by Beeworker on July 13, 2011
The concept of leadership has always intrigued me because it is not only a huge responsibility, but one we often find Muslims complaining about in the modern world – we argue that we don’t have leaders in the Muslim community, we feel frustrated that there is no one taking a lead whilst conflicts prevail in the Arab world, and we are always looking to nurture leaders of our Islamic organisations without actually realising that the very best examples are within Islam itself.
In light of this curiosity I found ’Leadership, An Islamic Perspective’ lying at the bottom of a bookshelf in the local store. What is quite beautiful about this book is that it combines the mainstream notion of what it takes to be a leader and enriches it with examples from our historical and contemporary times about what it means to be not only a leader, but also a follower – for every leader must also be a follower at some stage.
Beekun and Badawi unveil the star qualities which made our leaders in Islamic civilisation as outstanding as they were and suggest that one of the definitions of leadership from an Islamic perspective is that it is: ”the process by which the leader seeks the voluntary participation of followers in an effort to reach organisational objectives” or in other words: ”leadership is essentially a social exchange process. There can be no leader without followers, and no followers without a leader. The leader as the organisation’s visionary, must communicate the vision with clarity and conviction”.
What does this mean in practical terms?
Writing on this crucial topic, the authors draw our attention to the traits and qualities of a leader making reference to ahadith and verses from the Quran; their use of ’The Locus of Leadership’ shows us that there is actually 3 areas in which a leader’s skills must be developed: through their leadership characteristics (how they develop their followers), follower characteristics (how they work in exchange with others), and finally situational characteristics (how they apply certain traits suitable to the situation). Whilst reading you’ll gain insight to your own leadership skills and the questions probe you to think about your own qualities as an leader to help you be more productive in the workplace or beyond.
But I’m not cut out to be a ‘Leader’?
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by Maria Islam on June 18, 2011
The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change by Annie Leonard is an in-depth and well-researched book, drawing on her 20 years of experience researching the effects of consumerism and materialism on the global environment. Breaking the life cycle of our stuff into 5 components: extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, she gives you the grim reality of our man-made disaster while balancing it with hope for change with practical solutions.
Leonard argues that our economies are subsystems “of the Earth’s ecosystem, its biosphere” and thus limited by the environment. Part of everything being connected meant that our need for cheap and disposable items results in unfair practices, human right violations, and environmental racism where toxic waste is dumped in poor neighborhoods. She argues that we shouldn’t be dumping at all but rather changing the toxic chemicals we use in production and buying less – which many of us would agree would be a better option. A taste of the book’s content can be found in her 21 minute animated video that started this whole journey here
Review:
As a history nerd, I appreciated all the historical facts and incidents she mentioned as I had never heard of them, either because they were before my time or weren’t covered in mainstream media. For example, December 3, 1984, the largest chemical disaster to date occurred in Bhopal, India, when poisonous gas methyl isocyanate was released due to improper care; the incident killed 8,000 people. Twenty years since the event, survivors are still suffering birth defects and disease because the company responsible, Dow Chemical, has done nothing to remedy the situation.
This underscores why the price we pay at the counter does not fully reflect the true cost of our cheap and disposable gadgets. I loved her emphasis on biomimicry and how that is a more efficient way of solving problems by mimicking nature than our current methods. Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) says in the Qur’an. “So blessed is Allah, the best of Creators”. Our solutions to our problems are right in front of us, if we just stop destroying the creation and rather study it as Muslims ought to.
After finishing the book I felt drained – not because of the length (307 pages!) or the subject matter, but rather the inconsistency in format kept me on my toes. Overall though I enjoyed the book and it has become a reference book as the research is impressive; for instance ScoreCard where you can find out how polluted your county is as well as who are the top polluters; or phone applications you could use to determine if toxic materials are in your products (which has apparently resulted in many manufacturers removing the toxins).
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by Amina Qasim on May 24, 2011
The Ideal Muslimah: The true Islamic personality of the Muslim woman as defined in the Qur’an and Sunnah.
Author: Muhammad Ali Al-Hashimi translated by Nasiruddin Al-Khattab
I’ve always found that buying presents for women is extremely easy, and now I have another suggestion to add to the list of recommended gifts – the book: ‘The Ideal Muslimah’. I discovered it lying on my shelf some months after my wedding and I must say that this is probably the best wedding present I’ve ever received.
Written by Dr Muhammad Ali Al-Hashimi, The Ideal Muslimah also has a male counterpart – The Ideal Muslim which although I haven’t read, I would assume will make an equally beneficial read and an equally valuable gift!
Dr Al-Hashimi’s advice to women is substantiated throughout the book with verses from the Qur’an and Hadith. He eloquently covers all aspects of a Muslim’s life, from her worship, to her body, her marital life, raising her children, her relationship with her parents, relatives and neighbours, her manners and her relationship with the larger society in general.
I realize that there are many things that I know about Islam, but there are so many things which I don’t know, or these things have not yet struck me as being important. The book brought quite a few such things to my attention which I would never have realized! For instance:
• How we should not hesitate while giving gifts to neighbours, or scorn the gifts given to us, like we do sometimes: As mention in the hadith: “O Muslim women, do not think that any gift is too insignificant to give to a neighbor, even if it is only a sheep’s foot.” [Bukhari & Muslim]
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by admin on March 3, 2011
Book: Du’a: The Weapon of the Believer
Author: Sheikh Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi
Review by: Miss Faatimah Dulull
Du’a: The Weapon of the Believer by Sheikh Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi is a treatise on the concept and manners of du’a (invocation). The aim of the author is to arouse the heart and soul of readers. The book has a special importance to the author as it was written in a period when the author was experiencing inner turmoil.
In the introduction of the book, the author states:
“It was at a time when I myself was turning to Allah, making du’a constantly and earnestly for a miracle to occur to save me from the situation that I was in. And it was while I was writing the final pages of this book, sitting in front of computer, that a phone call from an absolutely unexpected source came, informing me that, indeed a miracle had occurred; and for Allah all matters are easy, for He only has to say, ‘Kun’ and it is!”
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by admin on February 9, 2011
Title: The On-Time, On-Target Manager. How a ‘Last-Minute Manager’ Conquered Procastination
Author: Ken Blanchard, Steve Gottry.
I used to be a typical flip-through-books type of person, not what you’d call a ‘big fan’ of reading. I decided to purchase The On-time, On-target Manager as a recommendation during a personal development programme called ‘Bring-it’. Committed to change my habit of procrastination, I plunged into reading the book. At the time, I was buried in other work; I had 1001 things on my to-do list, and was curious to find what miracle is in that book that would make me conquer my habit of procrastination once and for all.
I had read articles about ‘time management’ tips here and there, but usually it ends at ended in unconquered action, and failed to be put into practice. Luckily, the insights of the book during a week of long to-dos really helped, I had an important assignment that I had to complete by the end of the week. Naturally, as a result of feeling motivated by the techniques taught in the book – I was trying ‘my best’ to put what I was learning from the book into practice, and was hoping to see the first miracle with me finishing my assignment on time. I was doing pretty well though, I managed to get many things done on my to-do list, I was finally being “productive” you could say right?
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