Abū Mūsā al-Ash‘arī  said, “I was with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in one of the gardens in Madinah, then a man came and requested that the door be opened. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, ‘Open it for him, and give him the glad tidings of Paradise.’ I opened for him, and it turned out to be Abū Bakr, so I gave him the glad tidings of what the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had said. He praised Allah, and later another man came and requested that the door be opened. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, ‘Open it for him, and give him the glad tidings of Paradise.’ I opened for him, and it turned out to be ‘Umar, so I gave him the glad tidings of what the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had said.

He praised Allah, and later another man came and requested that the door be opened. He صلى الله عليه وسلم said, ‘Open it for him, and give him the glad tidings of Paradise due to a calamity that befalls him.’ It turned out to be ‘Uthmān, so I informed him of what the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم had said. He praised Allah, and then he said, ‘Allah is sought for help.’”290 In another narration, Anas ibn Mālik  reported that when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم ascended Mount Uḥud along with Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthmān, the mountain shook beneath them. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم tapped it with his foot and said, “Be firm, Uḥud, for upon you are none other than a Prophet, a ṣiddīq, and two martyrs.”291 Both ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān attained martyrdom by being assassinated during their respective caliphates. With ‘Uthmān in particular, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم gave further details: “O ‘Uthmān, Allah—the Mighty and Majestic—may garb you in a shirt. If the hypocrites demand that you remove it, do not remove it until you meet me.”292 It was this very accusation, that ‘Uthmān was unfit to “wear that shirt” (i.e., don the caliphate), that the mobs repeated before laying siege to and then storming his house and killing him.