he mentioned—namely, drinking wine and engaging in debauchery—is a lie against them. Some of the reports transmitted concerning this are themselves false. It is well known that some among them were just and ascetic (1), such as Umar ibn Abd al-Azīz and al-Mahdī bi-Allah (2). Most of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs did not openly engage in these reprehensible acts. Although an individual ruler might fall into some sins, he may have repented of them; he may have had many good deeds that erased those evil deeds; or he may have suffered afflictions that expiated his sins (3).
In general, rulers’ good deeds and evil deeds alike are of great magnitude (4). Although an individual ruler may have sins and acts of disobedience not found among ordinary believers, such rulers also have good deeds not found among ordinary Muslims: enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, enforcing the prescribed punishments, waging jihad against the enemy, delivering many rights to those entitled to them, preventing much injustice, and establishing much justice.
We do not say that they were free from (* wrongdoing and sins, just as we do not say that most Muslims were free from *) (5) such things. Rather, we say that the existence of injustice and acts of disobedience among some Muslims, their rulers (6), and their common people does not preclude joining them in whatever obedience to Allah they undertake.
Ahl al-Sunnah do not enjoin compliance with those in authority except in obedience to Allah, not in