The Caliph, condoned Walid bin Uqbah bin Abi Muit bin Abi Amr bin
Umayyah, his maternal brother, the loan he had taken from Public Treasury of
Muslims managed by Abdullah bin Masud.
Balazari has written in Ansab that:1 When Walid came to Kufa, he found
Abdullah bin Masud in charge of Public Treasury. Governors often borrowed
funds from the Public Treasury and afterwards repaid the amount. Thus,
Abdullah gave him what he asked. Later asked him to repay the amount.
Walid wrote about this to Uthman and the latter wrote to Abdullah bin
Masud: You are only our treasurer, so do not object against Walid regarding the
amount he has borrowed. After that Ibne Masud threw down the keys and said: “I
thought that I am the treasurer of Muslims; and if I am your treasurer, I have no
need for that.” After returning the keys of Public Treasury, he settled down in
Kufa.
Walid and his father
Walid’s father, Uqbah bin Muit was one, who harassed the Messenger of
Allah (s.a.w.a.) most from among his neighbors.
Ibne Saad has narrated through his chains of narrators from Hisham bin
Urwah from his father from Ayesha that the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) said: “I
lived among the worst neighbors – between Abu Labah bin Uqbah bin Muit. If
they had to dispose dung, they used to do so near my house; so much so they
even threw some filth at my door.”2
Zahhak said: When Uqbah spat at the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) the spit
returned to his own face, may God curse him; and he did not achieve what he
intended, and his cheeks were burnt and as a result of that he died and was
thrown into Hell.
It is narrated from Ibne Abbas that: Ubayy Ibne Khalaf came to Messenger
of Allah (s.a.w.a.) while Uqbah bin Abi Muit prohibited him; thus the following
verse was revealed:
وَيَوْمَ يَعَضُّ ٱلظَّالِمُ عَلَىٰ يَدَيْهِ يَقُولُ يَـٰلَيْتَنِى ٱتَّخَذْتُ مَعَ ٱلرَّسُولِ سَبِيلًۭا (٢٧) يَـٰوَيْلَتَىٰ لَيْتَنِى لَمْ أَتَّخِذْ فُلَانًا خَلِيلًۭا (٢٨)
“And the day when the unjust one shall bite his hands saying:
O! would that I had taken a way with the Apostle. O woe is me!
would that I had not taken such a one for a friend!”3
And the ‘unjust’ is Uqbah and ‘such a one’ is Ubayy and the like of this report is narrated from Shobi, Qatada, Uthman and Mujahid.4