References :The politician continued, "One of things that distinguished the Prophet (ﷺ) was his willingness to put himself on the line. At no point did he send others out to do what he was himself not willing to do. The logical position of the Standard Bearer is in the frontline, ahead of everyone else where he is clearly visible so that others can rally to his standard. This naturally puts the leader in the line of fire but the willingness to accept this responsibility is a sign of leadership and inspires respect, love and loyalty.
There are innumerable stories from his Seerah where he was out ahead, facing any potential danger even before others were aware of its presence. At no point in his life did he put any of his companions in the way of danger or hide behind them. His travel to At-Ta’aif is a good example where he personally took the risks instead of sending someone else. On another occasion in the battle of Hunain against the Hawaazim, when the Muslims broke ranks and retreated in confusion when they were suddenly ambushed, Abu Sufyan bin Harb, radhiyallahu 'anhu, saw the rout and said, ‘Only the sea can stop them now,’ meaning that they will not stop until they reach the shore of the Red Sea many miles away. Yet in that confusion and situation of chaos, the Prophet (ﷺ) forged ahead, refusing to show his back to the enemy. His companions tried to restrain him by pulling on the reins of his mule but he continued ahead.
He saw Abdullah bin Mas’ud, radhiyallahu 'anhu, and ordered him to call Al-Ansaar and among them the Banu Najjar who were his special troops. And they came to him and surrounded him. In the end, it was just a little over 100 men who stood with the Prophet (ﷺ) in the field and turned back the tide of Al-Hawaazim and won the day. Allah helped them and it is these few men that He spoke of when he said that He sent tranquility on them and helped them with troops that they could not see. Such was the courage of the Prophet (ﷺ) that nobody could equal it.
Another example is his treatment of Abdullah bin Abi Sarh who was one of 7 people condemned to death for blasphemy and causing harm to Islam and to the person of the Prophet (ﷺ) himself. The Prophet (ﷺ) passed sentence on them and said that they were to be killed even if they were found hanging from the covering of the Ka’aba. Abdullah bin Abi Sarh took refuge with Othman ibn Affan, radhiyallahu 'anhu, who was his brother because of breast feeding. Othman took him to the Prophet (ﷺ). Abdullah bin Abi Sarh said, ‘I came to give you Bai’ah.’ The Prophet (ﷺ) did not respond. Abdullah bin Abi Sarh repeated his request twice. The Prophet (ﷺ) kept silent. When he said this for the third time, the Prophet (ﷺ) accepted his Bai’ah and he became Muslim. When he left the Prophet (ﷺ) said to the men around him, ‘Was there nobody among you who was wise enough to get up and kill him when you saw that I was silent?’ The Ansaar said, ‘O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) if you had only made a signal we would have killed him.’ The Prophet (ﷺ) said, ‘Prophets do not kill by giving signals.’ Abdullah bin Abi Sarh became a good Muslim and held some high positions of authority during the Khilaafa of Omar ibn Al Khattab and Othman ibn Affan, radhiyallahu 'anhum, and died in sujood in Salat-ul-Fajr.
In this incident, the Prophet (ﷺ) demonstrated his commitment to truth and trustworthiness where even for his worst enemy he would not do anything in a clandestine manner.
When he was not successful in Makkah, the Prohet (ﷺ) decided to go to At-Ta’aif, which was the home of Banu Thaqeef which was the other big tribe in Al-Hijaz in the hope that they would be more receptive to his message. Banu Thaqeef were honored as one of the most important tribes of the Arabs, as the Quraysh were honored and they also had a temple of a goddess in their town.
They proved to be worse. He presented the message to the leaders of the tribe of Banu Thaqeef. But such is the working of Shaytaan when Islam is presented that they responded in ways that broke their own traditions and etiquette and shamed themselves for posterity in the annals of the history of Banu Thaqeef and the Arabs. The Arabs were famous for their code of honor of honoring the guest. There are many famous stories in the history of the Arabs about people, especially tribal chiefs who literally impoverished themselves in their commitment to honoring their guests. The Prophet (ﷺ) was not a stranger but a wellknown person from the nobility of Quraysh and most deserving of their courtesy and hospitality even if they did not want to agree with his message.
