Leadership An Islamic Perspective

Beekun and Badawi, both professors of management and strategy, have written this primer on leadership integrating contemporary business techniques with traditional Islamic knowledge. The leadership paradigm is changing, and a leadership model based on ethical principles is finally emerging-a position that Islam has taken from the start. The synthesis of the authors results in a highly practical and inspiring manual for developing leadership skills.

Despite continuous public interest in leadership studies as well as the abundance of extant literature, the world continues to face leadership predicaments. Given the global crises mankind has been recently exposed to, which include the financial crisis of 2008 as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, further exploration of leadership concepts seems warranted. This edited book aims at introducing the concept of Balanced Leadership from an Islamic perspective. Drawing on both leadership and Islamic studies, the book synchronizes between secular and religious knowledge domains whilst introducing the notion of balance to mainstream leadership literature. The conceptualizations presented in the book serve to dissect the leadership literature, present historical and philosophical accounts of the balanced leadership concept and infuse that with Islamic theology. The book is useful for practitioners interested in leadership studies as well as scholars and researchers aiming at extending the leadership literature.

Educational institutions are undergoing complex and sensitive changes in the context of immigration, international mobility, globalisation, and shifting economic scenarios, making highly challenging demands on educational leaders. Leadership is increasingly being perceived and theorised as pivotal to students’ achievement and institutional performance. In this book, Saeeda Shah considers educational leadership from an Islamic perspective to debate theoretical positions underpinned by Islamic texts and teachings, and the resulting conceptualisations and interpretations. While educational leadership literature and research have flourished in recent years, this is predominantly informed by Western ideologies, concepts, theories and practices. Education, Leadership and Islam focuses on contemporary educational settings and practices, drawing on research and empirical evidence from multicultural contexts in order to enrich theory and inform policy and practice in relevant frameworks, particularly in relation to the growing Muslim population in the West. Chapters also discuss gender in Islam, educational expectations and Islamic faith schools to comprehensively explore education in relation to Islamism. Situating Muslims within contemporary societies, this book extends debates regarding educational philosophy and leadership, endorsing diversity and plurality through an appreciation of difference. Education, Leadership and Islam will appeal to education researchers as well as social and political scientists attempting to understand Muslim educational issues in contemporary life, both in the east and in the west. This book offers critical insight into educational theory and practice, and as such will be key reading for policy makers and educational leaders.

Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. In terms of the leadership study's approach it can be said that the concept of leadership in Islam is closer to the concept of 'leadership as a process' with the integrated approaches between the 'leadership as a power relationship' and 'a leadership as a transformation process' where the leader is seen as a person who has the power to effect change in others, and the same time the leader is also regarded as a person who can move followers to accomplish more than usually expected of them. This means the effectiveness of leadership depends not only on a person's special character but also on the existence of the party which receives the action, while the condition of a place also determines the effectiveness of a leader's action. It is a shared influence process.

Leaders nowadays need to know, learn, and apply the concept of qalb leadership where it has been taught by the Prophet Muhammad as well as explained by Islamic scholars. The comparison with other mindful leadership concepts is required to provide solutions and options in leadership for better outcomes and spiritual awareness. It is found that leadership literature, in general, is unable to generate an understanding of a leadership concept that is both intellectually compelling and emotionally satisfying. As for qalb leadership, it focuses on the spirituality of leadership that can aid in facing unpredictable manners and provide better outcomes for followers. Research on Islamic leadership and spirituality may pave the way for better leadership practices in the future. The Role of Islamic Spirituality in the Management and Leadership Process will elaborate the spirituality and qalb in human life and leadership along with providing a discussion on the role and function of qalb in the overall leadership process. Through spirituality, human interdependence, creativity, and social justice can be created and molded. This type of leadership enables transformation in a natural way without denying basic human nature and imparts balance to both the outer and inner needs of humans. With the discussion of four cardinal virtues of Al-Ghazali, leaders can solve many problems that emerge in their organizations. This book is ideal for managers, executives, theologians, professionals, researchers, academicians, and students who are interested in how Islamic spirituality plays a role in leadership.

This book examines the concept of leadership from within the Islamic worldview, exploring its meaning and various manifestations through textual evidence from the two primary sources of Islam, The Qur’an and hadith. Using this theoretical framework concurrent with contemporary leadership theory, the authors scrutinise the distinctive leadership dynamics of Islamic organisations within a minority-Muslim context and a focus on Australia. Drawing on empirical data gathered over four years, the nature of leadership and its processes within this unique context is examined. Leadership in Islam reconciles the problematic processes that exist within Muslim organisational context and offers a set of measures and strategies to improve leadership processes including enacting leadership, enacting following, accommodating complexity, sense making and embracing basics as the core processes. This book will be beneficial for anyone who seeks to understand the meaning of leadership in Islam, the way Islamic organisations operate, and the way forward for improving leadership processes within an Australian/Western context.

This book is about leadership from an Islamic and Western perspective. The objective of this book is to examine leadership from the Western perspective through the eyes of some scholars of leadership. From the Islamic perspective, leadership is examined against the background of the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of our Beloved Messenger Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), as well as the guided Caliphs and previous Prophets of Allah starting from Prophet Adam (PBUH) up to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). This book is for everyone irrespective of their background and what they do in life. At the same time it is a guide for those who aspire to be leaders purely for the pleasure of Allah on earth and who take their jobs and every activity as a form of worship without expecting anything in returned like power or money.