SirZubair
08-04-2006, 07:07 PM
This is the letter of Ali bin Abu Talib (ra) to Malik al-Ashtar, when he appointed him as the governor of Egypt. Read it fully and carefully, because what he said 1400 years ago we still haven't learned today.
wassalam
sam
IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL.
These are the orders issued by the creature of Allah, Ali, the son Abu
Taalib to Maalik, the son of Ashtar when he appointed Maalik as
the Governor of Egypt to collect Zakat there, to combat the enemies of
Islam and Egypt, to work for the welfare of its people and to look
after its prosperity.
I order you, Maalik, always to keep the fear of Allah in your mind, to
give priority to His worship and to give preference to obeying His
Commands over every other thing in life, to carefully and faithfully
follow the commandments and interdictions as are given by the Holy
Book and the traditions of the Holy Prophet (s) because the success of
a man to attain happiness in this world and in the next depends upon
these qualities, and a failure to achieve these attributes brings
about total failure in both the worlds.
I order you to use your head, heart, hands and tongue to help the
creatures of Allah because the Almighty Allah holds Himself
responsible to help those who sincerely try their best to help Him.
Allah has further ordered you to keep your desires under control, to
keep yourself under restraint when extravagant and inordinate
yearnings and cravings try to drive you towards vice and wickedness
because usually your 'self' tries to incite and drag you towards
infamy and damnation unless the Merciful Lord comes to your help.
Let it be known to you, Maalik, that I am sending you as a governor to
a country which has seen many regimes before this. Some of them were
benign, sympathetic and good, while others were tyrannical, oppressive
and cruel. People will judge your regime as critically as you have
studied the activities of other regimes and they will criticize you in
the same way as you have censured or approved other rulers.
You must know that a good and virtuous man is known and recognized by
the good that is said about him and the praise which Allah has
destined him to receive from others. Therefore, make your mind the
source and fountain-head of good thoughts, good intentions and good
deeds. This can only be attained by keeping a strict control on your
desires and yearnings, however much they may try to incite and coerce
you. Remember that the best way to do justice to your inner self and
to keep it out of harm is to restrain it from vice and from things
which the 'self' inordinately and irrationally desires.
Maalik! You must create in your mind kindness, compassion and love for
your subjects. Do not behave towards them as if you are a voracious
and ravenous beast and as if your success lies in devouring them.
Remember, Maalik, that amongst your subjects there are two kinds of
people: those who have the same religion as you have; they are
brothers to you, and those who have religions other than that of
yours, they are human beings like you. Men of either category suffer
>from the same weaknesses and disabilities that human beings are
inclined to, they commit sins, indulge in vices either intentionally
or foolishly and unintentionally without realizing the enormity of
their deeds. Let your mercy and compassion come to their rescue and
help in the same way and to the same extent that you expect Allah to
show mercy and forgiveness to you.
Maalik! You must never forget that if you are a ruler over them than
the caliph is the ruler over you and Allah is the Supreme Lord over
the caliph. And the reality is that He has appointed you as the
governor and tested you through the responsibility of this rulership
over them.
Never think of raising yourself to such a false prestige that you can
declare war against Allah because you cannot ward off His Wrath and
you can never be free from the need of His Mercy and Compassion.
Do not feel ashamed to forgive and forget. Do not hurry over
punishments and do not be pleased and do not be proud of your power to
punish. Do not get angry and lose your temper quickly over the
mistakes and failures of those over whom you rule. On the contrary, be
patient and sympathetic with them. Anger and desire of vengeance are
not going to be of much help to you in your administration.
Never say to yourself, "I am their Lord, their ruler and all in all
over them and that I must be obeyed submissively and humbly" because
such a thought will unbalance your mind, will make you vain and
arrogant, will weaken your faith in religion and will make you seek
support of any power other than that of Allah . If you ever feel any
pride or vanity on account of your sway and rule over your subjects
then think of the supreme sway and rule of the Lord over the Universe,
the extent of His creations, the supremacy of His Might and Glory, His
Power to do things which you cannot even dream of doing and His
control over you which is more dominating than that which you can ever
achieve over anything around you. Such thoughts will cure your mental
weakness, will keep you away from vanity and rebellion (against
Allah), will reduce your arrogance and haughtiness and will take you
back to the sanity which you had foolishly deserted.
Take care never to think of bringing yourself at par with Allah, never
to think of matching your power with Him and contesting His Glory and
ever to pretend that you possess might and power like Him because the
Mighty Lord will always humble pitiless tyrants and will degrade all
pretenders of His Power and Might.
So far as your own affairs or those of your relatives and friends are
concerned take care that you do not violate the duties laid down upon
you by Allah and do not usurp the rights of mankind, be impartial and
do justice to them because if you give up equity and justice then you
will certainly be a tyrant and an oppressor. And whoever tyrannizes
and oppresses the creatures of Allah, will earn enmity of Allah along
with the hatred of those whom he has oppressed; and whoever earns the
Wrath of Allah loses all chances of salvation and he has no excuse to
offer on the Day of Judgement.
