Mirza Yawar Baig – Living Islam #67
AI: Summary ©
The importance of individual and collective aspects of Islam is emphasized, as it is crucial for success. The speaker discusses the need for leaders to be more aware of the goal of Islam, and the importance of personality and human abilities in learning to lead a war. The importance of avoiding embarrassment, being patient, and giving critical input is emphasized, along with advice on presenting one's opinion and support during meetings. The need for forgiveness and working together is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu wa salam O Allah Shura, Pelham Bay well, mousseline mohammadu Rasulullah, sallAllahu, taala, he while he was having a solemn de Sleeman, kathira kathira. From abudu, my sisters, in our lesson on living Islam,
I want to talk to you today about a subject, which is, perhaps I would not be exaggerating to say that this is the single biggest reason why
we, as a collective, we, as the Muslim oma
never seem to progress never seem to get ahead in life today.
And that is our inability to work together.
In the words of john D, Rockefeller,
he said, I will pay more for the ability to work with people, then I will pay for almost anything else.
I will pay more for the ability to get along with people. That's what he said. So I will pay more for the ability to get along with people, then I will pay for almost anything else.
Now, those of you who have been listening to the series of lectures on
Islam works, you know, how
critically important
is the ability to be able to work with each other?
Absolutely, there is nothing that is more important, or that can be considered to be more important than the ability to work with each other. My brothers and sisters,
there are two aspects to this.
The one is the individual aspect. And the other one is the collective aspect. If I do the individual aspect, take the position of the leader. And I'm speaking from my
hat of being a leadership development expert and consultant,
I have seen some very talented, extremely talented, extremely competent people
fail
because of their style of leadership, which was very autocratic, which was my way or the highway, walk with me or get out of the way. I mean, these kind of statements, they sound very,
probably very attractive, but they're not. They're just very clearly
statements which,
which indicates a complete lack of understanding of human psychology. And I would even say statements, which really show that you probably are not serious about,
about being a good leader.
So I've seen some very competent people, very capable people failing because of the inability to get along with people. And on the contrary, the opposite. I've seen some people who are not so competent, but who managed to do wonders, because they were able to leverage the strengths of the people around them.
Let me take you to the zero for
now, question of his competence and capability does not arise. But I'm giving you the example. Because of another aspect which is that no matter how competent or capable a person may be,
nobody can do everything that is required to be done in a situation by themselves, even if they know how.
So Allah subhanaw taala created his world in such a way that whether we like it or not, we are compelled to take the help of others.
Now see us as an asylum situation.
What it also has to do when Khalid bin Walid,
and it so happened that our last arrival also joined him when he came to Medina to accept Islam. Out of the last was coming from I was seen Yeah, and that's a separate story by itself, how you went there and how he came from there and so on. But the point where the to join is when they when Imran Ross came and he saw closer to Medina, he saw a camp and when he went there, it was Halloween worried.
And they are again, that whole story is so so lovely. I'm not going into it here because it's not a
I went to this particular lecture, but they had a conversation about going to Rosa Salaam to meet him and to accept Islam. And in short, these two friends they agreed. Now what was Rasul? Allah? Is that a salams reaction and what did you do?
We heard his story so many times, I mean, I am not saying anything do which is new. The question is, try to look at it in this perspective, which I'm explaining to you, which is that here is a leader who is about to meet somebody who probably caused him the maximum amount of damage carried Meanwhile, either other LAN hose contribution to the life or source of asylum until that point was 100%, negative.
There was not one thing that caught him in what he had done, which was something that also was arrested and could be happy about, right, absolutely nothing. His crowning glory was
thanks to him and his effort 70 Sahaba
were killed. There was a hit in the Battle of odd thanks to halleck been bullied, and his his effort. One of those 70 was the dearest companion of Rasulullah saw Salaam,
his own uncle, and who was almost the same age as he so it was also his very, very close and dearest friend, and one of his major and strongest supporters. Hamza Abdullah metallic favela.
Right, he was killed.
