Excellent post and good demonstration of intellectual leadership, mashAllah! It is weird but being the East and in the West I sense this crisis of absence of real leadership at lest at the spiritual and fiqhi levels more in the West. It seems that when a leader steps up in the West we want a savior and if he falls from grace well he is cast into hell forever. People can not make mistakes it seems bad decisions I mean (not moral obscenities).

Or the leader is boxed into an ideological corner either by his self or by the community. Honestly, this is still very strange to me being an ex-Catholic and being in this Deen for sometime now it still boggles my mind!

We Sunnis seem so disoriented at times and it appears that a semblance of order comes from groups for people and then the groups become toxic and people feel discontent. What happened to personal development of the individual, the family and the community? Is it that all boundaries are collapsed we are all equal yet all different? This to some degree is a bit of anarchy. People skills is what we need and to work to serve either as followers or as leaders it does not matter what role you play at this point the issue is play the role correctly and with excellence off with mediocrity.
Allamah Yusuf Qaradawi (h) made an interesting point some years back about leadership he said (to the effect):

(i) Muslims need to learn to rotate power not hold on to it.
(ii) Muslims need to learn that the leader is like the Imam in the Communal Salah if he makes a mistake the group corrects him but the group must follow him as he leads and in what he is right.

Another issue that seems important is that we also need to define what good following this is part and parcel of the inquiry into what is good leadership. There are many situations where we can witness wherein the people take out the leader in a bloodless Coup through character assassination, flagrant disrespect and being overly critical.

We rarely speak about how “raw” we can be to those in power in our communities. I mean look at the average Imam and what is expected of him he has to clean the crap stinking toilets laced with urine on the floor because people did not follow his advice on the Sunnah of going to the bathroom. Then his phone rings all day and night about people who have pronounced a divorce but did not attend his classes on marriage. Not to mention that he has no real power in the masjid beside being a figure head. We treat our Imams like commodities and then we wonder why they flee upon the first offer of a better opportunity. For goodness sake I know an Imam, a man of character who was threatened to leave the community at gun point! Leaders as is said over and over again are a reflection of the people. I hope that we can also understand power and people subject to power through out these posts after all what is change in ideas of power without a change in the character of the people?

Thank you Sister Nadia. My wife and I both enjoyed and benefitted from your piece, maashaa Allah. Keep up the the good, good work please.

Maa salaamah.

Brother Ijaz, I really enjoyed reading your comment. Indeed dwelling on the ideals seen in leadership in the past is not something which will help us today, although our leaders should look to them for inspiration in their roles. And I also agree with your comments towards the end, namely the need for people to step up in roles of leadership needed to be filled if they are qualified to do so. The fact that the Sahaba were looking to appoint a khalifa even before the Prophet (saw) was buried says it all. I hope to write more on this inshallah, including points on how Muslims need not be afraid to do three things when it comes to leadership 1) stand up 2) speak out, or 3) step aside. Jazakumullah khayr for everyone’s comment, they have really been beneficial.

Jzkheri sir Nadia for the superb advice.

Manshallah ! May Allah swt reward you.

Jazak’Allah khair sister Nadia for this much needed discussion on this topic.
I wanted to take this opportunity to tell the readers and yourself about something related to this:

An-Nahdah Institute will be offering ONLINE public presentations (free) on an on-going basis. The discussions will cover a wide range of subjects that are pertinent to the Muslim Ummah.
The first topic in this serious will be on- Building the Islamic Personality: Using Islam to construct the perfect personality (June 8th)

for the detailed schedule: http://www.an-nahdah.org/online_presentation.html

Insha’Allah it will be beneficial to all.

Wasalams

MashAllah, very beneficial…

1. Up the Garden Path.
2. Into The Garden.
3. Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear. One step, two step and tickly under there!

1. Up the Garden Path. This is where people are talked down to as subjects/little children rather than with, as equals/mature, sane adults. Do this, do that and see you next year at the annual conference. No personal contact except maybe a rushed Q&A session at the end of the event. Leadership by Remote Control or telepathy, as feed back is only really welcomed and acted upon if praise is glowing and the audience is the already dedicated fan club.

2. Into The Garden. People who implement the actions, thoughts and principals they call you towards or remind you of or encourage you to either learn about or revive in your life. They love Q&A sessions and often perceive communal/societal issues well ahead of the masses. Nice to be with, non egotistical, learned and merciful. Rare but unmistakable upon finding. Energetic, hardworking and sincere. Buy some spiritual glue when you find them!

3. Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear. One step, two step and tickly under there! Generally know a little Arabic or have memorised certain khutbahs, talk-starts(i.e nahmaduhu…), hadith, Quran and their ideology or methodology, if they have one. More repititive than a scratch DJ on narcotics. Same thing all the time, again and again. No sociological perceptiveness or willingness to look at or into their local or national environ but forever banging on about Islam/Muslims of another time, place, understanding, quality, minhaj, creed ….or whatever.

Leadership must have a vocal local yokel. That is, we need to see a proof of sincerity. Are people leading us or are they ordering people about whilst reclining on their chaise lounges? As we wish to enter The Garden we need to see our leaders enacting Leadership qualities that Lead us into The Garden, not Up the Garden Path or round and round the garden. like a teddy bear……..

The Lack of Leadership may be a corollary of Not Wanting to be Led. Nostalgically romanticising on past Muslim leaders or futuristically fantasising on the young/youth who are the future by default anyway does not help us right now, today, in the heat of the moment. We, who are adult, are putting off our role by assigning it to the past or throwing it on our children who may or may not pick it up. Be upright and decline/refuse Leadership and you may well be the leader we need. After all, what else did Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali do. They acted as Muslims should and never craved for Leadership, yet they are still revered as Rightly Guided Leaders. These great people were adults who led adults (and children) by example and most importantly by serving them. As soon as The Messenger died ( Allah bestow peace on him, his family and companions) they had to (had to!) have leaders who continued on from where The Messenger (saw) left off. I really hope we rise to that challenge.

Assalaamo alaikum.

SDW