Tabari has narrated through the chains of Abu Bashir Abedi that: Uthman’s
body was left abandoned for three days without it being buried, then Hakim bin
Hazm Qarshi came with a member of Bani Asad bin Abdul Uzza tribe, Jubair with Mutim came to Ali and discussed about his burial. And requested him to
permit his family members to bury him. Ali did that and gave permission.
When the people came to know about this, they waited on the streets holding
stones and some few people brought him out of his house and wanted to take him
to outward wall of Medina to a place called Hash Kaukab.1 The Jews used to
bury their dead over there. When they brought out the body, people stoned his
bier and wanted them to take his body far way from there.
This was reported to Ali (a.s.) and he sent someone and adjured them to
refrain from such conduct and the people obeyed him. The bier was taken out and
Uthman was buried in Hash Kaukab. When Muawiyah bin Abu Sufyan became
the governor, he had that wall demolished to connect it to Baqi and asked people
to bury their dead around Uthman’s grave and at that time it became a part of
Muslim cemetery.
In Tamamul Matun,2 Safadi has narrated from Malik that: The body of
Uthman continued to lie on the garbage heap for three days.
Ibne Abil Hadid, Ibne Athir and Dimiri have mentioned that Uthman’s body
was abandoned for three days, without burial and no prayer was recited on it. It is
said that he was neither given funeral bath nor shroud. And it is said that Jubair
bin Mutim recited prayer on him and he was buried at night.3
Allamah Amini says: There is a problem, which should be solved over
here: and it is that there are two possibilities, which come to mind. Let us
examine both of them: It is that the severe action, which was taken against the
Caliph and his murder in this horrible way, and after that prohibiting from his
funeral; abusing him and insulting him by stoning his bier; breaking his teeth; all
this necessitates one of the two things:
1. Either all companions were transgressors, because some of them
themselves committed this horrific act, some assisted his killers, some instigated
people against him, some hatched conspiracies from the back, some approved
this conduct, and some liked these terrifying circumstances and it was in the
condition that the following statements of Almighty Allah had reached their ears:
وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا النَّفْسَ الَّتِي حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ إِلَّا بِالْحَقِّ
And do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden except for the requirements of justice.”4
مَنْ قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا
“Whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he slew all men.”5
وَمَن يَقْتُلْ مُؤْمِنًۭا مُّتَعَمِّدًۭا فَجَزَآؤُهُۥ جَهَنَّمُ خَـٰلِدًۭا فِيهَا وَغَضِبَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَلَعَنَهُۥ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُۥ عَذَابًا عَظِيمًۭا (٩٣)
“And whoever kills a believer intentionally, his punishment is
hell; he shall abide in it, and Allah will send His wrath on him
and curse him and prepare for him a painful chastisement.”6
Traditional reports recorded about this subject exceed the number of Quranic
verses. Regarding the obligatoriness of the burial of deceased believers, giving
funeral bath, shrouding, praying on them, and that the sanctity of the body of a
believer is like the sanctity of their living. Numerous traditional reports are
recorded from Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.).
Thus, if these people opposed these texts intentionally they are
transgressors; if we don’t say that due to uprising against an Imam, whose
obedience is obligatory, they went out of the pale of faith.
2. Or that the Caliph had deviated from the path of truth and those people
believed that the Caliph is not from the implications of those commands and
prohibitions mentioned in Quran.