If a dog dies hungry on the banks of the River Euphrates, Umar will be responsible for dereliction of duty.
—(Hazrat Umar Ibnal Khattab)
By Umar Waqar
As scenes of the Iron Man of Libya and Africa being dragged, ridiculed, tortured and brutally killed flashed around the world, I felt pain and anguish. Despite his limitations and idiosyncrasies, Colonel Qaddafi was once the leader of Libya who enjoyed respect in Africa and Pakistan, and it is a fact that his name still adores the cricket Stadium in Lahore and that a lot of Pakistani boys draw their names from the wordGaddafi.
While working on the paper I happened to go through extracts of Andrew J Dubrin’s book, ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Leadership’ .While further searching for traits of great leaders who have trekked this arduous path before our times, I was amazed by one personality, Hazrat Umar Ibnal Khattab(RA), I was quite enthralled and disappointed, enthralled because Hazrat Umar’s personality is a beacon of leadership and disappointed because Ben Ali, Gaddafi, Mubarrak and Bashar al Assad could not use this beacon of leadership despite a ready access to Islamic history.
The aim is not to write an epitaph on Muammar Gaddafi, but do some soul searching and find some clues of bankruptcy of present day Muslim leadership. Since I had done some work related to situation in the Middle East, I am reproducing an extract from my article published in the Nation on 30 March this year, “Welcome to the Greater Middle East, where every existing fault line is being shaken to create anarchy; some as old as the ones left by the Lawrence of Arabia and others created by self-confident Gaddafis and Mubaraks. The leadership should have understood that the common man cannot be suppressed for too long, especially in this time of information and empowerment. You can stuff billion of dollars in Swiss Banks and build villas in every continent, but you cannot buy peace and security for you and your people. Where are the $10 billion left by the Shah of Iran, and where will the $60 billions of Mubarak family end up; these will never go to the Iranian and the Egyptian people. These will be tagged as ‘frozen’ and used by the Western banks and governments to play the game of chaos called the ‘long war’. Gaddafi’s billions are already being used against Libya by the European-American colossus to arm the rebels and run expensive media campaign frightening the Arab elite that they may be next in line.”
Based on analysis of bankruptcy of present day Muslim leadership and the trends of people’s response to dictatorial policies in the Islamic Lands, I have developed a GUIDE FOR MUSLIM LEADERS OF OUR TIMES and offer it to present and future leadership of the Islamic World(pun not intended)
- In this time of Information Empowerment, You cannot befool the people for a long time, people are intelligent, sensitive and their threshold of patience should not be tested indefinitely.
- Leadership is responsibility, responsibility and responsibility, and nothing else, if you think that leadership is a privilege, you are at the wrong place and on the wrong side of history.
- The State that you lead and its wealth is actually an Ammanat (trust) and belongs to the people, even a penny taken from the state’s exchequer should be spent on the people, you can stuff billion of dollars in Swiss Banks and build villas in every continent, but you cannot buy peace and security for you and your people. In case of doubt, visit the graves of Marcos of Philippines and Shah of Iran.
- Your genuine assets are the ones which stay inside your country of birth, any investment or money siphoned to foreign banks would never be yours, and it may be used against you and your country men,(Gaddafi’s opponent were armed with the same money that he had stuffed in foreign banks).
- Think of why Nelson Mandela is respected around the world and Hosni Mubarak is being tried in the Egyptian courts, why is Musharraf unable to return to Pakistan? Who has more respect at the end of the day, Nelson Mandela or Shah of Iran?
- Islands of prosperity built by the elite in a sea of misery may last for days and years but you cannot live with this arrangement for ever. If you are live with hundreds of guards and cavalcades of tens of vehicles to protect your movement and cannot go to a Paan Shop and chat with a common man on the street, there is something seriously wrong in your governance… your time may be running out.
Courtesy Wikipedia, a quote from Saeed M Mohtsham’s research paper Vision and Visionary Leadership – an Islamic Perspective: on Caliph Umar's rule, says it all
- "He used to monitor very closely the public policy and had kept the needs of the public central to his leadership approach. As second Caliph of Islam, he refused to chop off the hands of the thieves because he felt he had fallen short of his responsibility to provide meaningful employment to all his subjects. As a ruler of a vast kingdom, His vision was to ensure that every one in his kingdom should sleep on a full stomach…He also knew that just having a vision is not enough unless it is supported by effective strategies. He didn’t only have a vision; he truly transformed his vision into actions. He used to walk through the streets almost every night to see if there is any one needy or ill.
The last and not the least, I will put in a quote from Gibbon to conclude the paper:
“Yet the abstinence and humility of Umar were not inferior to the virtues of Abu Bakr: his food consisted of Barley bread or Dates; his drink was Water; he preached in a gown that was torn or tattered in twelve places; and a Persian ambassador, who paid his homage as to the conqueror, found him asleep among the beggars on the steps of the mosque of Muslims.”If a dog dies hungry on the banks of the River Euphrates, Umar will be responsible for dereliction of duty.
—(Hazrat Umar Ibnal Khattab)
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