OPPapers.com

Uthman

Background
Uthman was born in 580AD in a place called Ta’if. The clan he was born into was the wealthy Umayyad clan of the Qurayshi tribe of Mecca. His father Affan, died while he had been traveling and had therefore left a large inheritance to Uthman. After the death of his father, Uthman took up the same profession of being a merchant as he father had been. This business flourished and made him one of the richest men among the Qurayshi tribe.
Conversion to Islam
Around the year 615 Uthman converted to Islam and was one of the first people to do so. In fact he was the second adult male to covert to Islam, after Abu Bakr. Within his clan there was anger towards him for his choice to convert as they strongly opposed what Muhammad was teaching. There were only two people, from his clan who supported him and they were his maternal aunt Saadi, and his stepsister Umm Kulthum who had also converted to Islam.
Shortly after his conversion to Islam, Uthman’s wives left him and he in turn divorced them. Uthman was then asked by Muhammad to marry his daughters.
Election as Caliph and contributions to the community
In 644 Uthman become the third Caliph (successor of Muhammad as the leader of the Islamic community). The decision process to choose a new caliph there had been seven other candidates of which were all controversial. Uthman had been a compromise caliph and had not been chosen because of the qualities that his possessed. Once he had assumed office, Uthman ordered the officials to keep all of the laws that had been made by his predecessor Umar. During his time as a caliph he organized a navy, made a modification to the administrative divisions of state and had many public projects that were completed and expanded. Some of the public developments included the construction of several new mosques as well as extending, enlarging and embellishing Al-Masjid al-Nabawi at Medina and the Kaaba. A lot of the money to be used in these building projects came from their...