Suleiman Hani – Resilient Leadership – Unlocking The Strength Within
AI: Summary ©
The importance of leadership in driving change and personal development is emphasized in Islam's message on pleasing Allah's values and following the Prophet optimization. The success of pleasing Allah's values and following the Prophet optimization is emphasized, as it is the real world and leaders and people. The message is that leaders should act within their means and not be afraid of the consequences of their actions, and they should be empowered and not give up, with the aim of being effective leaders in their communities.
AI: Summary ©
I want to actually ask you all a
question.
If you could wish for one thing for
our ummah or for the situation you're in
now or the place that we are in.
If you could wish for something, what would
you wish for?
Yes.
Izzah.
Honor.
Excellent.
Excellent.
Anyone else?
Unity.
Excellent.
What else?
What is it?
Peace?
Peace.
What else?
Justice.
What else?
Raise your voices.
Jannatul Firdaus.
Okay.
Here and now though.
Yes.
Jannatul Firdaus for all of us inshallah.
Leadership.
Anything else?
Taqwa.
God consciousness.
May Allah grant us all of these things.
I want to share with you an amazing
story.
One time, Umar ibn Khattab radiallahu anhu, when
he was the khalifa, he was sitting in
a small house with some of the companions
and he said, tamannu, wish for something.
So one of them, he said, I wish
the house we're in was filled with gold
so I can give all of it for
the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
This is an amazing ambition and aspiration.
To have this much money, let's use it
for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
Sometimes people think of money, they make dua
for wealth and they already have a lot
of wealth.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Amazing.
Umar radiallahu anhu said again, tamannu, wish for
something.
Meaning, go ahead, someone else.
So another sahabi said something similar.
He said, I wish this house was filled
with gems and jewels, all types of more
valuable things so I can give it all
for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
Is it okay if I walk around?
I'm sorry, I know this is being recorded.
I'll stand here until I hear from the
camera person inshallah.
So the second sahabi, gems and jewels, all
for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
And then for the third time, Umar radiallahu
anhu said, tamannu, wish for something.
They said, ma nadriya ameer al mu'min, we
don't know what to wish for, oh leader
of the believers.
In other words, if you're asking us about
something specific or you have a thought, we
don't know what else to wish for.
Tell us, what should we wish for?
And then he said, radiallahu anhu, atamanna law
anna hadhi dara mamlu'atun rijalan mitla abi
ubaidatim liljarrah, I wish this house was filled
with men the likes of Abu Ubaidah radiallahu
anhu.
Who is Abu Ubaidah radiallahu anhu?
He's one of the ten companions who was
given the glad tidings of jannah.
And a lot of people don't know about
this companion until they read his bio and
then they are shocked by how remarkable he
was in so many different ways.
The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, every time you
hear his blessed name, alayhi salatu wasalam, he
said, ala wa inna likulli ummatin aminan, every
nation has that one person that's known to
be the trustworthy one of the ummah.
And he said, wa aminu hadhi umma, and
that person for our ummah is Abu Ubaidah
radiallahu anhu.
Who else is he?
One time, a group of people from Banu
Najran, they came, they pledged allegiance, and now
they have to go back home.
They said, send with us someone trustworthy.
The sahaba are sitting, imagine you're sitting in
this gathering, and in front of you, someone
comes to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, now
we're gonna go back to our people, bring
with us, send us someone who is considered
very trustworthy.
Imagine looking around and wondering, who's it going
to be?
And they see that the Prophet salallahu alayhi
wasalam nominates and sends Abu Ubaidah radiallahu anhu.
What else do you know about Abu Ubaidah
radiallahu anhu?
He's one of the people that was considered
as Aisha radiallahu anhu tells us.
He is one of the individuals that was
considered as an option for the next khalifa
after Umar ibn Khattab radiallahu anhu.
So now we know there's this amazing companion,
and he's so amazing that Umar radiallahu anhu
was willing to say that if I could
wish for something, I wish this hall was
filled with people like that man, that great
companion radiallahu anhu.
Why would someone say that?
And you know the wisdom, the iman, the
intellect, the fitrah of Umar radiallahu anhu.
So for him to say that as the
khalifa means there's something noteworthy for us to
pay attention to about what's the individual, this
great remarkable companion radiallahu anhu would do for
the entire ummah if we had more people
like him, if we had that proper understanding
of the traits of the Muslim, if we
had an understanding of the actions of the
Muslim.
Abu Ubaidah radiallahu anhu is someone that we
could spend time talking about.
But the question is, what inspired him?
Who was he imitating and emulating?
Who was he following?
The prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam.
What's the blueprint for all of the great
companions, men and women that we talk about?
What was the blueprint of the young Muslims
that we talk about?
It was the prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam.
Every time you hear his name, salallahu alayhi
wasalam.
And Allah tells us, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
laqad kana lakum fee rasoolillahi uswatun hasanatun liman
kana yarjul laahu wal yaum al aakhir, wadhakara
allaha kathira.
There is indeed for you in the messenger
of Allah an example, meaning the ultimate example.
For whom?
Do you know who is going to follow
the prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, and take that
as their blueprint?
That's leadership, that's a family man, that's a
community member.
Who is going to follow him?
liman kana yarjul laahu, the one who is
actually looking for Allah's pleasure.
wal yaum al aakhir, their sight, their eyes,
the prize that they want is in the
afterlife.
wadhakara allaha kathira, and they remember Allah with
much remembrance, that's the kind of person, the
believer, that would follow the prophet, salallahu alayhi
wasalam.
And so I want to share a few
principles here.
These are principles, if you wish, that are
intertwining leadership with resilience.
Leadership with resilience.
