Sermon (90): When Allegiance Was Intended on His Hand After the Killing of Uthman, He Said:

Leave me, and find someone else (for this caliphate) besides me. We are facing a matter that has many aspects and many colors. Which neither hearts can bear nor intellects can accept. (Look, clouds have gathered on the horizon of the world. The path is not clear.) You should know that if I accept this wish of yours, I will lead you on the path that is in my knowledge, and I will not listen to the words of any speaker or the rebuke of any criticizer regarding it. And if you leave me, then I am as you are, and it may be that I will hear and obey more than you do whoever you make your leader, and it is better for me to be a minister than to be a leader (for your worldly benefit).