Mutawakkil spent the wealth of Muslims on his lusts and pleasures over the limit. The treasury was as his own property and he spent from it as he liked. Al-Mas’oudi says, ‘Expenditures did not reach at any time what it reached at the time of al-Mutawakkil.’ The wealth was spent on singers, the maids of the palace who were about four thousands, clowns, and the poets who disparaged the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) and this class were given great amounts. The wealth of Muslims was spent excessively in this way while it was supposed to be spent on Muslims to better their lives and conditions.
When one of his sons was circumcised, al-Mutawakkil held a festival and spent uncountable money. Al-Imrani reported that event by saying, ‘A tablecloth was spread at the bank of the Tigris and people of all classes had food. Then cups of wine were served and people drank. Al-Mutawakkil ordered woolsacks full of dinars and dirhams mixed together to be brought. Heaps of money were made before people. A caller called out that whoever drank a cup of drink could take three handfuls of that money. Every one took three handfuls and it was so on until the sunset. Al-Mutawakkil also ordered dinars and dirhams to be poured in the middle of the meeting. The money was poured and was so much that it prevented people from seeing each other. A caller called out that Ameerul Mo’minin (al-Mutawakkil) allowed the attendants to loot from those monies. People threw themselves on those heaps of money and carried them off. When night came, candles of ambergris were lit. Some of those candles were like date-palm trees which were set up at the bank of the Tigris where one at the other bank could read a book with the light of those candles. ( Al-Anba’ fee Tareekh al-Khulafa’.)