A favorite topic among many American Muslim these days seems to be the quality of their community leadership, or lack there of. The charge, taken rather lightly by at least some of the leaders, is that most of the leaders are no more than building administrators disguised as leaders. Regardless of disagreement in a community, how do we really differentiate between the roles of a building administrator and a good Muslim leader?

First of all, we ought to look at why the good leadership is important in a Muslim community.

A good Muslim leader:

1. Has the necessary skill to nurture the community
2. Knows how to take advantage of new resource growth opportunities (as oppose to relentless fundraising)
3. Provides inclusive activities that are good for the souls of community members
4. Organizes events to engage Muslim youth before they find comfort elsewhere
5. Continually strengthens community’s ability to meet the obligations placed on it by Allah (swt) and the Prophet (pbuh)
6. And last but not the least, a good Muslim leader establishes and maintains a leadership repute that not only invites but also retains the interest of community members and their talents.

Notwithstanding politics in any given Masjid that are clearly enjoyed by some, being a leader in a Muslim community is not exactly a cakewalk. Backbreaking schedule, burden of stimulating indifferent followers, repeated calls for accountability by some in the community and refusal to consider strategic planning on their cohorts’ part makes it awfully difficult for the leaders to be successful. Nevertheless, they must go all-out to be great communicator, team builder (and also team player), problem solver, consensus builder and spokesperson in order to display proficient leadership.

While these behavioral competencies are desired in a good Muslim leader, whether he/she has the technical competencies (of scheduling the upkeep of a brick building or the cleanup crew, for example) is irrelevant. A good building administer, on the other hand, does not necessarily have to be a good community leader since management of a structure very much differs from the leadership of a community. However, an administrator does need some technical skills along with other traits (such as intelligence) and ethics (as core conviction).

Now that we can tell the two apart, how can the Muslim communities ensure that they are (s)electing good leader not someone who just happens to be available to send in the utility bills on time? Very simple... They should look for successful Muslims in the business and educational fields. These are the folk known as self-motivated, forward thinkers, persistent and who surround themselves with similarly optimistic type of people. These Muslims think outside the box and could be agents of change in the community atmosphere. And while most of them believe in “if you reached your goals, you probably did not set them high enough,” they never have to be very demanding because their communities noticeably pay attention when they speak.

A good Muslim leader can be simply defined as someone who has the ability to embrace the changing world of Islam, who can recruit the stake-holders of our faith and who can produce results as perfectly as Islamic. Every Muslim leader already knows the precise path expected of him by Allah and the Ummah, whether he/she is inclined to do so or not. But, as Marshal Goldsmith (a famous author) once said, “For most leaders, the great challenge is not understanding the practice of leadership. It is practicing their understanding of leadership.” How tricky!