One of those 70. Now, here is kind of ugly and halogen. Walid is the kingpin in this whole thing.
He's going to be a solo solo, now. amarilla. So the same situation, same situation, same story, same kind of thing with regard to you know, what he did and what he didn't do.
So here is here are two people, two young men have the courage to young leaders from the fresh, who are coming to meet Rasul Allah Salah. And these two young men have not one single positive thing to say about them with regard to their contribution to resume a service, animal life,
or his mission, not only do they not have one single positive thing to be said, they have a million negative things to be said, to have the greatest enemies of Islam until then two of the greatest enemies of our sources. Until then, two of the people who could be said that these were among those who wanted to actually kill and assassinate Rasul Allah sallallahu Sallam himself.
And the fact that this did not happen was not because they didn't make the effort. It didn't happen because Allah subhanaw taala didn't allow to happen. Now, they are coming to meet your sources, and what does he do?
Put yourself in that situation? What would you do? What would I do?
What did he do? So
first thing he did was, as soon as he got the intelligence as soon as you got the news,
and he had his ear to the ground, he knew what was going on.
So as soon as he got information, he announced he ordered everybody in Medina that nobody will criticize or abuse, our are, do anything negative to Hollywood will either last. Now why did he need to say that because those 70 people who were say their families were in Medina.
So here was within quotes, their
major enemy, the man responsible for the debts of their Dear loved ones was coming. natural tendency of people would be what would be to attack him to kill him to at least to abuse him at least to shout at him.
These were on the days of blackouts. But you know otherwise they were reporting placards saying go back and we don't like or something.
First, I wish I was upset, nobody will say anything. Nobody will criticize them.
They will welcome
then when their game and he was sitting in his budget sallallahu sallam. He stood up
to great Khalid bin Khalid Khalid bin when he was younger than he was, as I mentioned to you, this was the these were his antecedents. This is his history.
I don't think he'd been worried in his wildest dream would have expected as soon as salam to stand up to greet him. And this is the key to leadership, do the unexpected. Do the unexpected positive.
He stood out to me
And then current glory.
He's on Misha is on shawl which he was, which he had on his blessed shoulder. He put that down next to himself on the floor. And God Holly been volley Rolando to sit on that shore.
And then what does he do? He accepts Islam. So have you been worried now is free from all sin and so on Ross, the law No.
And then what is you, He gives Khalid minoli the command of the army
and he gives him a title Saifullah, the sword of Allah.
Now what is happening here?
Think about what is happening here.
The first thing that is happening here is Rasul Allah sallallahu Sallam has his own personal emotions, his own likes and dislikes, his own love and hatred, he didn't have any hatred for everybody. But I'm saying just to, you know, the composition of the words,
his own grief,
he has that completely under control.
He does not allow that to dominate him or to influence him in the decision that he is about to make, which is how do I deal with Halloween? Worry? Number one,
all the leaders Listen carefully.
How does he do that? He does that by one single most important thing. And that is the thing that I want you to keep in mind if you want if you're serious about leadership, this is the one thing if you remember this one thing you can never go wrong. And that one thing is he had his goal in focus.
He had his goal in focus, he was looking at his goal. And everything else becomes invisible.
Like likes, dislikes, emotions, feelings,
history,
everything else, no distractions, looking straight at the world. What is the goal, the goal was the propagation of Islam.
The goal was to present this lab to the world.
Here was a man
with
a skill set.
That was unique.
And that was, I would say practically impossible to teach anybody else.
You could teach people but if you start with a, with a youth with a young person, it would take years
to teach them their skill set. And even then you might not be successful, because that skill set is not just a matter of studying from some book. It is a series of life experiences, most of which are in K impossible to duplicate. And that was how to command an army.
Here was Carnevale, he was himself a fantastic warrior,
highly, highly, highly skilled warrior, you don't develop those skills overnight.
You can develop those skills.
It takes time.
It takes enormous hours and hours of practice.
Here was a man would have gone through all of that
he had reached an expert level.
