Qutaybah ibn Sa‘id, ‘Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Shaybah, and Ishaq ibn Ibrahim al-Hanzali narrated to us—and the wording is that of Qutaybah. Ishaq said: "We were informed," while the other two said: "We were narrated to"—by Jarir, from Hisham ibn ‘Urwah, from his father, from Humran, the freed slave of ‘Uthman, who said: I heard ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan while he was in the courtyard of the mosque. The muezzin came to him at the time of the afternoon prayer, and he called for water for ablution, performed the ablution, then said: "By Allah, I will surely narrate to you a hadith; were it not for a verse in the Book of Allah, I would not have narrated it to you. Indeed, I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: 'No Muslim man performs ablution and does it well, then prays a prayer, except that Allah forgives him what is between it and the prayer that follows it.'"