Number one, when it comes to leadership from
the Islamic perspective, before anything else, is that
you need a model.
You need some kind of role model.
You need some kind of blueprint.
Islamic leadership cannot start with frameworks if the
frameworks are not from the Islamic worldview.
Meaning what?
The very first principle is that you're following
the prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam.
You're following the messenger, salallahu alayhi wasalam.
So your first thought when it comes to
how do I navigate this difficult situation, what
would the prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, do?
Now how would you answer that?
You'd have to study his life.
You have to study the seerah.
I'm going to say something, and I don't
mean this to offend anyone at all, I
know it sounds harsh, but sometimes we have
to say some things a little more directly
than others, and this is a clear example.
How can a Muslim say, I really love
the messenger, salallahu alayhi wasalam, for 20, 30,
40, 50 years, and not once study the
seerah?
When non-Muslims have studied his life sometimes
for decades.
Some of them knowing the seerah more than
we do.
It should cause us to feel like something
is wrong.
I'm saying I love him, but I don't
care to know about him.
I love Allah, but I don't care about
the names and attributes and the speech of
Allah.
So obviously the love is the claim, but
now there's the action.
Imagine you tell your family member, a husband
tells his wife, I love you.
She's like, but all your actions speak the
complete opposite.
Everything you do is hurtful, neglectful, or the
opposite, the wife towards the husband or the
parents with their children.
And so our actions are so important when
we say we love Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi
wasalam, we should want to know about his
life.
That is the blueprint, that is the role
model that we will follow.
So if you want to know why Umar
radiallahu anhu said, I wish this house was
filled with people like Abu Ubaidah radiallahu anhu,
you have to study the life of Abu
Ubaidah, the life of Umar radiallahu anhu, and
the life of the messenger, salallahu alayhi wasalam,
to understand the context.
Who was he following radiallahu anhu?
What is leadership?
When we talk about leadership, it is one
of the most studied and one of the
most debated topics that intertwines management with psychology,
with philosophy and sometimes ethics and sociology as
well, and a number of other factors.
And in the past 6 decades, approximately 60
plus years, there have been over 65, 65
different classification systems for what leadership is.
I think if I were to stop here,
and if the entire discussion was just like
leadership 101, and to ask you, what's a
good leader in your mind?
What is leadership?
We would have very different responses, but the
most common understanding of leadership that people have,
unless they've studied this before, is to think
of it from one perspective, just one of
65, which is what?
Trait-based.
So a good leader has this trait, that
trait, that trait, that trait, those characteristics, trustworthy,
amin ul-ummah, that's why I started with
the story of Abu Ubaidah radiallahu anhu.
But is that the only way to look
at leadership?
No.
And is that comprehensive?
No.
And is that the Islamic understanding?
No, but it's part of it.
It's one of many ways.
When you talk about leadership, at its core,
if you were to choose one word, with
all these 65 different definitions and systems, to
summarize leadership, it's about influence.
So leadership, if you look at the mainstream
books that are studied in leadership schools and
industries and programs and doctorate programs and others,
leadership, ultimately, is about influencing, usually, a group
of other people towards a common good.
Now you have to define all of these
things, especially the common good.
From the Islamic lens, that's where you need
the Islamic worldview.
So a leader is someone who is able
to ultimately figure out, how do I influence
the group of people that I could have
responsibility over or I might just be a
part of, to do something good.
We have a shared goal, let's say it's
a business, a non-profit, a humanitarian goal,
a group of friends, you want to influence
a group of friends to do something good,
or for mothers and for fathers, influencing the
family to do something good.
Influence is not force.
Influence is not, I'm a dictator, it's just
going to go my way.
Because those kinds of companies, they may succeed
with some goals, but they will always be
limited in their potential, and number two, the
staff well-being will always be really low.
So you may say, I know an Islamic
center, they have great operations, how do you
know that?
Well, salah is always taking place, Ramadan is
a great experience, they have some programs for
the youth, but internally, internally, what's actually going
on?
How do you know that this is a
really good operation?
And I want to give you an example
when it comes to leadership, and I'll say
this and then we'll move on inshallah.
Sometimes you may have a good leader that
can get most people to do certain things,
so they'll reach some goals.
Are they profitable?
Do they reach their goals?
Yes.
But I want you to think of numbers
here.
Let's say the maximum you could possibly make
is like 100 million dollars for this company.
One leader could micromanage, they could be really
messed up, they could have problems in their
approach, authoritarian, whatever it may be, okay?
And they will make sure that that company,
the employees, everybody, we're going to hit the
one million dollar mark.
Are they successful?
One million dollars in profits?
Yeah, they hit a million dollars, they're profitable,
alhamdulillah.
So you may look at it and say,
this masjid, this non-profit, this government, this
thing, it's running fine, why are you trying
to change things?
Because sometimes you may look at that limited
success as the ultimate success when in fact
you could have made a hundred million dollars.
You served a thousand people in the community,
great.
You could have served a hundred thousand people.
You could have helped a thousand people convert
to Islam.
See where the Prophet had those traits, sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam.
Why is this a very problematic thesis?
Because you're working your way backwards and you're
making the standard, the standard of today, the
traits that today people are saying are the
traits of effective leadership.
What's the actual standard of leadership?
The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he is
the standard, laqad kana lakum fee rasool illahi
uswatun hasana.
That's the standard of effective leadership.
You look through the prism and the lens
of Islam at the theories and many of
these will deal with things that are not
ethical.
Yes, they are managerial, but they are still
important to us.
Another of the traits is behavior based.
What are the behaviors of a good leader?
And another is that of ethical leadership.
Another is servant leadership.
Another is transformative.
How do you transform your followers to do
something good so you can reach that result
or to change something about their beliefs?
But the most important and the most dominant
theory of today actually is situational leadership.
What's the summary of all of this?
If you want to just remember this one
inshallah.
Situational leadership, as you can see in the
title and the name, is about adapting your
leadership style to the situation you are in
to make sure you're reaching your goal.
So what happens if you work for a
company, you're an employer, you're a CEO, you're
running two different departments or groups or teams.
One of them, everyone there is committed and
they're competent, they know exactly what they're doing.
They don't need you to constantly micromanage.
So you have a hands off approach, they're
doing well, alhamdulillah.
That's how it should be.
But your other team, they're committed, they're passionate
and you can tell, they show up.
But they're just incompetent.
They're not reaching their goals.
They don't know what they're doing.
You hired some people that are not effective
at their tasks.
So what happens?
Because you know that field, you have to
keep getting involved.
You have to keep micromanaging.
You have to keep, sometimes you'll delegate and
then you outsource.
So you may have committed people and you
may have uncommitted people, but in general, competence
is also a factor.
So you adapt your leadership with a second
team to do what's needed.
Let's get them more training.
Someone's really, really bad, track record, five to
10 years, not going anywhere.
We have to probably replace this person or
delegate them to another task.
So situational leadership from the Islamic lens is
important to us because sometimes even within the
family structure, mothers and fathers may look at
their children or think of their children, may
Allah grant everyone righteous offspring and think, I
want them all to be like this.
And in their mind, they have a vision.
But every child has a unique personality, inclinations
and traits.
You have to work with them based on
their traits, their leanings, their inclinations, their environments
that are by choice and involuntary.
So you have to work with each person
based on where they are, based on their
commitments, their competence, their passion, the dislike for
certain things.
May Allah protect our families and grant us
wisdom in all situations.
Leadership number one starts with taking the Prophet
ﷺ as your role model.
Number two, it also emphasizes the worship of
Allah, that everything revolves around the oneness of
God.
People hear this and they say, come on,
man.
You're talking to us about leadership.
And as you're talking about leadership, you're bringing
up ibadah and aqeedah and theology.
Where's the actual leadership?
Well, if it doesn't revolve around the pleasure
of Allah ﷻ, it's not Islamic leadership.
If it does not revolve around pleasing Allah
ﷻ, then it's not effective Islamic leadership.
You may be effective from a secular naturalistic
lens, but not in Islam.
So pleasing Allah, li man kana yarju Allah,
in the ayah.
Whoever is looking to please Allah, you're following
the Prophet ﷺ because there's a noble goal.
He's clarifying to us how to worship Allah,
how to please Him.
That's the goal.
So if you influence your children for 18
years, right before they enter college, 17, 18
years, their entire lives, they're raised and you're
telling them, if you don't get perfect grades,
you're a failure, your whole life will be
miserable, you're gonna struggle, that's fine, raise the
standard, alhamdulillah.
With salah, ibadah, Qur'an school, Qur'an
programs, Islamic studies, low standard.
Oh, it's optional, let's negotiate.
You don't wanna go to a Qur'an
program, that's okay.
Your child says, I don't wanna go to
school in 6th grade.
And you say, what do you mean you
don't wanna go to school?
You have to go to school.
You might even try to explain to them
why it's important, but is it negotiable?
It's not negotiable, why?
Because you know it's for their well-being.
But when it comes to ibadah and the
worship of Allah, if you're influencing others, family,
your MSA, your masjid, to do things, and
it does not start with the worship of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and His pleasure.
You're going to find what happens after sometime
is you're going to be off the path
of pleasing Allah.
Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.
So that child, what happens?
You internalize.
18 years, my parents have been telling me,
success is my career, or marriage, or a
good income.
Is that part of it?
Alhamdulillah, from a worldly lens, it may be
good, yes.
But that should never be at the expense
and the compromise of the real ultimate success
you do have control over.
And it's not a dunya, you don't have
control.
Some things are in your control, some things
change overnight.
People have millions of dollars disappearing overnight.
Good health vanishing overnight.
Safety and security disappearing in a week or
two.
May Allah protect us all and grant us
aafiyah.
Say ameen.
What you have choice over is to please
Allah, to enter Jannah.
In the sense that the more you worship
Him, the more of His mercy encompasses you.
And that mercy is what gets you into
paradise.
Nobody can take that away from you.
Society cannot take that away from you.
Nobody can lay you off from Jannah.
You choose to worship Allah.
So effective leadership has to start with, are
we pleasing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
If not, think twice about the decision, the
navigating of that situation, the struggle that you
are going through.
Because ultimately it starts with worshiping Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And of course we have many examples from
old and young companions.
But look at this great example.
Most people have heard this name before.
How many people have heard of Dar al
-Arqam?
The house of al-Arqam?
Just out of curiosity, okay.
So Dar, the house of al-Arqam radiallahu
anhu.
Who is al-Arqam, Ibn al-Arqam radiallahu
anhu?
Very young companion.
He gave his house to the Prophet salallahu
alayhi wa sallam to use for da'wah.
The early stages of da'wah were private,
the first three years.
Who is al-Arqam?
Some people know nothing about him, but they
don't know why they know nothing about him.
There's almost nothing about him in the seerah.
But one of the main things we do
know about this very quiet companion, he gave
his house for the Muslims to use in
the early stages of da'wah.
He was approximately 14 years old.
We have some teenagers in the audience.
A young Muslim, he inherited the house, 14
years old, gave that house in the first
three years of private da'wah to the
Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam to teach Islam
in private.
Do you know how many of the early
Muslims converted to Islam and they were the
reason that thousands later on, combined, ripple effects
of da'wah embraced Islam?
So you think about the sadaqah jariah that
goes to this young companion that many people
don't know much about because the seerah, the
biography of this young companion is very limited.
And yet what he did in his situation
is he was very proactive.
He saw an opportunity to please Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and he took it.
And sometimes young people think they don't have
any role.
Sometimes a 9-year-old may be told,
yeah, when you're older you'll do this and
that.
You have some role.
You're a mother and you're at home with
your children, you have a role to raise
a righteous child.
There is no ummah without an ummah.
There is no ummah that's successful without a
righteous present mother and father as well.
But my point is that everyone has a
role.
So if your role is to bring in
a source of income for the community, to
support good causes, go for it.
If your role is to use your knowledge
of IT or medicine to benefit the da
'wah or to serve great causes, go for
it.
If your role is to be a student
but you are a great representation of Islam
and you are confident as a Muslim on
campus at school, go for it.
If your role is to raise a child
and that's taking up all your time, go
for it.
Whatever you do, do it with ihsan, to
please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So the effective leadership in Islamic lens starts
there.
You have the blueprints, the worldview of Islam
and the goal which is to please Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The third is that an effective Muslim leader
knows how to forgive.
How do you forgive your children, your husband,
your wife?
When there's a mistake and they're remorseful, they're
trying to fix things, they're trying to redeem
themselves.
Sometimes, because of the culture and the times
that we are in, people have an impression.
I don't want to use the word cancel
culture and talk about it too much because
it's a tangent.
But I just want you to think about
the type of situation where someone says there's
no hope to redeem someone who's done something
really bad.
But in Islam, we know someone who committed
shirk for 50 years and walks in the
halls today and says, I'm ready to become
Muslim.
It's not for you to choose to redeem
them or not.
All of their past is forgiven.
And so what about everything lesser than shirk?
Am I saying that we treat all situations
the same?
No.
Am I saying justify something wrong, abuse, things
like that?
That's not what I'm saying.
Don't misunderstand.
All I'm saying is that we have to
know in every situation how to forgive the
one who is trying to be forgiven.
How to allow someone to be redeemed.
How do we know this by the way?
The battle of Uhud.
We talk about this all the time.
In the last 12 months, with all that's
happened of the amplified ethnic cleansing and genocide
in Gaza, with what's happening in Sudan, with
what's happening in East Turkestan, with what happened
in Bangladesh.
When we talk about the state of the
ummah, we bring up these issues.
The Prophet ﷺ was in the midst of
a victory in the battle of Uhud.
And then the few companions who disobeyed, they
left their position.
The archers.
Not all of them.
Some of them left their position.
Because of this, the Muslims were flanked from
behind.
Many of them were martyred and killed.
Now imagine you are the sahabi who was
on the mount, and you disobeyed, and you
went to chase after the spoils of war.
And because of you, Hamza r.a was
killed.
Because of you, the Prophet was bleeding and
injured.
Because of you, the Muslims lost some of
their morale that they lost partially this battle.
Partially.
Because of you, the people of Quraysh now
think what?
This one for that one.
Badr, you guys won.
Now we are in power.
We have the momentum.
And there's more coming to you.
So imagine you're going back to Medina after
you made that massive, massive mistake.
Not to belittle it and not to exaggerate
it.
How would you feel?
Some people would think, there's no hope for
me to ever be accepted by my community
again.
Some people would think, how's the Prophet gonna
treat me?
He told me.
He told us what to do.
We disobeyed.
What did Allah SWT command of the Prophet?
What did He tell him to do?
وَلَوْ كُنْتَ فَضًّا غَلِيظَ الْقَلْبِ لَنْ فَضُّوا مِنْ
حَوْلِكِ In one of the verses of Ali
Imran, the Prophet is being told, salallahu alayhi
wasalam, if you were harsh in your heart,
you had a grudge.
Or on your tongue, sometimes people say, you
know, I'm just saying mean things, but I
have nothing in my heart.
No, no.
In your heart and on your tongue, they
would have fled from you.
فَعْفُوا عَنَّهُمْ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ Pardon them, forgive them.
وَشَاوِرْهُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ شاوِرْهُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ Keep consulting
them.
What does that mean?
The people who disobey the Prophet, salallahu alayhi
wasalam, the sahaba, radhiallahu anhu.
It's as though you're hearing the live recitation,
the wahy that's coming down and you're being
told, they're part of the community.
Give them a chance.
Keep consulting them.
Don't excommunicate them.
Don't treat them differently now.
Keep consulting them.
Yes, they disobeyed Allah.
And yes, obviously that's a very serious thing.
But now they're redeeming themselves.
There's remorse.
A believer knows when and how to forgive
others.
Does this mean we don't learn from our
mistakes?
No.
Of course we learn.
And in fact, we have the authentic hadith
in Sahih Muslim, لَا يُلْدَغُ الْمُؤْمِنُ مِنْ جُحْرٍ
وَاحِدٍ مَرْغَتَيْنِ The believer is not stung twice
from the same source.
So, if a political party deceived a group
of Muslims, and they're doing it again, and
again, and again, learn from your mistakes, oh
community.
If that person keeps doing this to you,
learn from the mistakes.
They're not trying to redeem themselves.
Learn and realize the reality of the situation.
So, you have to know when and how
to forgive your brothers and sisters, your family,
your community, and your mother, your father, your
son, your daughter, your husband, your wife.
Every situation is different.
But an effective leader learns and they figure
out not just conflict resolution, but when and
how to forgive so we can move forward
as far as the communities go.
Imam Al-Ghazali said something interesting.
I'll summarize it very quickly.
He said, to paraphrase, he said, sometimes people,
they let themselves off the hook.
You know, sometimes you make a mistake, or
let's say you're driving.
I don't want to ask how many people
here cut people off because, let's not expose
that inshallah to Allah.
Let's say you're driving, you cut someone off.
You didn't think, oh my God, what's wrong
with me, I'm a horrible person.
You're going off on yourself.
No, no, you justified it.
I'm trying to get in the lane.
I'm trying to exit.
This person is going slow.
You made some excuse, okay.
When someone else does it to you, you
have a grudge.
You're angry, your ego comes out.
What does that tell you?
Imam Al-Ghazali r.a is saying, sometimes
we let our nafs off the hook when
we make mistakes towards Allah or towards other
people.
But when our family, our friends, our community
make mistakes, we make them big deals.
Like we exaggerate them.
Again, every situation is different.
But we hold grudges, and we let ourselves
off the hook.
When in fact, when somebody wrongs you, they
wronged you and affect you in this life.
But when you wronged others, and you wronged
your soul in terms of worshipping Allah, and
you disobeyed Him, you're affecting your akhira.
That's much more serious for you to have
concern about.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us
forgiving and wise, and how we forgive and
how we move on from different situations.
Allahumma ameen.
Number four, amongst the principles of Islamic leadership
is that of shura.
I was very pleasantly surprised to see.
So I'm doing, alhamdulillah, a doctorate program in
leadership now.
And one of the topics that keeps coming
up in good environments is that an effective
leader, especially today, it's changed in the last
60-70 years.
It's changed a lot.
Bureaucracy, and red tape, and authoritarianism.
Is that a good leader knows how to
listen to the followers.
Not just listen.
Like, hey, you know what, oh Muslims, we're
gonna listen to you.
What are your concerns about the elections?
Okay, you're concerned about Gaza?
That's great.
Yeah, we don't care.
No, no, that's not someone who's actually listening
to you.
An effective leader listens and takes your opinion
into consideration seriously.
So when someone says in a workplace, hey,
everybody share your thoughts on how we should
move forward.
But you start to realize, you know what,
they just want to act, it's token.
Token like, you know, symbolic conversation.
It no longer means anything to you.
You know what people start doing?
They stop sharing.
They stop sharing their opinions.
That's what we see.
Because they say in that workplace, my opinions
don't actually matter.
So in Islam, we have this concept of
shura.
In Western leadership and management theory, there's something
called participative management, consultative management, all of that.
Everyone is consulted in that team to see
what do people genuinely think so we can
actually brainstorm a good opinion and move forward
with it.
That I actually want to hear your views.
So what do you do?
You look at the Prophet ﷺ and the
Sahaba said, we didn't see anyone doing shura
more than him.
That's the Prophet.
And he did shura.
You know the battle of Uhud that we're
just talking about, in which the Muslims face
a lot of hardships and losses.
Prophet ﷺ, do you know what his opinion
was?
When they received news, the reports reached them,
you know what, Quraysh, they're gathering an army.
Do you know what the Prophet ﷺ did?
In less than 48 hours possibly, you have
to make a decision.
Where do we meet the enemy?
In Medina where we have the home court
advantage or out in the battlefield somewhere.
The Prophet ﷺ wanted to actually stay in
Medina.
Why do you want to stay in Medina?
Long story short, you have the advantage, you
know the city, kind of the streets, how
to fight them, ambush them, traps.
Everyone can be involved in some capacity.
You have kind of the advantage.
And also Medina is surrounded.
You have Quba, you have the volcanic rocks,
east and west, you have the palm tree
south.
So in general, it sounds like that makes
more sense.
And that's the Prophet's opinion, ﷺ.
He gathered the Sahaba.
One time there's a janazah prayer, and there's
a Friday prayer.
And he gathered the Sahaba and he asked
them, what do you all think we should
do?
And you know who spoke?
Not the senior companions.
They stayed quiet, out of respect.
You know who spoke?
The young companions, as is usually the case.
Expressing their opinions, their sentiment.
And many of them are energetic, with good
passion.
Why are they energetic?
They missed out on Badr.
They missed out on Badr.
Let's go meet the enemy in the battlefield.
Let's go meet them out there.
I'm paraphrasing.
The senior Sahaba stayed quiet.
The Prophet ﷺ heard the majority.
The majority want to leave Medina.
So he agreed with the Shura to take
their opinion and move out.
What did he do?
He left to put on his armor.
When he left, ﷺ, the older Sahaba started
talking to the young Sahaba.
Why did you express your opinion after the
Prophet told you his opinion, ﷺ?
This is how you know it's not symbolic
Shura.
It's real Shura.
They said, go and tell him basically, you
changed your mind.
So they sent, I think they sent Hamza
ﷺ to tell him, we changed our minds.
The Prophet ﷺ said something.
This is about the conduct, the etiquette, the
sharia, if you will, of the Prophets.
They have different standards.
He said, it's not befit for a Prophet
to put on his chainmail, his armor, and
then to remove it until he meets the
enemy in the battlefield.
It's khalas.
We made the decision.
The majority of you expressed your opinion.
We're gonna go out.
And this is knowing for us, knowing that
still they would lose many people in the
battlefield.
Did the Prophet ﷺ come back and tell
the young Sahaba, you were wrong, it's your
fault, I told you so?
It's not a thing.
So, if you do Shura with your family,
your community members, your MSA, whoever it may
be, group of friends, you're deciding on something,
and you all agreed, we're gonna move with
the majority or agreed this is the best
opinion, let's move forward.
After it happens, if it's good, if it's
bad, regardless, don't come back and say, well,
majority of you chose to do that.
No.
You made the decision.
You had tawakkul in Allah.
It was meant to be.
Khalas, you tried your best.
You used the data you had, the opinions
expressed.
It was not the best thing.
That's istishara.
And then you do your istikhara and you
move forward.
It was not meant to be.
You had to go and face those experiences.
So, move forward now when you come back
from that situation as well.
Shura.
Sometimes, the greatest struggle within a marriage and
one of the greatest expressions of frustration, usually
when a wife says, my husband does not
consult me or care about my opinion with
anything at all.
Now, sometimes people are like, yeah, maybe it's
an exaggeration.
She's talking about like major life decision, career,
no.
Curtains in the house, kitchen appliances.
Like, why is the husband in this specific
scenario not consulting the wife or taking into
consideration what she wants?
What would cause that?
Maybe another issue.
And you look at the other issue, you
find there's another issue.
And so, sometimes people are expressing things that
we all agree in this hall, should be
basic standard things in every family that out
of love and respect, if the companions, this
is not one family, the companions are being
told, the young ones who don't have knowledge
of the battlefields or anything, share your opinions.
What about the one who you are married
to, your wife, your husband, your children, even
children at a certain age as they are
growing.
And you show them respect and love even
if you know that they may not have
life experience or wisdom.
At least listen to what they have to
say.
After a certain age, those opinions, you start
to listen.
You know what, they're suggesting this, suggesting that.
And don't just listen and then ignore completely.
Tell them why you're going with a different
decision.
Otherwise, once again, they'll stop sharing.
May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
make us a people of shura.
And make us among those who have divine
blessings in our families.
And rectify all of the struggles that we
find within our families.
Allahumma ameen.
Number five is that of wisdom.
Nuh عليه السلام gave da'wah to his
people for 950 years as we know.
Long story short, in the Qur'an you
have references to different types of da'wah.
He called people, some people in public.
So large gatherings in public.
Other people one on one da'wah, private.
Some people he called them to Islam in
the daytime.
Other people at night.
What does this mean?
The scholars say as Allah commands us, ادعو
إلى سبيل ربك بالحكمة والموعظة الحسنة Call people
to the way of your Lord with wisdom
and good speech.
Wisdom is an entire study now.
Because in every single situation where somebody like
in this audience may say, I have a
question.
And you raise your hand and say, I
have this friend.
How do I give them da'wah?
Because they're doing A, B and C.
I have a family member.
They're not praying five prayers.
And that's like the basic thing you need
to do.
I have a daughter, a son.
They're struggling with this or that.
Every single scenario where you want someone to
listen to you is a scenario of da
'wah in some form.
And in a way, it's influence.
But the influence is not about what.
It's not just about the message, but the
means of delivering that message.
And this is what so many people get
wrong in da'wah.
You know how sometimes you see that person
who's like, Hey, I don't care what people
think.
I don't care about your emotions.
I'm gonna tell you the truth just as
it is.
And in their thought, in their perspective, what
that means is like, that means I'm speaking
the truth as it should be spoken and
everybody else is sugarcoating.
Everybody else is weak.
I'm the defender of the sunnah.
That's what they say.
That's what they assume.
So the kind of person who follows this
has an understanding of what the correct message
is.
Maybe, sometimes they don't, right?
But the delivery is an entire field in
Islam that a lot of people have not
studied, or they have not practiced, or learned
from their mentors.
So what do you see?
The scholars, the students of knowledge who are
raised in a good environment in terms of
tarbiyah, they know to distinguish between the message
and the delivery of the message.
Da'wah is for you to think, how
do I influence the person in a positive
way to receive my message?
It's not, how do I deliver my message
and force them to hear it?
Because you can force anyone to hear your
message.
But was it effective?
Did you really reach their hearts?
A young man, my community, he says, I
went to my family members when I found
out putting pictures up on the wall is
not allowed in Islam.
And I told him, all of this is
haram.
The angels are not coming to the house.
You're all upon bid'ah.
He started throwing out all the words that
he knows.
Family got upset with him.
No change, nobody changed anything, obviously.
Very ineffective.
Years later, he finds that they removed those
pictures one day.
After like all the fighting.
He's like, what happened?
Like, oh, Sheikh so and so said it's
haram.
He's like, I told you that three years
ago.
He said, yeah, but you are so harsh
with us.
Sometimes it's only about the delivery method.
So when you see lone wolves on social
media or in a community, and they have
following, usually like-minded, young, impressionable people.
They're being molded because they don't understand.
There are two things that matter here.
There's the truth which we all agree on,
has to be true, verified, all of that.
Yes, authentic knowledge.
The delivery message and the wisdom is an
entire discipline, the art of da'wah, the
art of influence, the art of leadership.
If you really want to lead people to
good, you have to do so in the
best manner possible.
It's not how do I throw my message
at you, make sure you hear it.
It's are you receiving it?
Is your heart receptive to what I'm saying?
And that's like the example simplified of connecting
with someone before you correct them, for example.
Connect with them.
They know you care about them.
That's part of influence.
That's part of goodness that we should have
in our hearts.
May Allah grant us wisdom with Muslims, with
non-Muslims, with the old and the young.
So if Musa a.s. was told to
give da'wah to Fir'aun, one of
the worst people in history.
And everyone knows who Pharaoh Fir'aun is.
And he had baby boys killed every other
year because he was worried about the prophecy.
What about genocidal maniacs who kill baby boys
and baby girls today?
Men and women, old and young.
Regardless of what happens, regardless of how many
people die, they don't care.
And so you think about Fir'aun and
how evil he was, and how Allah addresses
the story of Musa so many times in
the Quran.
You think about people justifying settler colonialism in
Palestine, and the ethnic cleansing that has been
ongoing for almost a hundred years now.
And you think if that was Fir'aun
and he was killing baby boys, and enslaving
people, what about the Zionists of today?
And those who support them, and those who
defend them, and those who facilitate them, and
those who stay quiet with regards to their
oppression.
We are seeing these things unfold.
So when it comes to Musa a.s.,
he was told to go talk to Fir
'aun, qawlan layyina.
Layyina, gentle speech.
Why?
Because that's more effective for the person you're
addressing.
What about your family member?
What about your husband and wife?
What about your community members?
What about your social media followers?
If Musa a.s. had to speak to
Fir'aun with qawlan layyina, did he sugarcoat
the truth?
He still spoke the truth.
But the method is so important.
Influence, a big part of influence goes back
to your method.
And if we were to think a little
more about the heart of the one you're
trying to reach, perhaps inshallah ta'ala we'll
find more benefit in our organizations, families, and
communities.
May Allah grant us that.
Allahumma ameen.
That was number five.
Number six is that an effective Muslim leader
does not compromise truth.
Now, I just said what?
The delivery matters.
But here we are saying the truth cannot
be compromised on.
What is the truth though?
We have to know what is true.
A lot of Muslims are raised upon Islam.
Alhamdulillah for that.
But their parents never teach them why Islam?
Why is Islam true?
The proofs of prophethood, that's a rational proof,
that's very clear.
And the miraculous nature of the Qur'an.
Both of these topics are topics every Muslim
in the 21st century has to know.
An introductory level at least.
Alhamdulillah that you have in your community the
blessing of having Shaykh Muhammad al-Shinawi.
May Allah reward him.
The proofs of prophet is a book every
single Muslim should study at some point.
An introduction to it.
And the miraculous nature of the Qur'an.
Why?
Because we are connected to on social media,
in society, around the world.
So many contradictory, problematic, deviant, false ideologies in
different forms.
Doubts that arise.
So if you don't know why Islam?
What is true?
And why is it true?
It may become easy for someone to influence
you to compromise something.
That's why you'll hear Muslim saying things that
you're like, that doesn't align with Islam.
Yes, because the foundation of why is not
there.
The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, every time you
hear his name Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, was offered
everything of this world that a false prophet
would take.
You want money?
We'll make you the richest person.
Stop spreading Islam.
You want power?
We'll make you a king.
We don't even have kings in Arabia.
You want to marry the best of our
women?
We'll do that.
What do you want?
He declined all of this.
If you gave me the sun and the
moon in my hands, I would keep going
with this mission.
Why?
He's a real prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
They came to him later.
They're trying to stop the spread of Islam.
They're worried.
The political elite are worried.
So what do they say?
How about we worship your God for one
year without our idols?
They believe in Allah, but we'll worship your
God without idol worship.
But then the following year, you have to
worship our idols.
قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبِدُونَ
To the end of the surah, that even
our children have memorized.
لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَدِينَ To you is your religion,
to me is mine.
Don't compromise.
So are there things that we can compromise
on in Islam?
Well, it depends on what you're referring to.
It depends on what you're talking about.
But in general, by default, when we're talking
about the truth with a capital T in
philosophy, no, we don't compromise on the truth.
You may, yes, change the navigation style, change
the approach of something of customs or...
Yeah, sure, there's some areas that goes back
to the scholars, not to us to decide.
But in general, when you see Muslims standing
strong, being principled, that's what inspires people around
the world.
The faith and resilience of the people of
Palestine has been the reason in Southeast Michigan
where I'm from, just in Michigan alone, that
we've had at least 500 people convert to
Islam in the last year who said it's
because they learned about Islam from the resilience
of the people of Gaza.
And if that's in one small area of
this country, what about the rest of this
continent and the rest of the world?
The principles you have in public may be
the only reason someone is interested in Islam.
Don't compromise.
The brother who was interviewed for a job,
a really good job, and they asked him,
they already knew he's Muslim and he expressed
some things about Islam.
They said, do you need any days off,
any time off, anything that we should know?
He's like, no.
They said, are you sure?
So, 9 to 5, every single day, Monday
to Friday, he said, yes.
He used to go to Juma prayer every
single Juma, which is mandatory for men.
They said, any days of the week, anything
we should know?
He's like, no, no, no.
What was he doing?
He's afraid.
If I say I need Friday prayer off,
I might not get this job.
Is he in desperate need?
He had another job already.
He's not in desperate need.
It's not like he could have said, oh,
I was worried about poverty.
But that's not an excuse.
But that's not even his situation.
He didn't get the job.
And he started bugging the interviewer for a
long time just to find out, just so
I can learn what was one of the
reasons I didn't get hired.
Qualified, everything, degrees, background, work experience.
They said, well, we wanted someone very principled
and bold for our company because it was
a very important position.
And we felt that because you weren't asking,
and somebody felt that maybe because you weren't
asking to leave for Friday prayer, it might
have been, they were protecting themselves legally, might
have been a factor in thinking about how
you might compromise on the values of the
company for something else.
If your religion, because he had mentioned he's
Muslim, he's mentioned all these things, I don't
go to places where there's, I can't drink
alcohol, I can't do certain things.
You couldn't say, you couldn't say that you
have to go for Jum'ah prayer.
That one thing which in this country is
at least protected, alhamdulillah.
And Muslims are doing this left and right.
So, show your principles, be a principled Muslim.
It may be the catalyst for people to
embrace Islam on campus and off campus and
around the world.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us
that resilience, Allahumma ameen.
The principles are more important than anything else.
And finally, as I end on this note,
a leader emphasizes in Islam, a leader emphasizes
trust in Allah and always turning to Allah.
No matter the situation, no matter how bad
it is, if there's COVID and the entire
world shuts down, the mercy of Allah is
still present as it was the day before.
And that last hajj before COVID, has anybody,
was anyone here in 2019 at hajj?
You know how it was in Arafah, right?
You remember Arafah?
And so many people heard the stories of
the rain that came down, the abundance of
rain that came down on that day.
People who are sleeping, slacking off, tired, because
it's a very long day, you're making du
'a like all day and you're in between.
Everyone was making du'a.
You leave your tent, everyone's raising their hands,
making du'a.
People are crying, begging Allah.
That was the year before COVID, before the
lockdowns, to remind us that mercy of Allah
that's in abundance, then is in abundance at
all times, all places.
When there's a genocide, there's still the mercy
of Allah.
In ways we don't, yes, fully understand in
terms of the shuhada, in terms of the
resilience, in terms of many wisdoms that have
ripple effects across the world that's changed the
nature and the face of the world, that's
changed society and exposed a lot of evil,
and people of corruption, and ineffective leaders.
It's exposed the flaws in our own institutions
as Muslims.
It's exposed people who claim interfaith, but they
don't actually mean interfaith for Muslims.
They mean we need token Muslims.
They mean the symbolic aspect of interfaith.
They exposed politicians who said, Oh, Muslims, we're
just like you, we're tolerant of all people.
In sha Allah, they throw out words at
us.
We're like, Oh my God, he said, In
sha Allah, they know our language.
Let's go vote for them.
And then what do they do?
They kill your brothers and your sisters.
They murder our family members.
They mutilate our children.
They kidnap, they torture, they assault.
So, what's actually happening here?
Fitna exposes the reality of this world and
sifts the good from the bad, the truthful
from the liar, the mu'min from the munafiq,
and exposes leaders.
Because in times of pain, leadership comes out.
Your leadership and others.
Because if there's tragedy, and you wait and
say, What should we be doing as a
community?
And nobody's doing anything.
You're part of the problem.
And I don't mean that harshly.
I mean that if you have something that
you can offer, then be the one who
initiates.
Like the many students who did not wait.
They consulted scholars, politicians, attorneys and others, civil
rights movements, and said, We're going to take
action within our means.
All we can do as students is X,
Y and Z, for example.
And so everyone does what they can.
Mothers who taught their children about Palestine.
Today if you were to ask one of
us to talk about Palestine and the history
there, it would be very different than if
you were to ask me a year ago
on this day.
Because now the word Palestine and the concept
of colonization of Palestine has entered every house
in the world.
And there are wisdoms we cannot understand, but
an effective Muslim leader keeps people connected to
Allah.
Every single passage in the Qur'an, Take
this tafsir jam on a final note.
How many minutes do I have by the
way?
One?
That means it expired, right?
Jazakallah khair.
Oh, I actually literally have one.
Okay, I do have one minute.
Every single passage of the Qur'an, where
Allah talks about calamity, pain, hardship, has something
in that passage to redirect your emotions and
pain to something else.
What does that mean?
There's hope about Jannah.
There's resilience and tawakkul.
استعينوا بالصبر والصلاة There's something for you to
hold on to that will help you.
So when you share something painful with the
community, give them something to hold on to.
When you share difficult news with your family
on social media, give them something to do,
redirect their attention.
Now sometimes we share just for the sake
of awareness.
Such and such happened today.
Calamity.
إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّ يَرَاجِعُونَ Make dua for them.
Be proactive.
Share this news, something to do with the
painful moments that you are in.
Because the believer never gives up.
Your trust in Allah is in times of
goodness, relative ease in times of pain.
Is giving up even an option?
Yes or no?
Is giving up an option?
We have to hear it a little louder.
Is giving up an option?
Giving up is not an option.
If giving up was an option, then the
Muslims in 1099 when the crusaders came in
and butchered Jews and Muslims and others and
took Al-Aqsa and occupied it.
May Allah free Al-Aqsa and allow us
to see.
Allahumma ameen.
88 years until the path was paved with
many Muslims who sacrificed.
And then finally, the vehicle of Salahuddin Ayyubi
rahimahullah.
Not one person but a movement.
If every single Muslim in those 88 years
said, we give up, there's no hope.
There would not have been a liberation of
Al-Aqsa and other lands.
The entirety of history would have a very
different course.
And in reality we know this.
Jihad al-nafs, striving against your lower desires
also is against despair.
So, part of positive, effective Muslim leadership, keep
moving forward.
Trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Every single dua you make, that's not for
something haram.
Every single dua that you make sincerely is
accepted in some form.
And you may be inspiring someone.
You don't know that that person is also
another vehicle in those 88 years, is another
vehicle to do something good, to have ripple
effects in the world.
And this is part of passing the test
of life.
In reality, brothers and sisters, effective leadership, again,
there's a lot more to say, a lot
more to say about this topic.
But it starts with us looking within and
asking, are we starting with the pursuit of
Allah's pleasure, the afterlife, the blueprint of the
seerah, the Prophet ﷺ, bringing people together, knowing
when to forgive, knowing how to unite, having
shura, making sure that the community is moving
forward together, this masjid, this family, this organization,
at a national or local level, that we
are moving forward and we try, no matter
what, to emphasize in all things the pleasure
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Because ultimately in Islam, to lead is to
serve and to be accountable before Allah.
Every leadership position is a position of accountability.
Every one of us is a shepherd and
responsible, accountable before Allah for our flock, meaning
for our responsibilities.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us
to see a free Palestine and a free
Sudan, a free other lands all around the
world.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us
effective leaders in every land, in every place,
in every context.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us
wisdom, knowledge, resilience, and actions.
And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect
us from ever despairing or giving up.
Allahumma ameen.
Wa salli lahumma ala nabiyyina Muhammad wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in.
Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.