Analysis of the Reasons Why the Leader of the Faithful (PBUH) Did Not Exercise Retaliatory Punishment for Murderers of Uthman

Uthman ibn Affan, the third Muslim Caliph (644-656 AD) was killed in a riot against him by some Muslims. Imam Ali (PBUH), in spite of his disapproval of such an act neither tried nor punished his murderers. The question therefore is for what reason(s) the Leader of the Faithful did not exercise retaliatory punishment (qiṣāṣ) for murderers of Uthman. Despite complications peculiar to the subject arising from different answers proposed to answer the question, the analysis of the subject, using descriptive and analytic methods, shows that although the Leader of the Faithful (PBUH) sought to deal with the issue and to punish Uthman’s murderers, lack of clarity as to who were directly involved in the murder, and specific circumstances that Imam Ali (PBUH) faced during his reign did not in practice allow him to take any action in that regard.