And then what was even more important and more credible, was the ability to command
which is a factor of personality. It's a factor of human relations. It's a factor of the aura is the factor of the reputation and so on. And so he had that ready made. And the third thing here was which came to the fore later. Of course, there is or the seller probably knew this but you know, at that point in time if you asked me at the diner Caliban what he had, was accepting Islam. If you had asked me Does this man have the capability of planning, long range
battle campaigns, like the Romans and the portions were famous for doing across hundreds of miles, maybe 1000s of miles
in completely foreign territory, managing supply chains
managing you know the rear guard
Managing
intelligence gathering
a network of scouts. That range is far ahead of the army to see what's going on and bring back intelligence.
managing all of this
did if you asked me at that point in time, say does carry a skydive? Does he have this capability? I would say no.
Because he didn't have it.
The Arabs were skirmishers. They used to read each other. Reading was not considered to be a bad thing. Reading was part of life. One tribe rated the other tribe
and they skirmished. So each battle was, could be a few minutes. Maximum could be a couple of hours. Very rarely did a battle actually last from morning till evening.
Very, very rarely, I don't even know if I if I read the history of, you know, the Arabic Arab war before Islam, I don't think may well Allah, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. I don't think there's a battle that lasted even one day.
So, and this was between tribes where it was like, you know, I know where you live, I come and read your house to cover you know, where I live, why you come. And it was like that, it's all in one area.
Cut from there, too.
Battles like for example, caccia battle, for example, matava, which was not, didn't happen, it didn't succeed, the sense of victory, but Ravana was actually elected by the troops there on the spot in the field.
And he brought them back safely.
Or take the
the famous battle with the with the Romans, which completely broke the back of the Roman Empire.
These were battles over literally hundreds of lines, in Iraq,
in Syria, in charm.
And then later on,
you know, in in Iran,
or Persia at that time, it was it was called, did Hollywood have this capability?
Unless we had delegated
numbers or knew this, and so he
leveraged that. The point I want to make for you is
that even if we believe that as far as our solemn and this is this belief would be true as as a as a Muslim, if I believe there are also some new
things in terms of war and peace.
And he would know it at an expert level without having necessarily to have trained himself because Allah subhanaw taala grants in that knowledge, that is the knowledge of zerby.
Now he could have done but would he have succeeded if he tried to do everything himself?
He never did.
He leveraged those things.
So the first and foremost thing to understand from the leaders perspective is for the leader to have the ability to understand that even if he has the capability, he cannot do everything himself.
And therefore the leader needs competent followers.
Second thing is
how do you get the best out of those competent followers.
You get the best out of the competent followers by listening to them
by acknowledging their expertise,
and by listening to them, and not throwing your weight around by saying, I'm the leader, you're still the leader.
If the team wins a match, the coach gets the credit. Even though the coach never entered the field. This is all beauty of coaching. This whole beauty of leadership because the coach works outside the field the coach is working before the actual match, day or night in the gym, in the in practice sessions, in cricket on the nets,
in boxing in the ring where whichever sport the coach is working behind the scenes at the time of the actual bout at the time of the actual competition and the time of the actual
match.
It is this team versus that team. Both the coaches
are outside the boundary of the field.
No matter how much you love that team, no matter how much you are invested in that team, and as a coach, you are 100% invested, if you are not invested, you have no right to be the coach.
Know how much you are invested in that team, you cannot enter the boundary of the field when the match is on.
And when the team wins, who gets the credit, the coach,
the coach doesn't have to voters never have like the people will do that for him. He said this team is coached by so and so.
This is something that a leader needs to understand. You do not have to be in people's faces. You don't have to say I'm the leader, I am the new and you don't have to say anything.
Your people and their
actions, their performance, their output,
will speak for itself and will speak for you as a leader.
Now we come to the second part.
How do you get
to what is the tool? What is the method of getting the best out of people and coming to the best possible decision.
Now in Islam, Allah subhanho that I mentioned this is so important and let's monitor mentioned this as a quality of the believers in Surah Shura. Allah is right that I mentioned the believers and he described them and he said, Well, dizziness, Abu Dhabi him
and those will answer the call of they're up.
