Hazrat Umar’s (ra) Demise & Hazrat Uthman’s (ra) Election as Khalifa
With regard to Hazrat Umar’s (ra) demise and Hazrat Uthman’s (ra) election as Khalifa, Hazrat Musleh-e-Maud (ra) states:
“When Hazrat Umar (ra) was injured and realised that his demise was imminent, he nominated six persons and advised them to elect the Khalifa from among themselves. They included Hazrat Uthman (ra), Hazrat Ali (ra), Hazrat Abdur Rahman (ra) bin Auf, Hazrat Saad (ra) bin Abi Waqas, Hazrat Zubair (ra) and Hazrat Talha (ra). In addition to them, he included Hazrat Abdullah bin Umar (ra) as an advisor, but did not declare him entitled to Khilafat. He also admonished that these people should give their verdict within three days and Suhaib (ra) should lead the prayer during that period of time. He appointed Miqdad bin Al-Aswadra to oversee the consultation and election process and directed him to gather the electoral college at one place and to guard them. He further said that the people should pledge allegiance to the person who was elected by the majority of votes and if anyone declined to do so, then he should be killed. If there were three votes on each side, then Hazrat Abdullah bin Umar (ra) would recommend who the Khalifa should be. If the members of the electoral college did not agree to the decision of Abdullah (ra) bin Umar, then the person favoured by Abdur Rahman (ra) bin Auf should be appointed as Khalifa.
These five companions discussed this matter, as Talha (ra) was not in Medina at that time, but could not come to any conclusion. After a lengthy discussion, Hazrat Abdur Rahman (ra) bin Auf asked if anyone wanted to withdraw his name, but all of them remained quiet. On this, Hazrat Abdur Rahman (ra) bin Auf withdrew his name, then Hazrat Uthman (ra) withdrew his name and then two others did the same. Hazrat Ali (ra) remained quiet; however, he then took a pledge from Hazrat Abdur Rahman (ra) bin Auf that he (i.e. Hazrat Abdur Rahman (ra)) would be completely impartial, and entrusted the responsibility of making the decision to him. For three days, Hazrat Abdur Rahman bin Auf (ra) visited every house in Medina to obtain the opinion of every man and woman in regard to who they thought should be elected as Khalifa. All of them expressed their agreement to the Khilafat of Hazrat Uthman (ra). Thus, he gave his verdict in favour of Hazrat Uthman (ra) and he became the Khalifa.”
(Khilafat-e-Rashidah, Anwar-ul-Ulum, Vol. 15, pp. 484-485)
Allama Ibn Saad writes:
“The pledge of allegiance to Hazrat Uthman (ra) took place on Monday, 29 Dhul Hijjah 23 AH. Nazzal bin Sabrah relates that when Hazrat Uthman (ra) became Khalifa, Hazrat Abdullah (ra) bin Masud stated, ‘Amongst those who remain from us, we have elected the best person and we carried out this election with utmost diligence.’”