the Bahzī said: If it were not for something I heard from the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), I would not have stood in this position. When [Muʿāwiyah] heard the mention of the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), he seated the people and said: While we were with the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān passed by him with his hair combed [and covered], and the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said... and he mentioned it. He said: Ibn Ḥawālah al-Azdī stood up from near the pulpit and said: Are you truly the one for this? He said: Yes. He said: By Allāh! I was present at that gathering, and if I knew I had a supporter in the army, I would have been the first to speak of it. The two additions are from al-Ṭabarānī, and only he attributed them to al-Haythamī in "al-Majmaʿ" (9/89) and said: "Its narrators are trustworthy!" I said: The isnād of Aḥmad is authentic according to the criteria of Muslim, and Muʿāwiyah is Ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Ḥimṣī. The ḥāfiẓ said in "al-Taqrīb": "Truthful, but he has errors." There is a second route, narrated by Wahīb ibn Khālid: Ayyūb narrated to us from Abū Qilābah from Abū al-Ashʿath who said: The preachers stood in (Iliya) during the leadership of Muʿāwiyah (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu); they spoke, and the last to speak was Murrah ibn Kaʿb, who said: If it were not for a ḥadīth I heard from the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), I would not have stood... and he mentioned it briefly, and in it: "A man passed by with his head covered, and he said: 'This one and his companions will be upon truth and guidance on that day.' I asked: Is this the one, O Messenger of Allāh?—and he turned his face towards him—and he said: 'This is the one.' And it was ʿUthmān (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu)."