Every tyrant and oppressor is an enemy of Allah unless he repents and
gives up oppression. Remember, Maalik! that there is nothing in this
world more effective to turn His Blessings into His Wrath quicker than
to insist upon oppression over His creatures because the Merciful
Allah will always hear the prayers of those who have been oppressed
and He will give no chance to oppressors.
You must always appreciate and adopt a policy which is neither too
severe nor too lenient, a policy which is based upon equity will be
largely appreciated. Remember that the displeasure of common men, the
have-nots and the depressed persons more overbalances than the
approval of important persons, while the displeasure of a few big
people will be excused by the Lord if the general public and the
masses of your subjects are happy with you.
Remember, Maalik! that usually these big personages are mentally the
scum of the human society, they are the people who will be the worst
drag upon you during your moments of peace and happiness, and the
least useful to you during your hours of need and adversity, they hate
justice the most, they will keep on demanding more and more out of the
State resources and will seldom be satisfied with what they receive
and will never be obliged for the favour shown to them if their
demands are justifiable refused, they will never accept any reasonable
excuse or any rational argument and when the time changes, you will
never find them staunch, faithful and loyal.
While the common men, the poor and apparently the less important
section of your subjects are the pillars of Islam, they are the real
assemblage of Muslims and the power and defensive force against the
enemies of Islam. Keep your mind on their affairs, be more friendly
with them and secure their trust and goodwill.
But be careful in forming your contacts (whether with the most
important persons or the commoners); keep such people away from you
and think them to be the enemy of the State who are scandal-mongers
and who try to find fault with others and carry on propaganda against
them because everywhere people have weaknesses and failings and it is
the duty of the government to overlook (minor) shortcomings. You must
not try to go in search of those weaknesses which are hidden from you,
leave them to Allah, and about those weaknesses which come to your
notice, you must try to teach them how to overcome them. Try not to
expose the weaknesses of the people and Allah will conceal your own
weaknesses which you do not want anybody to know.
Do not give cause to the people to envy each other (man against man,
tribe against tribe or one section of the society against the other).
Try to alleviate and root out mutual distrust and enmity from amongst
your subjects.
Be fair, impartial and just in your dealings with all, individually
and collectively and be careful not to make your person, position and
favours act as sources of malice. Do not let any such thing or such
person come near to you who does not deserve your nearness and your
favour. Never lower your dignity and prestige.
Remember that backbiters and scandal-mongers belong to a mean and
cunning group, though they pretend to be sincere advisers. Do not make
haste to believe the news they bring and do not heed to their advice.
Do not accept the advice of misers, they will try their best to keep
you away from acts of kindness and from doing good to others. They
will make you frightened of poverty.
Similarly do not allow cowards to act as your advisers because they
will make you timid in enforcing your orders, will scare you from
handling important affairs boldly and will make your enterprises and
invasions timid and timorous attempts. At the same time avoid greedy
and covetous persons who would aspire to the position of acting as
your counsellor because he will teach you how to exploit the community
and how to oppress people to get their wealth. Remember that
miserliness, cowardice and greed appear to be different wicked
qualities but they all arise from the same evil mentality of having no
faith and no trust in Allah.
Your worst ministers will be the men who had been ministers to the
despotic rulers before you and who had been a party o atrocities
committed by them. Such persons should not be taken into your
confidence and should not be trusted because they have aided sinners
and have assisted tyrants and cruel rulers.
In their stead you can comfortably find persons who are equally wise
and learned but who have not developed sinful and criminal
mentalities, who have neither helped the tyrants in their tyrannies
nor have they assisted them to carry on their sinful deeds. Such
persons will prove the least troublesome to you. They will be the most
helpful. They will sincerely sympathise with you. If you take them in
your confidence they will sever their connections with your opponents.
Keep such people with you as your companions in your informal company
as well as in official gatherings in audience. From amongst such
honest and humane companions and ministers some would receive your
fullest confidence and trust. They are those who can always speak out
the bitter truth to you and unreservedly and without fear of your
status, can refuse to assist you or associate with you in the deeds
which Allah does not like His good creatures to commit.
Select honest, truthful and pious people as your companions. Train
them not to flatter you and not to seek your favour by false praises
because flattery and false praises create vanity and conceit and they
make a man lose sight of his real self and ignore his duties.
You should not treat good and bad people alike because in this way you
will be discouraging good persons and at the same time emboldening the
wicked to carry on their wickedness. Everyone should receive the
treatment which his deeds make him deserve.
Try carefully to realize that a ruler can create goodwill in the minds
of his subjects and can make them faithful and sincere to him only
when he is kind and considerate to them, when he reduces their
troubles, when he does not oppress them and when he never asks for
things which are beyond their power.
These are the principles which you should keep in mind and act upon.