Which means they accept Islam,
aka Masada and we establish Salah.
Well, I'm rowhome xu rabina.
And they conduct their affairs by mutual consultation, consultative decision making.
When we model the phenomenon to horn and who spend from what we have bestowed on them.
So here are lots of identities, mentioning four qualities.
accepting Islam, establishing Salah, consulting our affairs, through mutual consultation and spending in the Battle of Allah what Allah gave us is the beauty of this beautiful religion of ours, where Allah Subhana Allah always speaks in terms of issues of ibadah of worship and combines them with issues of action. This is a religion of action is not religion of talking.
So with Eman and Salah are two actions, one is mutual consultative decision making. And then spending in the path of Allah being charitable.
This is how important consultative decision making is.
rather beautiful is even more comprehensive inshallah to Allah Allah. Allah says, He says element here, Allah is talking also about the quality of the leader. Allah says For we ma right for Viva rahmati min Allah Hi, Linda. Whoa, whoa, Quinta vasana Valley is calbee La La
Land fondue.
Allah dances for Bhima hemmati minella heylen della home bolo. Cuando vas one galis alcl be London for Doom in halleck. Far for and home Western fear la home, we're Chavez. Phil armor for Isa awesome de for our calama in the law heart you have bull matava Killeen, which means Allah says and by the mercy of Allah, you dealt with them and he's talking about sort of
dealing and treatment and his his way with that which is combined with the Sahaba. Allah says and by the mercy of Allah, his or her data, you dealt with them gently, and had you been severe and harsh hearted, they would have broken away from you and left you. So ignore their faults, pass over their faults. And ask Allah Subhana Allah is forgiveness for them, make dua for them, and conserve them in the affairs. consult them in whatever you need to do. And then when you have taken a decision, put your trust in Allah subhanho data, certainly Allah Subhana Allah loves those who put their trust in Him.
Our brothers sisters, were looking at Allah mentioning several things in this. First and foremost as I told you, Allah is mentioning the quality of the leader himself, which is somebody who is kind and compassionate.
And soft and gentle. And who is willing to listen to people who is willing to treat people with respect does not disrespect them, who doesn't
discard them, who is concerned about them all of these things together,
and allows rather than saying, This is critical, because without that people will run away, they will not stay with you, and you will have the best people sent to you, but that will not benefit you, because those people will not stay with you. So it's a very good thing and realizing this is my mercy upon you. satellizer. Then Allah says, and then what must you do? We have people, when you have people around you, you get all kinds of people, you get people who can speak beautifully, who have the correct other, and so on. And you get the opposite, you get people who are, you know,
very blunt and rude and, and they don't know how to speak and sometimes people,
people ask questions, or they say other speak in a particular manner, which may sound insulting, but actually, they don't mean to insult you. It's just that they don't know what to say how to say. So they say. And if you are patient, and if you don't react, then you can win the hearts of people. And I'll tell you a story which happened with me as well. Anyway. So now he says, alleging that, therefore what must you do analysis? First and foremost, forgive them, ignore what they say there's anything. If there's anything unpleasant or anything negative, ignore it, pass over it.
Right, then he says, Allah says, forgive them and make dua for them. Imagine this is like reinforcing the theme is not not just enough to ignore, but also make up for them.
And then allowances can serve them in matters.
I think what is why does also so seldom who's the recipient overheat? Allah serata nevison asylum concerns with Allah? Why should we consult with people? he consulted with Allah, if he asked Allah love to sponsor him. If he wants to know he will ask Allah, Allah will tell him, why does he have to talk to people, because consultation is not about whether the leader is right or not. It's not about whether the leader has total knowledge or not, it's about the people with the leader, gaining their commitment. Remember, silence does not mean agreement. And dissent does not mean disagreement. Silent many times is a sign of disagreement, it's a sign of lack of commitment.
And dissent is very often or almost always a sign of commitment, because only the person who is interested only the person who is committed will take the trouble to disagree.
