The best leader to walk on the earth was Prophet Muhamad, the Seal of all Prophets to whom the Qur’an was revealed. If all leaders would have followed the leadership style of the Messenger of Allaah, Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, all humankind would be living in stable conditions, but the presence of disbelieve and distorted faculties of thinking drove many leaders into disrepute. Those who preceded Prophet Muhammad espousing good leaderships were the 24 prophets that are mentioned in the Qur’an. Leadership is clearly evident in the Qur’an and Hadeeth.
In support of Prophet Muhammad’s leadership, Allaah states in
the Qur’an:
“And you stand an exalted standard of character.”
And indeed, you are of a great moral
character. Chapter (68)
sūrat Al-Qalam (The Pen), Verse 4)– Sahih International.
Prophet Mohammad states in the Hadeeth: 'each of you is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects' (Saheeh al Bukhari: 212). Likewise, according to Sahih Bukhari, hadith 3.733, Prophet Muhammad has been reported to have said: “Each of you is a guardian, and each of you will be asked about his subjects.”
Leadership is the process of
inspiring or influencing people to achieve specific goals or to accomplish certain
tasks. It is a means to influencing and encouraging people to come up with or
conceive extraordinary results at the organizational and societal levels. The
study of leadership has been growing out of proportion in recent years due to
the need for better leaders in expanding economies at the national and
workplace levels. The advancement of leadership sciences has opened so many
sub-fields such that, in recent years, there have been increased focus on
newly-emerging leadership traits. Some of the leadership traits that are
commonly discussed in academia include transactional, transformational,
laissez-faire, charismatic, participative or democratic, autocratic or
authoritarian, bureaucratic, and people-oriented or relations-oriented
leadership styles.
Born in 1925, Mahathir Mohamad became the first Malaysian commoner to become
prime minister of his country in 1981, a post he held until October 31, 2003
when he retired from politics altogether. Mahathir embodied specific traits
that helped him transform his ramshackle nation into an industrial economy. For
the twenty-two years he was in power, Mahathir courageously fought hard to make
Malaysia the Asian Tiger it is today. Because of his extraordinary wisdom,
charisma, and visionary leadership style,
Malaysia excelled in many aspects including trade and commerce, gender
empowerment, education, infrastructure, healthcare, politics, communication,
and banking. By providing direction to his people and by defining certain objectives,
in the end Mahathir was able to count his political and developmental
achievements in just over two decades while at the same time elevating himself
to the level of intriguing maverick and politician. A pragmatist as described by Wain (2009),
Mahathir later on clashed with political Islam and as well rose to
international prominence by championing the rights of the “third world”. Dr.
Mahathir, Malaysia's great statesman of the century, espoused transformational
leadership style.
Political Islam rose to prominence in the 19th
century with the rise of intellectual figures like Jamal al-Din al-Afghani
whose political ideology pertained to the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in
1918. However, Islamic Brotherhood started to take roots in Ismailiyah in Egypt in
1928 when Hassan al-Banna took the mantle of leadership.[i] Another Islamist political
figure of the 1930s was Abul-Ala
Maududi, who founded the Indo-Pakistani Jamaat-i Islami party, and that
corresponds to before the separation of Pakistan and India in 1947 when each
country proclaimed independence from the former British Empire. While Political
Islam has “social-democratized” itself after many years of fragmentations, the
coining of etymologies like orientalism, Islamization, Islamism, Islamic
politics and economics, Muslim intellectual or Islamic intellectual are
inherently modern Western political creativities. Western audio-visual press
and media denigration of Arabs as bad leaders has been growing on for over a
century with Hollywood[ii]
taking the lead in videography intermixed with musicology. Part of
gerrymandering propaganda machinery that is meant to demean Arabs and Muslims,
Hollywood now seems to be succumbing to defeat since globalization of media has
grown roots everywhere.
In Islam, Muslims have been urged by the Prophet to choose a leader
of their liking–a leader they have agreed upon unanimously. In Islam, a leader
has no authority to compel his followers to partake in issues they find
unnecessary or not befitting them. Muslims have been advised to select a leader
when on a mission or a trip, pick the right Imam to lead prayers, and other
group activities.[iii]
Since leadership is a process that deserves deliberation, in an effort to reach
certain objectives, the Muslim leader must seek the voluntary participation of
willing followers. Compelling followers to certain tasks contravene the laid
down rules and regulations of Islamic traditions. The Qur’an refutes compulsion
in religion in Surah Al-Baqarah, ayah 256:
لَآ إِكْرَاهَ فِى ٱلدِّينِ
ۖ قَد تَّبَيَّنَ ٱلرُّشْدُ مِنَ ٱلْغَىِّ ۚ فَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِٱلطَّـٰغُوتِ وَيُؤْمِنۢ
بِٱللَّهِ فَقَدِ ٱسْتَمْسَكَ بِٱلْعُرْوَةِ ٱلْوُثْقَىٰ لَا ٱنفِصَامَ لَهَا ۗ وَٱللَّهُ
سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ ٢٥٦
Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly
from falsehood. So whoever renounces false gods and believes in Allah has
certainly grasped the firmest, unfailing hand-hold. And Allah is All-Hearing,
All-Knowing.
[i]
March, A. F. (2015). Political Islam: Theory. Annual Review of
Political Science, 18, 103-123.
[ii]
Shaheen, J. G. (2003). Reel bad Arabs: How Hollywood vilifies a
people. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social
science, 588(1), 171-193.
[iii]
Beekun, R., & Badawi, J. (1999). The leadership process in
Islam. PROTEUS-SHIPPENSBURG-, 16, 33-38.
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