Leadership in Islam

Leadership

Leadership is Islam is a trust (amanah). It represents a psychological contract

between a leader and his followers.A leader tries her best to guide them, to

protect them, and to treat them justly

(from Leadership : an Islamic Perspective)

Look from WithinNot criticizing from the outside but offering

self-criticism with the objective of identifying shortcomings to improve our situation.

“It was decided after these exhaustive studies, that after 13 years of Islamic training of our youth, elders, women and children, we would make an exhaustive survey of the state. If this survey revealed that at least 75% of the followers of da’wah believed that Islam is a complete way of life and are convinced about establishing an Islamic state, then we would call for the establishment of such a state. If the percentage is less, then we would extend the period of Islamic training for another 13 years and so on, until the Ummah is ripe to accept Islam’s rule”

- Zainab Al-Ghazali

Islah, Ihsan and ItqanReform, Improvement and Perfection

Having attained iman, one reaches for ihsan.Ihsan – to continue improving performance

without giving up.A continuous process that involves islah, the

opposite of ifsad (undermining).

Reform (Islah)

Improve (Ihsan)

Perfect (Itqan)

Leadership HabitsWhat Muslim leaders should cultivate.

1. Know where your time goes. 6P Formula : Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor

Performance. Time management – taking control of the sequence

of events.

2. Focus on concrete results.3. Build on strengths.4. Concentrate on a few major areas where

consistent hard work will produce outstanding results.

Pareto Principle : 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results.

What about culture?“What is condemned is not normal cultural

exchange accomplished in an open, confident, critical and independent mind, but blind, indiscriminate, sterile imitation which results in cultural desolation, social and moral anarchy, defeatism, inferiority complexes an abject slavery of the souls”.

-Maryam Jameelah.

Adab Al-IkhtilafThe Etiquette of Differing

Differences : not blessings but source of disunity and fragmentation?

Different ijtihad (making decision by independent interpretation) but with the same maqasid (higher objectives).

“We have defeated you for as long as we are rich by Allah, strong by Him, struggling for His sake. Only one thing will prove that we are defeated, and that is if we abandon our belief in the necessity of Jihad to establish Tawhid and elevate the word of Islam.”

- Zainab Al-Ghazali

Winning Leaders

Could we have done better?Success only come from Allah.There are always room for improvement

“Firstly, it’s Allah’s favor on us that we believe in Him. Islam bestows us with a strength which helps us to surmount problems and difficulties”.

“Do you think that what we have attained is due to us and our efforts? It is rather because of the grace of Allah, so don’t busy yourself with them (the despots)”.

-Zainab Al-Ghazali

“O Allah, If you are not angry with me I don’t care, but Your grace is more befitting to me. I seek refuge in the light of Your Face, that which has enlightened darkness and on Whom the matters of this life and the Hereafter have settled, that Your anger does not come to me and Your Curse does not befall me. To You is our obedience until You are pleased and there is no might or strength except with You.”

-Zainab Al-Ghazali

“Failures do what is tension relieving while winners do what is goal achieving.”

- Dennis Waitley, motivational speaker.

BibliographyTraining Guide for Islamic Workers by

Hisham Altalib (IIIT, 2001)Return of the Pharoah : Memoir in Nasir’s

Prison by Zainab Al-Ghazali (The Islamic Foundation, 1994)

Makers of Contemporary Islam by John L. Esposito, John O. Voll (Oxford Univ Press, 2001)

Leadership : An Islamic Perspective by Rafik I. Beekun, Jamal Badawi (AMANA Publications, 2004)

Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy (BK Publishers, 2001)