Quote … Unquote … no. 10

Consider His wisdom, exalted is He, in that He made the servant’s kings, emirs and rulers of the genus of their deeds. Rather, it is as if their deeds appeared in the images of their rulers and kings. So if they were upright, their kings were upright, If they were just, they were just to them, and if they strayed, their kings and rulers would stray. If slyness and deceit appeared among them, their rulers would be like that. If they hindered Allah’s rights before them and were stingy with them, their kings and rulers would hinder what they had with them of the right and be stingy with them with regards to them. And in their business, if they took what they did not deserve from those they deemed weak, the kings would take what they did not deserve from them and taxes and duties would be imposed on them; whatever they extracted from the weak, the kings would extract it from them by force. Thus, their deeds appeared in the images if their deeds. And it is not from the divine wisdom that He entrusts the immoral evil [people] except to whoever is of their genus. So when the forefront was the best and most reverent of the generations, their rulers were like that. Then when they became white-haired, the rulers became white-haired for them. Thus, Allah’s wisdom refuses to entrust us, in the likes of these times, to the likes of Mu’awiyah and ‘Umar bin ‘Abdil-’Aziz, let alone the likes of Abi Bakr and Umar. Rather, our rulers are according to our worth, the rulers of those before us are according to their worth. Each of the two matters is wisdom’s reason and requisite.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
Miftâh Dâr as-Sa’âdah, vol. 2, pgs. 177-178.