to the creation until it is above their heads at a distance of about a mile—some say a mile of measurement, others the “mile” that denotes a kohl-stick; whatever the case, it will be frighteningly close to their heads. Yet we believe that certain people will be spared its heat: those whom Allah shades with His shade on the Day when there is no shade but His. Among them are the seven categories named together by the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—who said: “Seven types of people will be shaded by Allah in His shade on the Day when there is no shade but His: a just ruler; a youth who grew up in the worship of Allah; a man whose heart is attached to the mosques; two men who love each other for Allah’s sake, meeting and parting upon that love; a man whom a woman of rank and beauty invites to herself, but he says, ‘I fear Allah’; a man who gives charity so secretly that his left hand does not know what his right hand spends; and a man who remembers Allah in solitude and his eyes overflow with tears.”

The just ruler is the one who exercises justice among his subjects, and no justice is sounder or more obligatory than ruling them by the law of Allah. This is the pinnacle of justice, for Allah says, “Indeed, Allah commands justice and excellence” (al-Nahl 16:90). Whoever governs his people by anything other than Allah’s revealed law has not acted justly; rather, he is a disbeliever—Allah protect us—because Allah says, “Whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, such are the disbelievers” (al-Ma’idah 5:44). If a ruler enacts statutes that contradict the sharia, knowing full well that they do, yet abandons the sharia and declares, “I will not deviate from these laws,” then he is a disbeliever—even if he prays, gives charity, fasts, performs pilgrimage, remembers Allah Most High, and testifies that the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—is the Messenger of Allah. Such a person is a disbeliever destined to remain forever in Hell.