Religion is sincerity I advise you to fear Allah and to hear and obey, even if an Abyssinian slave. You will see after me great discord. So, hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided Caliphs They lead you in prayers. If they do well, then you will be rewarded; but if they make mistakes, then you will receive reward and the mistake will be theirs Listen and obey, for they are only responsible for their duty, and you are responsible for your duty Anyone pledges allegiance to a ruler, giving him the grasp of his hand and sincerity of his heart, he should obey him to the best of his capacity. If another man comes forward disputing his authority, then you should behead the latter If any of you is assigned by us to a position but conceals a needle or more from us, it will amount to misappropriation and he will be called upon to restore it on the Day of Judgment It is obligatory upon you to listen and obey (the ruler) in times of your ease and of your difficulty, whether you feel energetically stimulated or you feel compelled, and even when someone else is given undue preference over you Whenever we gave the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) pledge of allegiance to listen and obey, he would say to us: To the best of your ability A Muslim person must listen and obey concerning what he likes and hates, unless he is ordered to commit a sin. If he is ordered to commit a sin, then he should neither listen nor obey Whoever insults the ruler, Allah will insult him Listen and obey, even if an Abyssinian slave, whose head is like a raisin, was appointed a ruler over you Whoever obeys me has obeyed Allah, and whoever disobeys me has disobeyed Allah; and whoever obeys the leader has obeyed me, and whoever disobeys the leader has disobeyed me The best of your leaders are those whom you love and who love you, and who invoke Allah's blessings upon you and you invoke His blessings upon them. And the worst of your leaders are those whom you hate and they hate you, and whom you curse and they curse you There will be rulers who tell lies and oppress; whoever believes their lies and assists them in their oppression does not belong to me, and I do not belong to him If Allah wills to do good to a ruler, He appoints for him a truthful adviser, who will remind him if he forgets and help him if he remembers. And if Allah wills otherwise for him, He appoints for him a bad adviser who will not remind him if he forgets, nor will he help him if he remembers. Allah never sent any prophet nor did He invest anyone with authority except that he has two entourages: one entourage enjoins him to do good and encourages him to carry it out; another entourage enjoins him to do evil and incites him to carry it out. Do not be importunate in asking (for something), for by Allah, if one of you asked me for something and I gave it to him while I am reluctant, there will be no blessing in what I gave him When we enter upon our rulers, we say to them things contrary to what we say when we leave them. He said: We used to consider this hypocrisy during the Prophet's lifetime