Leadership Traits from Islamic Perspective

Abstract

Traits of leaders are very essential for the effectiveness of leadership and without having required traits there would be no influence on the followers and without proper influence leaders cannot attain the predetermined goals. Although the effectiveness of leadership depends not only on the traits of leader but also on the situational factors (external factors, follower readiness); numerous studies show that the traits of leaders can overcome those situational factors in many cases. If leader holds the necessary traits he can achieve the goals controlling the situation. Since the followers imitate the leader it is easy for a good leader to create good followers. For instance, the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) transformed the worst people of Arab into the best people of all times with the help of his leadership traits. So, this study is conducted to identify the traits of leadership from Islamic point of view. After going through the Holy Qur’Én, ×adÊth, and the life of the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) and KhulafÉ’ (Successors), the researchers have developed thirty leadership traits such as faith on Allah, missionary zeal, vision, mutual consultation for decision making, knowledge, persuasiveness, justice, patience, enterprise and initiative, leniency, humility, self-sacrifice, Godfearing, honesty and truthfulness, keeping promise, physical soundness, moral character, no greed for position, sense of responsibility, accountability, optimism, good behavior, generosity, guardianship, striving for improvement, perseverance, inviting to good deeds and forbidding bad deeds, rendering service to the followers, economical, and neat and cleanliness. It is expected that holding these traits Muslim can increase the influencing power which will ultimately helps in achieving goals efficiently.