You should pass the caliphate to one another from among yourselves only...

You should pass the caliphate to one another from among yourselves only, in the same way that team-mates pass a ball to each other in a game, because neither heaven nor hell exist.”[^15] Mas‘udi recounts the story this way: “Abu Sufiyan said, ‘O Bani Umayyah! You should preserve the caliphate for yourselves, just like teammates preserve control over the ball by passing it among themselves. I swear upon the one whom Abu Sufiyan swears upon, I always wished this for you.

You must preserve it for the inheritance of your children’.”[^16] Abu Sufiyan said this on a day when ‘Uthman gave him two thousand dinar s from the Islamic public treasury. On the same day, ‘Uthman also gave Marwan ibn al-Hakam (one of his cousins) a thousand dinar s from the Islamic public treasury.[^17] Ibn ‘Asakir quotes Anas saying that after Abu Sufiyan became blind, he came to ‘Uthman and said, “Are there any strangers…