Leadership lessons from the Life of Rasoolullah(s)

1. From the life of Rasoolullah
Leadership Lessons

2.  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

3. in His Belief and Message
Complete Certainty

4.  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’

5. With the message
No Compromise

6.  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

7.  “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

8.  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

9. Because there’s no such thing
as a ‘cowardly leader’
Putting himself on
the line

10.  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

11.  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

12. Face the brutal facts + Absolute
faith in eventual success
Resilience

13.  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?

14.  “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

15. The most logical thing
is to factor Allah into
the equation because
He is in it anyway.

16. Two critical realities of life

17. Until 19.8 nothing
will happen
At 20 the
balance will tip

18. 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?

19. Before personal feelings,
likes & dislikes
The Goal comes first

20.  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

21. Walking the talk
Living His Message

22.  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

23.  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.

24.  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.

25. People
‘listen’ with
their eyes.

26.  Differentiation creates Brand
 Brand creates loyalty
 Loyalty results in influence
Without ‘Brand’ you are a grain of rice in a sack
Why differentiate?

27.  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

28. If you trust Allah
Cut the rope of Dunya

29. Salah is Asbaab
‫األعلى‬‫األسباب‬

30. Taking advantage of the
unexpected
Risk Taking

31.  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

32.  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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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

36. Sacrificing short term
In favor of long term

37.  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

38.  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

39.  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

40.  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

41. & Forgiveness
Magnanimity

42.  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

43. 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

44. Transitioning from
Person-led to
Process-driven

45. 3 – critical requirements
Core
Ideology
Central
Funding
Central
Authority
Global
Influence

46. 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

47. 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

48. Succession planning
Developing leadership

49. Kutab al Wahi
 Ali Ibn Abi Talib
 Abu Ad Darda
 Ubadah Ibn al-Samit
 Abu Ayub al-Ansari
 Ubay ibn Kaab
 Muadh ibn Jabal

50. 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

51. 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

52. 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

53. 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