The Prophet (ﷺ) went to At-Ta’aif with Zayd bin Haritha, radhiyallahu 'anhu, as his companion and attempted to present the message of Islam to the three brothers who were the leaders of Banu Thaqeef. As I have mentioned hospitality and generosity towards the guest was a time honored code among all tribal societies, especially so among the Arabs. It must have been in the mind of the Prophet (ﷺ) that given this tradition and his own status, the chiefs of Banu Thaqeef would at least give him a hearing. But to his utter astonishment, instead of greeting him with the civility that was his right as a guest and as he was a member of the aristocracy of the Quraysh, the Banu Hashim, they violated every rule of honoring the guest and treated him shamefully dishonoring themselves and the honor of Banu Thaqeef. Their story is written in words of shame in the annals of history to the end of time and Allah decreed that when the Banu Thaqeef of At-Ta’aif eventually came to Islam, they came as conquered people, losing all their wealth to the Muslims. Allah doesn’t forgive those who trouble His Anbiya.
The Prophet (ﷺ) tried to meet the three brothers who were the chiefs of the Banu Thaqeef. Two met him but one refused. One said, ‘I will tear apart the Kiswatul Ka’aba if Allah sent you as a Prophet.’ The second said, ‘Could Allah not find anyone better than you send as a Prophet?’ The third simply refused even to meet him and said, ‘I can’t talk to you because if you are in fact the Prophet then I am not qualified to talk to you. And if you are a liar then why should I talk to you?’ In a last attempt at damage control, the Prophet (ﷺ) said to them, ‘If you can’t accept my message at least keep this conversation private.’ But they refused and instead they got their slaves and others to revile the Prophet (ﷺ) and to throw rocks at them and drive them out of the city. Zaid bin Haritha tried to shield the Prophet (ﷺ) as best he could. But with people throwing rocks from all sides, both of them were wounded. The Prophet (ﷺ) bled from the wounds he received until his shoes stuck to his feet. It is tragic that people attack those who only want to help them.
Imagine the scene, when an aristocrat from the Quraysh, the best man who walked the earth, is reviled, abused and beaten only because he brought the message that there is nobody worthy of worship except Allah.
Remember that the Creator of the heavens and the earth was watching all this. Yet He allowed it to happen in order that the commitment of His Messenger (ﷺ) became clear to all of mankind to the end of time. It was His intention that this Messenger (ﷺ) was to be the last of them and that the message would henceforth be transmitted by his followers. And so it was necessary to establish a model of commitment which would be a shining beacon of guidance to anyone who faced any difficulty with respect to taking the message of Islam to an uncaring world. Nobody who studies the life of the Prophet (ﷺ) can say that for him it is more difficult than it was for the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ).
That is the reason why the One who created everything and in Whose Hand is the control of everything, did nothing to stop a single stone from hitting His Nabi but became Himself the witness in favor of His Nabi that he didn’t leave any stone unturned in his effort to take the message of Islam forward.
Eventually the Prophet (ﷺ) and Zaid bin Haritha took refuge in a farm, which belonged to two people of Makkah. They saw the Prophet’s (ﷺ) condition and sent their slave Addas (who was a Christian) with some grapes and water for him. Even though they were his enemies, they decided to help him in honor of the tradition of hospitality of the Arabs. When Addas gave the grapes to the Prophet (ﷺ), he picked one up and said, ‘Bismillah.’
Addas said, ‘The people of this land don’t speak these words.’ The Prophet (ﷺ) asked him, ‘Where are you from and what is your religion?’ Addas said, ‘I am a Christian from Nineveh in Iraq.’ The Prophet (ﷺ) said, ‘So you are from the land of the pious man Yunus ibn Matta, Nabi of Allah.’ Addas said, ‘How do you know about Yunus?’ The Prophet (ﷺ) said, ‘He is my brother as he was a Prophet and I am a Prophet.’ Allah guides those who are sincere to the truth; so Addas bent down and kissed the feet of the Prophet (ﷺ) and his hands and his head. His masters looked at what was happening and said, ‘See how he corrupts everyone? Now our slave has also gone into his religion.’
