One of my favourites parts of the Quran (and there are a few), is the stories of the prophets in Surah as-Shu’ara, when various prophets – Nuh, Hud, Salih, Lut, Shu’aib – were sent to their peoples, with the mission to call their communities to the obedience of God. Each of their respective peoples suffer from some distinctive sin – be it idolatry, or vanity, or greed, or lust – and it is the mission of the respective prophets to call to their people, to lead them away from their waywardness and to guide them back unto His Path.
There is a beautiful symmetry in each story of the prophets, particularly in the call they make to their people:
“Will you not fear Allah?
I am truly a trustworthy messenger to you.
So fear Allah, and obey me.
I do not ask you for any reward for this message. My reward is only from the Lord of all worlds.”
For every prophet, there is a resonance in the message that they bring to their respective people. This refrain, in the call to God and in the refusal for reward, marks to my mind a code for what could be termed Prophetic Leadership, which is:
The Goal is Taqwa – Fear of God, or God-consciousness. For each of the peoples that have been sent a prophet, the remedy to their immorality and depravity is to return to a constant state of being aware of His Majesty and His Power. What we now think of “mindfulness” cannot be shorn from the divine nature of Taqwa – it is not enough to be merely mindful, but what will truly save us as individuals and as a community is constant and vigilant awareness and consciousness of His Mercy and His Compassion.
The important of Trustworthiness. More than anything, for a messenger to be taken as credible by the people he calls to, is for that messenger to be trusted by his people. Modern concepts of leadership often tolerates immorality as well as amorality: many of us accept and even expect poor behaviour from our leaders, and often the leaders themselves come to believe that they are above “common” norms of conduct, or even above the law. And especially at the international stage, it is regarded as naive to believe that there is any other more important goal for a state than its own self-interest. But we have seen, throughout history as well as in literature, how human communities need trust more than anything to bind people together. The idea of moral leadership may sometimes be seen as naive, today, but only because we have allowed poor leaders to lower the bar for what society expects from its leaders. More recently, banking crises have erupted over the loss of trust amongst depositors – indeed, trust is at the centre, the vital commodity – not only of our system of banking and credit, but the very core of our humanity.
Obedience to the Leader is founded on God. It is important to note here that in the prophetic approach to leadership, the concept is not founded on some mystical idea of a leader’s greatness, or some consensual acceptance of the leader’s intelligence or strength or cunning – rather, the proper foundation of obedience is that very goal of human existence: the fear and consciousness of God. For the prophets, leadership is a contract with the Divine: “I obey you for as long as you call for the fear of God, and for as long as your conduct is in line with that very fear of God.” There is no place for the dictator or the despot in the Muslim conception of leadership. Obedience is necessary for cohesion and unity in the community, but that very obedience is marshalled in the cause of God, and for nothing and no one else.
The leader does not ask for any reward other than from Him. Amongst the Malay community today, there is a tacit acceptance, a dubious social contract: “I will tolerate the corrupt leader, for as long as the corrupt leader showers me and my community with assistance.” We shrug our shoulders when we are told that our leaders are enriching themselves at the public expense, and we take it for granted that a leader would naturally surround himself with fancy cars and big houses and women. But the prophet as leader does not ask for any earthly reward. Muhammad himself, from all reliable narrations, lived a life of relative poverty, mending his own clothes, helping his wife with domestic chores. Sadly today, even those who profess to walk in his path, who claim the name of Islam in the service of their politics, have done away with Muhammad’s life and example in the conduct of their own daily lives.
It is certainly a truism through the ages, that it is much easier to claim that one is on the path of jihad, to claim to be a defender and fighter for the cause of Islam and in the name of God. It is much harder to actually walk the path of the prophets, to walk the path of Muhammad himself and how he led others and himself. It is much harder to lead as the prophets did: with utter devotion to His cause, in fear of Him, in adoration of His Mercy and His Compassion, to evince Trust in one’s behaviour and conduct, and to seek no reward except for His Forgiveness.
It is a difficult and arduous path – a lifetime of obedience to God and self-sacrifice. How many of us today are willing to take up that cause?