Leniency in Leadership

Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan delves into the topic of leadership and how leniency should be advocated in this matter as is evident from numerous verses of the Qur'an. In Surah Al Imran, the third Surah of the Qur’an, one particular subject has been given a lot of space in the Surah. And that subject matter is the accounts and whatever happened in the battle of Uhud. it was the second major battle in the Madani life of the Prophet ﷺ.

There are a lot of things to learn from these accounts and that’s why Allah dedicates a lot of Ayaat to this subject and we know that every Ayah of the Qur’an offers us guidance so that we can learn from it and make our own lives better forever to come. So the Qur’an is a book of timeless instruction, timeless counsel and timeless guidance.

Allah says, “No matter how good a leader you are, Muhammad ﷺ, there’s not going to be a better leader, there will not be a better leader. But no matter how amazing a leader you are, victory and loss do not come from you.” The very next ayah says, “If Allah was to aid you, no one can overcome you…”

This implies that victory doesn’t come from the leader. Victory comes from Allah. Allah puts the right attitude in place, right when we need it and loss comes from leaders. Hence, we should inculcate the ability to implement the qualities of this leadership in our household with our wives and our children. We should aim to make ourselves good leaders as teachers, good leaders as people that are in-charge for different aspects of the community. We should imbibe the leadership practices of the Prophet ﷺ so that we can lead a better family lives, better community lives and run better Islamic organizations.