When Uthman was besieged at his home in Medina by rebels, Mu'awiyah sent Habib with 4,000 Syrian troops to rescue him, but his vanguard had only reached Wadi al-Qura in the northern Hejaz when news of Uthman's murder reached him. Historian Wilferd Madelung however considers stories of Uthman's requesting aid against fellow Muslims a later invention. In the civil war that broke out following, he remained loyal to Mu'awiyah. During the armistice and negotiations that followed the first clashes between the supporters of Mu'awiyah and those of Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib, Habib, along with Shurahbil ibn al-Simt al-Kindi and Ma'n ibn Yazid ibn al-Akhnas al-Sulami, was sent as an envoy to Ali. Habib demanded of Ali the surrender of Uthman's murderers, as well as asking him to resign the caliphal office and submitting the issue of succession to a council ("shura"), terms which Ali rejected with scorn.