(O Prophet! Say unto those captives who are in your hands…) [8:70].
Said al-Kalbi: “This was revealed about al-‘Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, ‘Aqil ibn Abi Talib and Nawfal ibn al-Harith. Al-‘Abbas was imprisoned at Badr while he had with him twenty Uqiyyah of gold which he had taken with him to Badr to feed the idolaters. He was one of ten men who had taken it upon themselves to feed the entire army of the unbelievers. His turn to finance the army of the unbelievers had not come yet when he fell prisoner, and so it was taken with him, and the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, then took the gold from him. He said: ‘I spoke with the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, to take the twenty Uqiyyah of gold which he took from me as my ransom. He refused and said: ‘We will not accept as your ransom something with which you had left to use against us’. The ransom of my nephew ‘Aqil ibn Abi Talib cost me twenty measures of silver, and so I said to him: ‘By Allah, you have left me begging Quraysh for the rest of my life’. He said: ‘And where is the gold you gave to Umm Fadl before you headed toward Badr? You said to her: If anything were to happen to me, this is for you and for ‘Abd Allah, al-Fadl and Qutham’. I said: Who informed you about this? He replied: Allah informed me about it. I said: I bear witness that you are truthful. I gave her the gold and none but Allah knew about it. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that you are the Messenger of Allah’. Al-‘Abbas said: ‘And Allah gave me much better than he took from me, as He said. I had twenty slaves all of whom were tending abundant riches instead of the twenty Uqiyyah of gold, and I still hope to gain forgiveness from my Lord’
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou