Navaid Aziz – Comparing Prophetic Leadership with Secular Leadership
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The speakers stress the importance of pursuing a professional career in a stable environment, finding the right person, finding the right intentions, and finding the right skill sets to achieve their goals. They also emphasize the importance of avoiding harms and accepting responsibility, finding a culture of total efficiency, and finding the right intentions and skill sets to achieve their goals. The host of the video discusses the success of Islam, including its cultural significance and impact on society, and upcoming events, including a summit and a summit in China.
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Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim
Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa sallahu wa Salam wa barik ala Nabina Muhammad Juan earlier he was talking to here do you matter in
Allah Allahumma dar el Medina Illa Allah tena eliminare, Malian federal now one fact of the matter lumped in I was in Omega Khadim mean the Allah below the mean, my dear brothers and sisters Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
So we're gonna go back to July of 2022. And
I was teaching a book at that time called Leadership Lessons from the life of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam by Sheikh Mirza Yeah, we're big. And it was a good book. But the conclusion that I came to, was that there was a need for a better book that analyzed the entirety of the spirit of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, from the lens of leadership. So the exercise sort of started over there, in terms of if you were to complete compare prophetic leadership with secular leadership. So if you look at leadership books by like Collins, or by Maxwell, or by other than them, you know, these self help gurus, and leadership experts, what are the key distinctions that
you'd be able to find? So that's where the exercise came from. And since that time, I've been trying to make notes every time I come across something. And I thought, You know what, let's do an exercise and share it as a lecture. So it's, you know, available to all of you for feedback, critique, and adding whatever you would like be Nila Hinta Allah. So let's start off with a couple of disclaimers. The concept of leadership is actually a very abstract concept, right? What does it actually mean to be a like a leader, there's no did like specific definition that applies to all situations. So there's a nature of it being abstract. So it's important to understand that number two, is that the
life of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam can be analyzed from a variety of lessons from a variety of lenses. And when you do that, you see that his whole life was filled with, you know, almost an infinite number of lessons. So to find the time to go through an infinite number of lessons is not going to be possible. So each incident, if you were to look at it from a leadership lens, you wouldn't be able to derive lessons from it. And the objective from this talk, is not to go into detail by taking incident, analyze the incident and derive the lesson, and then compare it with what experts say in our day and age. But the objective behind this talk is to have a general
overview as to what that actually looks like if you compare what the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam did versus what secular leadership tells you to do. So let us begin with Allah, He Tada. All together. I have eight points. So for those of you that are keeping track number one is that secular leadership, for the most part,
Art in its history has been very title based. I'm a manager, I'm a director, I am a CEO. And you come up with the title, whereas prophetic leadership is more about a lifestyle and the way that you conduct yourselves. This is based upon the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam called local marine, we're cool local muscle, that each and every one of you is a shepherd. And each and every one of you is responsible and accountable. So meaning you have to live yourself live your life, as this individual that's constantly accountable to someone and to something. So we're all accountable to Allah subhanaw taala Yes, but what are we specifically accountable for? So the mother
is accountable for her children, the Father is accountable for the whole entire household, the president of the machine is responsible for the whole entire masjid and each and every one of us will have those things that we are responsible for. So you have to accept responsibility and accountability for those things. So whether you have a title is irrelevant. But do you live that lifestyle of being a leader? One A, is that if you reflect on this ayah in the Quran in surah, Al Furqan Robina habla and I mean as why Gina was overreacting a Kurata Yan what Jana little Matakana Mmm, that Oh our Lord bestow upon us from our wives and our children, those that are the coolness of
our eyes, and make us an Imam for the Moroccan make us an Imam for them with Turkey.
When you think of the term Imam, we may normally think of the Imam that leads the salah. But the term Imam is not just restricted to the one that leads the salah. But we derive the primary lesson. What is the primary function of the imam in the Salah is that he's meant to be followed. He is meant to be followed. So when he says Allahu Akbar and goes into the core, you can't rebel and say I'm gonna keep standing. You can't go ahead of him and go down into such that you have to follow him step by step. So now here you're making this dua, Allah subhanaw taala says that they are a bird or a man, the Select slaves of Allah subhanaw taala. They make this dua that make us an Imam for the
Matakohe and make us an Imam for the people of Taqwa. Why are we encouraged to make this dua? Because if you're an imam for the Matakohe, and someone that is followed and leads by example, by the Matakohe, meaning you do one action, but it's being multiplied by the number of people that are following you, is being multiplied by the number of people that are following you, sir, has an add on your Azure is automatically increasing. And this is in one A, that as we talk about secular leadership versus prophetic leadership, one being out here or centric, one being dunya centric. The main objective behind this is that when you show up with your meeting to Allah subhanaw taala, we're
hoping it's a pleasant one. That is the objective behind it.
