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A Saudi guy walks into a bar, decked out in his thobe and kufi. (He doesn’t believe in the meat of the People of the Book arguement.) He walks up to the bar and says “Bartender, I want a chicken sandwich.”

The bartender looks at him, nods, and turns to fill the order.

A desi guy who sits nearby stares. The Saudi guy turns to the desi guy. Black spiked hair, leather jacket, one hand clamps around the handle of a half-filled mug of beer. The other curls around his girlfriend.

Influence leaders, don’t import your own.

When you need to influence masses of people towards your ideology (da’wah) or project or cause, don’t bring your speaker in to preach to them. It doesn’t consistantly work–if the people don’t know your leader, they can’t trust him, and most will refuse to follow him.

Instead, influence the leader of the people you wish to lead. Once he agrees to your cause, he automatically spreads it to those who follow him. Since he’s a trusted and accepted leader of the community already, inshaAllah they’ll follow him.

Good workers are rare. Great workers are more rare. Outstanding workers are still more rare.

Instead of investing hundreds of hours in the search for excellent workers, take what you can get–given that they hold some of the attributes you need, and the potential to grow–and increase them in their excellence.

This way, not only do you benefit from the work they produce, but they benefit from the training. Think of it as an investment that pays off long-term.

When you choose a leader, someone always disagrees with you.

No matter who you are and who your leader is, you cannot please everyone. So get used to it inshaAllah.

During the time of the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم), the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) chose ‘Usama ibn Zayd (son of Zayid ibn Thabit, may Allah be pleased with them both) as the leader of the army. And they had high-status alumni sahaba in that army, like ‘Umar ibn Al-Khattab (radiallahu ‘anh), who was in his 40s or so.

Front Leaders: These leaders take charge, set the vision, and lead the way. They take the initiative, and step up to the call when Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) calls them.

Back Leaders: These leaders encourage, gather everyone’s opinion, call meetings, and encourage mutual agreement and compromise.

In Islaimc work, and in any project, you need both types of leadership. Like when a group hikes through a trail. You need someone at the front to pick the path and set the pace. But for the people who get left behind, who stray away, and who get lost, you need a leader at the back to encourage them and guide them.

During the time of these people, they had a king who claimed he was Allah–similar to how Fir’aun, in the Qur’an, claims to be Allah.

There is no oppresser that maintains his power without magic.

Even today? you might ask.

Even today.

In the Qur’an, Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) says:

Translation: Moses said “Throw ye (first).” So when they threw, they bewitched the eyes of the people, and struck terror into them: for they showed a great (feat of) magic (Surah Al-Araf, 7:116).¹

When the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) first claimed prophethood, Abu Dhar sent his brother to Mecca to investigate and see information he could turn up. His brother investigated and returned. He said (to the meaning of): “A person claims prophethood. The people call him a liar.” Abu Dhar said (to the meaning of): “that’s not enough information, I will go myself and find out more.” (Bear in mind this is a time and place where whole tribes convert or fight Islam whole-scale based on their leaders.) Abu Dhar (radiallahu ‘an) returned to Mecca. Back then, the ka’bah was a holy site. He figured the Prophet, whoever he was, would eventually end up there. So he lurked around, looking at people. But he didn’t know what the Prophet looked like, and he didn’t ask.

Expect several posts on tafseer and lessons from the story of the People of the Ditch, the background to Surah Burooj.

Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) says in the Qur’an:

Translation: By the promised Day (of Judgment), by one that witnesses, and the subject of the witness: woe to the makers of the pit (of fire), fire supplied (abundantly) with fuel. Behold! they sat over against the (fire), and they witnessed (all) that they were doing against the Believers. And they ill-treated them for no other reason than that they believed in Allah, Al-Aziz (Exalted in Power), Al-Hameed (Worthy of all Praise)! (Surah Burooj, 85:2-8)¹

Abstraction: Selective ignorance of certain elements in order to focus on other elements.

In software development, abstraction means you zoom out and see the big picture. You ignore minor implementation details–what are the little pieces? How do they work?–and focus on the whole. These are the systems and how they fit together, and this is the overall goal.

When you employ abstraction, efficiency increases. No longer bogged down with function pointers, memory management, or 16-bit register values, you focus on how to make your software work better.

To optimize your meetings and keep them clear, concise, and on-topic, follow the following two rules as much as possible:

Two Cents: Keep your two cents out of it. Nobody wants to hear your opinion anyway, and spewing one opinion denies other opinions their right. When you compound personal opinion with rebuttal with re-rebuttal, your main topic quickly derails. (Never tolerate deviations from this rule.)

Two Sentences: When you speak, l__imit your dialogue to two sentences max. Power comes with being concise. This forces you to think about your statements before you say them, and prevents you from getting far off topic whenever you choose to speak. (Ignore occasional deviations from this rule.)