Hazrat Usman(biography)

Biography of Hazrat Usman Ghani (RA)

                                   Hazrat Usman Ghani (RA)

Life Before acceptance of Islam:

Hadrat Uthman (R.A.) belonged to a noble family of Quraish in Mecca. His ancestral pedigree joins with that of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu 'Alaihi wa Sallam) in the fifth generation. He was from the "Umayyah" family of Quraish, which was a well reputed and honourable family of Mecca during the pre-Islamic days. In the famous battle of "Fajar" the Commander-in-Chief of the Quraish army, Harb bin Umayyah was from the same family. The descendants of this family are known as "Banu Umayyah" or "Umawwin".

Hadrat Uthman (R.A.) was born in 573 A.C. His patronymic name was "Abu Amr" and father's name was "Affan bin Abul-As". He was known by the name "Uthman ibn ‘Affan". Hadrat Uthman was one of the few persons of Mecca who knew reading and writing. When he grew up, he started business in cloth which made him very rich. He used his money in good ways and always helped the poor. Uthman (R.A.) was a soft natured and kind hearted man. He did not hesitate to spend any amount of money on seeing a man in trouble in order to remove his misery. For his noble qualities the Meccans had great respect for him.

Acceptance of Islam:

Hadrat Uthman (R.A.) accepted Islam when Abu Bakr (R.A.) preached to him. He was one of those Muslims who accepted Islam in its very early days. Though "Banu Hashim" (the Holy Prophet's family) was rival to "Banu Umayyah" (Hadrat Uthman's family), and the latter was in power at that time, yet Uthman (R.A.) did not hesitate to acknowledge the prophethood of Hadrat Muhammad (Sallallahu 'alaihi wa Sallam) which meant authority and supremacy over "Banu Hashim". This was one of the reasons why Quraish leaders, belonging to Banu Umayyah (like Abu Sufyan) were opposing the Holy Prophet(Sallallahu 'alaihi wa Sallam). Thus acceptance of Islam in such a position shows the clear-mindedness of Hadrat Uthman (R.A.). When he accepted Islam, the Quraish who once loved Uthman became his enemies. Even his relatives like Hakam (one of his uncles) began to rebuke him and chastised him severely.

One of the daughters of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu 'alaihi wa Sallam), Hadrat Ruqayyah (R.A.) was married to one of the sons of Abu Lahb (an arch-enemy of Islam). When the Holy Prophet(Sallallahu 'alaihi wa Sallam) started to preach Islam, Abu Lahb asked his son ‘Utbah to divorce her. Then the Holy Prophet married her to Hadrat Uthman (R.A.)

Emigration to Abyssinia:

When life in Mecca became hard for the Muslims, he went to the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu'alaihi wa Sallam) and sought permission to take refuge in Abyssinia along with other Muslims. The permission was granted. Hadrat Uthman and his wife crossed the Red Sea with other Muslims and migrated to Abyssinia. At the time of his migration the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu'alaihi wa Sallam) remarked: "Uthman is the first man of my Ummah to migrate (for sake of Allah) with his family." He stayed there for a couple of months and came back to Mecca when he was wrongly informed by somebody that the Quraish had accepted Islam.

ASSASSINATION:In the turmoil, Sayyiduna 'Uthman (radi Allahu anhu) himself was made Shaheed by rebels while he was reading the Holy Quran inside his house. This happened on Friday, the 17th of Zil Hajj in 35 A.H.. He was 84 years old.

Hadrat Uthman (R.A.) elected as the third Khalifah (Caliph):

Before his death, Hadrat ‘Umar (R.A.) appointed a panel of six men to select a "Khalifah" from amongst themselves and then sought his approval through Bai'at (Pledge of loyalty) by Muslim Public. He also instructed them to make the nomination within three days. The panel included Uthman,'Ali, Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas, Talha, Zubair and 'Abdur Rahman bin 'Auf (Ridwanullah-i-'Alaihim) as the members.

The panel could not arrive at any decision even after long meetings. Then, Hadrat 'Abdur Rahman bin 'Auf proposed somebody to withdraw his name in order to decide the matter. When he got no response, he withdrew his own name. The remaining members agreed that he could take a decision. He consulted each member individually except Hadrat Talha (R.A.) who was not present at Medina. It so happened that Hadrat Uthman proposed 'Ali's name and Hadrat 'Ali proposed Uthman's name for the post of Khalifah. But Zubair and Sa'd (R.A.) were more in favour of Hadrat Uthman than Hadrat ‘Ali. After more consultations with other companions and thinking over the problem during the third night, Hadrat ‘Abdur Rahman bin ‘Auf(R.A.) gave his decision in the morning of the fourth day in favour of Hadrat Uthman (R.A.).

