Never Try to Justify

A a very beautiful story!! about Imam Al-Shafi’ie ..

While Imam Shafi’i was sitting with his students, a maid came to him and said : “O Imam ! how come you fornicate by night and then turn to a preacher by day ?!!”

The students of Imam Shafi’ looked at him waiting for him to deny her claim. The Imam just looked at her and told her :”how much do you want me to pay you (as a wage for that night)?” His students became so furious; some of them started to yell, others stood up to leave the room.

The Imam told them:”consider me as a date which you eat its good part and then throw away its stone.” The students didn’t like what he said.

Suddenly, a man came running to the maid telling her:”Your house is on fire and all your children are inside of it!” All of them, including Ash-Shafi’i, run to the burning house. The Imam entered the house quickly and saved the children.

At that point, the maid confessed with a broken spirit:”the Jewish made me accuse you falsely to ruin your reputation in front of your students” The students of the Imam looked at him wondering about the reason which stopped him from defending himself in front of them.

Ash-Shafi’I said:”If I had denied the accusation, you would have split into 2 groups : a group which would not believe me and another one which would believe me but would continue to have doubts about me. So, I just wanted to entrust all my affair to Allah!

Lesson taken from that : when you are falsely accused, never try to justify yourself too much to people no matter how oppressed and wronged you felt. Entrust all your affairs to Allah because HE is The Knower of what is hidden from people.