Number two, is that when you look at secular leadership, it naturally leads to being very narcissistic. It's all about me, I am the boss, I am the manager. When I walk in, you have to stand up, when I walk in, you have to salute me and greet me, you have to show me the respect that I think that I deserve. Whereas if you look at the teachings of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when he used to walk into the room, he used to prohibit people from standing up for him. He used to prohibit people from getting up and offering their seats to him. So the objective is never about the individual. But the objective is about something greater than the individual is about something
greater than the individual. And I'll share a story where I was completely wrong. You know, when Steve Jobs passed away, in my head, I was like, You know what, Apple is to Steve Jobs centric, and it's going to die. I was like, it's not going to survive after Steve Jobs passes away. There is a truth to my hypothesis. But then there's also like total falsehood. The total falsehood was the fact that Apple continues to survive and thrive, right trillion dollar evaluation, one of the first companies to do that, and it continues to grow. But from which aspect did it die? From the ingenuity? Like if you look at the iPhone,
what is the iPhone been doing is like, oh, we have a better camera and stronger battery life. Like that is the claim for the last like eight iPhones. Like that's where the ingenuity stopped, like there's no longer a game changer taking place in the iPhone, and for Apple products as a whole. So yes, they have a quality product that continues to survive and continue to do well. They've done well for themselves in terms of building a brand and recognition and getting people to buy into it. But in turn
Observe ingenuity, there hasn't been much that has taken place. Now you look at the life of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when did Islam reach? Its, you know, maximum peak in terms of political expansion. It didn't happen during the lifetime of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam and happened much after that, right from the southern border of France to all the way to China. Right, that was the Islamic empire. Now, the fact that the idea continued, and it thrived, even after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. It shows us that leadership needs to be beyond the individual. And it needs to be about an idea about a philosophy that people can believe in and
continue to act upon and continue to live by, even after the leader passes away. Whereas the vast majority of cases, in secular leadership, once the individual is taken out of the picture, that project dies, the idea dies, and growth eventually dies, and thus it no longer exists. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam telling us do not make my cupboard and eat something that you visit frequently. Why did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say that to remind us that Islam is not about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, it is about Allah subhanho wa taala. Right, it's not about any of the prophets. It's about Allah subhanaw taala the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
was a man and messenger, and he was the last messenger. But Islam will continue even without him.
Number three
prophetic leadership teaches humility, whereas secular leadership is very egotistical. So building on the previous concept, is this concept of humility, meaning that prophetic leadership is you do something wrong, you allow accountability for yourself, you're the first to apologize. You're the first to recognize and to appreciate. And we see this from various Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, that whoever does not thank the people has not thanked Allah subhanaw taala. So you're meant to be very appreciative. We look at the Battle of Buddha and this is always, you know, something amazing, just due to the severity of the context, that the night before the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is standing in prayer and he's begging and pleading with Allah subhanho wa Taala that Oh Allah, if you don't give us victory tomorrow, there is not going to be anyone left to worship you. And then as the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is lining people up for war, there is this one man that you know what isn't taking it as seriously as he should. So you can imagine he's slouching. He's not really focused. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam takes his stuff, and he strikes him. And it was a gentle strike. But hey, get into line and straighten yourself up, right? And the man responds by saying, Oh Messenger of Allah, I want you to do right I
want to do right. Now, I want you to think about this. You're about to get ready for war. Right? This is like Islam is on the brink of extinction. This is the possible end all and this man is saying I want my do right. You hit me. I want retribution. At that time, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam could have done a variety of things could have says get back into the line we'll deal with this later. could have said I'm the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you have no retribution. Or he could have said Just be quiet and ignored him. But the province of Allah Allah wa sallam goes up to that man hands him the staff and he lifts up his shirt, and let him do
it. And the lesson over here is perhaps one of the most valuable lessons that I feel I've learned in life with regards to relationships, we have a regular question that we need to ask ourselves, what is more important to me, my ego or this relationship? And in any given scenario, if you ask yourself that question, it will lead you to make the right decision with Allah Hey Tala, your ego is what gets in the way of fruitful, thriving relationships. If you can find a way to put your ego aside. That is a key component of a thriving relationship. This man, he says, Yeah, rasool Allah, how could I ever strike you, and he kisses the chest of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, but it showed
us something. Justice was a key component in the value system of the life of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam. And even if it was a very serious context, like the Battle of other justice is still a more important and that is why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam allowed it. Whereas when you look at
secular leadership, a lot of the events that take place are all just about boosting our egos. You know, we'd like to come
modulate our leader today for having served in this position for the last 20 years, right we celebrate the individual, we celebrate this person's ego. And we often see that these people are very, very abusive in nature. I was reading recently about one of the directors of Goldman Sachs, right, one of the leading investment firms in the world, and how such a despicable life or not I shouldn't say life, but how such despicable incidents have come out of his life. Right? So it's always about doing things that will boost a person's ego. And then when you think about it, from prophetic leadership, where does the humility come from? The humility stems from who is your target
audience? Who are you trying to please?
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is trying to please Allah subhanaw taala and that is why when you see as hospital with that, what does he say? He says Allahu Mashhad, that Oh ALLAH testify that I have conveyed the message. So your ultimate audience is pleasing Allah subhanho wa taala.
Who is the target audience in secular leadership, and you can come up with a variety of different answers, you can say it is the investors. Right. So if you're in a publicly traded company, you have to please your investors to make sure that they keep their money inside of your company, you can say it is your board of directors and your trustees. It is the individuals above you that have the ability to fire you and to replace you. You can say it is the masses in general, that you need to please the masses in order for you to stay in your position and not be kicked out. And I think that will be the distinguishing factor between what allows you to be humble, versus what makes you
egotistical. When you make yourself a servant to Allah subhanho wa Taala it forces you to have humility. When you become a slave to human beings. It almost necessitates that you become egotistical and become very self centered.
Number four
prophetic leadership is all about serving the people.
