According to one account preserved in the Hadith, when the blade slipped in, Umar groaned, “The dog has killed or eaten me.”26 He survived four days before dying of his wounds. During those four days, Umar convened an emergency deathbed council of six of the most senior Muslims, all of whom were Companions of the Prophet—the select and slowly dwindling group of people who had met and followed Muhammad during his lifetime. He charged them with picking one from among their number as his successor. The man they chose was Uthman, a merchant of the prestigious Umayya clan of the Quraysh.*
