Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 40488 — Reports on Uthman (may Allah be)

He said: In the report of Abu Sa'id: Then a man entered upon him and said: Between me and you is the Book of Allah. He then went out and left him. Then a man called al-Mawt al-Aswad (the Black Death) entered upon him, strangled him repeatedly and then went out. He said: By Allah, I have never seen anything softer than his throat. By Allah, I strangled him until I saw his breath like the breath of a small snake, moving to and fro in his body. Then another man entered upon him and said: Between me and you is the Book of Allah, while the copy of the Qur'an was before him. He lunged at him with the sword, and he warded it off with his hand, and he cut it. I do not know whether he severed it, or cut it without severing it. He said: By Allah, it is the first hand that wrote out al-Mufassal.