How Quran Arabic can make you a better CEO and leader

Quran Arabic knowledge is one fundamental difference that I notice, in Muslim CEO’s that I interviewed around the world. They are all highly accomplished but those who are more connected with the Quran are more confident and achieve their goals faster. Of course, this is not the result of empirical studies but just based on my personal observation for over a decade. 

I thought it was because of the barakah in the word of Allah. But when I learn Quran Arabic. I started to connect the dots and started to see that Arabic grammar is not just about boring mechanics of language. It actually nurtures the habits of outstanding communicators and great leaders. Basically, it trains your brain just like the Karate-kid learns about blocking an attack.

Good leadership is answering Questions

According to Harvard Business Review, Good leadership is about answering the ‘Why’ questions. These will lead you to answer the ‘what ‘who’ ‘when’ and ‘how’ questions. These are questions that give clarity to your purpose, outline what to do, and so on.

You might also want to read The Key Missing Ingredient in Leadership today

A leader only got a chance to dwell on the ‘why’ question at a company retreat or while giving talks. In short, it is not every day you got the opportunity to answer the why question. The rest of the time your mind is hijacked by daily routine tasks, perceived urgency, and endless ad hoc requests.

Imagine if you can dwell on these important questions every day? What would it do to your performance, self-awareness and confidence?

Habitualizing Good leadership skills

What does this have to do with Quran Arabic?  We’ll by learning Quranic Arabic and reading just two pages of the Quran a day, you’ll habitualised your mind to answer the crucial questions that leaders try to answer. 

But what does this have to do with Quran Arabic? In the Quran there are two kinds of sentences one is Jumlatul Ismiyah or noun-based sentence and the other is verbal sentences or Jumlatul Fi’liyah.

When you break Jumlatul Fi’liyah, it has  3 things one is the action i.e the verb, and every verb must have a doer the perpetrator of the act. Then this is followed by details of the sentence. Now when you come to the details, here it becomes really amazing.

In  Jumlatul Fi’ilyah there is something that is called Maf’ul, there are 4 types of Maful. 

What Arabic teachers don’t tell you about Al Maf’ul اَلْمَفْعُلْ

The concept of Al Maf’ul in the Quran is found in verbal sentences. How can this concept of Maf’ul help you become a better leader? Alright, when you come across a Jumlatul Fi’liyah in the Quran, there is a verb. The presence of a verb raised questions that need to be answered. Merely the presence of one verb, raise up to five questions that need to be answered. 

It raised the questions associated with the verb. Like who the action, who is it done to, why it is being done, when was it done, where was it done, and how was it done. 

So when you study Quran Arabic and come across a Jumlatul Fi’liyah you have to stop, pause and think about the answer to these questions. Which is what, why, who, when, where and how.  Every time you come across a verb, it will trigger your mind to answer one or all of these questions. 

Let’s see how many verbs are there in the Quran, there are approximately 19300 verbs in the Quran. That is equal, to approximately 32 verbs per page in the Madinah Mushaf

Even if you read just 2 pages a day that would be 64 verbs, that is 64 times your brain is trained to answer the Ws and one H questions (who, what, why, where, when and how).

This is a lot more effective than going to a company retreat once a year, answering the 5 Ws and one H questions, and then forgetting about it.

Next week InsyaAllah we will look at the application of Maf’ul with Ayah from the Quran.