debauchery and flees from justice and from the execution of divine punishment.

debauchery and flees from justice and from the execution of divine punishment." When the whipping was over, al-Walid sang out a poem which meant: "O Umayyads! May God bring separation between you and me in kinship; for, whoever of you gets rich, is treated well by you, and if he becomes poor, he despairs of you!" It is said that after al-Walid received his punishment, 'Uthman was asked to get al-Walid's head shaved according to the custom for punished persons.

But he refused and said: ''Umar acted in that way, but he had abandoned it by the end of his rule." After al-Walid's dismissal from his position as governor of Kufah on account of his addiction to wine, and due to his receiving punishment, 'Uthman did not deprive him of involvement in governmental affairs. Now he was commissioned to collect the tithe from the two tribes of Kalb and Bulaqayn, and thus the former debauchee governor became a trustee of state fund and collector of taxes.

We probed into various events of al-Walid's history and found him a strange man and his friends even stranger than him. We found him to be a man notorious for adultery and addiction, who was regarded as an evil-doer by the Qur'an. This alone would be enough to show his personality and position in society to a considerable extent.

He was so dominant over the weakness and carelessness of his brother, 'Uthman, who governed the Islamic land, that he could turn him to any direction he wished, and as we saw, he so influenced him that he secured from him a free access to the life and property of the Muslims and rule over the people. He made use of his close relationship with the caliph to promote his own whims and fancies and, sheltered by this immunity, he carried out daringly and inconceivably his lustful designs.

He granted his drunkard companions, the Christian poet, extensive land, arranged for him an allowance of money, pork and wine and allowed him entry into the Muslims' place of worship in a gay and drunken state. He brought the Jewish magician into the mosque to perform his tricks and amuse the debauchee governor.

He himself stood up to prayer in the altar of the mosque, gay and drunk and feasting garments, acting as Imam of the congregation, and performing four units of morning prayer instead of two, while prostrating instead of reciting lines in praise of God, drunkenly singing poems about women and wine, and polluting the altar with vomiting.