250909P - LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT BETWEEN 'AQL AND 'NAQL

Presented at the first international conference organized on September 9, 2025 by Bayero University Kano under the theme ‘transforming public policy, public finance and governance for sustainable development in Africa: issues, challenges and the way forward’ by By Dr Omar Hasan Kasule Sr. MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard) 

1.0 LEADERSHIP/FOLLOWERSHIP IS THE ESSENCE OF EVERYTHING

• When 3 on a journey they choose one leader.

• إذا خرجَ ثلاثةٌ في سفَرٍ فليؤمِّروا أحدَهُم. أبو داود
• Islam is a practical religion and requires skill training in all fields of endeavor, from toilet etiquette to international leadership. Leadership is a skill requiring training.
• Leadership after training and testing.

• وَإِذِ ٱبْتَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ فَأَتَمَّهُنَّ قَالَ إِنِّي جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَاماً قَالَ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِي قَالَ لاَ يَنَالُ عَهْدِي ٱلظَّالِمِينَ. البقرة ١٢٤ 

2.0 FOLLOWERS ARE PART OF LEADERSHIP

• Good leader depends on good followers.

• والَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا الفرقان 74

• The way you are the way are your leaders.

• كما تكونوا يولى عليكم

3.0 SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE ON LEADERSHIP

• 'AQL: empirical experience and research
• 'NAQL: leadership models in the Qur’an: Good leaders (Musa, Sulaiman), Bad leaders (Firaun). We learn a lot from our heritage  (turaath)

4.0 THE ERA OF THE RISAALAT

• The Makkan period of the Prophet’s mission was training in personal discipline.
• When enough muhajiriin were trained, it was time to migrate to Madinah, where they would be both leaders and followers.

5.0 ERA OF KHILAFAT RASHIDAH

• The leaders were well-trained, knowledgeable, and tested.
• Abubakar and Omar were model leaders who still inspire us today.
• The leaders (khulafah) were strong.
• The followers were a well-trained political base of a strong state.
• Strong leaders + strong followers = strong state.

6.0 FALL OF THE KHILAFAT and the RISE OF DYNASTIES

• The fall of the Khalifat Rashidat was directly related to a lack of education because the Islamic state expanded in 40 years to reach China in the east and Africa in the west, absorbing so many new converts who did not get the opportunity to be well educated as the first companion.
• The result was that they did not have a strong political base for the state, and the khilafat had to collapse, and in its place came dynastic rule that was more attuned to the level of the new citizens. 

7.0 THE ERA OF REFORMS - 1

• In the centuries of decline since the fall of the khilafat, reforming scholars, mujaddiddin, arose in every century and led movements of renewal and reform, islah & tajdid. 
• One uniform characteristic of all these movements was that they started by educating and training a broad mass of people before undertaking their reform mission. The Sokoto movement was basically for mass education
• The biggest number of reform movements arose in the 13th and 14th centuries of hijra when the ummat came under colonial rule. 

8.0 THE ERA OF REFORMS - 2

• The extensions of these movements are still found all over the Muslim world as the ummat struggles to rebuild its civilization. 
• These movements in West Africa, North Africa, West Asia, and South Asia were all characterized by rigorous individual training programs, and some of them did not admit people to membership until they went through a specified training program. 
• Formal leadership training structures were most active in the period between the fall of the Othmani state in 1926 M until the ‘democratic’ opening of the 1980s. 
• Almost all these movements moved into the political arena of trying to win elections and left few or no human or material resources for training and tarbiyat. 

9.0 DECLINE DUE TO LACK OF TRAINING

• The leaders who had been trained before became retired but they had no replacements because the training structures had been allowed to decay. 
• The inability to bring in new blood eventually led to organizational weaknesses that were recognized in the early 1990s M. 
• As a consequence, leadership and management training programs worldwide.
• These programs were beginning to bear fruit when they had to be curtailed or terminated by 2000 because of a lack of resources. 

10.0 THE LESSON WE LEARN FROM OUR HISTORY

• The first lesson we learn throughout Muslim history, from the fall of the Khalifat Rashidat to our times, is that without continuing leadership training, we become weak. 
• The second lesson we learn is that training and social activism are of equal importance, and neither should be neglected at the expense of the other.  
• Resources should always be available for dawa, leadership training, and tarbiyat. 
• Those who undergo training can then be deployed in different fields of endeavor: business and finance, education, mass media, social reform and development, and academia.  

11.0 A NEW BEGINNING IN EASTERN AFRICA (COVER PAGE)