Note 461 — Chapter XXXI · DOMESTIC EVENTS DURING THE CALIPHATE OF OTHMAN. HIS GROWING UNPOPULARITY.

Othmân defended his innovations as based on the practice of the pilgrims from Yemen, who recited additional prayers on behalf of their distant homes; and he too (he said) had a property at Tâyif, as well as at Mecca. The matter seems at first sight altogether insignificant. But in an established ritual, the smaller the change, the greater oftentimes the scandal and indignation, as we need not go far to see. And although no point of doctrine was apparently involved, yet the practice of the Prophet had come to be regarded as an obligatory precedent in the commonest matters of daily life.