for I know that if I were to perish, thousands of souls would perish on my account.
The point of mentioning this is that our present age is ill-favoured: people swing between disgraceful deeds, and even the wisest of kings are absorbed in the world and the love of money. Among such wicked folk there can be no room for negligence or complacency.
The Arabs have a proverb: al-ʿabd yuqraʿ bi-l-ʿaṣā, wal-ḥurr takfīhi l-ishārah—“the slave is disciplined with a staff, whereas a free man needs only a gesture.” It is quoted to distinguish one who has noble roots from one who has none. There was once a time when a single man could inspire awe in all people and bring them to heel with nothing but the staff he carried on his shoulder—that man was ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, may Allah be pleased with him. The virtue of that era lay in the era itself: the subjects were occupied with their own concerns. Were people today treated in the same way, they would not bear it and corruption would quickly appear. Therefore, the ruler in our time must possess consummate statecraft and an imposing presence, so that each person busies himself with his own affairs and people feel secure from one another.
We now relate a report from which reader and listener alike may profit. The Commander of the Believers ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib—may Allah honour his countenance—was asked, “Why does admonition fail to benefit these people?” He referred to the well-known report that, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave his final counsel at the time of his death, he pointed with three of his fingers and said, “Do not ask me about the state of those.” Some Companions thought he meant three months, others three years, others thirty years, and others three hundred years—meaning that once three hundred years had passed one should not inquire about the state of those men. If the Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not ask me about the state of those,” how can exhortation avail them?
ʿAlī was questioned further and replied, “In that time the common people were asleep while the scholars were awake; today the scholars are asleep and the people are dead. What benefit can there be in a conversation between a sleeper and a corpse?”
As for our own age, it is an age in which all creatures have all but perished; people’s deeds and intentions have become corrupt. If the ruler exercises no policy over his subjects and inspires no awe, they will not remain steadfast in obedience and uprightness. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Justice is part of the religion.” By it the ruler is set aright, both elite and commoner gain strength, the subjects find goodness, security and good health, and every action is weighed in the scales of justice.