Let your attitude be such that they do not lose faith in you because a
good faith on their part will reduce many troubles of administration
and will relieve you of many worries and anxieties. And so far as your
confidence and trust is concerned, let it rest with those people whom
you have tested in difficulties and whom you have befriended, but you
should always mistrust those people whom you have wronged or who have
proved themselves undeserving, inefficient or unfaithful.
Do not give up those practices and do not break those rules which good
Muslims have evolved or introduced before you, which have created
unity and amity among the various sections of the society and which
have benefited the masses.
Do not break them and do not introduce innovations because if you do
away with those good rules and traditions, the reward of having
introduced them will go to those who evolved them and the punishment
of having despoiled them will be your lot.
You must know, Maalik, that the people over whom you rule are divided
into classes and grades and the prosperity and welfare of each class
of the society individually and collectively are so interdependent
upon the well-being of the other classes that the whole set-up
represents a closely woven net and reciprocal aspect. One class cannot
exist peacefully, cannot live happily and cannot work without the
support and good wishes of the other.
Amongst them there are the soldiers of the army of Allah who defend
His cause, the next class is that of the secretaries of the State to
whom duties of writing out and issuing special or general orders are
assigned, the third group is of the judges and magistrates to
administer justice, the fourth is of officers who maintain law and
order and guard the peace and prosperity of the country. Then there
are common men, the Muslims who pay the taxes levied by the
government, and non-Muslims who pay the taxes levied by the
government, and non-Muslims who pay tribute to the State (in lieu of
taxes). Then comes the class of men who carry on various professions
and trades and the last but not the least are the poor and the
have-nots who are considered as the lowest class of the society. The
Merciful Allah has fixed rights and duties of each one of them. They
have been either mentioned in His Book or explained through the
instructions of the Holy Prophet (s). A complete code of them is
preserved with us.
As far as the soldiers are concerned, they are by the commands of
Allah a fortress and stronghold to guard and defend the subjects and
the State. They are the ornaments of the ruler and the country. They
provide power and protection to the religion. They propagate and
preserve peace among mankind. In fact, they are the real guardians of
peace and through them good internal administration can be maintained.
The upkeep and maintenance of an army depends upon the taxes collected
by the State out of which Allah has fixed for them a share. With this
amount they provide for their requirements, maintain themselves and
their arms in sound position to defend the religion and the cause of
justice.
The army and the common men (common citizens who pay taxes or
tributes) are two important classes, but in a Welfare State their
well-being cannot be guaranteed without proper functioning and
preservation of the other classes, the judges and magistrates, the
secretaries of the State and the officers of various departments who
collect various revenues, maintain law and order as well as preserve
peace and amity among the diverse classes of the society. They also
guard the rights and privileges of the citizens and look to the
performances of various duties by individuals and classes. And the
prosperity of this whole set-up depends upon the traders and
industrialists. They act as a medium between the consumers and the
suppliers. They collect the requirements of the society. They exert to
provide goods. They open up shops, markets and trading centres. Thus
providing the consumers with their necessities, they relieve the
citizens of the need of running after their requisites of life.
Then comes the class of the poor and the disabled persons. It is
absolutely necessary that they should be looked after, helped and
well-provided for. The Merciful Allah has explained the ways and means
of maintaining and providing for each of these classes. And everyone
of this class has the right upon the ruler of the State that at least
minimum necessities for its well-being and contented living are
provided.
Remember, Maalik that Almighty Allah will not absolve any ruler from
his obligations unless he sincerely tries his best to discharge his
duties, invokes Allah to help him in their performance, remains
steadfast and diligent on the path of truth and justice and bears all
this whether the performance of these duties is congenial or hateful
to him.
So far as the army is concerned its chief and commander should be a
person who is most sincere and faithful to Allah, to the Holy Prophet
(s) and to your Imam who is most pious, who is famous for his
forbearance, clemency and gentleness, who is neither short-tempered
nor does he get angry quickly, who sympathetically treats sincere
excuses and accepts apologies, who is kind and compassionate with the
weak, but severe against the strong and the powerful, who has no
vindictiveness which might lead to violence or any inferiority complex
or weak-mindedness which makes them helpless and dejected. To find and
select such persons you should have contacts with pious and noble
families with high ideals and exalted traditions, families well-known
for their bravery and courage and generosity and magnanimity. They are
the people who may be considered as sources of magnificence and
sublimity of character and fountain-heads of piety and good deeds.
When you have found and selected such persons then keep an eye over
them and watch them as parents watch their children so that you may
find out if there appears any change in their behaviour. Treat them
kindly and sympathetically. Do not grudge highest considerations to
them (if they rightly deserve) and do not refuse small mercies. This
kind of treatment will create reciprocal tendencies in them and they
will trust you and will be faithful to you. Under the impression that
you have paid enough attention to their major necessities and wants,
do not close your eyes to their minor requirements and needs because
small favours often bear better fruits though careful attention to
major necessities is very important. Among the military officers those
should receive your highest respect and consideration who pay most
attention to the needs of the soldiers under their command who come
forward to help the soldiers with their personal means and property so
that the soldiers may lead a happy and contented life and may have
full confidence of the future of their families and children.
