PROPHET MUHAMMAD(PBUH)
LEADERSHIP, COMMUNICATION AND ETHICS
call: 202-437-1295 Email: ali@zohery.com
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Dr. Zohery is willing to
teach the following course at any university in the
Prophet Muhammad’s unique communication and leadership
style led to the spread of Islam, not only within Arabia but also
outside to the north, south, east, west and southwest of
Prophet Muhammad communicative values of liberty, justice,
modesty, and politeness were matched with practical deeds. The
people saw this action of his and identified with. Prophet
Muhammad' skills as manifested in his speeches demonstrated to the
eyes of all humankind that he was indeed a great leader worthy of
note.
The messages of the Prophet as viewed and analyzed in this
study have a multipurpose implications both for the Moslem world and
the Western world. His skillful use of rhetoric demonstrated his
commitment for meaningful competent communication for humankind in
general. His speeches demonstrated that he sought to see all
humankind from the lens of kindness, modesty, moderation, justice,
liberty, gentility, generosity and love.
Regardless of religion and political affiliation, Prophet
Muhammad use Islam as a channel to preach kindness. This study has
shown through his manifold communicative talents that he tried to
influence thoughts by advocating kindness in our dealings with one
another. By indicating to his wife Aisha that she should love the
poor, it was an indirect way to teach all humankind to share love
and kindness regardless of a person’s economic background. This
same implication in the speeches of the Prophet can be discerned in
his notion of modesty.
The world today is far from modest. Political factions and
all sorts of social and economic discrimination have segmented the
human race. People now think more in terms of class. Modesty is
exclusive to ‘members of the club’. If you do not belong you can
neither be heard nor seen. Prophet Muhammad speeches on the need for
modest behavior and his exemplary behavior seen throughout this
study have a significant meaning to our lives. When he said that
every religion must have some kind of meaningful character, he laid
emphasis on the fact that Islam was a modest religion.
On the other hand, he was calling on all Islamic believers to
question their conscience whether by following the belief system of
Islam, they were practicing its basic tenets of modesty. He who is
not has to examine his conscience and choose the rightful path and
not be a hypocrite. This is how significant Mohammad’s message is
to the world of today. This is what he intended to achieve in his
message. Since modesty is akin to moderation, the Prophet’s
communication themes also laid emphasis on it.
His speech about abstaining from extremism in the practice of
Islam has a greater significance to our world of today. His intended
his message about religious extremism to be upheld through out the
lifespan of humankind. He was so emphatic about this issue because
he believed that by practicing extreme Islamic rituals or ideals,
the person or persons doing so would be following something else
than Islam and that kind of attitude could send a different signal
to his enemies. And the only way to show to potential followers of
Islam that by practicing extreme Islam, they were not true followers
of Allah, he said: “ Those people who went to extremes( in
practicing their religion) were destroyed.” ( This therefore,
shows in no ambiguous terms that Prophet Muhammad condones extreme
religious practices.
The findings on the Prophet's values of moderation revealed
that he placed a lot of weight on mannerism. Humankind has to match
words with deeds. Believers were not to say one thing and do the
other. When told by some of his followers that they will abstain
from women and devote their entire energy to prayer, he responded by
stating that he was married. This was like an indirect way to inform
the speaker that there was no room for pretense. By choosing to
abstain you open yourself to irresistible temptation. Getting
married would therefore serve as the means to shun sin and other
forms of temptation. This is certainly the landmark of difference
between Muhammad and other spiritual and secular leaders of his time
and today. To begin with, some other spiritual leaders remained
unmarried and by deciding to do so created a pattern for their
followers to follow suit. But experience has shown that most of
these followers could not faithfully follow their religion without
falling into the temptation of bodily pleasures. This could have
been unwelcome by Muhammad. He foresaw this kind of contradiction
and so taught by examples. It was like doing justice to natures
calling. The Prophet was in essence advocating justice between
sexes.
Muhammad suggested Justice for all humankind. Without justice
to the weak, the poor, and the women, there could not be peace in
the entire world. “….Whether it be against rich or poor…follow
not the lust of your hearts, lest you swerve from doing justice.”
(Qur’an, 4:135) This powerful statement has become apocalyptic.
Humankind today have all prone to worshipping themselves and
yielding to mundane pleasures of money and women and as such have
resorted to indulging in all forms of corruption at the detriment of
justice. The poor and the weak remain poorer and weaker while the
powerful -those with influence and affluence have hijacked the world
and set wrongful precedence of monetary and political gains. This
study has found out that what Muhammad said echoes in our world of
today and no one seem to heed his advice. Hence, this study is like
a mirror or an awakening to those in spiritual and moral slumber to
reconsider their thoughts and do justice because Allah tolerates
only justice in his kingdom. He intended this message for all and
not only to Arabs.
