Knowledge and Strength

Their nabī is teaching them that this is wrong. He told them: inna Allāha iṣṭafāhu ʿalaykum — Allah has chosen him over you. That is it; this is enough to settle the argument. Allah is the One who chose him; do not argue. His ancestry, his ethnicity, his race does not matter. His wealth does not matter. Why? Allah has chosen him.

So that could have been the end of the conversation: Allah has chosen him, period. But Allah (swt) wants to teach us how to choose leaders. So the nabī told them two qualifications you should look for when you are looking for a leader. They gave two reasons why he should not be a leader; their nabī gave them two reasons why he should be the leader. He said: wa zādahu basṭatan fī al-ʿilmi wa al-jism — Allah (swt) has increased him amply in two things: knowledge and strength. Allah has given him two things: knowledge and strength.

The word knowledge is defined according to the job you are appointing the leader to. Why am I saying this? Because many times, whenever we say knowledge, our minds immediately take us to fiqh — and that is not necessarily the case. If a person is going to be appointed as a military leader, then he should have a lot of knowledge of fighting, of war. And that is why the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) appointed Khālid ibn al-Walīd to be the general, the amīr of the army. But it was not Khālid ibn al-Walīd who was appointed to be the khalīfah; Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq was appointed to be the khalīfah. Every position has the knowledge that is required for it. Ṭālūt had the knowledge he needed for the job of leading Banū Isrāʾīl in jihad.

And he had strength — and again, strength is defined according to the job. It is not a matter of physical strength; you do not need a bodybuilder for every job. In this job, you need to be strong, physically strong. But other types of job need mental strength, or strength of will, or strength of heart. It depends on the type of job. But these are the two things you should look for in the leader: knowledge and strength.

And then he said: wa Allāhu yuʾtī mulkahu man yashāʾ — Allah gives His kingdom to whomever He wills. It is not up to you; it is up to Allah (swt).