3 minute read
“O you who believe, obey Allah and His messenger and those of authority among you. Then, if you dispute in some affair, then refer it to Allah and the Messenger if you [truly] believe in Allah and the Last Day”. A pertinent question that arises in any discussion of authority and leadership is the criterion upon which any entity, whether an individual or a group, should be afforded power. What qualifies someone to hold the reigns of civilization, designate societal goals, and be trusted to take the appropriate steps to fulfill them? This piece does not aim to argue for the necessity of subservience to those already seated in leadership; it is questioning the philosophy that actualizes leadership altogether. At its essence, leadership is a system of delegating communal responsibility to a single entity for the sake of order. Society has an obligation to seek out the best possible model of existence and pursue it by making decisions that lead it there. For this to be achieved, and for chaos to be avoided, the responsibility of identifying successful parameters of living and the method of attaining it must be delegated to a single entity. A multiplicity of entities that wield decision-making power would be chaotic. The Qurʾan speaks to this reality: “Had there been [in the heavens and the earth] deities other than Allah, they (the heavens and earth) would have fallen in disorder” [al-Anbiyāʾ: 22]. Thus, it is incumbent to delegate the task of leadership to one, rather than share it amongst many.
