Ibn Mauhib told that when ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan asked Ibn ‘Umar to act as qadi among the people he asked the commander of the faithful to excuse him. He asked him what objection he had to that when his father had been holding such an office, and he replied that it was because he had heard Allah's Messenger ﷺ say, “If anyone is a qadi and fulfils the office with justice he should rather turn away from it with neither credit nor blame.”* After that he did not ask him again. Tirmidhi transmitted it. * Or, ‘without reward or punishment’. Razin’s version on the authority of Nafi' tells that Ibn ‘Umar said to ‘Uthman, “Commander of the faithful, I shall not pronounce judgment between two men.” He replied, “Your father used to do so.” He said, “If anything was dubious to my father he asked Allah's Messenger ﷺ, and if anything was dubious to Allah's Messenger ﷺ he asked Gabriel, but I can find no one to ask, and I heard Allah's Messenger ﷺ say, ‘He who seeks refuge in Allah has sought refuge in a great One.’ I also heard him say, ‘Grant refuge to him who seeks refuge in Allah’, and I seek refuge in Allah from your making me a qadi." So he excused him, but said, “Do not tell anyone.” Razin.