General human condition, the world over was the main
preoccupation in the speeches of Prophet Muhammad. When he spoke
lengthily about truthfulness, he was indirectly sending the strong
message of truth as the pillar of strong faith in any religious
person. The society that we live today is constantly turning its
back on truth and replacing it with untruth or multiple truths to
justify falsehoods. Humankind has sort of fashion a way to go around
truth and honesty by resorting legitimizing falsehood intended to
achieve political, social, economic, cultural and spiritual gains.
The Prophet’s message about truth analyzed in this study serves as
a waking call to our consciences about hell and The Prophet’s message of Islam was intended for the
Arabs during the seventh century and to all humankind at all times
thereafter. He took advantage of the peace treaty between himself
and the Quraish tribe, his main enemy, and sent ambassadors to the
world leaders of his time. He informed them about the message of
Islam. Most of these leaders responded positively. He used Islam as
an example to convince and influence other leaders of his time.
The Prophet Muhammad was supremely successful on both the
religious and secular level. As a private person, he was a
husband, father, friend and businessman; as a public figure, he was
a leader, legislator, judge, statesman and general; as a Messenger
of God, he was a law-giver, preacher, theologian, saint and mystic.
Such a combination is unique in history.
There are sayings from the Prophet related to every activity
that a person might encounter during the day or during the night.
Islam is a way of life. By exemplifying these qualities that he
preached to his people, the Prophet was in essence warning against
all other rulers who were saying what they do not practice. He also
laid the foundation stone for responsible leadership. A leader was
not to be protected by the army and fierce dogs but by the loyalty
given by his people. By shaking hands and taking children under his
arms, the Prophet made himself human and approachable. This was a
lesson that he wanted to teach to all other leaders in the world.
The farewell speech of the Prophet Muhammad was directed to all humankind
at all times and for all generations. He laid down the foundation of
morality, justice, equality, brotherhood, and accountability. He
abolished economic exploitation and human enslavement. In his
speeches on liberty, he preached against the institution of slavery.
When he witnessed the slave beating episode as reported in Bukhari,
The Prophet demonstrated one of the rare instance of humane
leadership by letting Abu Mas’ud Ansari, the accused in this
instance that only Allah has ‘power and control over human
beings’. This served as a powerful lesson to him awakening his
conscience to the realization that indeed, he was doing something
very wrong. The fact that he let go of the slave by referring to
Muhammad that he let the slave go because of his intervention is to
show the power of communicative skills of the Prophet. He did not
speak harshly or threateningly, rather he used speech in such a
subtle way as to prick the conscience of people. This is what most
leaders do not do today. This study then serve as the panacea for
future leaders who want to rule spiritually or secularly.
Communicative tactics should be the first consideration for any
leader. It is with it that you either make or mar. He has set the
tone for interpersonal communicative interaction especially in the
case of conflict resolution.
He demanded that the congregating Muslims deliver his message
to all humankind. Accordingly, they did deliver the message. For
this reason, the message of Islam has spread through the centuries
to every corner of the world. The global population of Muslims is
now more than one billion. He has used Islam as the vehicle to
transport others into his flock. The values espoused in his speeches
have generated untold number of response exemplified by the
geometric increase in the number of his followers. This is prove of
the fact that people all over the world are recognizing the power
behind his messages and are slowly becoming aware of themselves. He
demonstrated how political leadership can be fruitful.
In his political leadership communication, the Prophet’s
demonstration of extreme self-control made his followers to love him
and his enemies either to give up and join his religion or to fear
him and stay away. There was no human being who had his life more
scrutinized and documented than the Prophet Muhammad.
His behavior toward his companions was perfect and towards
his foes was fair. In essence, he was kind of educating them about
governance.
In his educational communication, the Prophet used different
approaches in dealing with different circumstances. Education and
training are not merely the matter of correcting mistakes; they also
involve teaching and showing the basic principles of the rules and
the regulations and using various methods to establish these
concepts firmly in peoples minds and hearts, by example, by
exhorting them, by telling stories or by discussing incidents. The
study finds that the narrative methods that the Prophet used to
deliver his message through his sayings made his ideas clear and
convincing. His
narrative fidelity and truthfulness raised no questioned from his
followers or enemies. Even before his Prophet hood, he was known by
“the trusted and the honest one”.
The textual analysis of his speeches clarified his message to
be correctly understood. By
talking of values that are necessary to influence and inspire
others, he provided a basis for understanding how he was able to
accomplish so much during his brief Prophet-hood.
