to the Book and the Sunnah. The best among them are those who judge without personal bias and strive for justice. Many of them, however, judge according to their own desires, favouring the powerful, those who bribe them, and the like.

Likewise, cities in which the Medinan school prevailed enjoyed a degree of just governance not found elsewhere: military authority was made subordinate to the authority of those versed in the Book. This was not the case in cities where the school of the people of Iraq and their followers prevailed, where the military governor did not follow the guidance of the scholar. Allah Most High says in His Book:

“We certainly sent Our messengers with clear proofs, and sent down with them…”—to the end of the verse.

Thus, religion is sustained by a Book that guides and a sword that lends support:

“And sufficient is your Lord as a guide and a helper.”

Islam requires that the sword be subordinate to the Book. When knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah prevails and the sword follows that knowledge, Islam stands firm. The people of Medina exemplify this more than the people of any other city. This was indeed the situation during the time of the rightly guided caliphs; after their time, the people of Medina remained superior to others in this respect.

But when knowledge of the Book is deficient, and the sword sometimes accords with the Book and sometimes opposes it, the religious condition of those concerned reflects that. Whoever is guided to understand these matters and others like them will clearly see that the foundational principles of the people of Medina are sounder than those of the people of the East, to a degree that admits no comparison.