Researching the Leadership of the Prophet Muhammadﷺ : Joel Hayward - NYUAD Institute - October 2, 2023

Evaluating historical leadership effectiveness poses challenges, particularly when analyzing figures like the blessed Islamic Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, a military leader involved in wars that created new power structures and a prophet who ushered in dramatically original and transformational ways of understanding monotheistic religion and its relationship with politics. Records often bear the bias of their authors, and attributing success or failure directly to a leader’s actions may overlook external factors and contributions from others. Despite these hurdles, this talk strives to offer an objective, meaningful exploration of Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ leadership. Speaker Joel Hayward, Author, "The Leadership of Muhammad: A Historical Reconstruction" (Claritas Books, 2023); Professor of Strategic Thought, Rabdan Academy

YouTube Video:https://youtu.be/aDDxTa8CAkg?si=NjDKOYC8xbkpH3_D

Amazon: The Leadership of Muhammad ﷺ: A Historical Reconstruction - Joel Hayward Given the Islamic Prophet Muhammad's immense impact on history, there are surprisingly few books that specifically analyze his leadership. The few that exist maintain that Muhammad was a wonderful leader because he was a wonderful man; that is, he succeeded in his mission because of his superior morality and personal qualities.Professor Joel Hayward sees this as an incomplete and almost inadequate explanation. He does not disagree that Muhammad was a moral and decent man. Yet he has approached the Prophet's leadership from a different vantage point. He has scrutinized the earliest Arabic sources impartially according to the strict standards of historical inquiry in order to ascertain whether Muhammad's conscious actions, behavior and methods can provide any substantial and meaningful insights about the effectiveness of his strategic leadership. Hayward concludes that Muhammad was an uncommonly astute, situationally aware and self-reflective man with the ability to create and communicate a believable strategic vision of a necessary and desirable future. When reinforced constantly by his emotionally intelligent, skillful and very hands-on leadership, his cleverly communicated vision persuaded increasing numbers of people to follow him and risk everything willingly in the struggle to make real the bold new world that he foresaw.Hayward demonstrates through original, meticulously researched and rigorous analysis that Muhammad was "a profoundly effective leader". This engaging, accessible yet deeply scholarly book makes a major contribution to both leadership studies and the Prophet's biography.

https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Muhammad-Historical-Reconstruction-ebook/dp/B09H7JZ8CD

Amazon-The Warrior Prophet Muhammad ﷺ & War - Joel Hayward

Most Islamic biographies deal with Muhammad’s use of warfare by usingan understandable but insufficient logic: that the Messenger of Allah wasthe ideal and paradigmatic human, so he must have been an ideal and paradigmatic military commander. Wanting Muḥammad’s behavior to conform to very modern ethical concepts and widespread (but not necessarily accurate) beliefs about the nature and conduct of war, the writers have created a narrative which, in significant ways, departs from the account clearly and consistently revealed in the earliest extant Arabic sources.Professor Joel Hayward sees this as an unhelpful explanatory tendency and believes that the modern depiction of the Prophet’s relationship with warfare which presents him as being rather antipathetic to war, indeed as virtually a pacifist who only fought reluctantly in self-defense — cannot actually be sustained by a thorough and even-handed analysis of the early Islamic sources. A committed Muslim himself, Hayward concludes that, within a competitive and conflictual environment with ubiquitous threats, warfare was necessary to make real the bold new world that Muḥammad foresaw. Through original, meticulously researched and rigorous analysis, Hayward covers all the raids and campaigns and demonstrates that Muḥammad correctly understood the necessity and utility of force and duly developed into an intuitive, effective and victorious military practitioner who developed and enforced a strict moral code so as to attain his goals whilst safeguarding the innocent. This engaging, accessible yet deeply scholarly and definitive book makes a major contribution to strategic and military analysis and to the Prophet’s biography.

  https://www.amazon.com/Warrior-Prophet-Muhammad-War-ebook/dp/B0BWK2MS5S

Professor Joel Hayward's Personal Page: https://joelhayward.org/

Professor Joel Hayward's Journey to Islam: https://islamconverts.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/british-royal-air-force-university-dean-convert-to-islam/