Book Review: The Leadership of Muhammad, by John Adair

I had high expectations for this book after listening to a talk by the speaker introducing it and after receiving recommendations from friends who had read it before me. Reading it, however, I couldn't help feel a little disappointed. It's a small book (this I knew before I bought it) and, even then, the mention of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and his examples of leadership are few and far between. Each chapter (there are eight) takes one concept of leadership exemplified by Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), elaborates on why it is important and explains how it ties to the Bedouin/Arabian society that Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) lived within. Overall, a great idea for a book and not a bad book, but not quite living up to its potential and my expectation.

Position Before Submission

I was sitting here coding on the 12th of July (the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne also known as Orangemen's Day which is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland) and a sudden "martial arts" thought popped into my head: "Position Before Submission". It's an important fighting principle and especially so when starting out. It's where a lot of people go wrong, learning spinning back fists and flying arm bars before learning how to control their opponent. Anyhow, the purpose of this post: After that sudden impulsive thought and, seeing as though it's a bank holiday, I thought I'd split my day between coding and collecting some Sun Tzu military/strategy quotes. Here we go...

"War is deception."

"If you are far from the enemy,

make him believe you are near."

"Pretend inferiority;

encourage his arrogance."

"Appear weak when strong,

strong when weak."

"To subdue the enemy without fighting

is the acme of skill."

"He is skilful in attack

whose opponent knows not what to defend;

and skilful in defence

whose opponent knows not what to attack."

"Invincibility lies in the defence;

victory in the attack."

"Attack your opponent's strategy."

"Believe in yourself."

Note that I omitted quotes about the importance of good spying and the importance of going into battle only after having already won victory, which Sun Tzu seems to emphasise above all else in his writings. I omitted those quotes because I wanted to keep my selection of quotes applicable to hand-to-hand (one-on-one) combat/competition. Oh and excuse my exercising poetic license to adapt and abbreviate the quotes!

Book Review: The Writing on the Water, by Muhiyiddin Shakoor

I needed a book to read on my return flight back from Sarajevo a couple of months back and so picked this up before departing from one of the book stores besides the Gazi Husrev-Beg Mosque. The writing style looked decent and I was curious to read the chronicles of someone treading the "Sufist" path!

The writing style did turn out to be okay. The content of the book, however, I found somewhat lacking. The author's personal stories and the lessons he extrapolates from them just did not work for me. (For reasons of blandness rather than disagreement.) More so, the author's "Shaykh" (spiritual guide) I felt comes across as a somewhat cruel and ambiguous figure! The tasks he assigns to his "disciples" being an example of this. A leadership style contrary to the example set by the Prophet (صلّى الله عليه وسلّم) and his Companions (رضي الله عنهم) in my opinion! Maybe, of course, it's just the way he comes across in this book and he's not such a bad person in person!!

Cave Hill

Cycled up to Belfast castle (5 miles from my place of residence in south/central Belfast) yesterday and then walked up to McArt's fort, on the summit of Cave Hill (elevation 370 metres). A couple of pics above.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khalid Hosseini

I've had this book lying around my house for quite a while. Maybe a couple of years now. Never doubted from all the positive reviews that it was a good book. Just never picked it up because I got the impression it was a sad story and I don't particularly warm to sad stories! Finally packed it on Monday for the return journey from London to Belfast and got through 200 of the 400 pages that first day! "Engrossed" is quite the understatement. I'm an otherwise slow reader yet managed to get through around 50 pages every evening that followed. I guess that says it all. Brilliant book. Absolute must read.

Rhythm

Fight to your opponent's rhythm;
you will lag, you will lose.

You have to
have to have to
enter each fight, each round
with a rhythm, your rhythm.

Dance your opponent to your tune.

Mother of the Believers, by Kamran Pasha

Finished this book about a month ago. Not managed to get around to writing a review til now. An enjoyable read! I thought it was going to be a fictionalised biography of Aisha (God's pleasure be upon her and all the Prophet's family and companions). What it is instead is the story of the birth and early years of Islam told through the eyes of Aisha. Of course Aisha would not have been present at all the events that take place in the book but it's this - the author's imaginative method of telling the story - that's part of what makes the book such an enjoyable read.

The author does well in my opinion in depicting the characters and portraying them as being human, which I think is often-time lacking in contemporary Islamic literature. I feel we often read/write about the great companions of the Prophet Muhammad and what they achieved as though they were emotion-less, machine-like beings, forgetting the passions, pains and fears they would have inevitably felt in foregoing their ways of old and embracing a new way of life.

Truth be told, there were times in the book - such as the portrayal of Fatima and Ali (the Prophet's daughter and cousin/son-in-law) specifically as being other worldly, or the repetitive mention of how very old and senile Abu Bakr and Uthman were, or the occasional slip in of how ill-mannered Umar was, or the recurring theme that Aisha was unable to forgive Ali for a comment he once made about her in the presence of the Prophet - that had me thinking "hmm, that's a bit strange, a bit overkill" but the book definitely overall was very respectful and courteous towards all of the Prophet's companions, and definitely left me wanting to find more books of this kind. So a thumbs up from me!