MUSLIM BELIEFS ABOUT THE NATURE OF

LEADERSHIP AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF

RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL LEADERS

ASSALAMU ALYKUM EVERYONE, WELCOME TO GROUP 2

PRESENTATION PREPARED BY HOODO, SIRAAD, HUDA AND
BASMA

HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOY THIS PRESENTATION

 INTRODUCTION

• Islam is the guide to eradicate all problems in our social

life. Allah (Swt) has addressed the believers as Ummah,
which implies the necessity of leadership in Islam. Allah
says to his Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) “…I have perfected
your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and
have chosen for you Islam as your religion” (Surah Al-
Maidah).
MUSLIM BELIEFS ABOUT THE NATURE OF
LEADERSHIP
• Leadership is a position of being a leader that goes with or in front of person
• Islam declares leadership as trust, and gives a detailed description about it
according to Islamic view, Islam exposes leadership as a psychological contract
between a leader and his followers that he will try his best to guide them
• so who is a leader in Islam
• The prophet (PBUH) said “the leader of a group is their servant” which means
that the leader is the one who serves his group
• The prophet (PBUH) is the best example for a successful leader who was able to
lead the ummah through different life aspects and the rightly guided caliphs took
his route (PBUH) as they were the best leaders who leaded after the prophet and
their vows witnessed huge changes in the government structure and the way of
organizing and increase in Islamic financial income until the Islamic government
became the role model to the other leaders around them
• Islam does not permit any Muslim to live without having a leader in any
situation even if they are on a trip or in a desert. The primary duties of a
leader are to lead the people in offering prayers, to look after their interest
with justice and run their activities in a disciplined and systematic way
However, an Islamic managerial leader will serve his followers or
subordinates under some distinctive principles, out of which some distinct
operational principles are mentioned below:
 Shura
leaders in Islam must consult with their people before making any
decision. Allah (Swt) directed his Prophet (Sm) to consult with his
companions. Allah says “And those who have answered the call of
their lord and establish Managerial Leadership: An Islamic Perspective
13 prayer and who conduct their affairs by consultation and spend out
what we bestow on them for sustenance.” (Surah Al Shura, Verse-38).
Allah also says “And by the mercy of Allah, you dealt with them gently.
And had you been severe or harsh-hearted, they would have broken
away from about you; so pass over (their faults), and ask for (Allah’s)
forgiveness for them; and consult with them in affairs. Then when you
have made a decision, put your trust in Allah.” (Surah AlImran, Verse-
159)
 Freedom of Thought
Islam encourages freedom of thought. Practicing managers or executives should
create such an environment in the organization so that the staff members can
easily opine on any issue. The Four Khalifs of Islam considered this as an essential
element of their leadership Hazrat Umar (R) praised Allah (Swt) that there were
people in the Ummah who would correct him if he went astray.
 Sources of Islamic Jurisprudence
There are four sources of Islamic Jurisprudence. These are: Quran, Hadith,
Ijmah, and Kias. In managing any activity, the managers first look to its hints for
solution from the Holy Quran. If hints are not available, he should give a second
search of Hadith. Again if the solutions are not found in Hadiths, he should look to
Ijmah and Kias of recognized religiously learned persons and his good conscience.
 Justice
The leaders must behave with team members justly and fairly without any
discrimination regardless of their race, color or religion. Islam always urges for
doing justice to all. The Qur’an commands Muslims to be fair and just in any
circumstances even if the verdict goes against their parents or themselves.
Allah says “O you, who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witness to
Allah, even as against yourselves or your parents or your kin and whether it be
against rich or poor, for Allah protects both”.
 Dependence on Allah
The leaders in Islam must depend on Almighty Allah (Swt) for the outcome of any
action. It is known in Islam as Tawakkul. Allah asked his believers to depend on
Him. Allah says, “ ….when you have made a decision, put your trust in Allah,
certainly, Allah loves those who put their trust (in Him)” (Surah Al-Imran, Verse-
159).
 However, dependence on Him without any endeavors is not supported by
Islam. The leader must prepare plans and policies in order to achieve the
rational (halal) objectives. But he must depend on Allah (Swt) for the
success of his plan.
 Sincerity
An Islamic leader must be sincere enough lead the ummah. The Qur’anic
terminology of sincerity is Khulusiat. The Holy Quran urges people to be
utmost sincere in his praying, meditations, and good deeds.
• The leader is not free to do whatever he want but there is laws that stops him
which are the laws that are presented by his god the Allah of all creatures
which himself and others cant get rid of
• And Allah said “It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter
has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their
decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly
wrong Path.”
• And for ummah they must obey their leader unless he calles them for sins and
bad deeds as Abd Allaah bin Masud reported the Apostle of Allaah(‫ )ﷺ‬as
saying “Listening and Obedience are binding on a Muslim whether he likes or
dislikes, so long as he is not commanded for disobedience (to Allaah). If he is
commanded to disobedience (to Allaah), no listening and disobedience are
binding (on him).
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF RELIGIOUS AND
POLITICAL LEADERS
RELIGIOUS LEADERS
• When we talk about a “religious leader,” what is that immediately strikes our
mind? A bishop, an ordained priest, a rabbi, a pandit, a monk, a minister, a
maulana, an imam, a khatib, a mufti, a marj’a-e-taqlid, an ayatollah, or, to be
more specific, the Sheikh-ul-Azhar, Ayatollah Khomenai, the newly installed
Pope Francis in Rome, the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Dalai Lama?
• Of course, all of them are recognized as religious leaders in their own faiths
and within their own spheres of influence. One thing common between all of
them is the specialized and traditionally sanctioned training in theology,
rituals, liturgy and/or law that they are supposed to have received from the
recognized religious educational institutions.
 From this perspective, therefore, we usually do not include academic
scholars of religion, or even activists in religious organizations, as
religious leaders.
• Religious leaders by definition are not only the leaders of their own
faiths but they also interlocutors between their communities and the
leaders and followers of other faiths
• Therefore they must acquire a deeper and sympathetic understanding of
other faiths, their religions concerns and sensitivities, their internal
debates and most importantly an ability to negotiate with them a
common space of shared values and ethical social concerns
• The role of Islamic religious leaders becomes especially critical in societies
where Muslims are a minority. They have to play a dual role here: to provide
leadership in religious and social affairs to their own community, and convey
the interests and concerns of Muslims to the majority community and its
leaders.
• An ideal Islamic religious leader in a minority context will be the one who
stands up for the rights and interests of his own community with candor,
conviction and integrity and, at the same time, is able to overcome the usual
siege mentality and sense of perpetual victimhood. More importantly, he
shouldn’t only address the problems of his own faith community; he should be
equally concerned with the overall welfare of the society at large of which his
own community is an integral part. It is this engagement with the larger
society that will give him legitimacy, credibility, respectability and acceptance
as a truly national leader.
• It is this engagement with the larger society that will give him legitimacy,
credibility, respectability and acceptance as a truly national leader.
• Muslim leaders should be simultaneously engaged in the task of articulating
interpretative traditions within Islam and finding common ground with other
liberatory social movements, recognizing the emancipatory potential of other
religions. What we have here is emblematic of a global Islam of a different kind;
where neither geography nor history but a trans-historical and trans-geographic
liberatory potential of our faith is linked with the people of other faiths. The
question is: are our madrasas and institutions of higher Islamic leaning equipped
to train and produce such global Islamic religious leaders?
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF POLITICAL
LEADERS

