Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) says that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The Imam and ruler will be from the Quraysh; among them, the righteous will rule over the righteous and the wicked over the wicked, and everyone has a right. Give the rightful person his due, even if a black Abyssinian slave with a mutilated ear is appointed as your leader, listen to him and obey him as long as you are not commanded to do something against your Islam. If someone is given the choice between his Islam and having his neck struck, he should stretch out his neck; may his mother lose him, for after losing his Islam, neither his worldly life nor his Hereafter will remain."