First of all Hadrat ‘Abdur Rahman bin ‘Auf(R.A.) took Bai'at at the hands of Hadrat Uthman and then all the Muslims present in the Mosque followed suit and took Bai'at (pledge of loyalty) at the hands of Hadrat Uthman(R.A.). In this way, Hadrat Uthman (R.A.) was declared to be the third Khalifah. When Hadrat Talha (R.A.) returned to Medina, Uthman (R.A.) requested him either to accept the post of "Khalifah" (as he was among the persons proposed by Hadrat ‘Umar for the post) or to acknowledge him as Khalifah by taking Bai'at. Hadrat Talha declined to be the Khalifah and took pledge of loyalty at his hand, saying "How can I object to your being the Khalifah when all the Muslims have agreed upon you."

Tour of the Mission:

The mission sent by Hadrat Uthman toured various places and talked with the people. Three of them returned to Medina and reported to Hadrat Uthman that the conditions were normal. The fourth member of the mission Hadrat 'Ammar bin Yasir (R.A.) did not return. He was sent to Egypt where 'Abdullah bin Saba and his followers coaxed him and he started to live with them instead of returning to Medina.

Official manuscript of the Holy Qur'an:

One of the magnificent services to Islam done by Hadrat Uthman (R.A.) was to safeguard any possible change in the codex of the Holy Qur'an. After the conquests by the Muslims hundreds of thousands of non-Arabs, whose mother tongue was not Arabic, accepted Islam because of its teachings. Hadrat Hudhaifah (R.A.), one of the prominent Companions of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu 'alaihi wa Sallam), went for "Jihad" (Holy War) during that time and noticed many differences in the manner of recitation (Qira't) of the Holy Qur'an. The Syrians recited in a way different from that of Kufis while the Kufis differed from Basris and so on. As a matter of fact these differences were due to the differences in the way of writing Arabic. Seeing this condition Hadrat Hudhaifah reported the matter to the Khalifah on his return from the "Jihad" and suggested that the Medinese codex should be regarded as authentic, i.e. the Holy Qur'an, which was written and compiled in Book form during the time of Hadrat Abu Bakr (R.A.) and was kept with Ummul-mumminin Hadrat Hafsah (R.A.). Hadrat Uthman (R.A.) took that Book from Hadrat Hafsah(R.A.) and canonised the Medinese codex. He asked Hadrat Zaid bin Thabit (R.A.), the person who wrote it during the time of Hadrat Abu Bakr, to make copies of the same with the help of some other Companions like Abdullah bin Zubair and Sa'd bin 'As etc. Then he ordered all other copies, beside the Medinese codex, to be burnt and destroyed throughout the State. Those people who earned their living in the provinces as the receptacles and expositors of the sacred text were not pleased with this act. It has been discussed before that such persons criticised Uthman for burning unauthentic texts. However for this great service Hadrat Uthman (R.A.) is famous as the "Jami'ul-Qur'an" (The compiler of the Qur'an).

Wives and Children:

Hadrat Uthman was first married to the Holy Prophet's daughter, Hadrat Ruqayyah (R.A.) who died in Medina while the Holy Prophet was away on the expedition of Badr. Then he was married to the younger daughter of the Holy Prophet whose name was Hadrat Umm-i-Kulthum. She also died in the year 9 A.H. His first wife, Hadrat Ruqayyah bore him a son, Abdullah, who died at an early age. He had no child from Umm-i-Kulthum (R.A.).

After the death of his second wife Hadrat Umm-i-Kulthum, he married, the following ladies from time to time: Fakhtah bint Walid; Umm-i-'Amr bint Jundah; Fatimah bint Shaibah; Umm-i-Banin bint'Uwainah; Ramlah bint Shaibah; 'Aishah; Umm-i-Aban; and Nailah bint Farafsah, his last wife whose fingers were chopped by the insurgents.

Eleven sons were born to him from different wives. Some of them died at an early age. One of his sons, Aban became famous and held high positions during the Umayyads. He had six or seven daughters.