When Addas returned to his masters, they asked him why he’d kissed the hands and head of the Prophet (ﷺ)? Addas said, ‘There is nobody in all the land who is finer than him. He told me something that nobody but a Prophet could have told me.’ They said to him, ‘Don’t let him make you leave your religion because your religion is better than his.’ The amazing thing in this conversation is that the people advising Addas to remain Christian were themselves idolaters who knew nothing about Christianity. Yet they didn’t want him to accept Islam. Enmity is a strange disease which blinds those afflicted by it to all good, just because it comes from the one they hate.
Imagine the situation of the Prophet (ﷺ). He had failed in his attempt to present Islam to the people in Ta’aif. He already had very little success with the people in Makkah. What must have been his feelings at that time which was the worst of all failures because he had been personally abused and assaulted? He fell in Sajda and made a dua that has become famous in the Seerah.
“O Allah! I complain to You of my weakness, my scarcity of resources and the humiliation I have been subjected to by the people. O Most Merciful of those who are merciful. O Rabb of the weak and my Rabb too. To whom have you entrusted me? To a distant person who receives me with hostility? Or to an enemy to whom you have granted authority over my affair? So long as You are not angry with me, I do not care. Your favor is expansive relief to me. I seek refuge in the light of Your Face by which all darkness is dispelled and every affair of this world and the next is set right, lest Your anger or Your displeasure descends upon me. I desire Your pleasure and satisfaction until You are pleased.
There is no power and no might except by You.”Allah heard the dua of His Nabi (ﷺ) and sent Jibreel, alayhissalam. Jibreel came with another angel. Jibreel said to the Prophet (ﷺ), ‘Your Rabb has heard your dua and has ordered me to bring this angel and put him in your control. Order him and he will obey.’ The angel said, ‘O Allah's Messenger. I am the angel of the mountains. Your Rabb ordered me to place myself at your command. Order me and I will bring together the two mountains on either side of the valley of Ta’aif and all those who tormented you will be wiped out.’
The Prophet (ﷺ) said to him, ‘Allah didn’t send me to kill people. Allah sent me to guide people to that which is pleasing to Him. It is my hope from my Rabb that even if these people don’t accept my message today, their descendants will accept it one day.’ Such was the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) whose kindness and mercy is an example for all time.
There are many lessons for us in this story apart from the major lesson about commitment. But one of the lessons we learn is about the devotion of the Sahaba towards the Prophet (ﷺ). Zaid bin Haritha shielded the Prophet (ﷺ) by his own body. He took the rocks meant for the Prophet (ﷺ) on himself. Other Sahaba did the same in Badr and Uhud where they protected him from arrows. Abu Talha Al Ansari, radhiyallahu 'anhu, took so many arrows on his right arm that his arm bristled with them and those who saw him marveled at how he continued to stand as a human shield for the Prophet (ﷺ).
Today, to protect his Sunnah is equal to protecting the blessed body and person of the Prophet (ﷺ). Abu Muslim Al-Qawlaani, rahimahullah, said, ‘Do the Sahaaba think that we are going to let them have the Prophet (ﷺ) to themselves? No, we will compete with them for the Baraka of the Prophet (ﷺ) and take our share of him.’ Today when we protect the Sunnah by practicing it, defending the honor of the Prophet (ﷺ) and speaking out against those who seek to revile him, what we do may not be as great as what Zaid or Abu Talha did but Allah will be pleased with us if we support His Messenger and his Sunnah and will reward us in keeping with His Own Majesty and Grace. Similarly leaving the Sunnah or attacking it or denying the importance of Ahadith, is tantamount to attacking the person and body of the Prophet (ﷺ) like the people of Ta’aif did. It is our choice who we want to be clubbed with – the Sahaba or the Kuffar and Munafiqeen; with the people of Jannah or People of An-Naar.
What stands out so clearly in this dua is how the Prophet (ﷺ) speaks of his own weakness and lack of influence. He does not curse those who rejected, insulted and tormented him. He does not call down on their collective heads, the wrath of Allah for refusing to accept his message. He faces his own weakness and asks Allah to give him strength. He says to Allah that as long as He is pleased with him, he does not care about the opinion of the world. And if He is not pleased, then the Prophet (ﷺ) will do everything in his power to continue to work until He is pleased.
