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Much Love and Respect
Tws
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Prophet And Caliphate Models of Leadership and Efficiency - INTRO
[Prophet And Caliphate Models of Leadership and Efficiency - INTRO]
Bismillah Hir Rahmaan Nir Rahim.
[NEED AND IMPORTANCE FOR PROPHETIC AND CALIPHATE MODELS OF LEADERSHIP AND EFFICIENCY]
Leadership and efficiency are quickly becoming major issues within Islamic communities everywhere. From the largest mosques to local MSAs, brain drain and other factors have made community leaders a rare commodity in a time when such leaders are absolutely essential to the political and social environments that we live in. This problem is compounded by a lack of knowledge on methods of managerial leadership, efficiency, inefficient communication, delegation as well as failure to integrate emergent forms of organization and communication to maximize effectiveness. These failings not only result in a less proactive, driven and successful organization but also severely limit the scope and reach of the organization in question. Also, one must note that while someone may (or may not) be a leader in the public sphere (i.e. an MSA or organization), they are almost always leaders in private spheres (amongst friends, family etc).
[Before I proceed, I would like to say that many groups are indeed doing an excellent job. However addressing some of the failings above can go a long way...Also to be honest...in these times Islamic organizations/leaders must be as proactive as possible. Of course, this is addressed first to myself, then to myself, then to myself, THEN to everyone else.]
While there is a great body of literature discussing leadership and efficiency that absolutely must be read (ex. Stephen Covey's work), such works don't account for unique circumstances present in Islamic leadership structures, such as the Shura'ah. Thus, these works can only strengthen and not form the foundation of Islamic Models of leadership. So to whom must Muslim leaders turn to? The answer is simple...Muslims have the example of the Prophets and the Sahaba (Companions of the Prophets).
Certain individuals have attempted to graft Prophetic leadership onto the 7 habits and other existing literature. Personally, I find this approach is not satisfactory in forming Islamic models for the reasons outlined above (i.e. it still does not address unique circumstances and conditions found in traditional Islamic structures). From a faith-based perspective, this approach is also flawed as we find the best example in the Prophets (A.S.) and Sahaba (R.A.).
Anyway...There has been less of an effort (at least to my limited knowledge) to analyze and present the leadership observed in the examples of the Prophets and their closest followers. I am also unaware of any such effort accounting for the University MSA/youth based perspective on this issue. This will be my goal for the next couple of weeks depending on work/class/personal schedules. I hope this work will not be restricted to the Muslim community...as I feel regardless of one's religious beliefs, the Prophets and the Sahaba form amazing examples of leadership from which anyone and everyone can draw good lessons.
[INTENTION]
Before I proceed, I'd like to state my intention. The goal of this piece is to analyze and present Prophetic and Caliphate models of leadership. This move is done as much to organize my own thoughts as to present it as an issue to the Muslim and Non-Muslim community. Also, by posting it here, I hope to generate a discussion on my observations so that the overall community (and myself) can determine that which is accurate/strong and that which inaccurate/weak. Ideally I would like to present the findings to the various MSAs and Islamic Organizations.
[THE GROUND RULES]
Here are my ground rules...If I stray I expect one of y'all to call me on it.
1) I am not an Islamic academic or scholar. I'm a (loud mouthed) humble University student who has been around a number of MSAs and Islamic Organizations and has made some organizations. As such, I hope to use direct evidence from a small series of sources (with references of course...see below). I will NOT be making extrapolations on the actions or intentions of the Prophets and Sahaba...This falls out of my realm. Also...due to severe time limitations, most of my examples will be regarding the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.)...I'll try to give other Prophetic and Sahaba examples where appropriate.
2) Like I said...I am neither an Islamic academic or scholar. I'm sure mistakes will be made...and this is not a 'sweeping' analysis of leadership. Its a loud mouthed student attempting to organize his thoughts. Please, if you do see mistakes, notify me immediately as this is a topic that deals with sensitive and important material. I'd also like to take this opportunity to say that whatever good/strong/accurate conclusions are drawn from this stream of thought are from Allah and any bad/weak/inaccurate/incorrect conclusions are from me. And Allah knows best.
[SOURCES]
My sources will be both Religious and non-religious text...As such...the list stands at...
"Muhammad - His Life Based on the Earliest Sources"
(Martin Lings)
Imam Anwar Aw-Laki's lecture series "Life of the Prophets".
Various Sahih hadith
I'm sure this list will continue to expand as I try to incorporate appropriate examples.
[ROUGH IDEA OF ITINERARY]
I also have a rough idea of some of the qualities I'll be looking at...Again...these are rough so keep that in mind...More clarification and examples as we proceed.
-Intention and direction
-Leading from the front
-Proactivity
-Assigning Priorities
-Ijtihaad - Thinking outside the box
-Conducive environments
-Compromises
-Patience and love
-self reflection and reconstruction
-Recognizing specialties/synergy, establishing domains
-Maximizing equal gain...Thinking Win/Win
Also...I'll try to include a glossary depending on the reception.
So enough of my rambling...I'd like the reader's thoughts on this endeavor...and of course I encourage you to participate in the generation of these observations.
