Leadership

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Leadership is, at its core, all about power and influence. A leader can use his or her power to benefit others but also to gain personally. How many poor former or current leaders of countries in recent times that you know of?

Leaders should live like the poorest members of their community. They should never discriminate among their subjects; rather, they should strive to love them, prefer them over themselves, and act so that their people will love them sincerely. They should be faithful to their community, and secure their community's loyalty and devotion in return. In no way should they be seduced by the world's charms and life's attractions. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, had all the necessary qualities for success in every aspect of life. He had no worldly ambitions nor abused his authority. When he was confronted with great hostility and tempting bribes, he instead told them, "Say: 'There is no god but Allah,' and prosper (in both worlds)" [Hakim]. He was able to lead his community to success in every field. He is the source from which flowed all later developments related to command, statecraft, religion, spiritual development, and so on in the Muslim world.

Power has advantages and disadvantages for leaders. Power makes leaders more assertive and confident and certain of their decisions. This enables them to move forward on chosen courses of action. But the more people possess power, the more they tend to focus on their own egocentric desires and the less able they are to see others' perspectives. Leaders who become "intoxicated" by power - engaging in wrong behavior simply because they can and they can get away with it (and some followers are willing to collude). Some people are simply power hungry and prone to use their power to subjugate others. And so we hear about dictators and many many corrupt leaders, those who use their power for personal gain at the expense of others. What can we do about those leaders? Not much. In most cases, it would make things worse for the people if you try to remove them. But we can do something about ourselves, as leaders in our individual capacities. And if we do that, it will make a huge difference to the world we live in now.

Whether you are a parent, a sibling, a teacher, a student, a professional, an entrepreneur, a politician or an imam, we are all leaders. Leadership is about influencing others towards a goal. Even if you think you are a follower, you are a leader of another follower or someone else in another capacity. At a basic level, you are entrusted to lead others to good. One simple example, but a great good nonetheless, is your giving salaams to another Muslim. Here, you are leading the Muslim in doing good by his responding to your salaams which now increases his good deed. Although, it is sunnah to give salaams to a Muslim (i.e. you don't sin by not doing it) but look at how your action set the stage for goodness. Therefore, Muslim households that do not have this habit of giving salaams to each other are missing a great good.

The most important characteristic in a leader is trustworthiness. The most famous characteristics of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, even before his Prophethood were honesty and trustworthiness. He was referred to "The Trustworthy". Even his enemies who hated him entrusted him with their most valuable possessions. They would curse him in the day and entrusted him with their valuables in the night.

Being untrustworthy are despicable traits for anyone. Everyone detests an untrustworthy person.

Even in our personal worship, we are leaders for people around us. Effective leaders are those who lead by examples. So, we should have absolute conviction towards our belief. We should not put off our worship or hide our prayers on account of others. I once had a gathering in my house and among those invited were a few non Muslims. When prayer time entered, adhan was called and we (except a few Muslims) prayed as a group but the non-Muslims decided to follow after we had started the prayer.

It is easier for people to believe in what we believe in if our actions are in line with our belief. If you tell people how great Islam is but you are not doing what Islam is teaching you--when they see you shouting and angry, they see you wearing just like them, they see Muslim men prosecuted for domestic violence, they hear Muslim leaders stealing from the people's wealth and oppressing their people or selling their countries, they see much poverty and lack of cleanliness in Muslim communities, how can we expect to change their negative perceptions of Muslims and so-called Muslims countries? How can we rise to lead the Ummah?

So where do we begin? We can't change the world, but we can change ourselves. Change begins at home. As Muslims, it is crucial we have our worship straight. Be a good leader to your family by showing good examples.

If you tell your children to pray or go to the masjid, and you don't pray and hardly go to the masjid, they are not going to obey you happily. If you tell your children Qur'an is the answer to everything and they should learn the Qur'an but they never saw you touch the Qur'an except to place it on the shelf or move it to dust the shelf, it would be very difficult for them to believe you and follow what you said. If they see you lie, they will lie. Be brave and be honest. You are not expected to have all the answers and it is okay to say "I don't know" but work hard to try to solve the problems together. Be resilient, don't give up--leadership is a marathon, not a sprint. When the Companions complained about the harsh conditions and persecution in Makkah, the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, responded, "By Allah, Allah will bring this matter (the establishment of Islam) to its consummation till a rider will travel from San'a' (in Yemen) to Hadramaut fearing none but Allah, or a wolf as regards his sheep, but you (people) are hasty" [Bukhari].

Muslims have the greatest power, which is Islam. Don't abuse this power and don't forget that people are watching. Unless you’re locked alone in your bedroom, and you’re sure that no one can see or hear you, you need to recognize that anything you say and do can and will be used against you and Muslims as a whole, and you as leaders, in the court of public opinion.

May Allah make us steadfast in our worship and make us leaders of the righteous. Ameen.

Pleased don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best,
Wassalaam