Paradigms of Leadership

In this 24th instalment of our popular 'Paradigms of Leadership' lecture series, Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad explores the untold story of European Islam in the life and times of Cosantino of Paros: a Greek convert to Islam who was interrogated by the inquisition in Malta in 1638.

After enduring imprisonment for his resistance to French rule in Senegal, Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba went on to establish the holy city of Touba in modern day Senegal. Writing extensively on Islamic matters to strengthen the faith of the Senegalese people, a legacy which remains to this day.  In this instalment of our Paradigms of Leadership Lecture Series, Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad explores how this 19th century scholar kept the Islamic tradition alive in Senegal despite great internal and external challenges. 

Muslim history brims with detailed accounts of incredible leaders. Some are better known than others but they all demonstrated a range of beautiful leadership qualities that we can learn from today. In our ongoing Lecture Series, Paradigms of Leadership, Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad chooses exemplary figures in Islamic history of every generation, geography and gender, drawing out particular lessons for us: both in the way they carried themselves through society and in the principles they employed in handling the urgent challenges of their day.

Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad honours Imam Ali (ra) – a great paradigm of heroism that has always captured the Muslim imagination – by focusing on his esoteric qualities.

Shah Shahidullah Faridi, born John Gilbert Lennard and raised in a wealthy English family, left his home in search of a Sufi shaykh. We are met with the Chishti Sabri Shaykh, Syed Muhammad Zauqi Shah, who Faridi pledged allegiance to, later becoming his spiritual successor. He lived in Karachi for three decades until his death in Ramadan 1978.

Swedish artist & anarchist Ivan Aguéli, became Muslim in Paris in the late nineteenth century. Known also as Abd al-Hadi, we learn that he was one of the first Western Europeans to be educated at Al-Azhar University, where he studied Arabic and Islamic philosophy.

Ahmed Bullock, was a respected British Muslim, Arabic and Hebrew scholar, dealer in books, and the first English Imam of Oxford. Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad takes us through his life by looking at a number of the Imam's own handwritten letters.

Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi of India, navigated unparalleled challenges of tradition and modernity, and was healed from a crisis of faith by revistiting reality through the sirah; the paradigm of human perfection.

Through Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal's awareness of the sanctity and spiritual greatness of the Holy Prophet ﷺ we can reflect on the immense care he took in not only maintaining the words of the Hadith, but also their spirit.

From the life of Abd al-Rahman Jami, a prolific 15th century Persian poet and scholar, we taste a sweet drop from the ocean of his literary works, which sugared the difficult path of spiritual transformation.

Aziz Mahmud Hudayi of the Ottoman era was both a celebrated statesman and mystic; scholar and musical composer who lived through wealth and poverty. Through his life we are taught that true wealth is a heart that is empty of all but the Divine 'hu'.

Imam al-Bukhari's scrupulous collation of hadiths remind us that collation was not an end in itself, but a means to conserving the lifestyle of the holy Prophet ﷺ, who exemplifed the archetype of human reality.

The life of Sayyida Sukayna bint al-Hussain shows us that the people in the time of the Prophet's ﷺ successors were diverse; and it was a time of hope, a time of happiness in the face of very considerable, sometimes excruciating adversity, a time to embrace life and its brighter aspects.

Through the life of Uthman bin Affan, Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad explores how the supposed paradox of 'modesty as a modality of being in leadership' is resolved by the prophetic ideal of a complete lack of ego.

From the principles of Khawaja Ubaidullah Ahrar, a 15th century spiritual leader of Tashkent, we learn that even the profane can be sanctified by stepping into a space of sacred attentiveness in every breath, where each moment is unique in its divine brilliance.

From the life of Hussain Ahmed Madani, one of the most important political and spiritual leaders of Islam in modernity, and his efforts towards a unified India and inter-religious peace in the days of early independence, we are taught that authentic religion is not about polarisation.

From the life of Imam al-Ghazali, Shaykh Abdal Hakim reflects on what we might learn from the crisis that afflicts the soul when trying to live by ideals in an increasingly materialistic world.

From the life of Ebussuud Effendi, a paradigmatic Ottoman ‘alim, we learn how he harmonised customary law and the sultanic decree with the ideals of the shari'a, making him one of greatest scholars of the Ottoman Empire.

Through the works of Nizam ad-Din Awliya and his biographies we gain a glimpse into the transformative nature of his spiritual gatherings which embraced humanity in all its difference. We learn how, through his simple, loving, and effective teaching the subcontinent submitted to Islam.

Through studying Abdul Ghani ibn Ismail al-Nablusi, Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad highlights pre-modern human engagement with other forms of conciousness as ways of knowing, in an age of growing rationalism, that religion is not so much propositional, knowing what's right, as it was existential, being with God.

In learning the qualities of William Williamson, we see that Islam works well as a religion for free-spirited people; for those more comfortable with nature than with cities, those who are not afraid of discomfort or death but value the qualitative intensity of traditional human life over and against the comforts of modernity.

From the life of Nana Asma'u in early 19th century Hausaland West Africa, we learn how her transformative teachings made her one of the greatest educational leaders, shaping 21st century scholarship of the Sokoto Caliphate.

The moral and spiritual leadership of Hagar (as), despite being set-up as the 'other', exemplifies a feminine modality of leadership; an initiator of Islamic ritual and founder of our heritage.

The scholarly and juridical leadership of Imam Malik teach us that part of Islam's moral and human vision is that we should seek to aspire to God by stepping through the world seeking a guided path for human transformation.

Imam Shamil was a primordial type of sacred warrior in the Caucasian Resistance to Imperial Russia in the 1800s. In this lecture we learn how Imam Shamil dealt with European conquest in the mosaic way, resulting in a paradigm shift of the human perception of leadership.