When your rulers are the best ones from among you, and the richest people from among you are the most generous, and your affairs are settled by counsel (shura) between yourselves, then being above the ground [i.e. life in this world] will be better for you than being under it [i.e. death]. But when your rulers are the wicked ones from among you, and the richest the most miserly, then being under the ground will be better for you than being above it?.'