leadership lessons from the life of rasoolullah(s) by mirza yawar baig
TRANSCRIPT
From the life of Rasoolullah
Leadership Lessons
Complete certainty
No compromise
Putting himself on the line
Resilience: Face the facts
+ Absolute faith in success
Goal comes first – before
personal preferences
Living his message
Risk taking
Sacrificing short term for
long term
Magnanimity and
forgiveness
Transiting from Person-
led to Process-driven
Succession planning &
leadership development
Key lessons for anyone who wants to lead
The Lessons
in His Belief and Message
Complete Certainty
Rasoolullah said to them, “O people,
If I told you that there is an army
behind this hill would you believe me?”
They said, “You have never lied to us
and we will believe you.”
He said, “I have come to warn you of
a severe punishment (in the Hereafter, if you
don’t leave polytheism and worship Allah).”
‘Wa Subaha’
With the message
No Compromise
He could have accepted the kingship of
Quraysh and then made changes
He could have compromised and then tried
to gradually make changes
He could have addressed social evils and
become a social reformer first to get some
local support then he could have presented
his theological message.
His Options
The Anbiya never diluted the message
“My Uncle, even if they put the
sun in one of my hands and the
moon in the other, I will still not
give up this message that I have
been charged with.”
Differentiation is critical to leadership
His response
He didn’t accept the Islam of Banu
Thaqeef of Ta’aif when they came with
the condition that they would accept
his Risala and pray but wouldn’t pay
Zakah – even though he needed support
very badly at that time.
No compromising the standard for any reason
No conditions
Because there’s no such thing
as a ‘cowardly leader’
Putting himself on
the line
Willingness to put himself on the line. At no
point did he send others out to do what he was
himself not willing to do.
Have courage of your convictions
In Hunain he went towards the enemy and
rallied the troops when his army was in a total
rout.
No other position is called ‘Leadership’
Leading from the front
At no point in his life did he put any of
his companions in the way of danger or
hide behind them.
His travel to At-Ta’aif is a good
example where he personally took the
risks instead of sending someone else.
Courage
Encouragement can only be done by the courageous
Face the brutal facts + Absolute
faith in eventual success
Resilience
Resilience consists of two apparently
paradoxical positions: facing the facts
about the failure without any attempt at
disguising the reality; simultaneously
having absolute faith in eventual success
even when you can’t see any signs that
your work is succeeding.
Resilience is the most reliable sign of success
What is Resilience?
“O! Allah! I complain to You of my weakness, my scarcity of
resources and the humiliation I have been subjected to by
the people. O! Most Merciful of those who are merciful. You
are the Rabb of the weak and You are my Rabb too.
So long as You are not angry with me, I do not care. Your
favor is most important to me. I seek refuge in the light of
Your Face by which all darkness is dispelled and every affair
of this world and the next is set right, lest Your anger or
Your displeasure descends upon me.
I desire Your pleasure and satisfaction (and will continue to
struggle) until You are pleased. There is no power and no
might except by You.”
Dua in At-Ta’aif
The most logical thing
is to factor Allah into
the equation because
He is in it anyway.
Two critical realities of life
Until 19.8 nothing
will happen
At 20 the
balance will tip
1. Be goal focused
2. Take one step at a time
3. Be consistent & structured
4. Don’t be discouraged by short term
5. Keep focused on the long term
Be prepared to change the method but not the goal
What to do?
Before personal feelings,
likes & dislikes
The Goal comes first
Rasoolullah honored Khalid ibn Al-
Waleed when he came to Madina with
Amr ibn Al-A’as to Madina to accept
Islam
And made him Commander in Chief of the
army
Khalid bin Waleed was younger than all the close Sahaba or Rasoolullah
Dealing with enemies
Walking the talk
Living His Message
Someone asked Sayyida Ayesha(RA) to tell
him something about the life of
Rasoolullah. She asked him, “Don’t you
read the Qur’an?” He replied that he did.
“He was the walking Qur’an”, she said.
His whole life was an example
Walking the talk
He preached the importance of the rights of
neighbors and he was the best to his neighbors.
He preached about the rights of women and he
gave the world a law that gives women rights
that they don’t have in many other modern
legal jurisprudential systems even today, 14
centuries later.
He preached the value of truthfulness and was
himself called ‘Al Sadiq ul Ameen’: the Truthful
& Trustworthy One, even by his enemies, the
Quraysh.
He demonstrated Islam in every aspect of his
life. And he taught his companions to do so,
themselves.
The result was that Islam spread far and wide,
not by warfare and conflict with other religions
but by ordinary Muslims living by the code of
behavior that he taught them.
Applied Islam has more power to convince
people than any other method of preaching or
propagating.
People
‘listen’ with
their eyes.
Differentiation creates Brand
Brand creates loyalty
Loyalty results in influence
Without ‘Brand’ you are a grain of rice in a sack
Why differentiate?
For a leader, the most critical thing is to
differentiate on the basis of his message.
If the leader compromises his message for
the sake of popularity, material gain,
followership or anything else, the
uniqueness of the message will be lost
and it will lose its value as a clear
standard on which to model all actions.
Leaders Differentiate
Leaders stand out – sheep blend in
If you trust Allah
Cut the rope of Dunya
Salah is Asbaabاألسباب األعلى
Taking advantage of the
unexpected
Risk Taking
Take advantage of an emerging
opportunity
Make the best effort that you can make
Then connect to Allah and ask for His
help
Asking Allah is the best of Asbaab
Because there can be no success without the help of Allah
Battle of Badr
O! Allah here are the Quraysh who in
their arrogance seek to deny and speak
lies against Your Messenger. O! Allah
support us with the help You promised
me. O! Allah were this small group of
Muslims to perish, no one in the whole
world would remain to worship You.