• THE successful career of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a

political leader, aside from his primary role as a spiritual guide, is yet to receive
widespread attention from religious leaders, let alone the general public.
• As a person having the power to legislate and who represent the people,
politicians carry out their responsibility for oversight, to ensure that public
administration is conducted impartially and neutrally and the main
responsibilities are
• And as leaders they must lead their ummah to development and assess the
distribution of power and resources, build relationships with other people and
make decisions that can have great impact on the well-being of a nation and
its people.
• Starting from the late medieval period, Sunni fiqh elaborated the doctrine
of siyasa shar'iyya, which literally means governance according to sharia and
is sometimes called the political dimension of Islamic law. Its goal was to
harmonize Islamic law with the practical demands of statecraft. The doctrine
emphasized the religious purpose of political authority and advocated non-
formalist application of Islamic law if required by expedience and utilitarian
considerations. It first emerged in response to the difficulties raised by the strict
procedural requirements of Islamic law. 
•  The law rejected circumstantial evidence and insisted on witness testimony,
making criminal convictions difficult to obtain in courts presided over
by qadis (sharia judges). In response, Islamic jurists permitted greater
procedural latitude in limited circumstances, such as adjudicating grievances
against state officials in the mazalim courts administered by the ruler's council
and application of "corrective" discretionary punishments for petty offenses.
However, under the Mamluk sultanate, non-qadi courts expanded their
jurisdiction to commercial and family law, running in parallel with sharia courts
and dispensing with some formalities prescribed by fiqh. Further developments
of the doctrine attempted to resolve this tension between statecraft and
jurisprudence. In later times the doctrine has been employed to justify legal
changes made by the state in consideration of public interest, as long as they
were deemed not to be contrary to sharia. It was, for example, invoked by the
Ottoman rulers who promulgated a body of administrative, criminal, and
economic laws known as qanun
• In conclusion There are many aspects related to Islamic leadership need to be
explored especially on the leaders’ traits and behaviors. Meanwhile, the
challenges of the leaders in this 4.0 industry era will make them more careful in
planning and organizing the team and its resources. Islam should has a
comprehensive guidance on capitalizing or more involvement in this era, thus
every Muslim shouldn’t worry about the shariah compliance on it. Muslim leaders
will be asked to balance up and accommodate certain barriers to have a smooth
transformation. This elaboration on qualities and comparisons of Islamic
leadership can be used as a reference for all the readers.

• hope you enjoyed