but nevertheless considered him worthy of the caliphate and predicted the nepotism of Uthman. Madelung is confident that this Sunni account is fabricated, which is also what Ayoub suggests. Some early reports indicate that Umar vocally opposed the combination of the prophethood and the caliphate in the Banu Hashim, and he thus prevented Muhammad from dictating his will on his deathbed, possibly fearing that he might expressly designate Ali as his successor. In this vein, Farhad Daftary believes that Ali was deliberately excluded from any position of importance during the caliphates of Umar and his predecessor, while Anthony regards Ali's disenfranchisement as self-imposed and a sign of his disapproval of the first two caliphs, even though he offered his (at times critical) advice to the caliphs. Considering all this, Jafri suggests that Umar nevertheless included Ali in the committee because of his high political standing, which made it impossible for Umar to exclude Ali. Ayoub extends this attitude of Umar to other government posts, basing his conclusion on a report by al-Mas'udi () in which the caliph hesitated to install the Hashemite Ibn Abbas () as the governor of Homs, saying that Muhammad had not given the Banu Hashim any share in the power. Rules The committee was reportedly threatened with death to reach an agreement in three days, possibly reflecting an anxiety to avoid civil unrest and discord, something that later became the anathema to Sunni Islam. Umar also stipulated some rules for the committee, who were to meet in closed caucus to prevent outside influence, according to some reports by al-Tabari. Other reports, including one by al-Tabari, indicate that the Meccan and Medinan leaders and the garrison commanders lobbied Ibn Awf. Another report by the Mu'tazilite Ibn Abi'l-Hadid () describes how Ibn Awf solicited advice from the public during the deliberations. The Ansari Abu Talha and his men were reportedly ordered by Umar to stand guard and enforce these rules: The new caliph must belong to the committee, elected by a majority of its members. In case of a tie, Ibn Awf would elect the next caliph. This might be plausible because Ibn Awf was Umar's closest advisor after the death of Abu Ubayda in 639, and belonged to a small clan of the Quraysh. Jafri, Momen, Ayoub, and Abbas favor this account. In other reports, Ibn Awf took himself out of the competition in return for being