I never ceased hearing the people saying: “Your actions are your workers, as you yourselves behave, you will be ruled over (in a like manner)” until I grasped this meaning from the Qurʾān, Allāh, the Exalted said:

Thus do we turn some of the oppressors against others on account of (the deeds) they earn.^[2]

It used to be said: “Whatever you show rejection against in your time, then it is your own deed that has corrupted that for you.” And ʿAbd al-Malik bin Marwān said, “O subjects, you have not dealt justly with us. You want from us the sīrah (way, approach, behaviour) of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar but you do yourselves do not behave with respect to us or yourselves with their behaviour.”

ʿAbīdah al-Sulaymānī said to ʿAlī (رضي الله عنه): “O Chief of the believers, what is with Abū Bakr and ʿUmar that the people obeyed them while the world was more constricted than a handspan, yet it became expansive for them. But you and ʿUthmān took over the khilāfah and the people did not obey you. [The world] had opened up for you both, yet it became narrower than a handspan? He said: “This is because the subjects of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar were like me and the likes of ʿUthmān, and my subjects today are the likes of you and [whoever] resembles you.”

A brother of Muḥammad bin Yūsuf wrote to him complaining about the oppression of the delegates [placed in authority over them]. So Muḥammad bin Yūsuf wrote back: “Your letter has reached me, you mention the condition that you are in, but it is not befitting for the one who works disobedience to reject the punishment [that befalls him]. I do not see what you are in except to be the calamity [resulting from] sins, safety and peace [be upon you].”