He would never take his seat in the chancery unless the jurists were present. Whenever a difficult matter arose, he consulted them and ruled according to their fatwas. Toward all people—high and low alike—he showed marked humility.
Later he was relieved of the vizierate, whereupon he set out for the ḥajj and settled in the Prophet’s City. [He then fell ill.] When the illness grew grave, he went to the Prophetic Chamber and said, “O Messenger of Allah, Allah—exalted is He—has said: ‘If only, when they had wronged themselves, they had come to you, asked Allah for forgiveness, and the Messenger had asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah Ever-Relenting, Merciful’ (Q 4:64). I have now come to you, seeking Allah’s pardon for my sins and hoping for your intercession concerning them on the Day of Resurrection.” He died that same day and was buried in al-Baqīʿ. May Allah Most High have mercy upon him.
Judge Abū Bakr al-Shāmī (1)—Muḥammad ibn al-Muẓaffar ibn Bakrān al-Ḥamawī, known as Abū Bakr al-Shāmī—was born in 400 AH. He studied jurisprudence in his hometown (2), performed the ḥajj in 417 AH, and then went to Baghdad, where he trained under Shaykh Abū al-Ṭayyib al-Ṭabarī, heard ḥadith, and testified before Ibn al-Dāmaghānī, who accepted him. He remained attached to that scholar’s mosque for fifty-five years, reciting to the people and teaching them law. When Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Dāmaghānī died, Vizier Abū Shujāʿ recommended him, and the caliph al-Muqtadī appointed him judge.
He was among the most upright and scrupulous of men: he accepted no gifts from rulers, no presents from private individuals; he altered neither his dress nor his diet; he took no salary for the judgeship and appointed no deputies, but personally handled every case, showing favor to no one. At times he would order the flogging of offenders even without formal proof whenever circumstantial evidence convinced him of their guilt, continuing until they confessed. Some hold that words of Imām al-Shāfiʿī support this procedure; Abū Bakr al-Shāshī wrote a refutation of him on the matter (3), whereas Ibn ʿAqīl upheld his practice of judging by indicia, citing as evidence the divine statement, “If his shirt has been torn from the front …” (Q 12:26).
A leading jurist and debater, [al-Mashtaṭ] (4) ibn Muḥammad ibn Usāmah al-Farghānī, once appeared before him to testify, but the judge rejected his testimony when he saw that the man wore silk and a gold ring. The plaintiff protested, “The sultan himself—and his vizier Niẓām al-Mulk—wear silk and gold!” The Damascene judge replied, “By Allah, were they to testify before me about a mere bunch of herbs, I would not accept their testimony.”
On another occasion a distinguished jurist of his own school offered testimony, yet the judge refused to accept it. The man asked, “For what reason do you reject my testimony when it is valid …?”