Most High:

“I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.”

“I seek no provision from them, nor do I want them to feed Me.”

“Indeed, Allah is the Provider, the Possessor of Power, the Almighty.”

The obligatory purpose of public office is therefore to put people’s religious affairs in order—for if they lose their religion, they suffer a manifest loss, and whatever comforts they enjoyed in this world will avail them nothing—and to put in order those worldly affairs without which religion cannot be maintained. These fall into two categories: distributing wealth among those entitled to it, and punishing transgressors. As for those who do not transgress, their religious and worldly affairs are put in order.

For this reason, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb used to say:

“I have only sent my officials to you to teach you the Book of your Lord and the Sunnah of your Prophet, and to distribute your public revenues among you.”

When the subjects changed in some respects and the rulers in others, affairs fell into disorder. If a ruler strives, to the best of his ability, to put their religious and worldly affairs in order, he is among the best people of his time and among the best of those who strive in Allah’s cause. It has been reported:

“One day of a just ruler’s rule is better than sixty years of worship.”

In Imam Ahmad’s Musnad, it is reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The most beloved of creation to Allah is a just ruler, and the most hated of them to Him is an unjust ruler.”

In the two Sahih collections, Abū Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Seven are those whom Allah will shade in His shade on the Day when there will be no shade but His: a just ruler; a young man who grows up in obedience to Allah; a man whose heart remains attached to the mosque from the time he leaves it until he returns; two men who love one another for Allah’s sake, meeting and parting on that basis; a man who remembers Allah in solitude and tears well up