When Uthman ibn Affan was slain, crowds of Muhajirun and Ansar—including Talha ibn Ubaydillah and Zubayr ibn Awam—gathered before Amir al-Muminin (peace be upon him).
Then they declared,
“The people cannot remain without a leader.”
Imam Ali replied,
“I have no need to rule over you. Whomever you choose, I shall be content with him.”
They insisted,
“We will choose none but you. We know of no one more deserving, more virtuous, and closer to the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) than you.”
Imam Ali (peace be upon him and his family) answered,
“Do not compel me. To be a minister to you is better than to be your ruler.”
But they swore,
“By God, we shall do nothing but pledge allegiance to you.”
The Imam (peace be upon him) said,
‘Then let it be only in the mosque, for my allegiance is not to be in secret.’
He was then in his house, though some report he was in the garden of Banu Amr ibn Mabdhul. He then went to the marketplace, wearing a simple, pocketless robe and a woolen turban, carrying his sandals in one hand and leaning on a bow. There, the people pledged allegiance to him (peace be upon him).
The first to give allegiance were Talha and Zubayr
Seeing Talha, Habib ibn Dhuyayb remarked,
“We belong to God! The first to pledge allegiance is lame.”
Amir al-Muminin (peace be upon him) later recalled,
“What alarmed me was how the people rushed upon me like the mane of a hyena, pressing from all directions until my two sons, al-Hasan and al-Hussain (peace be upon them), were crushed and my cloak was torn from both sides. They swarmed me like a herd of sheep. But once I accepted the burden of the caliphate, some broke their covenant, others strayed from religion, and still others plunged into tyranny—as though none of them had heard God’s words: ‘That abode of the Hereafter We grant to those who seek neither elevation nor corruption upon the earth, and the good end is for the God-wary.’ By God, they had heard it well and committed it to memory, but the glitter of this world blinded them, and its adornments deceived them.”
He (peace be upon him) also declared,
“By Him who split the grain and created man, were it not for the presence of the people and the completion of the proof by the existence of supporters, and were it not for the covenant God has taken from scholars not to remain silent in the face of the gluttony of oppressors and the hunger of the oppressed, I would have cast the reins of the caliphate upon its withers, and I would have quenched its last with the measure of its first. Then you would know that your world to me is worth less than the mucus of a goat’s nose.”
He (peace be upon him) further said,
“You opened my hand, but I closed it; you pulled it, but I withheld it. Then you surged upon me as thirsty camels rush to water, until my shoelace was broken, my cloak fell from my shoulders, and the weak people were trampled underfoot. The people’s joy in pledging allegiance to me reached the point that children rejoiced, the elderly hobbled forth, the sick struggled in pain, and maidens came unveiled in eagerness.”
