Hadith No: 1
Ibn Abi al-Hadid - Sharh Nahj al-Balagha
Volume: (3) - Page Number: (17)
[The text is lengthy, so only the relevant excerpt is provided here]
- .... And in the narration of Abu Mukhnif Lut ibn Yahya al-Azdi, it is mentioned that when al-Walid entered Kufa, he passed by the gathering of Amr ibn Zararah al-Nukhai, and he stopped. Amr said: "O group of Banu Asad, what a wretched welcome your brother Ibn Ithban has brought us!" Is it just and fair for him to deprive us of Ibn Abi Waqas, who is gentle, lenient, easy-going, and approachable, and send in his place his brother al-Walid, who is foolish, licentious, and sinful, both in the past and present?" The people found his arrival to be alarming and he dismissed Sa'd in response. They said: "Uthman intended to honor his brother by humiliating a community of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his holy progeny)." And this confirms what we mentioned earlier, that his condition was well-known before the appointment, and there is no doubt about it in anyone's mind. How, then, can it be said that he was obscure until he showed what he has shown?
And al-Walid was the subject of the divine statement: {Is one who is a believer like one who is a transgressor? They are not equal.}
(Surah Sajdah 32:18), for the believer here is the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), and the transgressor is al-Walid, as mentioned by the scholars of interpretation.