[Article] Have You Heard the Story of The Man Who Hit Ibn Baaz on His Head?

“And Shaikh ’Ali al-’Imraan, may Allaah grant him success in all that is good, related to me [the following], saying that, ‘Shaikh Sa’eed ibn ’Ayaash al-Ghaamidi, the Chief Judge of the Courts in Khamis Mushait, now retired, said, ‘I used to be Shaikh ’Abdul-’Aziz [Ibn Baaz’s] clerk in Al-Dulam and the Shaikh would never leave until the final case, and this would always delay us.


One time, we had closed all the records and wanted to leave and then a Bedouin came in and so the Shaikh said, ‘We’ll sit and listen to what he wants.’ So I said, ‘O Shaikh, the shift is over.’ He said, ‘We will listen to the man.’ So I said, ‘It’s three o’clock.’ He said, ‘We’ll listen to what he wants, maybe he has come from far away.’



So I became extremely angry and hit the Shaikh on his head with the register and fled.

After a few days I came back to the Shaikh and apologised to him and he accepted my apology as though nothing had happened. Then I sought knowledge and studied until I became a judge and then became the Chief Judge of Khamis Mushait Court.

I learnt many things from the Shaikh, like patience with the people whose cases were brought forward and bearing their harm.

One time, a person came in after the end of the day’s shift, and the clerk had closed the register, so I asked him to open it and listen to what the man had to say, so he became angry and said, ‘The shift is over.’ So I said to him, ‘We will listen to the man, maybe he has come from far away.’

Before I knew it I felt the clerk hit me on the head with the register—and so I recalled what I had done to the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, [when I was a clerk]—and the man fled from the court. After a few days I sent after him and told the messenger to tell him that I had forgiven him.’’”

Al-Jaami li-Ahkaam al-Hajj wal-’Umrah, pp. 277-278.