If the soldiers are thus satisfied and are free from anxieties and
care then they will bravely and wholeheartedly face the conflicts.
Your constant attention towards the officers and soldiers will make
them love you more and more.
The thing which should most gladden the heart of a ruler is the fact
that his State is being ruled on the principles of equity and justice
and that his subjects love him. And your subjects will only love you
when they have no grievance against you. Their sincerity and loyalty
will be proved if they gather around you to support your government,
when they accept your authority without considering it an unbearable
burden on their heads and when they do not secretly wish your rule to
come to an end. So let them have as many justifiable hopes in you as
they can and fulfil as many as you reasonably can. Speak well of those
who deserve your praise. Appreciate the good deeds done by them and
let these good actions be known publicly.
The correct and timely publicity of noble actions and golden deeds
creates more zeal in the minds of the brave and emboldens the cowards
and the weaklings. You must know and realize the good deeds done by
every single individual so that the credit of noble deeds done by one
may not be given to another. Do not underestimate and underpay the
good work done. Similarly do not overpay a work simply because it has
been done by a very important person and do not let his position and
prestige be the cause of overvaluation of the merit of his work and at
the same time do not undervalue a great deed if it is done by a very
ordinary person or a commoner. Let equity, justice and fairplay be
your motto.
When you are faced with problems which you cannot solve or with a
difficult situation from which you cannot escape or when uncertain and
doubtful circumstances confuse and perplex you, then turn to Allah and
the Holy Prophet (s) because Allah has thus ordered those whom He
wants to guide. The way to turn to Allah is to act diligently
according to the clear and explicit orders given in His Holy Book and
to the turn to the Holy Prophet (s) means to follow those of his
orders about which there is no doubt and ambiguity and which have been
generally accepted to be correctly recorded.
So far as dispensing of justice is concerned, you have to be very
careful in selecting officers for the same. You must select people of
excellent character and high calibre and with meritorious records.
They must possess the following qualifications: Abundance of
litigations and complexity of cases should not make them lose their
temper.
When they realize that they have committed a mistake in judgement they
should not insist on it by trying to justify it. When truth is made
clear to them or when the right path opens up before them, they should
not consider it below their dignity to correct the mistake made or to
undo the wrong done by them. They should not be corrupt, covetous or
greedy. They should not be satisfied with ordinary enquiry or scrutiny
of a case, but should scrupulously go through all the pros and cons,
they must examine every aspect of the problem carefully, and whenever
and wherever they find doubtful and ambiguous points, they must stop,
go through further details, clear the points, and only then proceed
with their decisions. They must attach the greatest importance to
reasoning, arguments and proofs. They should not get tired of lengthy
discussions and arguments. They must exhibit patience and perseverance
in scanning the details, in testing the points presented as true, in
sifting facts from fiction and when truth is revealed to them they
must pass their judgements without fear, favour or prejudice.
They should not develop vanity and conceit when compliments and
praises are showered upon them. They should not be mislead by flattery
and cajolery. But unfortunately they are few persons having such
characteristics. After you have selected such men to act as your
judges, make it a point to go through some of their judgements and to
check their proceedings. Pay them handsomely so that their needs are
fully satisfied and they are not required to beg or borrow or resort
to corruption. Give them such a prestige and position in your State
that none of your courtiers or officers can overlord them or bring
harm to them. Let judiciary be above every kind of executive pressure
or influence, above fear or favour, intrigue or corruption. Take every
particular care of this aspect because before your appointment this
State was under the sway of corrupt, time-serving and wealth-grasping
opportunists who were lewd, greedy and vicious and who wanted nothing
out of a State but a sinful consent of amassing wealth and pleasures
for themselves.
Then come the officers of your State. You must supervise their work.
They must be appointed after a careful scrutiny of their capabilities
and characters. These appointments must be made originally on
probation without any kind of favouritism being shown or influence
being accepted otherwise tyranny, corruption and misrule will reign in
your State. While selecting your officers take care to select
experienced and honourable persons, members of respectable families
who had served Islam during its early days because these are usually
of noble character and good repute. They are not greedy and cannot be
easily bribed. They mostly have before them the ultimate result of
their thoughts and their deeds. Keep them also well-paid so that they
may not be tempted to lower their standard of morality and may not
misappropriate the cash of the State which they hold in their trust
and if after being paid handsomely they prove dishonest, then you will
be right to punish them. Therefore keep a careful watch over their
system of work and rule.
You may also appoint trustworthy and honest men to keep a watch over
the activities of these officers. The knowledge that they are being
watched secretly will keep them away from dishonesty, misrule,
malpractice and tyrannizing the subjects. Protect your government from
dishonest officers. If you find any of them dishonest and your
confidential intelligence service submits acceptable proofs of his
dishonesty, then you must punish him. This may be corporal punishment
besides dismissal from service and taking back from him all which he
has dishonestly collected. He must be humiliated and must be made to
realize the infamy of his wicked deeds. His humiliation and punishment
must be given publicly so that it may serve as a lesson and a
deterrent to others.
