This hadeeth clarifies the lofty mannerisms and good conduct of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) and their endeavours to avoid abusing each other or discussing things that would violate the honour of others.The reason for narrating this hadeeth as mentioned by Ibn Abee Shaybah in his work al-Musannaf is that Muhammad Ibn al-Hanafiyyah, the son of ‘Alee (may Allah be pleased with him) - al-Hanafiyyah was his mother’s name -was sitting with some people,and some of them started defaming ‘Uthmaan ibn Affaan (may Allah be pleased with him).He forbade them from doing that, so they asked him, “Did your father ‘Alee ever curse ‘Uthmaan?” He told them that he never cursed him, and if he had ever cursed or mentioned anything bad about him once, he would have done so on the day when some people came to him complaining about the Zakat collectors of ‘Uthmaan, whowere entrusted with the duty of collecting Zakat from people.‘Alee(may Allah be pleased with him) gave a written note to his son Muhammad and ordered him to go out to ‘Uthmaan (may Allah be pleased with him) and inform him that it contained a statement about the areas of spending the wealth of Zakat, as specified by the Prophet ﷺ; hence he could command the zakat collectors from his workers to act upon what was in it. Muhammad stated: I brought it to ‘Uthmaan, and he said, “Keep it away from us,” meaning, ‘take it away from us; we do not need it.’ This is because he was aware of what was in it.It was also said that he had something similar,which he ordered his workers to act upon. It is also possible that the charges against his Zakat collectors were not fully established before ‘Uthmaan.Alternatively, they may have been established, but political expedience required delaying the reprimand or criticising them regarding desirable acts and not obligatory ones. When Muhammad returned to his father (may Allah be pleased with him) and told him what ‘Uthmaan(may Allah be pleased with him) had said, he commanded him to put the note back in the place from which he had taken it. He did not say anything more than that and did not say anything bad about ‘Uthmaan(may Allah be pleased with him) because this was the habit of the honourable Companions, that they used to think well of each other. From the benefits that we can concludefrom this hadeeth isthat we should advise the rulers and clarify what happens from their representatives. It also expounds the virtue of ‘Alee(may Allah be pleased with him)..