Hundreds of books have been written for that purpose in most
languages of the world. The
Prophet taught exactly what the ancient Prophets had been teaching.
The high and noble aim of preaching such a universal religion is to
unite the nations of the world, establish peace, and eradicate all
causes of conflict. Today the world is out of joint. People all over
the world are searching for peace. The light of scientific
knowledge is spreading. But it has signally failed to dispel clouds
of hatred and hostility which spread darkness. Every now and then,
plans for world peace are put forward. But they prove all to be
superficial. The most effective panacea for world peace was
proclaimed by the Prophet Muhammad.
He forcefully exhorted the people that they should cherish
reverence for the Prophets of all nations, and live up to their
revealed teachings. This style of speech communication was
tried with unparalleled success in The
Prophet Muhammad’s life and teaching center on the values he
espoused in his public communication.
His teachings focus on values identified by Burns (1978) who
defines a transformational leader and in addition focus on
extraordinary values which are gleaned from a textual analysis of
his public communication. Bass
(1985) explained that transformational leaders “inspire followers
to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the group or
organization” and that “followers become motivated to expend
great effort than would normally be expected” (p. 18) when they
are adequately inspired. Muhammad
did inspire, and continues today to inspire followers to follow his
teachings and public communication and his directives. Textual
analysis was utilized in this research to review the writings of
Muhammad in the Qur’an and the Ahadith, or writings about the
Prophet, as it allows the researcher to describe and interpret the
characteristics of the messages and to ascertain the meaning of the
texts. This research is
important as it cites the values of transformational leaders as
cited by Burns (1978) with the findings here that extraordinary
values the Prophet exemplified and espoused include character, and
community. Muhammad
demonstrated character values of gentleness, good character,
humility, kindness, modesty, moderation, politeness, and
truthfulness. He
suggested community values of charity, forgiveness, hospitality, and
mercy. The values he
suggested are an excellent complement to the transformational
leadership values of liberty, justice, equality, and collective
well-being. Muhammad’s
interactions with all people, both in spiritual and secular
dealings, impressed upon them the importance of his character and
values. Because of his
strong values, he was believable and trustworthy, encouraging all to
follow the will of Allah. The
Prophet was successful in his leadership because he suggested and
lived the values important to leadership.
His public communication was successful because he provided a
living example of his suggestions within his own interactions with
family, believers, and non-believers.
His daily interactions as husband, father, friend,
businessman, public figure, and messenger of God all reinforced his
leadership ability and values orientation.
The importance of Muhammad’s public communication through
history is unquestioned (Hart, 1992).
Muhammad’s extraordinary leadership values, identified in
this research, complement the transformational leadership values
found and further researched by countless researchers.
These additional values can inform current and future leaders
who want to be truly inspiring and transformational in theory and
practice, at home and in organizational settings.
This textual analysis found more than 70 values in the public
communication of Muhammad and they were condensed into the broader
categories of family, character, and community values.
There are many future research opportunities using the public
communication of the Prophet Muhammad. This
study concludes that the life of the Prophet Muhammad was like an
open book, especially when he started to deliver the message of
Islam. Prophet Muhammad practiced what he preached. The Prophet’s
wife Aisha was asked about his moral character.
She responded that his morals were based on the Qur’an.
It is clear that his extraordinary values, which allowed him
to accomplish so much, too were based on the teachings of the
Qur’an and the words and will of God. Prophet
Muhammad was a farsighted visionary leader.
The Hudaybia treaty showed the Prophet’s wisdom in
accepting some terms in the treaty that a companion of the Prophet
like Omar ibn al Khatab refused. It was proven later on that these
terms that the Prophet accepted and Omar refused were for the
benefit of Islam. This
study concludes that Prophet Muhammad intended for his message of
Islam to be global. As soon as he signed the Hudaybia with Quraish,
he sent ambassadors to invite kings and states around the The
results and discussion of analyses showed that the Prophet Muhammad
possessed not only transformational leadership values but that he
also possessed extraordinary values which made him a unique leader
in the history of humankind. The
transformational leadership values Prophet Muhammad exemplified are
liberty, justice, equality, and collective well being.
His public communication also demonstrated the values he
espoused. He preached of
family values that include affection and kindness for children,
children honoring their parents, the importance of educating the
children, financial security for wives after the husband’s death,
husbands treating their wives with kindness and gentleness,
respecting even foster parents, brothers, and sisters, and the
importance of loving and honoring relatives.
The Prophet Muhammad’s speeches focused also on character
values that include gentleness, humility, kindness, moderation,
modesty, politeness, and truthfulness.
His public communication included the admonition of community
values that included charity, forgiveness, hospitality, and mercy.
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