A man from Egypt came to perform the pilgrimage to the House. He saw a group of people sitting together and asked, "Who are these people?"They replied, "They are Quraysh."He asked, "Who is the elder among them?"They said, "Abdullah bin Umar."So he said, "Ibn Umar, I am going to ask you about something, and I urge you by the sanctity of this House to answer me. Do you know that Uthman fled on the day of Uhud?"Ibn Umar replied, "Yes."The man asked, "And do you know that he was absent from Badr and did not take part in it?"Ibn Umar replied, "Yes."The man asked, "And do you know that he stayed away from the Pledge of Ridwan?"Ibn Umar replied, "Yes."The Egyptian then exclaimed, "Allahu Akbar!"Ibn Umar said, "Come here, let me explain to you what you have asked about. As for his fleeing on the day of Uhud, I bear witness that Allah has pardoned him and forgiven him for it. As for his absence from Badr, he was married to the daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and she was ill. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to him, 'You will have the reward of a man who was present at Badr, and his share of the spoils.' As for his absence from the Pledge of Ridwan, if there had been anyone in the heart of Mecca more honored and protected than Uthman, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would have sent him instead. But the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent Uthman, and the Pledge of Ridwan took place after Uthman had already departed."Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ struck one of his hands upon the other and said, "This is for Uthman."Ibn Umar then said, "Take this answer with you now."
حدثنا عفان حدثنا أبو عوانة
جاء رجل من مصر يحج البيت قال فرأى قوما جلوسا فقال من هؤلاء القوم فقالوا قريش قال فمن الشيخ فيهم قالوا عبد الله بن عمر قال يا ابن عمر إني سائلك عن شيء أو أنشدك أو نشدتك بحرمة هذا البيت أتعلم أن عثمان فر يوم أحد قال نعم قال فتعلم أنه غاب عن بدر فلم يشهده قال نعم قال وتعلم أنه تغيب عن بيعة الرضوان قال نعم قال فكبر المصري فقال ابن عمر تعال أبين لك ما سألتني عنه أما فراره يوم أحد فأشهد أن الله قد عفا عنه وغفر له وأما تغيبه عن بدر فإنه كانت تحته ابنة رسول الله ﷺ وإنها مرضت فقال له رسول الله ﷺ لك أجر رجل شهد بدرا وسهمه وأما تغيبه عن بيعة الرضوان فلو كان أحد أعز ببطن مكة من عثمان لبعثه بعث رسول الله ﷺ عثمان وكانت بيعة الرضوان بعدما ذهب عثمان فضرب بها يده على يده وقال هذه لعثمان قال وقال ابن عمر اذهب بهذا الآن معك
Its isnad is sahih. Uthman bin Abdullah bin Mawhab, his reliability was already established at 1396, and we add here that he was also deemed reliable by Ibn Main, Abu Dawud, Nasai, and others. Mawhab is pronounced with a fatha on the mim and the ha, with a silent waw between them. The Hafiz in Fath al-Bari 7:48 vocalized it with a kasra on the ha, but this is a slip or a scribal error on his part. We have not seen this unusual vocalization from anyone else, and the correct form, with a fatha on the ha only, is confirmed in the Sultani edition of Bukhari, printed from the Yuniniya, 5:15. Qastallani hesitated over this, worried that what the Hafiz said might have some basis, so after giving the correct vocalization he said, 6:89, "This is how it appears in al-Far and al-Nasiriyya." Yet he vocalized it in Fath al-Bari with a kasra on the ha! He means by "al-Far" and "al-Nasiriyya" two reliable and trustworthy copies transmitted from the Yuniniya. The correct form is a fatha on the ha, as we have said. In Lisan 2:305, among the names the Arabs gave, it mentions Mawhab. Sibawayh said, "They formed it on the pattern of mafal [with a fatha on the ain], because it is a name and not derived directly from the verb, for if it were derived from the verb it would be mifal [with a kasra on the ain]. This may occur because of its status as a proper name, since proper names are among the things that deviate from the normal linguistic pattern." Likewise, the author of al-Qamus vocalized the name Mawhab on the pattern of al-Maqad, and the scholar al-Fattani likewise vocalized it in al-Mughni, 75, saying, "Abdullah bin Mawhab, with a fatha, then a silent letter, then a fatha, then a labial letter [ba]."This Uthman's name was mistakenly written in the manuscript marked "Q" as "Hammad," which is a clear error.This hadith was narrated by Bukhari, 7:48-49, from Musa bin Ismail, and by Tirmidhi, 4:323-324, from Salih bin Abdullah, both of them from Abu Awana, with this same isnad, in similar wording. Tirmidhi said, "This is a hasan sahih hadith." Bukhari also narrated it, 6:167, from Musa bin Ismail with this same isnad, in a very abbreviated form, and narrated it a third time, 7:280, through another route, from Abdan from Abu Hamza from Uthman bin Mawhab, at length, in similar wording.As for his statement, "So I bear witness that Allah has pardoned him and forgiven him," the Hafiz said in Fath al-Bari that he means the words of Allah Almighty, "Indeed, those of you who turned away on the day the two forces met, it was only Satan who caused them to slip because of some of what they had earned" [Al Imran 3:155] to the end of the verse. Uthman had already excused himself, meaning his turning away from them, on the grounds of this noble verse, as mentioned earlier in his musnad, 490.As for Ibn Umar's statement, "Go now, take this with you," the Hafiz said, "That is, combine this excuse with the answer, so that nothing remains for you in what I answered you that supports what you used to believe about Uthman's absence." Tibi said, "Ibn Umar said this to him mockingly, or meaning, take with you whatever you clung to, for it will not benefit you after what has been made clear to you."