5 LEADERSHIP TRAITS OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD (PBUH)
Allah has sent Prophet Muhammad PBUH as the last Prophet in which he is known as the final messenger. Therefore, in order for us to be successful dunya and akhirah (here after), we are responsible to understand the traits of our beloved Prophet PBUH.
Some may think that our beloved Prophet lived in those years and his stories are irrelevant and inapplicable in our modern world. Pity us if we have that kind of thinking as Islam is a religion of all times and that our Prophet Muhammad has GREAT leadership qualities that we should adopt in order for us to strive for excellence.
Here are 5 great leadership attributes that Prophet Muhammad possessed that should not be missed and can be applied in our daily life.
1) Trustworthy
From his early life, he is known as Al- Amin – trustworthy. To support this, let me share with you an occasion between Heraclius and Sufyan regarding Prophet Muhammad.To relate to this character in life,
“… He [Heraclius] said, ‘Had you ever blamed him for telling lies before he claimed what he claimed?’ I replied, ‘No.’ … He said, ‘Does he break his promises?’ I replied, ‘No, but we are now at truce with him and we are afraid that he may betray us.’ … . ‘When I asked you whether he was ever blamed for telling lies, your reply was in the negative, so I took it for granted that a person who did not tell a lie about (others) the people could never tell a lie about Allah. I asked you whether he had ever broken his promise. You replied in the negative. And such are the apostles; they never break their promises…’” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 52, Number 191)
Here, Abu Sufyan, who was Muhammad’s enemy at this time, admitted in an alleged meeting he had with the Byzantium emperor Heraclius that Muhammad never told a lie and always kept his word.
I have once asked a successful businessman for an advice of how to become successful and his advice is to be honest and trustworthy in the business dealing. Don’t ever cheat to gain profit.
2) Treasure Relationships
All those that became Muslims during the life of Prophet Muhammad is known as Sahabah instead of staff, helper, team or slave. With this strong relationship that he created, he broke the border between him and others making others feel comfortable with him. Besides that, he also put priorities in strengthening family ties and makes the effort to ensure happiness amongst his family members.
In our daily life, how many of us have complaint about the ill treatment we received from our superior (at work)? I believe almost all including me. Looking at this special relationship created by our beloved Prophet, we should learn to change how we treat others if we are to be treated nicely. There was a talked we attended which was given by Mufti Menk and he mentioned that it will be great if we can treat our maids accordingly. Buy nice clothes for them and give them charity. Because they are the needy ones closest around us and they will always make dua for us because the more rizqi we make, the more they get J
3) Strategist / strategic planner
To be a great leader, we need to be good in planning. Fail to plan equals to planning to fail.
The task of spreading dakwah during the jahiliah period was not easy. I believe if we are given that task, we would surely fail badly. In order to spread dakwah, Prophet Muhammad has adopted a few strategy in which he performed dakwah in 3 stages.
Stage 1: 3 years of secret
Stage 2: Openly doing dakwah
Stage 3: Migration from Makkah to Medina
From just a few numbers of Muslims who reverted, he managed to get 124,000 followers during his Haji Wida’. This is based on the 23 years of dakwah conducted. In all the history of the 25 prophets that we should know, Prophet Muhammad has the most number of followers which are genuine. These people are those who are willing to sacrifice their life for the sake of Allah and not just merely followers.
Above is just one example of our true great leader. There are many examples that can be taken from his story.
In our daily life, we should plan accordingly. That’s why most of the motivational speakers will talk about planning. Even in most of the management book has mentioned that one of the traits of good managers are to plan.
Here we can adopt the strategy of short term planning, mid -term planning and long term planning in our life. InsyaAllah if we plan accordingly, things will go accordingly. You work on it and leave the rest to Allah.
4) Humbleness
Hadrat ‘AbdAllah ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) says that (once) the Holy Prophet (may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him) slept on a mat made of date palm leaves and when he awoke, the impressions of the mat were visible on his body. We said: “O Allah’s Messenger (PBUH) May we prepare soft bedding for you?” He said: I have got nothing to do with the world. I am in this world like a rider who halts in the shade of a tree for a short time and after taking some rest, resumes his journey leaving the tree behind. (Tirmidhi)
In today’s world, how many leaders are humble?
By sharing the way Prophet slept, I am not expecting us to follow him but what I would like to relate is no matter how successful you are, don’t let the heart be taken by the wealth and success. We should strive only for the sake of Allah. By being humble, we will be loved by Allah, families, friends and also strangers. We must remember that the wealth that we have is nothing if we only use for ourselves.
5) Visionary
There are a lot of hadeeths which he has mentioned about things that will occur in the future. He will say something like “ There will be a time….” And today we can see a lot of things that were mentioned 1400 years ago that is happening now.
In today’s context, you can see some great leaders who can envision something for 50 to 100 years but how many has been able to project more than 1400 years? MasyaAllah, how great our beloved Prophet Muhammad is as he is gifted with a great vision.
We might not be able to envision up to 1000 years but if we can set vision of 50-100 years would be great, even 5 years would do! In management, we are taught how important vision statement is and thus, it shows clearly how vision is crucial in our life in reaching towards our goal. Therefore, we should always have a good vision in life in order to be successful dunya and akhirat.
As a Muslim, we should have a vision to enter jannah .How? By following the straight path of life as per what was mentioned in the suratul Fatihah, verse 6.
اهدِنَــــا الصِّرَاطَ المُستَقِيمَ
(Keep us on the right path)
Every day we recite this in our prayers and what does this means? What does Allah wants from us? Allah wants us to be with Him and His beloved in the heaven. That is the meaning of this. To attain the way to meet Him, we keep on asking from Him to keep us and guide us to the straight path.
So if our vision is limited to only success in Dunya, we shall not be able to meet our Lord. Therefore, Allah has created heaven for those who wants to be with him. Saying this, our vision should be up to meet the Lord and by having this in our daily thought, we will definitely do the right things which can please Him.
Dear friends, let us all follow the footstep our great and noble Prophet Muhammad in order for us to be success Dunya and akhirat. Don’t be fooled by this temporary Dunya and worldly temptation.
May Allah guide us and save guard us from the hell fire and bring us closer to his desired path.
by: Anas Pawan Chik
Source: Zaahara
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John Doe
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