So far as collection of land revenues and taxes are concerned you must
always keep in view the welfare of the tax-payers which is of primary
importance than the taxes themselves because these taxes and the
tax-payers are the original sources on which the welfare of your State
and its subjects depend.
A State really lives upon the revenues collected from the tax-payers.
Therefore, more importance should be attached to the fertility of land
than to the collection of taxes because actual taxable capacity of
people rests upon the fertility of the land. The ruler, who does not
pay attention to the prosperity of his subjects and fertility of the
land but concentrates only on collection of revenues, lays waste the
land and consequently ruins the State and brings destruction to the
creatures of Allah. His rule cannot last for long.
If the tax-payers complain to you of the heavy incidence to taxation,
of any accidental calamity, of the vagaries of the monsoons, of the
recession of the means of irrigation, of floods or destruction of
their crops on account of excessive rainfall and if their complaints
are true, then reduce their taxes. This reduction should be such that
it provides them opportunities to improve their conditions and eases
them of their troubles.
Decrease in State-income due to such reasons should not depress you
because the best investment for a ruler is to help his subjects at the
time of their difficulties. They are the real wealth of a country and
any investment on them even in the form of reduction of taxes, will be
returned to the State in the shape of the prosperity of its cities and
improvement of the country at large. At the same time you will be in a
position to command and secure their love, respect and praises along
with the revenues. Will that not be a lasting happiness?
Not only this, but your benign rule and humane treatment will so
affect them that they will come to your help at the time of your
difficulties and you will be able to rely on their support. Your
kindness, your clemency and your justice will be a kind of moral
training to them, and the contented, happy and prosperous life, for
which they will be grateful to you, will be the best support,
strongest protection and the greatest treasury for you.
Later if such circumstances arrive that you find yourself in need of
their support, their help, their confidence, their wealth and their
man-power, then they will have no grudge against you.
Remember, Maalik! If a country is prosperous and if its people are
well-to-do then it will happily and willingly bear any burden.
The poverty of the people is the actual cause of the devastation and
ruination of a country and the main cause of the poverty of the people
is the desire of its ruler and officers to amass wealth and
possessions whether by fair or foul means. They are afraid of losing
their posts or positions and sway or rule and want to make the most
during the shortest time at their disposal. They never learn any
lesson from the history of nations and never pay any attention to the
commands of Allah.
You will also have to be very careful about your secretaries. You
should entrust your work only to those who are the best among them.
Specially the affairs which are of confidential nature and which deal
with secrets, and the security of the State should be entrusted only
to men of noble character because men who are intoxicated with power,
position and prestige carry on propaganda and speak against the
government in public, they openly misbehave with you and consider
themselves so important as to ignore you or your orders in financial
transactions essential to the State, they avoid placing necessary
papers before you or attending to important correspondence.
Particular care should be taken that when the officers make contracts
on behalf of the government or sign agreements, these contracts and
agreements are not defective or harmful to the State, if they are
negotiating any treaties and alliances they do not overlook or forsake
the interests of the State or if they find the State in a weak and
embarrassing position on account of unfavourable terms of treaties or
due to intrigues, they should be able to find sensible ways out of
them. See that they know and realize their proper place and rank,
because he who does not realize his place and position will never
understand those of others.
One more thing about these officers: You must remember not to select
them for very important posts and not to trust them completely simply
because you have found them honest, diligent, trustworthy and
intelligent and have formed a good opinion about them because there
are some people who, when it suits them, pretend honesty, diligence
and fidelity and can put on the garb of piety and virtue and thus find
their ways in the hearts of the rulers, though actually they are
neither honest nor diligent nor wise nor sagacious. Therefore, you
must always look to the record or reputation of the services of such
men during previous regimes; more importance should be attached to
their good reputation. This kind of selection and supervision will
prove that you are faithful to Allah and that you wish your Imam well.
Thus you must appoint one officer as the Head of each important branch
of your government. He should have knowledge and wisdom enough to cope
successfully with all the intricate problems of his department and
should be diligent enough to cope with extensive work.
Remember well that if there is any defect in your officers and you are
tolerating it, then you and only you are responsible for all those
evils.
I want to advise you about your businessmen and industrialists. Treat
them well, and order your officers to follow the same policy.
There may be local businessmen carrying on their trade in certain
places or those who send their merchandise from one place to another.
There may even be those who import and export goods. Similarly there
may be industrialists and manufacturers as well as industrial labour
or men engaged in the handicrafts. They all deserve sympathy,
protection and good treatment.