Salaams/Peace
Much Love and Respect
TWS
Bismillah Hir Rahmaan Nir Rahim.
[NEED AND IMPORTANCE FOR PROPHETIC AND CALIPHATE MODELS OF LEADERSHIP AND EFFICIENCY]
Leadership and efficiency are quickly becoming major issues within Islamic communities everywhere. From the largest mosques to local MSAs, brain drain and other factors have made community leaders a rare commodity in a time when such leaders are absolutely essential to the political and social environments that we live in. This problem is compounded by a lack of knowledge on methods of managerial leadership, efficiency, inefficient communication, delegation as well as failure to integrate emergent forms of organization and communication to maximize effectiveness. These failings not only result in a less proactive, driven and successful organization but also severely limit the scope and reach of the organization in question. Also, one must note that while someone may (or may not) be a leader in the public sphere (i.e. an MSA or organization), they are almost always leaders in private spheres (amongst friends, family etc).
[Before I proceed, I would like to say that many groups are indeed doing an excellent job. However addressing some of the failings above can go a long way...Also to be honest...in these times Islamic organizations/leaders must be as proactive as possible. Of course, this is addressed first to myself, then to myself, then to myself, THEN to everyone else.]
While there is a great body of literature discussing leadership and efficiency that absolutely must be read (ex. Stephen Covey's work), such works don't account for unique circumstances present in Islamic leadership structures, such as the Shura'ah. Thus, these works can only strengthen and not form the foundation of Islamic Models of leadership. So to whom must Muslim leaders turn to? The answer is simple...Muslims have the example of the Prophets and the Sahaba (Companions of the Prophets).
Certain individuals have attempted to graft Prophetic leadership onto the 7 habits and other existing literature. Personally, I find this approach is not satisfactory in forming Islamic models for the reasons outlined above (i.e. it still does not address unique circumstances and conditions found in traditional Islamic structures). From a faith-based perspective, this approach is also flawed as we find the best example in the Prophets (A.S.) and Sahaba (R.A.).
Anyway...There has been less of an effort (at least to my limited knowledge) to analyze and present the leadership observed in the examples of the Prophets and their closest followers. I am also unaware of any such effort accounting for the University MSA/youth based perspective on this issue. This will be my goal for the next couple of weeks depending on work/class/personal schedules. I hope this work will not be restricted to the Muslim community...as I feel regardless of one's religious beliefs, the Prophets and the Sahaba form amazing examples of leadership from which anyone and everyone can draw good lessons.
[INTENTION]
Before I proceed, I'd like to state my intention. The goal of this piece is to analyze and present Prophetic and Caliphate models of leadership. This move is done as much to organize my own thoughts as to present it as an issue to the Muslim and Non-Muslim community. Also, by posting it here, I hope to generate a discussion on my observations so that the overall community (and myself) can determine that which is accurate/strong and that which inaccurate/weak. Ideally I would like to present the findings to the various MSAs and Islamic Organizations.
[THE GROUND RULES]
Here are my ground rules...If I stray I expect one of y'all to call me on it.
1) I am not an Islamic academic or scholar. I'm a (loud mouthed) humble University student who has been around a number of MSAs and Islamic Organizations and has made some organizations. As such, I hope to use direct evidence from a small series of sources (with references of course...see below). I will NOT be making extrapolations on the actions or intentions of the Prophets and Sahaba...This falls out of my realm. Also...due to severe time limitations, most of my examples will be regarding the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.)...I'll try to give other Prophetic and Sahaba examples where appropriate.
2) Like I said...I am neither an Islamic academic or scholar. I'm sure mistakes will be made...and this is not a 'sweeping' analysis of leadership. Its a loud mouthed student attempting to organize his thoughts. Please, if you do see mistakes, notify me immediately as this is a topic that deals with sensitive and important material. I'd also like to take this opportunity to say that whatever good/strong/accurate conclusions are drawn from this stream of thought are from Allah and any bad/weak/inaccurate/incorr
[SOURCES]
My sources will be both Religious and non-religious text...As such...the list stands at...
"Muhammad - His Life Based on the Earliest Sources"
(Martin Lings)
Imam Anwar Aw-Laki's lecture series "Life of the Prophets".
Various Sahih hadith
I'm sure this list will continue to expand as I try to incorporate appropriate examples.
[ROUGH IDEA OF ITINERARY]
I also have a rough idea of some of the qualities I'll be looking at...Again...these are rough so keep that in mind...More clarification and examples as we proceed.
-Intention and direction
-Leading from the front
-Proactivity
-Assigning Priorities
-Ijtihaad - Thinking outside the box
-Conducive environments
-Compromises
-Patience and love
-self reflection and reconstruction
-Recognizing specialties/synergy, establishing domains
-Maximizing equal gain...Thinking Win/Win
Also...I'll try to include a glossary depending on the reception.
So enough of my rambling...I'd like the reader's thoughts on this endeavor...and of course I encourage you to participate in the generation of these observations.
Salaams/Peace
Much Love and Respect
TWS
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