References :The historian said, "O young man, the biggest challenge for any leader; indeed, the single factor which can mean success or failure of his mission; is his ability to inspire others to follow him and commit time, energy, wealth and talent for the achievement of his goal. No goal can be achieved by anyone alone, no matter how talented or powerful of wealthy that person may be. The key to achieving this attention and commitment of people does not lie in paying money or granting favors or making inspiring speeches but to express the love and concern for followers that you truly and genuinely feel so that they also know it. Remember, people say, ‘They don’t care what you say, until they know that you care.’
If there is one thing that is crystal clear about the character of the Prophet (ﷺ) as a leader, it is his patience and gentleness. There are several instances in his life where others behaved with him in such foolish and harsh ways that those who were with him drew their swords to teach the person a lesson. But the Prophet (ﷺ) never allowed them to take that course. His way was to deal with the harshest of treatment with calmness, gentleness and a smile.
The Prophet (ﷺ) preached the importance of the rights of neighbors and he was the best to his neighbors. He (ﷺ) preached a message of human rights and social responsibility. He (ﷺ) emphasized the rights of neighbors irrespective of whether they were Muslim or not. Once, he (ﷺ) was asked the Sahaba, ‘Do you know what the rights of the neighbor are?’ He then said, "Assist him when he asks for assistance; Give him a loan if he needs it; Help him if he is needy; Visit him when he is ill; Accompany his funeral when he dies; Congratulate him on happy occasions; Console him in adversity; Do not build your house higher than his without his permission lest his ventilation is obstructed; If you buy fruit, send some for him as a present. If you cannot do so, take the fruit into your house concealed so that he cannot see it. Don't allow your children to take it out and eat openly in case his children see it and become grieved; Don't let the smoke from your house get into his house causing him annoyance. These are the rights of the neighbors." Thereafter the Prophet (ﷺ) declared, "By Allah, no one will ever understand these rights unless Allah has mercy on him.‛
In another Hadith it is mentioned that the Prophet (ﷺ) took an oath thrice saying, "By Allah! He is not a Believer! By Allah he is not a Believer! By Allah he is not a Believer!‛ Someone asked, "Who is not a Believer?" The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "The person who causes suffering to his neighbor.‛ Another Hadith mentions that such a person will never enter Jannah.
The Prophet (ﷺ) preached about the rights of women and he gave the world a law that gives women rights that they don’t have in many other modern legal jurisprudential systems even today, 14 centuries later. He (ﷺ) preached the value of truthfulness and was himself called ‘Al-Sadiq ul-Ameen’: the Truthful & Trustworthy One, even by his enemies, the Quraysh. He (ﷺ) demonstrated Islam in every aspect of his life. And he taught his companions to do so, themselves. The result was that Islam spread far and wide, not by warfare and conflict with other religions but by ordinary Muslims living by the code of behavior that he taught them. Applied Islam has more power to convince people than any other method of preaching or propagating. The Prophet (ﷺ) demonstrated this to perfection.
The Prophet’s (ﷺ) concern was not only for his followers, but even for those who denied him and tried to harm him only because he wanted to invite them to the truth and save them from the Hellfire. This sounds like a strange thing because in all worldly matters people love those who are willing to give them things for free. But when someone invites a person toward eternal success, some people find that offensive and fight that person, and oppose him, even try to harm him.
Let me tell you some stories. There was a woman, who hated so much to a man who always preaching the Oneness of God. She thought of something till late at midnight and finally decided to insult him. She could not sleep all night, thinking how to make this man get mad. Then came an idea. Before the first ray of sunlight had entered her window, she was busy sweeping her house. She saved all the garbage in a basket, placed it on the roof of her house and proudly looked at it for a while, then with an impatient look on her face, she looked at the street that she lived on, and thought, "No one has ever seen him angry. Everybody will praise me when they will see him shouting at me and getting mad. They will laugh at him and make fun of him." She looked at the basket again and grinned.
Meanwhile, she heard footsteps, announcing the approach of the end of her waiting. "Finally my prey has arrived," she thought, as she saw a man dressed in clean, white clothes coming that way. She picked up the basket in her hands and threw all the garbage on him when he passed by. Much to the woman's disappointment, he did not say anything and continued on his way.
She did the same the following day thinking, "Maybe this time I will be able to annoy him." But he was too gentle to shout at a woman. But the woman misinterpreted his attitude as fear and decided to repeat the same mischief everyday in order to keep him frightened, so that he might stop preaching the Oneness of God. This gentleman did not want to disappoint the woman and so continued to walk down the street everyday, instead of picking an alternate route, and prayed for the woman to recognize the Truth.