They all are the sources of wealth to the country. They provide goods
for the consumers. Most of these traders carry and convey these goods
from across deserts, seas and over open lands and mountains, their
consignments are brought from distant lands, often from places which
are not easy to approach and where usually people do not care or do
not dare to go. These businessmen are usually peace-loving people, not
given to mischievous disturbances and seditious fomentation. You must
look after their interest and protect them whether they are trading in
your cities or towns or whether they are travelling over the countries
carrying goods from place to place.
One more thing about these traders and industrialists. While treating
them most sympathetically you must keep an eye over there activities
as well.
You know they are usually stingy misers, intensely self-centered and
selfish, suffering from the obsession of grasping and accumulating
wealth.
They often hoard their goods to get more profit out of them by
creating scarcity and by indulging in black-marketing. Such a
condition is extremely injurious to the public on one hand and
disgraceful to the ruler on the other.
You must put a stop to all such practices because the Holy Prophet (s)
has explicitly prohibited such practices. Remember that trade should
go on between the buyers and sellers according to correct measures and
weights and on such reasonable terms that neither the consumers nor
the suppliers should have to face losses. But even with all the
sympathetic treatments accorded to them and with all the facilities
provided to them, if the traders and industrialists carry on hoarding
and black-marketing, then you must punish them according to the
intensity of their crime.
Then I want to caution you about the poor. Fear Allah about their
conditions and you attitude towards them. They have no support, no
resources and no opportunities. They are poor, they are destitute and
many of them are cripples and unfit for work. Some of them come out
begging and some (who maintain self-respect) do not beg, but their
conditions speak of their distress, poverty, destitution and wants.
For the sake of Allah, Maalik, protect them and their rights. He has
laid the responsibility of this upon your shoulders. You must fix a
share for them from Baytul Mal (the Government Treasury). Besides this
reservation in cash, you must also reserve a share in kind of crops
etc. from government granaries in cities where food-grains are stored
as are cultivated on State-owned land because in these storage the
share of those living far away from any particular city is equal to
the share of those living nearby.
Let me remind you once again that you are made responsible for
guarding the rights of the poor people and for looking after their
welfare. Take care that the conceit of your position and vanity of
wealth may not deceive you to lose sight of such a grave and important
responsibility. Yours is such an important post that you cannot claim
immunity from the responsibility of even minor errors of commission or
omission with an excuse that you were engrossed in the major problems
of the State which you have solved diligently.
Therefore, be very careful of the welfare of the poor people. Do not
be arrogant and vain against them. Remember that you have to take
particular care of those who cannot reach you, whose poverty-stricken
and disease-ridden sight may be hateful to you, and whom society
treats with disgust, detestation and contempt. You should be a source
of comfort, love and respect to them. Appoint a respectable, honest
and pious person - a person who fears Allah and who can treat them
honourably, order him to find out everything about them and to submit
a report to you.
Then treat these poor people in such a way that on the Day of
Judgement you can plead your case successfully before Allah because of
all classes of your subjects this class deserves more of your
attention, sympathy and fair-deal.
Though everyone of these poor persons deserves your sympathy and you
will have to do justice to His cause to achieve His favour, yet you
should pay more attention to young orphans and old cripples. They
neither have any support nor can they conveniently come out begging.
They cannot reach you; therefore, you must reach them.
Remember that the fulfillment of this obligation and duty is
considered as a tiresome burden by most of the rulers but to those who
desire to achieve His Blessings and to enter into His Realm, even this
work seems light and congenial. They bear it happily, dutifully and
sincerely. They find pleasures in it and they believe in the promise
made by Allah.
Out of your hours of work, fix a time for the complainants and for
those who want to approach you with their grievances. During this time
you should do no other work but hear them and pay attention to their
complaints and grievances. For this purpose you must arrange public
audience for them during this audience, for the sake of Allah, treat
them with kindness, courtesy and respect. Do not let your army and
police be in the audience hall at such times so that those who have
grievances against your regime may speak to you freely, unreservedly
and without fear.
All this is a necessary factor of your rule because I have often heard
the Holy Prophet (s) saying, "That nation or regime, where that rights
of the depressed, destitute and suppressed are not guarded and where
the mighty and powerful persons are not forced to accede these rights,
cannot achieve salvation". You must remember that in those audiences
the most common men will gather. therefore, if you find them
misbehaving, becoming unmannerly or if you feel that their talk is
irrelevant, tolerate them; do not be rude and do not insult them, so
that Allah may be kind and merciful to you and may reward you for
obeying His commands explicitly. Treat them courteously, hear their
grievances patiently and if you are forced to reject their demands
then reject them in such a way that your rejection may please them as
much as your grants.
Then there are certain duties which only you will have to perform and
which none of your officers can carry out. Among them are replies to
the letters of your commissioners and governors and are beyond the
jurisdiction or preview of your secretaries. If you find that your
officers are not attending as much to the complaints of the public as
they should, then you should personally attend to them. You must
finish a day's work on that day only because each day will bring its
own special work for you. Reserve your best time for prayers to Allah,
though every work of the State is the work of Allah, especially, if
you are sincere and honest, and if your subjects are happy with your
rule and are safe from your oppression.
