Strategic Leadership of Muhammad ﷺ

Strategic Leadership of Muhammad ﷺ is an effort to examine how Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. led. It brought together the understanding from three main disciplines i.e., Islam, strategy, and leadership, to examine the strategic leadership behaviour of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. While this book relied on a lot of material on the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, it is not another book on the seerah. As such, the content of this book is not arranged in a chronological manner. Instead, it is organized around topics. After setting the scene in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 moves towards the end of Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ struggle i.e., Fathul Makkah. Subsequent chapters focus on specific aspects of the Prophet’s strategy.

This work takes an interpretive-inductive approach in examining the strategic leadership behaviour of the Prophet ﷺ. It seeks to form inferences to explain what the Prophet ﷺ did and why he did what he did. It is driven by the understanding that Islamic management and Islamic leadership must be concerned about the kaifiat of managing and leading i.e., the how-to of managing and leading. While discussing the moral values in managing and leading is important, it is not sufficient to qualify as a discussion on leadership. This book will focus on the human effort of the Prophet ﷺ to understand his strategic leadership behaviour. Of course, it is not possible to totally separate the Prophet’s ﷺ effort from divine guidance and inspiration. A lot has been written about aspects related to divine guidance and inspiration. But there is a limited body of knowledge on the human efforts of the Prophet s.a.w., especially on his strategy and strategic leadership behaviour.

As an interpretive work, this book presents the interpretation of the writer. It does not claim to be a complete or final say on how the Prophet’s ﷺ exercised strategic leadership. Other more knowledgeable writers will probably be able to uncover more gems and insights on the Prophet’s ﷺ strategy and his strategic leadership behaviour. The content of this book and the inferences made should be subjected to scrutiny. Knowledge grows and become more accurate when it is cross examined and subjected to debate and discourse.