There Has Come to Me Knowledge

Now look at this. Ibrāhīm was very young when he did this. He was less than 16 years old. Ibrāhīm is directing this daʿwah to a man that is not only older than him, but his father. Follow me: a young man, less than 16 years old, telling a man that is older than him, and his father: follow me. Why is he telling himself? What was the justification that he has to tell his father to follow him? Ibrāhīm told his father the reason why. He told him: qad jāʾanī min al-ʿilmi mā lam yaʾtik — because I have knowledge that you do not have. His father had to follow him.

So the leadership should be given to the people of understanding and wisdom. And that's why we find that the best leaders that ever lived were the most knowledgeable: Dāwūd (peace be upon him), Sulaymān (peace be upon him), Dhū al-Qarnayn, and Muhammad (peace be upon him), who was a leader. And then after the anbiyāʾ, the Ṣaḥābah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī — they were all scholars. The four of them were scholars. And then the best who came after these four Ṣaḥābah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.

But now, when we have given the positions of leadership to the ignorant military leaders, everything ran corrupt. Ẓahara al-fasādu fī al-barri wa-l-baḥr: corruption appeared on land — and not only on land; even in the sea. Allah (swt) says: ẓahara al-fasādu fī al-barri wa-l-baḥri bimā kasabat aydī al-nās — corruption appeared on land and on sea because of what the hands of the people have reaped. We have the ability not only to corrupt land; we can also corrupt the sea.

Look at the fasād that we have in the Muslim world, and in the world in general, because the positions of leadership are given to the unfit — which the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) has said in the hadith is one of the signs of the Day of Judgement: imārat al-sufahāʾ, the leadership of the unfit, the ignorant, the foolish. So Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him) is telling his father: you have to follow me. And then he told him: if you follow me — fa-ttabiʿnī ahdika ṣirāṭan sawiyyā — if you follow me, I will guide you to the straight path.