Shaikh Shamsuddeen Muhammad bin Hamzah bin Muhammad Al-Fanaari (rahimahullah) was a great Mufti and Qaadhi during the reign of the Abbasid ruler, Baayazeed Khan. He was born in the year 751 A.H. and was the grand teacher of the great scholar, ‘Allaamah Jalaaluddeen Suyooti (rahimahullah).
On one occasion, the ruler, Baayazeed Khan, entered the court of Qaadhi Shamsuddeen (rahimahullah) in order to testify in a certain case. When he tried to testify, Qaadhi Shamsuddeen (rahimahullah) rejected his testimony!
Baayazeed Khan later asked the Qaadhi, “Why did you reject my testimony?” Qaadhi Shamsuddeen (rahimahullah) replied, “You are not a credible witness because you do not perform salaah with jamaat in the masjid.”
On hearing this, Baayazeed Khan acknowledged his error, and to rectify it, he constructed a masjid opposite his palace. From that day on, he would perform every salaah with jamaat in that masjid and did not miss his salaah with jamaat.
(Ash-Shaqaa-iqun Nu’maaniyyah, pg. 19)
Lessons:
1. When a person is sincere in his imaan, he will not look at who is correcting him. Rather, he will look at whether the correction is valid and applicable to him or not. If it is, he will accept the correction with humility and consider it a means of his progress, not humiliation or disgrace.
2. When a person is loyal to Allah Ta‘ala, he will not compromise his Deeni standards for anyone. Hence Qaadhi Shamsuddeen (rahimahullah) rejected the testimony of the ruler of the time and did not make a special concession for him. Similarly, in our own lives, we may be faced with a situation where we have to choose between making Allah Ta‘ala happy or making someone else happy. We have to remember that our ties and loyalty to Allah Ta‘ala come first and can under no circumstances be compromised.