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The Life of Prophet Muhammad Through the Lens of Leadership

What Can We Learn from the Prophet’s Leadership?

Republished with the author’s kind permission from Muslimmatters.org.

Law of Respect: People Naturally Follow Leaders Stronger Than Themselves

The Law of Respect states that people will only follow those who are stronger than themselves.

To understand this law within the context of the Prophet’s life, you simply need to look at the caliber of people who chose to follow him.

Umar ibn al Khattab, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, Khalid bin Waleed, Ali bin Abu Talib, Uthman bin Affan, Asma bint Yazid, Muad ibn Jabal, Musab ibn Umayr, Asma bint Abu Bakr, Az-Zubayr ibn al Awam, Talha bin Zaid, Sumayyah bint Khubbat, Abdullah ibn Masud, Abu Ubaydah ibn al Jarrah, Rumaysa bint Milhan, Salman al-Farisi, Suhayb ar-Rumi, Abu Dhar al-Ghifari and Hamza just to name a few.

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Leaders, warriors, poets, business moguls, chieftains and scholars from various places of various ages and talents all chose to follow the Prophet.

The greatest united collection of human beings to ever walk the face of the earth was assembled under his leadership and followed him to the extent that their level of loyalty to him was something that the world had never witnessed before.

They followed him because they respected him and knew that he was stronger than them, because people don’t follow leaders who have a lower capacity then themselves. Another example of the strength of the Prophet’s leadership is that, after his death, the Muslims were never completely unified again.

Reflection Questions on the Law:

– What do you do intentionally to become a stronger leader every day?

Law of Intuition: Leaders Evaluate Everything with a Leadership Bias

The Law of Intuition states that leaders always look at things from a leadership lens. When you study the life of the Prophet, you begin to realize just how incredibly strong of a leader he was.

From identifying and developing future leaders, to uniting people from various backgrounds, cultures and races upon one shared belief system and way of life; the Prophet’s leadership bias is clear. I have shared some examples within the previous laws and will share many more through the remainder of the laws.

Reflection Questions on the Law:

– Do you view life through a leadership lens?

– How keen are you in identifying both good and bad leadership when you see it?

Law of Magnetism: Who You Are is Who You Attract

The Law of Magnetism states that the people that you will attract into your organization, community or your life is determined by you are. Think about the five people that you spend the most time with in the world. If you balanced all of their characteristics, mannerisms, mindsets and lifestyles, you’ll be looking at yourself. That’s why the Prophet said:

“A person is on the same way of life as his close companion. Therefore, let every one of you carefully consider the company he keeps.” (At-Tirmidhi)

This law is actually saying the same thing as the hadith, but from the opposite perspective. You will ultimately attract the kind of people that are like you to you. This works both on a personal and organizational level.

For those of you who watch sports, ask yourself: why are the great teams able to recruit even more great players to their team? Or even in business, how do Google, Apple, Harvard, Stanford and the likes continue to attract top notch talent?

It’s because they are attracting who they are. Like attracts like. Or think about the really successful Muslim organizations here in the West: Al-Maghrib, Zaytuna, Bayyinah and Muslimmatters.

Now look at the Prophet and who he was able to attract to a cause that was not popular and went against many of the fundamental principles of the society that he lived in. The best and brightest came to Islam through the Prophet’s example because that’s who he was.

Reflection Questions on the Law:

– Are you attracting the right kind of people into your life?

– If you are not, then what do you have to do, or better yet, who do you have to become, in order to attract the right kind of people to you and your organization?

21 Leadership Lessons from the Life of Prophet Muhammad

21 Lessons from the Prophet’s Successful Leadership