The rest is history
Dua at Badr
1. The ability to see the potential advantage in a high
risk situation: The leader must have the judgment
to assess the risk to see if it is worth facing.
There has to be a balance between getting overly
extended on the one hand and losing out on major
potential gains by being risk averse on the other.
The ability to see the advantage and correctly assess
the chance of success is the first major requirement
of the leader.
3 – Major lessons
Judgment is a factor of experience and faith
2. Consultative decision making: It is essential to
take people into confidence if you want their
commitment to your cause.
The leader must share all relevant information, must
trust his people and must be prepared to put his own
credibility on the line.
Focus on the certainty of success and the potential
gains from it. Without that, positive energy will
drain away and be replaced by fear.
Excitement is fear that anticipates success
Lesson – 2
3. Internal faith and connection with Allah:
Ultimately leadership is about the ability to stand
alone before your Rabb and ask for His Mercy for
the mission.
It needs enough of a connection with Him to enable
the leader to do this with the confidence that He
hears and will answer.
It is necessary to work to build this connection
because only in it lies ultimate success
That connection comes from Taqwa & Tahajjud
Lesson – 3
Sacrificing short term
In favor of long term
By agreeing to the unequal terms,
Rasoolullah opened the door for the
peaceful propagation of Islam.
When hostilities ceased, Muslims were able
to move about freely to preach their
message.
The result was that most of Arabia accepted
Islam.
Hudaybiyya
Was a triumph of Islam over self
For the leader it is essential to always keep
the goal in sight and be willing to make
everything, especially his own ego
subservient to the accomplishment of the
goal.
If the leader insists on his own esteem needs
often the long term needs of the mission are
compromised.
3 – Key lessons
Ego is the shackle in your mind
Followers must be willing to trust the
leader and stand by him even if he
does something that they don’t like at
the time or don’t understand fully.
Once the leader has been elected,
then he must be trusted implicitly.
Lesson – 2
Constantly doubting debilitates leadership
In order to win in the long term it is
often necessary to sacrifice temporary
or short term gains.
This may be painful especially as this
may require sacrificing one’s ego needs
in the process.
For the arrow to travel far, you have to pull it back
Lesson – 3
& Forgiveness
Magnanimity
He forgave his worst enemies – Abu
Sufyan and Hinda and didn’t extract
revenge as was the norm of conquerors
He forgave Al-Washi who killed Hamza
bin Abdul Muttalib
He forgave all the inhabitants of Makkah
Who are you willing to forgive right now?
Fatah Makkah
Forgiveness takes the wind out of the sails
Benefits Shut down all future vendettas in a people
who were famous for taking revenge
He had the high moral ground and people
were grateful
His enemies lost all ability to raise support
against him
He enemies were defeated and became his
supporters
Transitioning from
Person-led to
Process-driven
3 – critical requirements
Core Ideology
Central Funding
CentralAuthority
Global Influence
Forming the Ummah
Faith based brotherhood
Tawheed was-Sunnah
Obedience to an Ameer
Ita’at wa Ittiba
Contributing towards the cause
Infaaq wa Khurooj fee Sabeelillah
3 – criteria of Global Movements
System of Judging
Seek in the Book of Allah
Seek in the Sunnah of His Messenger
Consult with others & agree
Use your own judgment subject to the
conditions of the Book of Allah and
the Sunnah of His Messenger
He asked Mu’ad bin Jabal how he would judge
Succession planning
Developing leadership
Kutab al Wahi
Ali Ibn Abi Talib
Abu Ad Darda
Ubadah Ibn al-Samit
Abu Ayub al-Ansari
Ubay ibn Kaab
Muadh ibn Jabal
Teachers of Qur’an
“Learn the Qur’an from four persons: Abd-Allah
ibn Mas'ud, Salim Mawla Abu-Hudhayfah, Ubayy
ibn Kab and Muadh ibn Jabal.” Bukhari 6:61:525
Narrated Qatada: I asked Anas bin Malik: “Who
collected the Qur’an at the time of the
Prophet?" He replied, “Four, all of whom were
from the Ansar: Ubai bin Ka'b, Mu'adh bin Jabal,
Zaid bin Thabit and Abu Zaid.” Bukhari, 6:61:525
Rasoolullah listened to the Qur’an from others
Ask Abu Bakr Rasoolullah built leaders right from the
beginning. He sent Mus’ab ibn Umair to
present Islam in Madina
He sent Mu’ad bin Jabal to Yemen
He told people to refer to Abu Bakr and Umar
ibn al-Khattab for rulings
He delegated teaching of Islam to the Ashaab-
us-Suffah and to Ummahatul Mu’mineen
He developed a cadre of leaders to take the message to the ends of the earth
He chose wisely He chose people for tasks which they were
competent to do – not for any other reason
He appointed Khalid ibn Al-Waleed as
commander of the army
He sent Mu’ad bin Jabal – one of the
youngest Ansaar – to Yemen as governor
He appointed Usama bin Zayd in command
over Abu Bakr & Umar
And Abu Bakr honored this choice
Today, 14 centuries
later, His message is
taken all over the world
by people who didn’t
see him but love him
more than anything or
anyone else