his Basin—the Basin of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. O Allah, make every one of us among those who reach it and drink from it.

That Basin will be set up on the Day of Resurrection, at the very time and place where people will be in utmost need of it. On that day of the Hereafter they will be gripped by anxiety, sorrow, anguish, sweat, and searing heat, leaving them in desperate need of water. They will then arrive at the Prophet’s Basin: a vast expanse whose length is a month’s journey and whose width is a month’s journey. Two channels pour into it from al-Kawthar—the river in Paradise granted to the Prophet ﷺ—feeding it with water whiter than milk, sweeter than honey, and more fragrant than musk. Around it are vessels as numerous, as bright, and as beautiful as the stars in the sky. Whoever drinks a single draught from it will never thirst again. O Allah, make us among those who drink from it.

In this way the Prophet ﷺ instructed them to remain patient even when they encounter favoritism, for patience toward the injustice of rulers is one of the means of reaching the Basin and drinking from it.

These two hadiths, then, urge patience when those in authority monopolize the subjects’ rights. Yet we must also understand that people are ruled in accordance with what they themselves are like: if they corrupt their relationship with Allah, He sets rulers over them, as He says: “Thus do We make some of the wrongdoers authority over others because of what they used to earn” (al-Anʿām 6:129). When the populace sets itself aright, Allah grants them righteous rulers; when they do the opposite, the outcome is the opposite as well.

It is related that a man from the Khawārij once came to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib—may Allah