Factors in Leadership: The Social and the Individual

A healthy society must observe this distinction of roles, tasks and responsibilities. Ignoring this distinction is bound to lead to severe disruption. People need proper guidance to develop the right mindset because the proper system of government results from the right human mindset. Conversely, if people’s mindset is corrupt or debased, the system of government will follow suit. This division of work resulted in a glorious history of scholarship and dawah work, which is the most precious legacy of the Muslim community. Had all the people been engaged in jihad and other such defence-related activities, then certainly a vacuum would have been created in Islam, never to be filled again till Doomsday. In the two generations that followed the Companions of the Prophet, this division of spheres of activity was maintained. People were engaged in various fields of knowledge, and there came to be the Quran reciters, Hadith scholars (muhaddithin), fuqaha (jurists), Ulama, dayees (those who conveyed God’s message to people) and Sufis. All of them focused on their respective spheres of activity. This pattern continued for around a thousand years. This guidance received at the very beginning of Islam set the course of future activities of the Muslim