Hazat Usman (RA) III
Please read this if you havent.
Right after Hazrat Usman’s (RA) appointment as the Caliph, his first assignment was to decide upon the fate of Ubaidullah ibn Omar who had killed a few people in an attempt to take revenge for his father’s death. Ubaidullah ibn Omar had been imprisoned for the act and Hazrat Usman (RA) decided that execution of Hazrat Omar’s (RA) son would only infuriate people. Thus, the incident was settled after long negotiations and by giving blood money to the victims. This was perhaps the first incident which instilled negativity against Hazrat Usman (RA) amongst the Persians settled in Medina.
Right after the death of Hazrat Omar (RA), there was a rebellion in many of the conquered territories to such an extent that those regions had to be reconquered. Although this was a taxing time, it helped the Muslim army develop in a lot of different ways, the most important being the formation of the first naval force (headed by Amir Muawiah) which aided in a grand victory against Byzantine forces.
It is known that Hazrat Usman (RA) preferred people from the Umayyad Clan (his cousins) for authrotative ranks, most of them being very well educated, efficient and skillful but this went against him in the worst possible manner. People started to blame him for nepotism. And although this sentiment had been there all along, specifically among the Ansars, it only turned into a rebellion activism after first 6 years* of his reign in tranquility. A lot of the people started complaining about the ostentatious display of wealth by the ruling class and the leniency shown by Hazrat Usman (RA) towards this. Many anonymous letters were written to the leading Sahabas complaining about the alleged tyranny of Hazrat Usman’s (RA) appointed governors leading to unrest in the Empire. It is still unknown who wrote those letters but they were being used to exploit the sentiments and played a major role in creating further rifts and misunderstandings.
While Sunnis believe this to be a tactic used by miscreants to overthrow the realm of Hazrat Usman (RA), by making him lose control over some provinces where he had appointed some of his closest relatives for loyalty’s sake, Shias suggest that although they had achieved success as governors, they had failed to lead the people according to the principles of Islam.
* An incident in the seventh year of his Caliphate changed everything and the young Islamic Empire ended up in a civil war which shapes up the world that we live in now. Hazrat Usman (RA), as always, was concerned about the water supplies for the people and was directing a team of workers over deepening of a well in Medina. As he leant over the wall and pointed towards a stone that needed further reinforcement. At just that mment, an old ring slipped from his finger and fell down into the well. It was no ordinay ring, it was the seal of the Prophet (SAW). Over the next few weeks, the well was searched, with the well being emptied, the mud cleaned out again and again. The seal of the Prophet (SAW) had been lost and, although, it still sounds superstitious, it marked the start of the worst that had to come.
hmmmm
now comes the question of “presidential pardon”
in the light of above stated case, do you think presidential pardon is a good thing?
are u teaching islamic history?
as a teacher i mean!
How much time is left in iftari? :/
@ farooq
hmmmm hmmmm
@ Yousuf
now thats something interesting that u have come up with. Obviously, not being an expert on the topic, I can only give u an opinion which wouldnt really be of much worth. Anyway, the time that we are looking at is the time of Caliphate where the Caliph was not only responsible for ‘civilian’ matters but was also a judge, chief of the armed forces and also an imam of the masjid. This means that while giving away the judgement, he was doing his own job and not interfering in some other’s job or coercing the judge to make a decision according to his own choice. Secondly, Ubaidullah ibn Omar was not completely pardoned, he was made to give blood money to the family of the victims.
@ AD
hehe nope. i just find our history very fascinating, stories of a time wen people were so piuous, simple, self sacrificing and yet surrounded by miscreants all along.
@ RC
lol, sleep…thats the best time machine that we have!
nice point raised there of presidential pardon and your answer does make sense too
waise from wat I have read, Hazrat Ali (RA) vocally opposed this decision especially wen he found out that it was Hazrat Usman (RA) himself who had paid for the blood money
i was about to correct you on that one, but i see you found out that hazrat usman himself paid the blood money.