Book Review: MUHAMMAD THE ULTIMATE LEADER: FROM WESTERN BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES by Daud Batchelor

Abstract

Daud Batchelor, Muhammad the Ultimate Leader: From Western Business Perspectives. Islamic Book Trust, Kuala Lumpur, 2019. 174 pp. ISBN 978-967-0526-70-6; eISBN 978-967-0526-71-3.

The present book under review is rather appealing. Its message is quite simple yet profound. As its title suggests, the book is about knowing the leadership qualities of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) through the lens of Western business perspectives. The thesis of the book is that non-Muslim Westerners may be persuaded to embrace a more positive view of the traditional Muslim claim that "Muhammad is a perennial leader, whose message applies for all time and across multiple fields, and for all people since he was sent as God's final Messenger for all humanity" (p. xi) if only they could see parallels between Muhammad's leadership qualities and the "high leadership qualities cited by Western business writers" (p. xii). This thesis sets the general theme of the book. Thus, in the book, its author Dr Daud Batchelor, a Westerner who converted to Islam, took upon himself the task of identifying "commonly acclaimed corporate leadership attributes cited by Western writers" and then comparing them with the Prophet Muhammad's leadership qualities that are well established in the Islamic tradition.