Today's khutbah was about Leadership or Kepimpinan. One of the things that caught my attention was the fact that all of us, whether we realize it or not, are leaders. It can be in the minutest unit in the family such as a brother is a leader to his little brothers and sisters, moving on to bigger units such as a mother is the leader to her kids, a father is the leader to his family, or in a bigger and wider scope such as a King is the leader to his citizens.
The word leader may be interpreted differently by different individuals. However, many perceive a leader as someone who controls everything, who has the ultimate power. It might be true to a certain extent, but that the definition itself is rigid and is too small of a scope. What does it really mean? Well, a leader in its simplest definition is someone who leads..someone who shows the way. Having said this, a leader is usually someone with experience and knowledge, who are able to use these two resources to show the right way to the less experienced or less knowledgeable. Hence, the role requires one to be passionate in helping others and to be responsible..NOT to dictate or to control.
Being a leader has a lot of responsibilities. One needs to be amanah and when one is amanah, one will definitely be responsible for he/she knows that the amanah need to be carried out dutifully. In a hadith by Abdullah Ibn Umar, the Prophet Muhammad PBUH once said that:
This clearly shows that being a leader is no joke and it requires one to be committed and responsible for everything that a leader does will be questioned on the Day of Judgment. Since we are all leaders of our own unit, be it small or large, we are all accountable. This is something that we need to remind ourselves every single day for we tend to forget. At times, we feel that we don't have any responsibilities but in reality, we do have our own flock that we need to guide. This is a reminder especially to myself to always be responsible and committed in everything that I do. As for the business field that I just ventured (Green Leaders Group), Alhamdulillah, I am thankful for being in a group whose leader is very supportive and very helpful in ensuring that everyone succeeds.
So lets not forget our duties because we are all leaders and failing to do so may lead to negative consequences as the hadith below described:
Amr ibn Murrah said to Mu’awiyah: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, say, “There is no leader who closes the door to someone in need, one suffering in poverty, except that Allah closes the gates of the heavens from him when he is suffering in poverty.”
-At-Tirmidhi-