One day, the gentleman did not find the woman to be on the roof of her house with the basket. This worried him, because he thought something must have happened to her for not being over there. So he knocked at the door. "Who is it?" asked a feeble voice. "Muhammad bin Abdullah," was the reply, "Can I come in?" The woman feared, "I am sick, and too weak to fight or talk back, therefore he has come to take revenge for what I have been doing to him." But the permission to enter her house was in such a gentle voice that she allowed him in.
A man entered the house and told the woman that not finding her on the roof had worried him and he thus wanted to inquire about her health. On finding out how ill she was, he gently asked if she needed any help. Hypnotized by the affectionate tone in gentleman's blessed voice, she forgot all fear and asked for some water. He kindly gave her some in a utensil and prayed for her health, while she quenched her thirst. This made her feel very guilty for being so cruel to him in the past and she apologized for her mean behavior. He forgave her and came to her house everyday to clean it, to feed her and to pray for her, till she was on her feet again. The kind attitude of this gentleman inspired her into the recognition of the Truth, and the man's prayers were answered in the form of yet another addition into the growing number of Muslims.
One day, the man was going somewhere at noon and it was too hot in the desert when he saw an old woman carrying her luggage on her head. He helped her and took the luggage from the woman and carried it for her. He asked the woman, where she was going and why. She said, she was leaving this town as she had heard that a magician named Muhammad is in town. The man didn't say a word and kept listening. The old lady kept on complaining about why she was leaving the town.
While walking with the man, that old woman noticed that this young man had a brightness on his smiling and humble face. And also, she smelled his fragrant sweat. She was very impressed. When they reached the destination, the man put down the bag and was about to leave when the old woman said,"O, open-armed man! At least tell me your name!". The man replied, "I am the one because of whom you left the town." The old woman was stupefied and amazed with such a kind and helping gentleman. This incident changed her view, true person could never be wrong, and this man certainly not a liar. The old woman was so shocked that it was the very person who she had been criticizing who had not only helped her but hadn’t said a word and listened to all the criticism without complaint that she finnally said, ‘You are Muhammad (ﷺ), so I believe that you are the Messenger of Allah. I bear witness that there is nobody worthy of worship except Allah and that you are His Messenger (ﷺ).’
There was another story about this fascinating gentleman. An old blindman, jobless, was known by the public in that territory as a person whose mouthful with vulgar swearing towards a man named Muhammad. In the corner of the marketplace, the blindman would cry out daily to all those who came near him," O my brothers, don't be near Muhammad! He's a lunatic, he's a liar, a sorcerer! If you are to be close to him, you will be influenced by him!" Surely he hated Muhammad, more than he could say. But weird, he had never seen the man whom he was swearing at. People who passed by would just ignore him be in his poor neglected condition. No one seemed to care of him and considered him as a nuisance, except to one man.
This one man, without saying a single word, would feed the blindman with his own hand! The blindman would chew the food being fed to him and eat contentedly. Once he was full, he would express his gratitude without knowing the one who had fed him. The man, made feeding the old blindman as his routine, until one day, this gentleman stopped doing his usual feeding activity. The blindman waited daily and was perplexed as to why the man did no longer come to feed him and provide for him as he had done all this while. The blind man waited in vain for the kind gentleman who had never missed visiting him each and every morning all these while.
Untill one day, someone approached him and started to feed him. At the first handful of food being fed to him, the blind man became angry and shouted out," Who are you?" The man answered " I am the one who usually feeds you every morning." "No! You lied to me!" said the blindman. The man shocked, thus he asked" Why did you say so?" Answered the blind man, "Because when he came to me, I felt it easy to hold his hand and found it easy to chew the food he fed me! The man who used to feed me would make the food fine before feeding it to me!"
Ultimately, the man could not hold back his tears anymore and he burst out crying and had to disclose who he actually was to the blind man. "Verily, I am not the one who used to come and feed you. I am Abu Bakr, one of his Companions for the noble one is alive no more! He was none other than the Prophet of Allah, Muhammad (ﷺ)!"
"Muhammad (ﷺ)?" asked the blind man, who totally stratled with what he had just heard. "You mean to tell me that the one who came each morning without fail and fed me by his hand was Muhammad (ﷺ)?" asked the blind man. "Yes! He was Muhammad (ﷺ)!" answered Abu Bakr, radhiyallahu 'anhu.