There's a difference of opinion on the Hadith, but the meaning is very true. And we see this in the life of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Say you don't call me hottie Mohan, that the leader of the people is always in the service of the people. How you tell whoever the leader is, is the one that's in the service of the people. Whereas when you look at secular leadership, it's all about having people serve you. Right? You have someone bring you your tea and coffee, you have someone taking notes for you. In the meeting, you have someone prepare your PowerPoint presentation for you. And you're not doing actual any of the work to serve the people. But you're having people serve you
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam severely disliked to that. And you see this in his training of Abu Bakr Radi Allahu anhu, where he tells him that if your shoelace were to break, before you ask anyone, ask Allah subhanaw taala. If your whip were to fall off of your horse, as you're riding your horse, before you ask anyone else, ask Allah subhanaw taala and tried to do it yourself. So that connection of you and Allah subhanaw taala is strong. And your dependency on others is absolutely minimized. Right? This is about Tawakkol and Allah subhanho wa taala. This is about having this mindset of I am not here to have the people serve me. I am here to serve the people. I'm here to
serve the people. And this goes back to the Hadith that we started off with called Nakamura in Wakulla comas Oh, that each and every one of you is a shepherd. And each one every one of you shall be asked. You know, I don't know if you guys remember. But when he started that series, on Thursday, our big achievement is our big book. I shared that video with you of the sheep. Does anyone remember that video? It was a I'll describe the video in brief. So a sheep is lost. They can't find the sheep. Eventually they find the sheep. It's stuck in a ditch, right in a piece of land. And the shepherd and a helper come and they grab the sheep out. And they take the sheep out and there you
can imagine that they're happy and they found the sheep the sheep is an injured, it's just stuck. They take the sheep out and no exaggeration. Like two hops away. The sheep jumps back into a different ditch and it gets stuck again.
If you ever bored and you want something funny to laugh at, just type in, you know sheep stuck in ditch.
But the point being like the point of the shepherd is to shave to deceive the sheep. The point never was for the sheep to save the shepherd or to be in the service of the shepherd. So the mindset always has to be that as the leader, I have to take care of my son
Keep from the wolf that is out there physical and spiritual. So whatever your, you know,
flock is whatever that works out to be, you have to have this mindset of trying to save them, as opposed to them serving you. Which brings us to point number five. Secular leadership does not care about your akhira secular leadership will not care about your akhira prophetic leadership is all about your accurate primarily. And then it doesn't deprive you of the dunya either. And there's a couple of things I want to focus on over here Bismillah he Tada. So number one is the ideal case scenario. What is the ideal case scenario? Allah subhanho wa Taala tells us Robina hNf dunya Hasina will fill, karate Hasina, walk in either burner that Oh, Allah grant is the best of this life. Grant
is the best of the next and save us from the punishment of the Hellfire. Right? That is the ideal case scenario, where you have the best of both worlds, and you're saved from the punishment of the Hellfire. Whereas secular leadership, it restricts itself to the life of this world. And this is like a result of capitalism get as rich as possible by any means necessary. As long as you don't quite caught, you're fine. As long as you don't get caught, you're fine. And that is why these financial institutions time and time again, you see their unethical behavior because they think they key they're not going to get caught. And when they do get caught worst case scenario, they pay a
fine, right, these fines, sometimes they're a billion dollars. For us, it's a lot of money. But when you have like a $10 trillion,
under asset management, like some of these companies do, a billion dollars is nothing right? Chump change for them. But there's no real consequences to it. So the fact that there is no moral compass required to be a secular leader is a very, very dangerous thing. Because as long as you're achieving your objectives, by any means necessary, you will continue to live your life that way. Whereas prophetic leadership is all about your akhira that one day you will meet Allah subhanaw taala. And there is something greater than the life of this world that you need to
work hard for to get right. You have Jana, and then you have genital for DOS, what are you doing to get to there? Now, this concept wouldn't have itself of being accurate centric, versus dunya centric, you can take this to any field and apply it. So if you look at the world of economics, what is the difference between Islamic finance and secular finance is that Islamic finance cares about your akhira and that is why we prohibit today but if you look at Islamic psychology versus Muslim psychology, Islamic psychology versus secular psychology, Islamic psychology wants your spiritual and mental well being. Whereas secular psychology only cares about your mental well being. It
doesn't care about your spiritual well being and what the state of your soul actually is. And I think this key component, if you apply to all the sciences, you will see the key distinctions between what Islam stands for what it advocates what is ethics are all about, versus the pitfalls of the secular system that tries to take God out of the equation that is only restricted to the life of this world. So for a secular leader, the highest point that you can reach in this life is the highest title that you can attain. Right? You move from one title to the next till you reach the highest title, then there's nowhere left to go. Whereas from a Muslims perspective, there is no end
right? Why are both Arabica Hetalia tea Acharya clean that continue to worship your Lord till certainty comes to you meaning till death comes to you. So you continue working hard for it, because you know, the harder you work for the sake of Allah subhanho wa Taala the more Allah subhanho wa Taala has prepared for you, the more Allah subhanaw taala has prepared for you.
Number six,
secular leadership will only depend on physical needs. spiritual, religious or prophetic leadership also includes spiritual means. So from a prophetic paradigm, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam teaches us to make istikhara that anytime you're about to embark upon a decision, seek console from Allah subhanho wa Taala and ask for his guidance. Make st Shara with the people seek the experts in the field, get their opinion and see what they have to say. Secular leadership will only tell you take the physical means that you have at your disposal. The fact that there's a heavy emphasis on continual growth within Islam, but not only of knowledge of the life of this world, but also of
knowledge of the life of the hereafter. When Allah subhanaw taala commands the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam will call Rob visit near Alma and say, Oh my Lord, Increase me in knowledge. This is knowledge of the dunya. But more importantly, knowledge of Islam and knowledge of the akhirah.