Most other people will just remain silent. They say let him say what he wants, I don't I don't care one way or the other, let it happen. But if somebody is saying something and say, Look, I think this is wrong, this is right. Listen to that, because it shows that those people are interested.
Wish our room philomel. So third thing is,
first, be kind to ignore unpleasantness in that discussion. Because it's a waste of time. If you get involved in that you're going to waste a lot of time, ignore all that.
Number three, make the offer those people
and number four, once you take a decision, stick with it, no wishy washy, dilly dallying or you decide something today, then you raise the format all over again. And then you then what was the point of the first decision
that you decide something matter is over, people also must get this get this message to say that once you have had an opportunity to present your case, you presented your case, it was decided it is now closed. You can't keep on reopening things over and over again because you will never get anything done. So unless one other thing, once you decide, stick with that have tawakkol Allah and Allah loves the people who have thought right. So, here is the whole methodology. Now, how do you run such a meeting?
Very important to think about that. Now is that again shows us the way and the way is the rules or the
attitude or the methodology of the madness. assura The Magister Shura consists of the following this is how to do it number one, every module is every meeting has a leader the leader is called the Amit or just called the Pfizer or you can call him Mickey Mouse it doesn't matter the the the the leader is a leader right so there is a leader of that particular meeting. Please understand everything does not need to have an Arabic name right. Every every title
And you don't have to have a in the name of Islam atomization is not a necessary requirement of Islam, you can call the person, whatever you want to call him. I recommend these things, even my corporate consulting practice, and certainly a non Muslim company or Western company or Eastern company, we're not even Muslims, they're not calling the leader of Pfizer, right? So the point is, whatever you want to call them, the leader of that particular meeting. So number one, number two,
what does this leader do?
In my in my next thing, I'm going to talk about this in more detail today just a briefing. So there is a leader then the leader will ask for opinions from the people.
And then, having considered the opinions, the leader comes to a conclusion, and everyone supports that decision, irrespective of whether that decision went according to what you had recommended or not.
In short, in a nutshell, this is the way that the Shura is conducted.
So now, as a leader, what must you do? You must listen, please understand, sometimes some leaders pretend to have a Shura, they pretend to consult, their mind is already made up.
But they're going through the motions. Now that is, that is suicide, because that is something which is completely destructive to your own credibility as a leader. People can make are, believe me, the only person you're fooling yourself. People can make out that you are not serious that you are you're just going through the through the motions, and people will lose trust in you. And after that, your other meetings of these of the Shura will just not happen. People will not participate, because there's a what's the point? are we wasting our time here, the guy's already made up his mind.
Never do that. When you go in there as a leader, keep your mind open, even if you have an opinion. Leave that aside. For the time being here, you're here to listen to people listen carefully, listen thoughtfully, listen attentively and with an open mind.
Number two,
ask, especially as far as the leadership is concerned, even if you are the designated lead leader of the team. In many cases, it is important, it is very beneficial to appoint another leader for that particular meeting. So this is not that you are designing your position, you are the CEO, for example, you still live with the CEO. But for that meeting, the meeting leader can be somebody who's or somebody else, that somebody else would be the person who is number one, maybe the person most interested in the outcome of that meeting, or a person who has specialized knowledge, which is necessary for to come to a good decision in that meeting. So for example, if it's a if you are the
CEO of the whole organization, but the meeting is to decide about something that a particular profit center is doing, then to have the head of that profit center as the meeting leader makes a lot of sense, because whatever is decided in that meeting, is going to be something that will be applied in their profit center, not in our organization. So therefore, having that person as the chief of this is very good, because you get the commitment of that particular person who eventually has to implement what you've decided. The second example is, for example, if the matter is something to do with finance, maybe the head of finance is a better person to lead that discussion rather than the
CEO. If it's a legal matter, then then your company secretary or your your, your legal expert, is perhaps the best person to lead that discussion. Please understand, I'm giving you corporate examples. But this is applicable everywhere. And this is the Islamic system in practice. But this is the beauty of the Islamic system. Now, what must you do as a participant in such a meeting,
there are two things which can happen to you one is the leader can ask your opinion.