Being goal focused when you are being applauded for it is easy. Being goal focused when you are being criticized for it and when you have no apparent support is very difficult. Especially when this criticism may take nasty forms of physical or psychological abuse. To continue to remain on your chosen path and to face your own failure to convince people; yet have no doubts about your eventual success is the test of the leader. In the dark of the night, when the darkness within the soul is more opaque than the darkness outside, when a man stands alone without any visible support, that is when he realizes that the real support for the mission has to come from within. And that comes with a connection to Allah, where he feels completely comfortable with taking his troubles to the only One who can solve them.
For the Prophet (ﷺ), At-Ta’aif was not intimidation or losing hope in his mission but a renewing of resolve and a strengthening of the spirit. After the incident of At-Ta’aif the situation deteriorated steadily. The two major sources of support that he had in the persons of his uncle, Abu Talib and his beloved wife, Sayyida Khadija, radhiyallahu 'anha, both died within a short time of each other. The threat to his mission, his followers and to his own life got more and more severe and eventually he had to leave his beloved Makkah, the place of his birth and ancestors. But through all this what comes out most clearly is the fact that he did not let up his effort for his message even momentarily. He continued to work ceaselessly to take his message of the Oneness of Allah to anyone who would listen to him and even to those who refused to listen. He did not lessen his effort nor did he lose hope.
This dua is a landmark for anyone who wishes to learn the right conduct for the one who wishes to lead. Despite his suffering, he did not curse those who persecuted him. Instead he recommitted to his covenant and declared that he would continue to brave all difficulties and strive until he satisfied Allah that he had completed his task. It is this commitment which continues undiminished irrespective of the opposition or difficulty that is the hallmark of the exceptional leader. On the contrary difficulty seems to only make the commitment even more keen and strong.
Opposition is not proof that you are wrong but that you are right for only then are you opposed. The blow that doesn't break your back only strengthens you.
For a leader physical and moral courage is a major requirement. As they say, ‘People don’t follow titles, they follow courage.’ Today, one may not need to take one’s life into one’s hands but the willingness to stand up for what one believes in or in support of one’s followers at personal risk to oneself are amazingly powerful tools to build loyalty and to demonstrate your own commitment to the goal. Many of these situations can’t be contrived. It is therefore essential that the leader has the courage of his convictions as an inherent trait so that when the challenge always from the front and that is sometimes a dangerous place. But it is good to remember that there is no such thing as a cowardly leader.
People listen with their eyes. They don’t care what you say until they see what you do. They watch what you do more than they listen to what you say. If they see you doing something different from what you told them, then they will believe and follow your actions and not your words. In the process your own credibility gets seriously compromised. Credibility falls through the gap between talk and walk.
The prophet (ﷺ) was always conscious of this and demonstrated his message by living it. That is why when someone asked Ummul Mu'mineen, Sayyida Ayesha, radhiallahu 'anha, about the life of the Prophet (ﷺ)m she replied, ‘Don’t you read the Qur’an?’ She meant that his life was the manifestation of the Qur’an in action.
Resilience consists of two apparently paradoxical positions: facing the facts about the failure without any attempt at disguising the reality; simultaneously having absolute faith in eventual success even when you can’t see any signs that your work is succeeding."
The the politician said, "O young man, I want to emphasize the importance of studying the Seerah which we seem to have totally neglected. The Seerah is the living Tafseer of the Qur’an. It is the methodology of implementing what Allah ordered. If we don’t want to look there for guidance of how to follow Allah’s orders, where else do we want to look? But sadly even in our religious schools, Seerah is not taught as an independent subject. Students learn about the life of the Prophet (ﷺ) from the study of Hadith and from the circumstances of revelation (Asbaab-un-Nuzool) of the Qur’an when they study Tafseer. This is not adequate by a long shot. It is essential to study the Seerah of the Prophet (ﷺ) because Allah told us that his life is the best example for us to follow but we don’t consider it necessary to study that blessed life. Now how logical is that? And Allah know best."
"Indeed, the Qur'an is a decisive statement, and it is not amusement. Indeed, they are planning a plan, but I am planning a plan. So allow time for the disbelievers. Leave them awhile." - [QS.86:13-17]
- Muhammad Al-Ghazali, Fiqh-us-Seerah, IIFSO
- Mirza Yawar Baig, Leadership Lesson from the Life of Rasoolullah (ﷺ), Standard Bearer Academy.