One of the things I forgot to mention, in the previous point versus aka centric versus dunya centric and ties into this as well, is that Allah subhanaw taala, he had to remind the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam and the Companions about something, and this is when people go to the opposite end. So we said secular leadership, get as rich as possible, get the biggest title you possibly can get as much power as you can. But we have people that took it to the exact opposite end of the of the spectrum, where they completely neglected the dunya. Right, didn't want anything to do with the dunya. And that's not what the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam actually teaches us, he teaches us to
be balanced, right? I fast and I break my fast I pray, and I take time to socialize and to mingle with the people and do all my affairs. I marry and I have relationships with with my wives, right? This is what the Prophet SAW Selim tells us. But then the other end of the spectrum, Allah subhanaw taala warns us against as well, whether 10 Sanyasi Bukka Mina dunya. And don't forget about your portion from the life of this world as well. So prophetic leadership doesn't tell you to reject the dunya prophetic leadership tells you take the best of it. But don't allow it to corrupt your heart don't allow it to corrupt your heart. So now going back to relying on for spiritual means and
physical means the fact that this the prophetic leadership necessitates that you pray five times a day, right? It necessitates that you pray five times a day, that you're constantly spiritually engaged with Allah subhanaw taala. And in that prayer, you're asking Allah subhanaw taala it did not sell rotten stuffy. Even if you're praying by yourself, even if you're just praying by herself, you don't make dua that Oh Allah, guide me to the straight path. You make dua, Dino Serato, Mr. Kim, that Oh, Allah, guide us all, to the straight path guide us all to the straight path, which means prophetic leadership is about uplifting everyone and wanting to see everyone successful. You don't
want to see anyone go to jahannam. That is what prophetic leadership is about. Secular leadership is often stepping on the backs and necks of people so that you can uplift yourself, stepping on the backs and necks of people so you can uplift yourself. So whereas one model is based upon genuine concern about people's dunya and akhira, the other model is just reach as top as you can. You are the one that has to be on top and not anyone else.
Number seven, who are you accountable to? And what is your accountability look like? So for secular leadership, as long as you haven't done anything illegal, what's the worst case scenario? You get fired? Right? You let go, you get let go. That's about it. That is the consequence. As long as you haven't done anything illegal, but from a religious perspective. What is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam remind yourself, he says, save yourselves from the hellfire. You have an accountability to save yourself from the hellfire. So you have to do that which will save you from the hellfire. So now,
there are difficult decisions that needs to be made in life. That is the inevitable reality. And it's not within the realm of halal and haram. But it's what is the better decision. So now, I want you to look at two different scenarios playing out.
Two individuals, both went into business with their best friend, should you go into business with your best friend? No, don't go into business with your best friend. But also these individuals did. Individual number one comes from a completely secular paradigm.
And they say, You know what, my friend is slacking off. They're not carrying their burden of the business. They're not doing the work that they're supposed to do. In order for this business to grow. I need to let go of this front and basically invite them in and say thank you. Here's your severance package. I wish you all the best. But you're fired and you're let go. What happens to that relationship? More than likely it will never recover. Just because there's no bond that held it together. That once that business intervened, that bond is pretty much shattered, and they're now pretty much on the verge of being enemies if they're not already
Whereas prophetic leadership, as you're making difficult decisions, and yes, this person isn't carrying their weight, and they're not doing the things that they need to do, you're still more concerned about the relationship. So the conversation will take a very different shape. That look, we're still brothers in Islam, I'm still going to see you in the masjid. I don't want this to be awkward. But for these reasons, I need to let you go. What can I do to make sure that our relationship thrives? What can I do to make sure that we still remain brothers. And this is where the beauty of Islam comes into play. Where Yes, you can be angry at your brother for up to three
days, for up to three days, he gives you sometimes you can ignore him, he tries to visit you don't open the door, he tries to call you don't answer your phone. But after the third day, you have an obligation to try to mend the relationship and whatever way you can. mending the relationship doesn't mean that you give them their job back. And you know, let them ruin your company. mending the relationship means in the kindest way possible, you explain to them why they're no longer good fit, and you're not living up to the expectations of the company. And you try to provide them the training that they need to reach that. And you give them a good severance package, and you continue
your day to day interaction with them like you would with any other brother in Islam. So if you look at the shift in paradigm, where we're not allowed to do severing ties, is a huge thing in Islam, because I want you to think about if we had the ability to cut off ties with everyone that we got angry at what would happen to us, we'd have no relationships left. So the fact that Islam intervenes and says that the most that you can be allowed to separate yourself for is up to three days. It is a huge thing. It is a huge thing.
Now we get to a point number eight, which is the last one
prophetic leadership is about sacrificing yourself, even for others, whereas secular leadership is living for your self. So what is an example of this? In the early days of Mecca? You see that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his companions were all being persecuted right? The family of a mountable, yes has been killed. process is being marked. They're throwing, you know, the insides of a camel on the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, all of these things are happening.
