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On Endowments

2) Narrates Sumama bin Hazan Quraishi (Tab’ee): “I was present near the house of Osman (when the army of the rebels had laid siege to it). Osman looked at the crowd from the top of his house, and said: ‘I ask you in the name of Allah and Islam, whether you know it (or not) that when the Apostle of God came to Medina there was no well of sweet water here save Bir-i-Roma (which was owned by someone). The Apostle of God, thereupon, said: ‘Is there anyone who could buy Bir-i-Roma and set it apart, as a Waqf, for the common Muslims so that all the Muslims could freely draw the water from it?’ I then, bought the well with my money and made a Waqf of it in favour of the Muslims, as a whole, and, today, you are not allowing me to drink its water and forcing me to drink brackish water like that of the sea.’ The people replied: ‘Yes, Oh God, we are aware of it.’ Hazrat Osman, after this, said: ‘I ask you, in the name of Allah and Islam, do you know (or not) that when Masjid-i-Nabawi had become too small for the devotees the Apostle of God had said: ‘Is there anyone who could buy the land of such-and-such a family (that lay adjacent to the mosque) and join it to the Mosque, and the Lord gave him a better reward, in return for it, in Paradise?’ Upon this, I had bought the land with my own money (and attached it to the Mosque), and, today, you are preventing me from offering two Rak’ats of Namaz in it?’ ‘Yes, Oh God, we are aware of it,’ the people replied. After it, Hazrat Osman said: ‘Do you know that, (at the exhortation of the Apostle of God), I had provided (all) the equipment for the army raised for the Battle of Tabuk with my money?’ ‘Yes, Oh God, we are aware of it,’ the people replied. After it, Hazrat Osman said: ‘I ask you, in the name of God and Islam, do you know that once when the Apostle of God was on Mount Subir in Makkah, and Abu Bakr and Omar and myself, too, were with him, the mountain had begun to shake till some of the rocks had fallen down. The Apostle of God had, then, struck the mountain with his blessed foot, and said: ‘O Subir! Be still. There is a Divine Apostle on you, and a true and sincere friend, and two martyrs?’ The people, again, replied, ‘Yes, Oh God, we are aware of it.’ Hazrat Osman, thereupon, said: ‘Allah-o-Akbar! By the Lord of Ka’aba! These people, also, testify that I am a martyr,’ Hazrat Osman said it thrice.”

– Tirmizi and Nissai

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