Among those duties that you are to perform diligently must be your
daily prayers. These should be offered sincerely and persistently. You
must fix times for this during days and nights. You must tax your
bodily strength for this duty though it may tire you. Your observance
of prayers should be sincere and faultless and should neither be so
long as to tire out those who follow you in these prayers nor so short
as to be faulty and defective because amongst those who follow you
during the prayers, there may be some sick persons, while others may
have to attend to some important work. When the Holy Prophet (s) sent
me to Yemen I asked him how to lead the prayers. He advised me, "Offer
prayers like a weak and old person and be kind to the faithful" (so
that weak and old persons may follow your prayers easily and happily).
You must take care not to cut yourself off from the public. Do not
place a curtain of false prestige between you and those over whom you
rule. Such pretensions and show of pomp and pride are in reality
manifestations of inferiority complex and vanity. The result of such
an attitude is that you remain ignorant of the conditions of your
subjects and of the actual cases of the events occurring in the State.
You will fail to realize comparative importance of events taking place
and may attach great significance to minor events and may slip over
important facts, similarly you may attach importance to mediocre or
insignificant people and may ignore real men of consequence; and what
is more, you may lose the power of distinction between good and bad
and may take one for the other or hopelessly mix up the two. After all
a ruler is as much a human being as any other man and he may remain
ignorant of facts of which his officers want to keep him in the dark
(and on which the public may throw light). Thus truth may get mixed up
with falsehood and may not be distinguished because there are no
birthmarks on the forehead of truth that it may be easily
differentiated from falsehood, one has to search for facts and sift
realities from fictions, only then can one reach the truth. Think for
yourself, there are only two categories of rulers and you may belong
to one of them.
You may either be a pious, sincere and diligent ruler, doing the right
thing at the right moment and following the principles of justice and
equity and you may be protecting rights of others and doing your best
to fulfil your obligations, in that case why hide from the public, why
draw a curtain around yourself! Or you may be a miser refusing to be
generous to anyone, in that case people will gradually come to know of
this trait of your character and will gradually give up asking for
favours from you but do not overlook the fact that most of their
demands will have nothing to do with your private purse, they will be
about the rights of people, obligations of the State, complaints
against the State, oppressions, and solicitations of justice, then why
try to avoid hearing these requests!
You should never overlook the fact that around the rulers there
usually are certain privileged persons (relatives and friends). They
may often try to take advantage of their status and may resort to
selfishness, intrigues, fraud, corruption and oppression. If you find
such people around you then do away with them (however closely
connected they may be with you), immediately bring an end to the
scandal and clear your surroundings of all such moral and spiritual
filth.
You must never give lands in permanent lease with all proprietary and
ownership rights to your friends and relatives. You must never allow
them to take possession of the source of water-supply or lands which
have special utility for the communes. If they get possession of such
holdings they will oppress others to derive undue benefits and thus
gather all the fruits for themselves leaving for you a bad reputation
in this world and punishment in the next.
Be fair in dispensing justice. Punish those who deserve punishment
even though he may be your near relation or a close friend and even if
such an action may give you pangs of sorrow and grief. Bear such a
sorrow patiently and hope for Divine reward. I assure you this will
bear good fruits.
If on account of your strict measures people get suspicious of your
behaving like a tyrant and oppressor, then come out openly before them
and explain to them the reasons of your actions and let them see the
facts for themselves and realize the truth. This will give training to
your mind, will be an act of kindness to the subjects and the
confidence thus reposed in them will make them support justice and
truth while you will achieve the end you have in view of obtaining
their support in the cause of truth.
If your enemy invites you to a Peace Treaty that will be agreeable to
Allah, then never refuse to accept such an offer because peace will
bring rest and comfort to your armies, will relieve you of anxieties
and worries, and will bring prosperity and affluence to your people.
But even after such treaties be very careful of the enemies and do not
place too much confidence in their promises because they often resort
to Peace Treaty to deceive and delude you and take advantage of your
negligence, carelessness and trust. At the same time be very careful,
never break your promise with your enemy, never forsake the protection
or support that you have offered to him, never go back upon your
words, and never violate the terms of the treaty. You must even risk
your life to fulfil the promises given and the terms settled because
of all the obligations laid by Almighty Allah upon man (in respect to
other men) there is none so important as to keep one's promises when
made.
Though people may differ in their religions and ideologies and may
have divergent views upon various problems of State, yet they all
agree that promises when made must be fulfilled. Even the heathens
take care to keep the promises made among themselves because they have
seen and realised the evil effects of breaking promises. Therefore,
take very particular care of promises made, never go back upon the
words given, never go into the offensive without previously
challenging and giving an ultimatum. Deception and fraud even against
your enemy is a deception against Allah and none but a wretched sinner
would dare do that.
Allah has given promises and treaties the high rank of being
messengers of peace and prosperity and through His Kindness and Mercy
has made them a common desire (of keeping promises) in the minds of
all men and a common requirement for all human beings. He has made
them such a shelter and asylum that everybody desires to be under
their protection.