And
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he is given this gift by Allah subhanho wa taala, this moment of dua, where if he was to make dua to that time, Allah subhanho wa Taala would answer that dua no questions asked. And if you look at the hadith of Kabbalah rot in * Buhari, it's exactly that he comes complaining to the part of the Selim, he says yada still Allah. were being killed over here, right? We're being mocked. We're being ridiculed. Our companions are physically being killed, and in the most inhumane ways, would you not do anything to stop this? And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam rather than making dua to that time, what does he tell her Baba Murat? He says,
Yes, ABAB. He says the people before us were thrown alive into fires and they were killed. They were combed with iron combs to the degree that their skin was peeled off. These are the tests that come with your faith. And that if you were to die in such a state, you'll die as a martyr. Right? You're not losing any. Yes, it's a painful experience, not to belittle the pain that people experience. But at the end consequences that's getting you to gender as a Shaheed, right? This is what he's conveying to kebab. Now getting back to the point, when does the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam save that dua, for he saves it for the Day of Judgment, when his own man needs it the most when his
own man needs it the most. And for me, this is the epitome of prophetic leadership. Where as you know, your people will need you at a given time. You sacrifice your own comfort, you sacrifice your own physical well being. And you continue to live through the difficult moments of Makkah, so that on the Day of Judgment, you can save your nation, and you can be allowed to intercede for them on that day. Right. And this is why if you study, you know, in the books of al Qaeda, the concept of shefa, the intercession of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the intercession of the process Salam on the Day of Judgment is a is a huge thing. Number one is that the Day of Judgment begins
through the intercession of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and this is known as the Shafaq and Cobra, that he bows down to Allah subhanho wa taala. And Allah subhanho wa Taala teaches him a DUA, he says it and through that dua, the Day of Judgment actually begins. Whereas prior to that people have been waiting for 50,000 years or the quality of time of 50,000 years perspiring, being anxious and
not knowing what's going to happen next and when it's going to happen.
And then on top of that, is that part of his Alma will be broken down, those that are eligible to go to the hellfire, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam intercedes for them. And their time is actually minimized in the Hellfire or they're actually removed from the hellfire and then turned into paradise. Then you have those individuals that are going to be in the lower levels of paradise and through the intercession of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, they are entered into the higher and perhaps highest levels of paradise. But here's the amazing thing.
Abu Huraira the Allahu Taala and who he asked the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, ya rasool Allah, mon Asada nurse bisha ferritic ya rasool Allah, who are the most fortunate people to receive your intercession? What did he say? He says, manakala Ilaha illa Allah Holy Son because that whoever says there is no one worthy of worship except Allah sincerely from his heart, meaning that even this act of shefa this intercession is a gift from Allah subhanho wa taala. Due to your sincerity due to loss due to your TR eight, and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is just the means of that intercession. But the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saved it for a time when his Alma will
need it the most, even though him and his companions drew desperately needed in the moments of NACA through all the persecution that they were going through. So this concept of self sacrifice for the sake of your people, is a is a huge prophetic lesson. Whereas secular leadership, sacrifice people for your own benefit, right? hire the most talented person you can get. Once you no longer need them, fire them till you find someone better till you find someone better. Now, let's reach our conclusion. Bismillah heeta Anna, the conclusion is prophetic leadership is meant to inspire optimism. It's meant to be motivated by your meeting with Allah subhanho wa Taala Kalia Amarillo,
fussier Allahu ama.com. That go ahead and act for surely Allah subhanho wa Taala is watching everything that you do. Your audience is always watching you, waiting for you to do your next good deed so that it can be documented. And the more people you help the more people you inspire, the more people you develop for greatness, the more pleasure you are getting. So that when you meet Allah subhanaw taala, he is pleased with you. Right, that is the ultimate moment that you're working for. So yes, you will fall short along the way, yes, you will fail along the way. But is there truly a failure? If your intention is right, and it teaches a valuable lesson? The answer is no, it's not.
failure in its truest sense, is failure in that moment, with a lesson learned for the future that you want to repeat it. And it will allow you to be a better worshipper of Allah subhanaw taala. And it takes away that pessimism that you have it takes it away. That negativity that you may have prophetic leadership is about uplifting others. And I can't emphasize this enough that it takes a very strong person to recognize that they can't do everything on their own, and they need a support team around them. Secular leadership makes me very delusional to think that I can do everything by myself. And I'm not in need of anyone else. Prophetic leadership teaches you to rely upon Allah
subhanho wa Taala and depend on Him alone, but allows you to build with others, whereas secular leadership does not allow for that, once you die. That is the end of it. For the prophetic leadership model, once you die, that is when your true compensation and your true reward actually begins. And this is why
when you look at this concept of leadership, it always comes down to the small things. Right when you look at the hadith of Eman being 60 or 70, odd branches. What is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned in these things. He mentioned Mr. Total other removing something harmful from the path. He mentioned putting a morsel of food in the mouth of your spouse. All of these things are from Iman.
And I want you to notice these things. That when you walk by and you see something harmful on the way, do you take a moment to move it? If we don't, we're not following prophetic leadership. Because if you can't move the small things from people as pathways, how are you going to move the big hurdles and the big obstacles in their lives? You're not going to be able to everything has to be great
Everything has to be step by step. This is putting the point alone, that you should not be the one harming people. And I'll come back to complaining about parking. Right Subhanallah just today, you know, at the end of the hotbar I'm like brothers and sisters, please make sure you're not double parked, make sure you're not harming our neighbors. Make sure you know we respect our neighbors. And it comes time to establish the prayer comes time to establish the prayer. Our brother comes and he says, Hey, there's two cars that need to be moved. One car is blocking another car off. So I make the announcement and like Inshallah, that will be the end of the problem. We finished the Salah,
Salah finishes, the brother comes back and he's like, Hey, there's another car that's blocking off the exit to the masjid. You know, can you please tell them to move their car, and I was expired. I just made this before the salah mean that this person prayed their salah, knowing that they're obstructing people's exits from the masjid. And they had no problem with that. Right. So the point that I want to conclude with is that prophetic leadership is about you being concerned about other people's well beings, the problems are uncertain, he tells us that the best of people are those whom the Muslims are saved from their hands and their tongues. And if we can't even park our cars
properly, so much so that we're harming our neighbors and we're harming other believers. There's a problem here. We have to accept accountability, we have to accept responsibility. If parking is an issue, try your utmost best to show up early. If you're unable to show up early, then park a little bit far and walk over here. You should not be parking illegally or blocking anyone else's way. Right if the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam forbade us from playing with pebbles during the Jama chutzpah because it can be a distraction to someone else process and forbade us from talking during the gym or whatever. Because it is harmful to other people and distracting to them. How about the
harm that we cause people outside of the salon? Like when they have to get ready to go back to work? You've blocked them off? Right? Our neighbors complaining about us constantly, because we're parked in their spots, and we don't allow their customers to park in those places. What does that show about your concern for your Salah? What does that show with your concern to regards to you accepting accountability and responsibility for your flock if you can't even be responsible for yourself. So this conversation begins with accepting accountability for ourselves. And that means we want to make sure that we're not harming anyone. And then once we've done that component, let us start removing
the harm from the path of others and build up to that. But if you're not doing the smallest stuff, the big stuff will not matter. The big stuff will not matter.
