Musannaf Ibn Abi Shayba 37:583

Abu Bakr narrated to us, he said: Affan narrated to us, he said: Abu Muhsin, the brother of Hammad bin Numayr, a man from the people of Wasit, narrated to us, he said: Husayn bin Abd al-Rahman narrated to me, he said: A man from Banu Fihr narrated to me, he said: I was a witness to this matter. He said: Sa’d and Ammar came, and they sent to Uthman, "Come to us, for we wish to mention to you things you have introduced or things you have done." He said: So he sent to them, "Depart today, for I am busy, and your appointment is on such-and-such a day, until I am prepared." Abu Muhsin said: "Prepared" means I am ready for your dispute. He said: So Sa’d departed, but Ammar refused to depart—Abu Muhsin said this twice—he said: So a messenger of Uthman reached out to him and struck him. He said: When they gathered for the appointment, along with those who were with them, Uthman said to them, "What do you find fault with me for?" They said, "We find fault with you for your striking of Ammar." Uthman said: "Sa’d and Ammar came, and I sent to them; Sa’d departed, but Ammar refused to depart, so a messenger reached out to him without my command. By Allah, I did not command it, nor was I pleased with it. So here is my hand for Ammar to retaliate." Abu Muhsin said: Meaning to exact retribution. They said, "We find fault with you for making the readings into one reading." He said: "Hudhayfah came to me and said, 'What will you do when it is said: the reading of so-and-so, and the reading of so-and-so, and the reading of so-and-so, just as the People of the Book differed? If it is correct, it is from Allah, and if it is wrong, it is from Hudhayfah.'" They said, "We find fault with you for having protected the pasture." He said: "Quraysh came to me and said, 'There is no tribe among the Arabs but that they have a pasture in which they graze, other than it.' So I said that to them; if you are pleased, then approve it, and if you dislike it, then change it—or he said: do not approve it." Abu Muhsin was in doubt. They said, "And we find fault with you for employing the foolish ones, your relatives." He said: "Let the people of every province stand and ask me for the person they love, and I will employ him over them, and I will remove from them the one they dislike." He said: So the people of Basra said, "We are pleased with Abdullah bin Amir, so keep him over us." The people of Kufa said, "Remove Sa’id"—and al-Walid, Abu Muhsin was in doubt—"and employ Abu Musa over us," and he did so. He said: The people of Syria said, "We are pleased with Mu’awiyah, so keep him over us." The people of Egypt said, "Remove Ibn Abi Sarh from us and employ Amr bin al-As over us," and he did so. He said: They did not come with anything except that he found a way out of it. He said: So they departed satisfied. While some of them were on the road, a rider passed by them, and they suspected him, so they searched him and found with him a letter in a water skin to their governor: "Take so-and-so and so-and-so, and strike their necks." He said: So they returned and began with Ali, and he came with them to Uthman. They said, "This is your letter and this is your seal." Uthman said, "By Allah, I did not write it, nor did I know of it, nor did I command it." He said: "What do you think?" Abu Muhsin said: "You suspect." He said, "I think my scribe betrayed me, and I think you are involved in it, O Ali." He said: Ali said to him, "Why do you suspect me of that?" He said, "Because you are obeyed by the people." He said: "Then you did not turn them away from me?" He said: The people refused and persisted against him until they besieged him. He said: He appeared before them and said, "By what do you deem my blood lawful? For by Allah, the blood of a Muslim man is not lawful except for one of three: a renegade from Islam, or a married adulterer, or a killer of a soul. By Allah, I have not committed any of these since I became a Muslim." He said: The people persisted against him. He said: And Uthman adjured the people not to spill even a cupping-glass worth of blood. I saw Ibn al-Zubayr going out against them in a battalion until he defeated them; if they had wished to kill any of them, they could have killed them. He said: And I saw Sa’id bin al-Aswad al-Bakhtari, and he was striking a man with the flat of his sword; if he had wished to kill him, he could have killed him. But Uthman commanded the people, so they refrained. He said: Then Abu Amr bin Budayl al-Khuza’i al-Tujibi entered upon him. He said: One of them stabbed him with a spearhead in his jugular veins, and the other struck him with a sword, and they killed him. Then they went off fleeing, traveling by night and hiding by day, until they reached a land between Egypt and Syria. He said: They hid in a cave. He said: A Nabataean from that land came with a donkey. He said: A fly entered the nostril of the donkey. He said: It bolted until it entered the cave upon them, and its owner followed it and saw them. So he went to the governor of Mu’awiyah. He said: He informed him about them. He said: So Mu’awiyah took them and struck their necks.