He was the maternal half-brother of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān; his mother was Arwā bint Kurayz ibn Rabīʿah ibn Ḥabīb ibn ʿAbd Shams, whose own mother was Umm Ḥakīm al-Bayḍāʾ bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib.
Al-Walid’s siblings included Khālid, ʿAmārah, and Umm Kulthūm.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had his father executed ṣabran (while bound) after the Battle of Badr when the captives were brought before him. [As he was being put to death in front of the Prophet, he cried out, “O Muhammad, who will look after the children?” The Prophet replied, “The Fire will.”] (1) The same was done to al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith.
Al-Walid embraced Islam on the Day of the Conquest (of Mecca). Later, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched him to collect the alms due from the Banū al-Muṣṭaliq. The tribe came out to receive him, but he assumed they meant to fight, so he turned back and reported this to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The Prophet then resolved to send an army against them. When word of this reached the tribe, some of them hurried to excuse themselves and explain what had really happened. Concerning al-Walid, Allah Most High revealed: “O you who believe! If a profligate comes to you with news, verify it, lest you harm a people in ignorance and afterwards become regretful for what you have done” (Surah al-Ḥujurāt 49:6). More than one Qurʾanic commentator has related this context (2), though Allah knows best how sound it is. Abū ʿUmar (3) Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr even cited consensus on the matter.
ʿUmar later appointed him to collect the alms of the Banū Taghlib, and in 25 AH ʿUthmān made him governor of Kūfah after Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ. While in office he drank wine, led the people in prayer, then turned to them and said, “Shall I give you more?”—rambling incoherently. Consequently, ʿUthmān had him flogged and dismissed him from the governorship after four years. He remained in Kūfah until ʿAlī arrived in Iraq; whereupon he withdrew to al-Ruqqah, purchased an estate about fifteen miles outside the city, and settled there, keeping clear of all the fighting in the days of ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah and thereafter, until he died on his estate this very year. He was buried there. Some say he died in Muʿāwiyah’s time, and Allah knows best.
Imām Aḥmad and Abū Dāwūd (4) each transmitted a single hadith from him concerning the Conquest of Mecca.
Ibn al-Jawzī recorded his death in this year and also mentioned the passing of the Mother of the Believers Maymūnah bint al-Ḥārith al-Hilālīyah. We have already noted that her death was in 51 AH, though it has been said she died in 63 AH or in 66 AH; the sound view is what we have stated above.