Immediately, the blind man walked out in despair and cried so pitifully coming to realise that it was none other than the Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) who had been feeding him all this time. With sobs he said softly, "All these while! All these while, I had been cursing him, I had been slandering him! Not once he has ever scolded me!." The blind man cried as he wiped away his flowing tears on his cheeks, "He kept coming every morning to feed me! O how so noble is he!" Then the blind man reached out to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, raḍiya'llāhu ʿanhu, the first Commander of the Believers, and testified before him the Shahada.
The final and most important lesson that I want to draw from the life of the Prophet (ﷺ), is forgiveness and magnanimity. His conduct when he entered Makkah as its conqueror is an example for all humanity for all time, of personal humility, a big heart and mercy. The Quraysh who had tormented him and driven him from his home; who were directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of those he loved the most, his uncles, wife, daughter; who had caused him immense physical and emotional pain were finally at his mercy.
So what did he do? He forgave them all. He announced a general amnesty and that there would be no revenge taking; an age-old custom among the Arab tribes who looted and killed the men and took the women and children as slaves. This was what people expected to see in Makkah also.
It is true that as a victor, the Prophet (ﷺ) could have taken revenge. But that would have opened new wounds which would have set off a new series of conflicts all resulting in delay or defeat of his real mission, the spreading of his Message. By forgiving those who had wronged him, he sent a powerful message that the mission was above all personal considerations and put those who had wronged him in his debt. Instead of fighting him or hating him they were now grateful to him and wanted to please him. At one stroke, he laid to rest all future potential conflicts among his followers without which his mission would have failed. The leader must be prepared to sacrifice his personal benefits for the sake of the goal and must be prepared to set a personal example in this respect. It is only when the followers see the behavior of the leader that they will follow suit. The result will be the success of the mission. Forgiveness is the foundation of this success.
On one occasion in Madina, Anas bin Malik, radhiyallahu 'anhu, narrates ‘Whilst we were in the Masjid with Allah's Messenger (ﷺ), a blind Bedouin came and started to urinate in the Masjid. The companions rushed to stop him. Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, ‘Do not interrupt him until he is finished.’
The Prophet (ﷺ) was thinking of the likely consequence if he were stopped while in the process of his action, he would most likely run away from the companions leading to the impurity spreading over a wider area of the masjid. The Prophet (ﷺ) had the far sightedness to see that leaving him alone until he had completed what he was doing, was the lesser of the two evils. After he had finished, the Prophet (ﷺ) led him out and told him what he had done and then had the place washed.
The Prophet (ﷺ) would follow the command of Allah scrupulously, to consult with his Sahaba before he took any decision. This may seem strange because for one thing he knew more and better than they did as he was the recipient of revelation as well as being the wisest and most experienced of them.
Yet we realize the wisdom of this when we reflect on the effect that this consultation had on the Sahaba themselves. It made them feel included, valued and responsible for the effort and outcomes; It ensured their commitment to the cause because they had been consulted; Sometimes they had critical information about local matters which came to light when they were consulted and enabled a better decision; It was training in decision making for them for the future for the time when the Prophet (ﷺ) would no longer be among them. It served to create cohesion among them and enabled them to think across their tribal and local boundaries for the benefit of all concerned and the success of the mission of propagating Islam.
A combination of picking the right people, setting a high personal example and intensive hands on training, the Prophet (ﷺ) created not one but a set of leaders who were able to take his message forward long after he had passed away. It is true that there were various conflicts three decades after he passed away which led to consequences that he wouldn’t have wanted or approved of but this fact only underlines the reality that no great effort is sufficient for all time. It must be continued generation after generation if one is to continue to reap its benefits."
Then the historian said, "O young man, whatever happened in history, the example and model that the Prophet (ﷺ) left for the world remains clear, vibrant and valid for anyone who is interested in benefiting from it. It is true that the world has changed beyond recognition from the world of the Prophet (ﷺ), but the principles he laid down are still as true as other laws of nature that don’t change because society changes. Just like gravity or the law of aerodynamics, the law of success in this world and the next remains the same. That is what the Prophet (ﷺ) was sent to teach the world. To that we bear witness and ask Allah to make us worthy of being his followers. And Allah know best."
"So by mercy from Allah, [O Muhammad], you were lenient with them. And if you had been rude [in speech] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from about you. So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter. And when you have decided, then rely upon Allah. Indeed, Allah loves those who rely [upon Him]." - [QS. 3:159]
- Muhammad Al-Ghazali, Fiqh-us-Seerah, IIFSO
- Mirza Yawar Baig, Leadership Lesson from the Life of Rasoolullah (ﷺ), Standard Bearer Academy.