Now, I want to share something with you.
How many of you have heard of the website, launch good launch good.com Raise your hands if you know what it is launch good. So it's a Muslim, you know, philanthropy website, you want to donate towards a good cause. That's the website that you use, and had the ability to interview Chris. Chris mashallah is a convert to Islam. And he's built this amazing platform that you know, Muslims can be proud of, and it does a great job in terms of helping Muslims in need, and for the various causes. That they grow the I see itself, when we were fundraising for the downtown masjid, that was one of the platforms that we used. So I asked him, you know, what are the three biggest lessons
from the Sierra that you would take away as prophetic leadership? And he says, number one is the growth mindset that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was taught that you need to keep growing never be stagnant. Right? And this starts off with the very first revelation ekra. Right, learn and read and recite and continue to grow Makarov visit the ALMA continue to grow. And then number two, is that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was never shy to ask advice, right? If he didn't know what to do in this situation, the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam was never shy to ask for advice. And he mentioned the example of Sandman al Farsi. In verse will conduct in ditching of the,
in the building of the ditches and also in for the via asking them, send them out of the Allahu anha what to do.
And then the last point he mentioned is that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam surrounded himself with the best people. And this is where the the unique conversation took place. Because part of it Yes, Allah subhanho wa Taala sent the best people to
him, but part of it was the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam invested in those relationships, to build to build them to be the best people. And this shows us you know, a variety of things that when you're sincere, Allah subhanho wa Taala will naturally send people to help you. And as Allah subhanho wa Taala naturally sends people to help you, you have the responsibility of helping people grow. So how does more either bingeable become the most knowledgeable of halal and haram? The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam teaching him and mentoring him asking him when you go to Yemen, how will you judge right that very important Hadith. So it shows us the promises and built him into
that individual. When you look at the example of Abu Bakr, Radi Allahu taala, and who he has a very timid personality, prior to the death of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, then after the death of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, he knows what he has to do, he has to step up to be the leader and his personality completely changes completely changes whereas when you look at the horrible Ryda the the wars of apostasy everyone else is not everyone's a lot of the companions or disagreeing with him, you know, don't go out for these expeditions, but Abu Bakr Radi Allahu Tada and who he says no, those people that gave him the cat during the time and frozen them have to give
us the cats now the dean hasn't changed, right? So the positive serum built that into the personality of Abu Bakr, Radi Allahu taala. And who, so I thought that was a very fascinating discussion, which I thought tied in really, really well
to this concept of prophetic leadership versus secular leadership. Well, Allahu Taala Allah, and that is what we will conclude with, we'll open up the floor for questions inshallah Bismillah.
Is it okay
for us?
Excellent. So, I'm going to summarize your question into something very simplistic. Is it permissible to seek positions of leadership? And this is often the asked question. Because if you look at the hadith of abogado de Faria, or the Allahu anhu, it seems as if the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is basically telling him, You should not seek positions of leadership. But if you look at the Hadith, the ayah in the Quran, which Island Mata Karina Imam, and you're making dua for this, that Oh, Allah make us an Imam for the people. How do you reconcile this, the way we reconcile this is, number one, is that your intentions are pure and correct. You're doing this not for the
sake of yourself, but you're doing this because you feel that through this position, you can achieve a goal that will benefit people and will benefit humanity. Number two, you have the required skill set. For that position, you have the required skill set for your disposition. So oftentimes you this mentality of fake it till you make it. That's not an Islamic position. Islam says go and learn and educate yourself and grow, and then learn the skills for that position, and then apply for that position. And then number three, you can have the right intentions, you can have the skill set, but there's still someone better than you for this position. The Islamic thing to do would be to concede
and say, This person is better than me, let them have this position. But if you are the best position, if you are the best person for that job. I don't want to get into the realm of * of haram, but potentially based on what the position, it could actually be haram for you to step down, it could actually be haram, for you to not take that position. Does that make sense? This is my understanding of when it's permissible to step up for positions of leadership. And this applies to all leaders, all aspects of life. And it's based on the Hadith of the Prophet Salam, that who should lead the salah. The individual has memorized the most Quran the individual has memorized the most
Quran, Allah Jota and Anna go ahead and worker.
Good question. So I that's what I'm saying. I want to avoid using the term haram depending on the circumstances. But his question is, what if you want to avoid a leadership position? Because you don't want it to affect your ego and get Rhea in the way and you fear that you know, you might do something impermissible, can you avoid it? Now, if there's no one to fulfill that position, then clearly it becomes haram. Right and you have to fulfill that position. However, if there are other people that are qualified and can do the job, perhaps maybe not as good as you are as qualified as you. It may not be impermissible to do so. But a lot of it is context.