Therefore, there should be no mental reservation, no fraud, no
deception and no underlying meanings in between the lines when you
make a promise or conclude a treaty. Do not use such words and phrases
in your promises and treaties as have possibilities of being
translated in more than one way or as may have various interpretations
and many explanations, let there be no ambiguity in them, and let them
be clear, precise and to the point. And when once a treaty has been
finally concluded, do not try to take advantage of any ambiguous word
or phrase in it. If you find yourself in a critical situation on
account of the treaty made in the cause of Allah, then try to face the
situation and bear the consequences bravely and do not try to back out
of the terms that account, because to face such perplexing situations
as may gain His Rewards and Blessings is better than to break your
promises on that account and earn that about which you feel nervous
and for which you will have to answer Allah and which may bring down
His Wrath upon you in this world and damnation in the next.
Beware of the sin of shedding blood without religious justification
and sanction because there is nothing quicker to bring down the Wrath
of Allah, to take away His Blessings, to make you more deserving of
His Wrath and to reduce the span of your life than to shed innocent
blood. On the Day of Judgement Allah will first attend to sins of
bloodshed carried out by man against man. Therefore, never try to
strengthen your power, position and prestige by shedding innocent
blood. Such murders instead of making your position strong will not
only considerably weaken it but may also transfer your power totally,
taking it away from you and entrusting it to somebody else.
If you have intentionally murdered a man then no excuse shall be
acceptable to Allah or to me because punishment of such a crime is
necessary.
And if you kill a man by mistake without any intention or motive of
killing or while delivering legal penalties, your whip, sword or hand
unintentionally and inadvertently deals a fatal blow because even a
forcefully delivered slap or box on the ear may cause death, then do
not, on account of your prestige and position, refuse paying the
compensation to the heirs.
Beware and do not develop the trait of self-admiration and
self-appreciation. Do not get conceited of the good points that you
find in your good character or good deeds that you have done. Do not
let flattery and cajolery make you vain and egoist. Remember that of
all the cunning ruses of the devil to undo good deeds of the pious
people and to affect their piety, flattery and false praises are the
ones on which it relies the most.
Do not boast of the favours and kindnesses that you have done to your
subjects and do not try to make them realise this, do not think too
much of the good that you have done to them, and do not go back upon
the promises made, all these three habits are very ugly features of
one's character. The practice of boasting over the favours done undoes
the good done, the habit of exaggerating and thinking very highly of
our good actions will make us lose the guidance of Allah, and the
habit of breaking one's promises is disliked both by Allah and by man.
The Merciful Allah says, "It is most hateful in the sight of Allah, to
say something and not to practice it." [ Qur'an, 61:3 ].
Do not be hasty and do not precipitate your decisions and actions,
when the time comes for an action to be done, or a decision to be
taken, then do not be lazy and do not waste time and do not show
weakness. When you do not find a true way to do the thing on hand,
then do not persist on the wrong way and when find a correct solution,
then do not be lethargic in adopting it.
In short do everything at a proper time and in a proper way and keep
everything in its proper place.
Do not reserve for yourself anything which is a common property of all
and in which others have equal rights. Do not close your eyes from
glaring malpractice of the officers, miscarriage of justice and misuse
of rights because you will be held responsible for the wrong thus done
to others. In the near future your wrong practices and
maladministration will be exposed and you will be held responsible and
punished for the wrong done to the helpless and oppressed people. Take
care and keep control over you temper, your anger and your desire to
be arrogant and vain. Take care of your hands when you are out to
deliver punishment and of the sharpness of your tongue when you are
saying harsh things. The best way to achieve this is not to be hasty
in making remarks and to delay in delivering punishment so that you
may keep your temper under control and are not overexcited.
And you cannot achieve this unless you constantly remember that you
have to return to Allah and unless His fear overcomes every other
sentiment.
You must always try to remember the good and useful things done in the
past, activities of a just and benign regime, good deeds done by it,
good laws promulgated, instructions of the Holy Prophet (s), commands
of Allah given in His Holy Book and things that you have seen me doing
or have heard me saying. Follow the good actions and advice found
therein. Similarly, follow carefully the pieces of advice contained in
these orders. Through them I have tried to teach you all that can be
taught about a good regime. I have done my duty towards you so that
you may not go astray and your mind may not crave for base desires. If
it does then you will have no excuse before Allah.
I beseech Allah that by His Limitless Mercy and by His Supreme Might
He may grant our prayers, that He may lead both of us to the Divine
Guidance of achieving His Pleasure, of successfully pleading our cases
before Him, justifying our deeds before man, of gaining good repute,
of leaving good results of our benign and just rule with ever
expanding prosperity and ever increasing welfare of the State and of
meeting our ends as martyrs and pious persons, as our return is
towards Him only.
May the peace of Allah be upon the Holy Prophet (s) and His chosen
descendants.
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