He is the same Abu Sufyan who had played such a detestable...

He is the same Abu Sufyan who had played such a detestable role against the Holy Prophet before the appearance of Islam, as bears no parallel. Then he became a Muslim willy-nilly. He had no respect for Islam in his heart. Uthman accepted his suggestion and he paid his fullest support to Bani Umayyah, made them rich and taking the State to be a country snatched away from somebody, started treating their original owners cruelly and scornfully.

As is obvious the rightful ownership of the Islamic dominion went to Ali and his progeny. Therefore Uthman's treatment with them at the suggestion of Abu Sufyan is unparalleled. It is evident from the historical accounts that on the night of the death of Umm Kulthum, he had sexual intercourse with another woman simply because she was related to the Prophet, and did not care that his wife Umme Kulthum was about to die [^2].

To explain why people became Uthman's opponents, the historians have written that Uthman gave Fadak to Marwan bin Hakam, which had been snatched away from Fatima during the reign of Abu Bakr, the first Caliph. Fadak remained in the possession of Marwan and his descendants till Umar bin Abdul Aziz took it back from him and gave it to the Ahlul Bayt who were its rightful owners [^3].

Uthman not only gave away Fadak to Marwan bin Hakam who was his cousin and the husband of his daughter, Umme Aban, but also gave the fifth part of the booty received from Africa i.e. five lac dinars about which Abdul Rahman bin Hambal al-Jama'i al-Kindi addressing the Caliph recited sarcastic verses. In one of its verses he says: "O Caliph!

You brought the accursed Marwan near you in opposition to those who have gone before you, and made him your son-in-law, and then gave him the fifth part of the booties of Africa, doing injustice to the poor".[^4] The historians lbn Kathir and Waqidi narrate that the total value of the African booties given to Marwan was two crore twenty thousand gold coins[^5].

Tabari says that the amount was two crore five lac twenty thousand gold coins.[^6] Besides this, he was given the fifth part of the booties of Egypt also.[^7] Ibn Abil Hadid writes, "The Caliph having married his daughter to Marwan also gave him one lac dirhams from the Public Treasury. At this action of his Zayd bin Arqam brought the keys of the treasury and threw them before Uthman and said that Marwan did not deserve even one hundred dirhams out of it"[^8].