Uthman Ibn Affan Quotes

Look at history: We know very well what happened to Christianity after the Church became powerful. It seems that the corruption of the clergy has usually been in direct proportion to the power of the Church at any given time. Some of the popes have actually been depraved. Islam didn't turn out any better. Twenty-four years after the Prophet's death his son-in-law, the Caliph Uthman ibn Affan, was killed by rebels, and this event was followed by power-struggles and violence among the Muslims and a prolonged period of conflict within Islam. Nor does the later history of lslam indicate that it adhered to its ideals any better than Christianity did. The French Revolution was followed by the dictatorship of Napoleon, the Russian Revolution by that of Stalin. After the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, the revolutionary ideals were progressively drained of their content until Mexico found itself under the dictatorship of a party that continued to call itself "revolutionary" without being so in reality.

In 644, Umar was murdered by a stab wound from a slave, and the fact that this slave was of Persian origin became a point of Sunni-Shia friction centuries later after Persia converted to Shi'ism under the Safavids.  On his deathbed, Umar appointed a committee of six men to find his successor, and this committee included Ali and the eventual choice, Uthman ibn Affan.  All six were part of the aging cohort of Sahabah and had been prominent political actors throughout the Prophet's reign and the succeeding caliphs.