

Al-Hasan (al-Basri) said: Waththab told me (he was one of those whom Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) had freed, and he used to stand in attendance before Uthman). He said: Uthman sent me, and I called al-Ashtar for him (Ibn Awn said: I think he also said: I placed a cushion for the Commander of the Believers, and there was a cushion for him (al-Ashtar) too). Uthman said: "O Ashtar! What do the people want from me?" He said: Three things, one of which is unavoidable. He said: "What are they?" He said: They give you the choice either to hand over their affair (the caliphate) to them and say: This is your affair, so choose for it whomever you wish; or to allow retribution to be taken from yourself; and if you refuse both of these, then these people will kill you. He said: "Is one of them unavoidable?" He said: One of them is unavoidable. He said: "As for handing over their affair to them, I am not one to take off a shirt that I have been clothed with." The narrator said: And al-Hasan (al-Basri) said: He said: "By Allah! That I be brought forward and my neck be struck is dearer to me than that I divide the affair of the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) among themselves" (Ibn Awn said: This is closer to the speech of Uthman) "and as for allowing retribution to be taken from myself, then by Allah! I know that my two predecessors (Abu Bakr and Umar) also used to impose punishments, and my body cannot bear retribution. And as for your killing me, then by Allah! If you kill me, you will never love one another after me, nor will you ever fight an enemy together after me." The narrator said: Al-Ashtar stood up and left, and we waited. We said: Perhaps the people (will hold back). Just then a man came as if he were a wolf; he peered in through a door, then went back. Then Muhammad bin Abi Bakr came with thirteen men until they reached Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him). He seized his beard and pulled it this way and that, until I heard the grinding of his teeth, and he said: What use was Mu'awiyah to you? What use was Ibn Amir to you? What use were your letters to you? He said: "O my nephew! Let go of my beard. O my nephew! Let go of my beard." The narrator said: I saw him summon a man from the people with a signal of his eye, and he advanced towards him with a broad-bladed arrowhead until he drove it into his head. I asked: Then what happened? He said: Then they all fell upon him together, by Allah, until they killed him.