Judging on Merit

Judging on Merit

1985 8 August 14-15 Judging on Merit (547) Imam Muhammad Ibn Idris Ash-Shafii, the founder of one of the four orthodox sects of Sunnis, was born at Askalon in Palestine in A.H. 150. He was a contemporary of Abbasid Caliph, Harun Rashid.

Nature had endowed him with extraordinary talents. It is said that at seven years of age he had got the whole Quran by rote, at ten he had committed to memory the Muwatta of Malik and at fifteen he obtained the rank of Mufti. He passed the earlier part of his life at Gaza, in Palestine; there he completed his education and afterwards moved to Mecca, the home of great religious scholars. Imam Shafii was at that time in great financial straits. Being an intelligent, sincere and hardworking student, he attracted the attention of his colleagues and teachers. When the governor of Yemen happened to visit Mecca, the nobles of Mecca introduced him to the governor and strongly recommended that he be offered some official post. The governor granted their request and appointed him the A’mil (collector of revenues) of Yemen.

The uncompromising attitude of Imam Shafii soon led him into trouble with the governor of Yemen who was a cruel and unjust man. Imam Shafii could not help but advise him on certain occasions to deal justly with the affairs of the state, and restrain himself from violating the laws. Instead of paying heed to this advice, the governor turned against him and began to look for ways and means to punish him for his audacity.

He soon found a pretext in Shafii’s political thought which he supposed provocative enough to set the caliph himself against him. He immediately wrote to the Caliph Harun Rasheed that Shafii was one of the adherents of the Alavi Sayyeds. Since the Alavi Sayyeds were the rivals of the regime of that time, nothing could have raised the ire of the caliph more than this. The caliph was ignorant of the fact that Imam Shafii spent his time in the sincere pursuit of learning and he had no involvement in politics. He, therefore, wrongly judged him as a potential threat to his government and gave orders for his arrest as well as that of his companions. He was then brought to the capital, Baghdad, for prosecution.

At this critical hour, Imam Muhammad, a religious scholar of repute, who was looked upon with favour by the caliph was present in the city. On hearing that Imam Shafii had been brought to the court as a criminal, he immediately rushed to the court to intercede for him. He assured the caliph that, far from being a rebel, Imam Shafii was a great religious scholar who had nothing to do with politics and that it was his enemies who had involved him for their own selfish purposes. The caliph was convinced and the release of the great scholar secured. This incident occurred in 104 H, when he was only 34 years old; he was yet to reach the pinnacle of his fame. Indeed Imam Shafii was treated so cruelly simply because his career was still in the making, and he had yet to acquire the honourable title of ‘Imam Shafii”. People fail to judge others on merit; too often it is the outward splendour which plays the decisive role.