Now if that happens to you, there are two things to give him my number one, give an opinion which is the best for the situation, giving the goal in mind, don't give an opinion that is according to your convenience.
give an opinion which is the best for everyone which is best for that decision. Number one, number two, after you give the opinion, make a Stefan internal you don't have to loudly stefarr. Make, seek Allah subhanho data as forgiveness and make dua that Allah subhanaw taala saves you and everyone from any possible evil that may have been in your opinion, because we don't know and Allah knows Allah America said was Taka, Hosea
Hola como wassa wassa wassa and Takara Hosea for
hydro loco was done to him Porsche, Porsche loco wala Alamo. One dolla dolla dolla dolla said it is possible that you love something, but there is harm in it for you. And it's possible that you dislike something, but there is benefited in it for you. And Allah knows and you do not know and we know this is true in life alive. So therefore,
if you are if your opinion is asked, speak frankly, speak sincerely, and give an opinion, which is best for the situation best for the goal best for everyone, not your personal convenience. Number two, seek forgiveness of Allah subhanaw taala, ask Allah to forgive you, because you don't know whether the opinion you gave is good or bad. If it is bad, ask Allah to save you from that. If it is good, ask them to accept it. And
now my second situation is if your opinion is not asked, now, what must you do? First and foremost, if your opinion is not asked, but you have critical information critical to success, your opinion is not critical to success information, I'm talking about data. If you have critical to success information, do not withhold it don't say, Well, you know, you never asked me No.
It is your responsibility. It's your duty to share that information, irrespective of whether you were asked or not. Because the on that depends the success of the mission. So make sure you speak out, make sure you raise your hand and says good me you didn't ask me but I've got some information which I want to share. Again, not your opinion, data. Number two is, if you didn't have any specific data, your opinion you felt I should have been asked my opinion, no problem, you are not asked what must you do? Keep silent. Number two, thank Allah subhanho wa Taala for having saved you from expressing something which had the potential to be negative. Right? Think about that. This is the
humility that is required in Islam. So if my opinion is not asked, Do I get offended? Do I'd say what what what the *? I mean, I'm this great chef, and I'm this I'm that, you know, PhD and whatnot. And nobody's asking me No. He said Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah. Nobody asked me, because I am now saved from having said something which could have been potentially harmful.
Right? It's very important to keep this in mind. Very important to work with this thing to say Alhamdulillah Allah save me.
And then final point is when the decision is taken, support it wholeheartedly. Don't say Well, you know what I mean, I I didn't say this. I mean, this is I guess whatever I had given this bag is my opinion. I was never asked No, stay with the leader. Do not go back. Even if the leader said or did something which you did not agree with the finest? Absolutely. The finest example of that is the Sahaba. The Treaty of Arabia where as soon as salam agreed to and signed a treaty, which I can probably say without exception, every single Sahabi who was there with him? Did not like what had happened. Even the ones who accepted it. I mean, they all accepted but they didn't like but when it
came to supporting him 100% support.
Nobody backtracked. Nobody said, You know, I don't like this. No, everyone supported it was always my always says will they be in my opinion, my my reading of the Sierra is the final test of the Sahaba. It was a test of obedience to Allah and Salaam, which Allah subhanaw taala took it was a very, very difficult test, and Alhamdulillah the Sahaba passed that test with flying colors.
So this is the whole issue of
conflict management have gone off consultative decision making. And this is how the Sahaba
did it and how Islam teaches us as scholars of our data to help us to be able to work together collectively, keep our hearts clean, keep our hearts filled with a lot of Allah subhanaw taala and not hatred and irritation of with each other. ask Allah to enable us to work together and to live and to work together as brothers and sisters in Islam. This is the meaning of being an oma was Allah hi Nana Bukhari while Allah He was savaged by the Rama Rama Rahimi hamdulillah Bella alameen wa salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato