Responsibility: You Are All Shepherds

The most important lesson to learn from that — these being lessons that the prophets learned from being shepherds — the most important lesson that they learn, the most important training that they get from being shepherds, is responsibility. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: Kullukum rāʿin wa kullukum masʾūlun ʿan raʿiyyatih. You are all shepherds, and you are all responsible for your herd. And then he said that the imām is responsible for his people — imam meaning the leader of the Muslims. The man is responsible for his household, the woman is responsible — everyone is responsible.

So the first of the lessons to learn from being a shepherd is responsibility. A shepherd usually is working for somebody else who owns the flock, so they're hired by someone else — they have to report to a higher authority, they have to report to someone else. A shepherd can't go back to the owner and say, "Well, I'm sorry, I lost one sheep because that sheep happened to be stupid." It doesn't matter what the sheep does — you are responsible. Anything that happens to this flock, even if the sheep was wrong, you are responsible for it, and you can't go back and say, "Well, the sheep was wrong, it's not my fault." No — it's your fault. So they learn to be responsible for a herd, even if the herd isn't responsible for itself. They still feel that they are going to be held accountable for the flock, regardless of whether the flock is intelligent or not, whether they are united or not, whether they obey or not — I am accountable for that. So it's a very important lesson for the leader: you are responsible for your herd. And the prophets of Allah one day are going to be accountable to Allah (swt) for their people. So that's the first of the lessons they learn — being responsible.