Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 345
— Part III 338 If Muslim states had paid proper heed to this admonition, they would not have dwindled away. In this respect, the states of the early period were distinctly different from those of the later. Earlier, when Muslim rulers kept their promises and behaved kindly to their subjects, their subjects also responded by obeying them with respect amounting to love. The difference of religion never stood between their mutual cooperation. A people who protect their contracts, their subjects protect them. In the history of the Muslims, there is one glorious episode which deserves to be told again and again. Once, the Muslim army was forced to beat temporary retreat from the area of Hims under mounting Roman pressure. The retreating Muslims returned the levy they had received from their subjects. They told them that they had failed to protect them and defend their rights, for which the levy was imposed. Now that they were leaving this territory, it had become impossible for them to defend them against the enemy. At this, the reply of the people of Hims is recorded in history in the following golden letters: 'We had become the subject of tyranny at the hands of our own fellow believers. You came during this state of affairs and your justice and grace has completely won us over. Now we will fight together against the enemy under your appointed governor and the enemy