Interesting thing about old Muawiyah was that he looked beyond Islam, saw how a state could be organized, and did so without letting the religious elements interfere with top end statecraft, or the acquisition of wealth and power.
Guy was positively Jeffersonian when it came to religion, and Hamiltonian regarding statecraft and government involvement in national finance.
And this was on the part of a man who grew up living in tents, tending camels, and participating in an almost totally illiterate society.
His ideas in government were translated to Spain. Under the Umayyads Spain became the most prosperous, powerful and educated nation on Earth.
I don't think any of us would care to live in those societies, but at the time, they were the best to be had.
Yes; Muawiyah was perhaps my favorite figure from early Islamic history; then there was (much later, of course) the greatest of the Kurds, Saladin.