An absolutely amazing story!! Wisdom like this is desperately needed in our age when Muslims are being accused left, right and centre!

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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:”your enemies 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!”

– via Ali Ahmed

The resting place of Imam shafi. He was buried besides the pillar he would lean on whilst teaching his students in Cairo, Egypt