When rulers get corrupt, nations get corrupt and when ulema get corrupt rulers get corrupt
Following is the rough translation of a page of the same book, same author, same volume. The page is 150.
According to him i.e. Imam Ghazali Rh, the corruption of rulers is based upon the weakness and negligence of ulema.
“The conclusion is that people get corrupted because of the corruption of their rulers and the corruption of ulema is the reason why rulers get corrupted. This is because if there are no unjust judges and ulema e soo (scholars for dollars) then rulers can’t get corrupted and they would always fear that the ulema e haq would admonish them from doing evil. ”
Imam Ghazali Rh was unhappy with the ulema of his time for not doing amr bil maroof wan ahi anil munkar. Like the salaf, the ulema of his time stopped stating haq in front of evil rulers. The reason for this was that ulema themselves had developed a lust for dunia and self-praiseworthiness and vanity.
After giving examples of akabir ulema he stated
“This was the greatness and piety of ulema that while enjoining good and forbidding evil, they wouldn’t care about the grandeur and worldly status of kings and rulers. They had had tawakul in Allah’s blessings and mercy. And they were confident that Allah will protect them. And they were also content on the fact that if Allah has degreed martyrdom for them then so be it. This is because they had sincerity of intention. Because of their ikhlas, their naseeha had a profound effect on the other person. However, nowadays because of fear of losing dunia, the ulema are silent and if they open their mouth then their words and actions don’t match and because of this no one heeds to their advice. If today also, they become truthful and do their duty with honesty then they would definitely succeed.
This is because people get corrupted because of the corruption of rulers and rulers get corrupted because of the corruption of ulema. And the reason why ulema get corrupted is the love of wealth and vanity. Those who indulge in dunia too much, don’t even try to stop commoners from doing evil. What to talk about stopping the rulers and the elite. ”