But I want you to think about this. What if the half of the Quran says you know what, I'm not going to lead the salah? Because it may lead me to have Ingria
what is the half of the Quran supposed to do? No one leaves the salah. Let's just all stand in the first half and pray individually, like how is that going to work? The solution to that is not to step away from the position of leadership. The solution to that is step up to the plate and ask Allah subhanho wa Taala for restless, right, the solution to that is to fight off the whispers of shaitan and to fight off the insincerity. And there's a very fascinating conversation, that Sheikh Mohammed is God for him Allah. He interviews chef Salah al Buddha, the Imam is one of the Imams of much of the Naboo and my personal favorite reciter live in mustard. Lovely. You get to hear Sheikh
Salah who did Allah knows best but there's no experience like that. And he interviews him he asked him, you know, you're an imam to millions of people. How do you retain your sincerity? Right and he response and again, go back to the full thing. But he always responds with when you stand in this MACOM of the Imam
which direction are you facing? You're facing Mecca, whoever it is that whenever itself is an automatic reminder as to who your audience is mentioned to be the one that is in front of you, not the people that are behind you. Right, your intention is always Allah subhanaw taala. So that being said, I'm not going to give any specific answers. But in those sort of situations, it's always better take the position and ask Allah subhanaw taala for a class, then for no one to take the position or someone unqualified to take the position. And then we have further chaos thereafter. Allahu Tanana.
Bismillah go ahead
Asante.
Excellent.
Excellent, great point, you know, she mentioned the the verse and use phi in Surah Yusuf when use of either he Salam he basically demands that he be made finance, Mr. Minister, and he proves why that I am trustworthy and knowledgeable of this right. So this proves the permissibility of seeking positions of leadership, if you have the skill set required to be in that position. JazakAllah fair, thank you so much.
Any other questions, critiques of what I mentioned, disputes, arguments Bismillah.
To make the difference between leadership position, leadership is
a sign such a leader without a title, not seeking position, a person can do a small amount of time the leadership will sustain.
Next, to sustain due to your past what you did, what's your advice
about your pregnancy or the field that you were working in or whatever. So SQL injection itself or body
work by being the best candidate. This you can
apply to your teammates, your community, your or everybody around you. This is what I think should be the leadership and the position can come up to dashboard. And when it does, this is the leadership's that mindset was the
right person, we will be soon to take position by all so the people are not let you for those positions of not seeking positions.
What does that look I thank you so much. I appreciate that spot a graphic
Ismaila. So the back end when he comes he's lived on this earth and he wasn't really a good person who are younger, during the time before he
does that. Is that your question? No, I want to whenever I so he doesn't know he's going to become the Maddie.
We don't know. We don't know. So my relation to that is today's there's people who become overnight sensations as in YouTube stores or Tik Tok or whatever it is. And they get automatically put into positions and unfortunately, sometimes a lot of them are in our community that are
that can handle that position. And I was just trying to see like, what's, you know, obviously, there's leaders that are naturally born, right. There's people that
right, the journey, of course, that come easy. Go Go is a current state right. So my question is really like,
Well, I was more curious around the MACD and then relating it to our overnights efficiency if that's the case, right. How does that work? Is that actually the people that come sensations over
Are they really leaders or should they be kind of? Excellent, excellent. So the brothers question is with regards to overnight sensations and particularly, I'm going to go on a small tangent, but if you look at Muslim influencers, in particular, right, they've, you know, accumulated massive followings online, they have these huge followings. Do we consider these people leaders? If not, why not? Right? So let's look at two different things. Number one, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he tells us that in Allaha, la Jacobi do Hodel in design, that Allah subhanho wa Taala will not just rip this knowledge away from people, but rather he will take it away by the death of
scholars. And when the scholars pass away, they will take people that are not qualified to answer their questions. For those who don't know, that these people are astray and they will lead other people astray. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he tells us that towards the end of time, you will have this concept of total way better the ROI without being these people that feign the knowledge, they fake knowledge. It's as if they have knowledge, but they actually don't. So what is the criteria and what are we actually looking for? You know, I look at the example of Imam Malik Rahim Allah. And he says I did not give fatwa in Medina, tell over 70 of my teachers gave me
permission to do so. Who are these people's teachers? Who has given them permission to teach and to speak? What are their credentials? Where have they learned to have they studied with? These are very important questions that I would ask before I take knowledge from anyone. So an overnight sensation. You know, it could happen you could be someone mashallah, that was unknown, but all of a sudden, they became very known and I'll use someone like, you know, Mufti mink mashallah Tabata cola. He's a learned man, you know, credible knowledge and almost seems as if, like a decade ago, he appeared out of nowhere from Zimbabwe, right from Zimbabwe, right? And then mashallah Tabata Kala, he became this
Muslim influencer. But the thing is, he studied Islam. He's gotten his Iftar degree, and he's a credible scholar. Whereas if you look at the other individuals that are Tiktok celebrities, and I think if your claim to fame is tick tock, that should be like a red flag right there. Right that should be a red flag when of itself YouTube, we might be able to accept but you should not your your claim to fame should not be tick tock. So all that to say, I think it is possible to become an overnight success, but with the right steps, that at the very least you'd be known in your own community, right? The pastor said and before he became a prophet was known as El Amin, he was known
to his people, and then revelation came to him. And then that is when he became the prophet that we knew. Allahu Allah, Allah, Allah.
I'll take one last question, shall we similar? Go ahead.
Alec Musa left Allah
is
the process
if these people are not adhering to what you outlined here,
first
citizens of this
reaction?
I'd like talking
about tariffs.
Right.
No, it's a it's a very important question. It's a very, very, very important question. That how do we deal with our Muslim political leaders? Right. And, you know, for those of you that are following recent things, like Iggy Azalea coming to Saudi Arabia and her doing what she did, that's horrendous, terrible, terrible.
