“I have been given the authority over you, although I am not the best of you. If I do well, help me; and if I do wrong, set me right. Truth consists in loyalty and disregard for truth is treachery. The weak among you shall be strong in my eyes until I have secured his rights, if God wills it: and the strong among you shall be weak with me until I have wrested from him the rights of others, if God wills it. Obey me for so long as I obey God and His Messenger. But if I disobey God and His Messenger, you owe me no obedience. Arise from your prayer, God have mercy upon you!”

Abu Bakr made this oath when he became the first Caliph of Islam. If the subsequent Muslim leaders had followed this oath and put these sayings into practice, things may have been much different. Perhaps worldly affairs aren’t suited for people of honour, faith, and truth. Success at realpolitik requires expertise in pride, ambition, greed, envy instead of naive idealism.