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Whatever Allah and His Messenger have enjoined—namely obedience to those in authority and offering them sincere counsel—is obligatory for every individual even if he has not entered into a formal pact with them and even if he has taken no solemn oaths. It is binding upon him just as the five daily prayers, zakat, fasting in Ramadan, the pilgrimage to the Sacred House, and every other act of obedience commanded by Allah and His Messenger are binding. Should he nevertheless swear to uphold this—in order to reinforce and affirm what Allah and His Messenger have legislated concerning obedience to the rulers and advising them—it becomes impermissible for the one who has sworn to do the opposite, whether he swore by Allah or by any of the other forms of oath commonly used among Muslims. For what Allah has made obligatory—obedience to the rulers and sincere counsel for them—remains obligatory even without an oath; how much more so