Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2021)

Articles

Civilised or Savage: The Effect of Colonialism’s Dichotomus Language on Views of Prophet Muhammad’s Leadership

https://doi.org/10.55831/ajis.v6i1.335

Published 21.01.2021

  • Mostafa Hany El-Gashingi
Mostafa Hany El-Gashingi
Post-Graduate Student, Charles Sturt University, Australia

Abstract

Studying the sirah (biography of Prophet Muhammad) in today’s world is more than a mere exploration into past events, but a three dimensional and timeless study that is as relevant today as it was previously and will continue to be. Integrating the fields of social psychology and cognitive historiography, this article questions whether Prophet Muhammad ‘civilised’ a ‘savage’ society by critiquing the loaded language implicit in the question. This article instead offers that Prophet Muhammad’s leadership style was consistent with psychological theories of transformational leadership and not one that was imperialistic nor used the language present in colonialism that divided people into ‘civilised’ and ‘savage.’

Keywords

Sirah, Social psychology, Colonialism, Cognitive historiography, Transformational leadership

PDF

References

  1. Albayrak, Ismail. “Milestones and Signposts in Interfaith Relations: Constitution of Medina.” Australian eJournal of Theology 16, no. 1 (2010): 1-9.
  2. al-Husayni, Abdallah Sirajuddin. Our Master Muhammad The Messenger of Allah: His Sublime Character & Exalted Attributes. Translated by Khalid Williams. The Netherlands: Sunni Publications, 2009.
  3. al-Mahali, Jalal ad-Din, and Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti. “Tafsir al-Jalalayn.” Translated by Feras Hamza. Amman, Jordon: Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought. https://www.altafsir.com/index.asp.
  4. al-Misri, Ahmad ibn Naqib. Reliance of the Traveller. Translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller. Beltsville: Amana Publications, 1994.
  5. al-Mubarakpuri, Safi-ur-Rahman. The Sealed Nectar: Biography of the Noble Prophet. Riyadh: Darussalam, 2011.
  6. Al-Saidi, Afaf A. H. “Post-Colonialism Literature the Concept of Self and the Other in Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians: An Analytical Approach.” Journal of Language Teaching and Research 5, no. 1 (2014): 95-105. Accessed August 21, 2019. doi: 10.4304/ jltr.5.1.95-105.
  7. Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Prophet for our Time. New York: Atlas Books/Harper Collins, 2006.
  8. Arjomand, Said Amir. “The Constitution of Medina: A Sociolegal Interpretation of Muhammad’s Acts of Foundation of the Umma.” International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 41 (2009): 555-575. Accessed August 20, 2019. doi: 10.1017/S002074380 9990067.
  9. Birt, Yahya. “Being a Real Man in Islam: Drugs, Criminality and the Problem of Masculinity.” Masud.co.uk, last modified December 24, 2014. http://www.masud.co.uk/being-a-real- man-in-islam-drugs-criminality-and-the-problem-of-masculinity/.
  10. Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan. Accessed September 19, 2019. https://sunnah.com/bukhari.
  11. Burns, James M. Leadership. New York: Harper & Row, 1978.
  12. Gulen, M. Fethullah. Prophet Muhammad as Commander. London: Truestar, 1996.
  13. Hanke, Katja, James H. Liu, Chris G. Sibley, Dario Paez, Stanley O. Gaines Jr., Gail Moloney, Chan-Hoong Leong, Wolfgang Wagner, Laurent Licata, Olivier Klein, Ilya Garber, Gisela Böhm, Denis J. Hilton, Velichko Valchev, Sammyh S. Khan, Rosa Cabecinhas. (2015) “‘Heroes’ and ‘Villains’ of World History across Cultures.” PLoS ONE 10, no. 2 (2015): 1- 21. Accessed August 10, 2019. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115641.
  14. Healey, George R. “The French Jesuits and the Idea of the Noble Savage.” The William Mary Quarterly 15, no. 2 (1958): 143-167. Accessed October 12, 2020. doi: 10.2307/1919438.
  15. Ibn Majah, Sunan ibn-Majah. Accessed September 19, 2019. https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah.
  16. Lane, Edward William, and Stanley Lane-Poole. Arabic-English Lexicon. New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1955.
  17. Lings, Martin. Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. New York: Inner Traditions International, 1983.
  18. Lisdorf. Anders. “Towards a Cognitive Historiography: Frequently Posed Objections.” In Chasing Down Religion: In the Sights of History and the Cognitive Sciences, edited by Panayotis Pachis and Donald Wiebe, 209–215. Sheffield and Bristol, CT: Equinox Publishing, 2009. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/279294059_Towards_ a_Cognitive_Historiography.
  19. Muslim. Sahih Muslim. Translated by Abdul Hamid Siddiqui. https://sunnah.com/muslim.
  20. Nadwi, Sayyed A. H. A. Muhammad the Last Prophet: A Model for all Time. Leicester: UK Islamic Academy, 2006.
  21. Saini, Angela. Superior: The Return of Race Science. Boston: Beacon Press, 2019.
  22. Shavit, Uriya. “Europe, the New Abyssinia: On the Role of the First Hijra in the Fiqh al- Aqalliyyāt al-Muslima Discourse.” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 29, no. 3 (2018): 371-391. Accessed October 10, 2020. doi: 10.1080/09596410.2018.1480120.
  23. Simpson, Murray K. “From Savage to Citizen: Education, Colonialism and Idiocy.” British Journal of Sociology of Education 28, no. 5 (2007): 561-574. Accessed August 21, 2019. doi: 10.1080/01425690701505326.
  24. Suddaby, Roy, William R. Foster and Chris Quinn-Tank. “Rhetorical History as a Source of Competitive Advantage.” Advances in Strategic Management 27 (2010): 147-173. Accessed September 12, 2019. doi: 10.1108/S0742-3322(2010)0000027009.
  25. Vaughn, Graham M., and Michael A. Hogg. Introduction to Social Psychology, 5th ed. New South Wales: Pearson Education, 2008.
  26. Wehr, Hans, and J. Milton Cowan. A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1966.
  27. Yildirim, Yetkin. “The Medina Charter: A Historical Case of Conflict Resolution.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 20, no. 4: (2009): 439-450. Accessed October 10, 2020. doi: 10.1080/09596410903194894.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.