You know, thing that happened, but how do you respond to that, right? It's very fascinating that political leadership is actually something discussed in our sunnah. You look inside. So hey, Muslim, you have a chapter called Kitab Imara. Right, the the book of leadership and rulership. So that chapter in Sahih Muslim is actually a very, very important chapter. And the general concept is that as long as the ruler is Muslim, then you have to hear and obey. You have to hear and obey. When is it allowed for you to remove this leader? If you see clear disbelief from them, and then you have a step by step action plan as to how they can be replaced with the minimizing of harm law
loss of life and spilling of blood. Right? What we see time and time again, is that blood is spilt intentions are good. But the change that is warranted doesn't come into place, because we haven't thought into that far in the future. Okay, we're moving the leader, but what are we going to replace him with? Right? We didn't get to that for. And that is why I think history will be the ultimate judge in terms of how the Arab Springs played out, I still believe we're very, very close to it. But if you look at the simple fact of Syria, you know, you have a ruler that killed over half a million of his own people in the most inhumane in civilized of ways. No one denies that. Yet you welcome him
back into the Arab League, as if nothing has happened. There are some serious questions that need to be asked, like what is the value of life? Right? So Allah knows best. But I will leave you with with the statement of a national versity Rahim Allah, we are given the leaders that we deserve. Right and up until we're willing to fix ourselves. We shouldn't expect good leadership. And this was one of the big things about Sheikh Khaled Danny Rahim Allah hooter, Allah on philosophy and tarbiyah. That purify yourselves, work on your own Eman, work on becoming a better Muslim, work on implementing the Sharia in your own life. And Allah subhanho wa Taala will implement the Sharia for you in the lands.
But if you're not willing to do those things yourself, you can't expect better leaders to come out out of nowhere. And this is going back to this question over here. Whereas when you come on the, when you look at the coming of the MACD, you'll see that he makes himself or it that's what a salad is Salam. But it's at the time of Fajr when you know people are praying in the masses, right, being at the mercy of is filled at at Fajr time. So I think there's a lot of work that the OMA needs to do. But the future is always bright. We need to focus on becoming better and improving our Eman and becoming more knowledgeable about our deen and our society and about our world. And that's how
positive change will take place. Well, Allahu Tanana.
There's a brother that had their hand up Bismillah
analytical political leaders, but even the leaders in corporations, like if you have two leaders, and one is following kind of a prophetic leadership model, and another more secular leader, but he's willing to do anything and everything to get that position, including backbiting, clogging and killing,
who will win? And quite often, these are politics.
Secular theaters everywhere because
he has boundaries, but he's not willing to compromise.
So I'm just wondering, sometimes, maybe it's meant to be that we're here. And he's invited environments will be the winner because you're optimizing for nothing else.
Right? No, that's a great question like an ethical person versus an ethical person. In this world, oftentimes the unethical person wins. And that is the reality. But the good guys always loose. And the answer to that is no. Right? That even when you have listened to conclude with this hadith, you know,
Allah subhanaw taala, he looked at the sustainable business world. He says, Allah subhanho wa Taala looked at the purest of hearts, and found the heart of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and made him the best of prophets and made him the last prophet. And then he looked at the purest generation, and he found them to be this generation and he made them to be the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Now, what I take away from this, is that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam becoming the final and last Prophet was not an accident. This was a meticulously planned plan 50,000 years before the creation of the heavens in the earth, but if you look at
what needed to take place in the world, particularly from the time of Ibrahim alayhis, salam, till the time of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you can see the onset of all the seeds being planted, so that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam comes when he's supposed to come, all that to say that the world is an evil and wretched place and bad guys will continue to be given positions of power, till we create the circumstances where the good guys can succeed. And the good guys can take the positions that they need. And eventually that will happen because again, this goes back to the concept of, of the MACD and ESA they said I'm coming, that will happen but I'll
Take a lot of work. So it's not always going to be the case where the bad guys will win when the time is right and when is decreed. And when this client, Allah subhanaw taala gives the effect to the good guys as well. Allahu taala. Hey folks, let's conclude with that. We'll give the event and then we'll have the karma at 930 Insha. Allah. Just a couple of announcements as she's, yes. important announcements. Number one, we have sisters workshop on Sunday, financial rights of women in marriage and divorce. Myself and lawyer Sister Sara Nasir, please make sure we tell all the sisters about that. Brothers send your wives, your sisters, your mother's everyone to this downtown.
5:30pm Bismillah heeta Allah
number two, we have our youth conference coming up. So it's only for youth you have to be a high school or university students to attend. It's happening Thanksgiving weekend you can get more information on the website. And then also miftah Institute is having their conference are September 30 Imams theological hardship of the NASA Janda shooting, McHale Smith, and quite a few other speakers. There's a discount code for the ISC. So if you go to purchase your tickets, I think they're like $15. US right now. You put in the code, ISC 25, you get 25% off of that. So it comes out to like $12 us or something like that. So I see members, please use that discount code and
purchase your tickets. That's happening on September 30th. At the Telus Convention Center. And then the last thing next week we have a special halacha we have Chef Amara Patel, who is a psychotherapist from Toronto. He runs Canadian Muslim counseling, and I'll be having a back and forth conversation with him on faith, mental health and masculinity. So I want all the brothers to bring out all their friends, all the mothers and fathers send their sons, all the sisters send your brothers and let's have this important discussion. Next week on Friday. My selfish take on material at this location in sha Allah subhana cologne we'll be having the shadow Allah and Allah and start
Furukawa to the lake was Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh