Editing Uthman (section)

== Election of Uthman ==
{{Main|Election of Uthman}}
{{More citations needed section|date=July 2013}}
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Umar, on his deathbed, formed a committee of six people, all from the [[Muhajirun]] (early [[Mecca|Meccan]] converts), to choose the next caliph from amongst themselves.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jafri |first=S.H.M |url=https://archive.org/details/OriginsAndEarlyDevelopmentOfShiaIslamBySyedHusainMohammadJafri/mode/2up |title=Origins and Early Development of Shia Islam |date=1979 |language=en}}</ref> This committee was:
* [[Ali]]
* Uthman
* [[Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf]]
* [[Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas]]
* [[Zubayr ibn al-Awwam]]
* [[Talha ibn Ubayd Allah]]

According to [[Tarikh al-Yaqubi|Yaqoubi history]], Umar appointed [[Abu Talha al-Ansari|Abu Talha Ansari]] to this task and said: If four people gave an opinion and two disagreed, behead those two, and if three agreed and three disagreed, the three people whom Abd al-Rahman is not among them, behead them, and if three days passed and they didn't reach an agreement on anyone, behead them all".<ref>Yaqubi history, vol. 2, p. 160.</ref><ref>Translation of Tarikh Yaqoubi, vol. 2, p. 50</ref><ref>look at al-Tanbīh wa-al-ishrāf by al-Masudi page 267</ref>

Yaqoubi further adds that many negotiations took place in these three days and the result was hesitant between Ali and Uthman. Abd al-Rahman asked Ali: If we pledge allegiance to you, would you be willing to follow the Book of God (Quran) and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah and behave in the manner of the two previous caliphs (Umar and Abu Bakr)? Ali's answer to Abd al-Rahman was: I will only follow the Book of God and the Sunnah of the Messenger of God. Abd al-Rahman asked the same question to Uthman and Uthman answered positively and accepted all the conditions and therefore he became the caliph.<ref>Translation of Tarikh Yaqoubi, vol. 2, p. 53</ref>