Evolution of Leadership

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 19^th 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.

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[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.