Leadership, charisma and legitimacy (Lessons from the story of Saul and Goliath III)

The desire to force what people expect into their own molds, to possess it rather than follow it, to make it say what they want rather than hear something from it, is a situation that can be considered universal. A human condition. We see a typical example of rejecting a leader, once he comes, because he turns out to differ from what was expected, in the story of Talut, whom they had requested from their prophets.

Truly, this is not peculiar to the Children of Israel. The wisdom in its being told to Muslims is to tell them that Muslims too may well fall into this error that the Children of Israel fell into. For the errors made by Jews or Christians are not recounted in the Qur'an to suggest how bad they are in essence. They are mentioned as cautionary events so that Muslims do not make the same errors.

Muslims are not more protected from error than Jews or Christians, and history is full of examples of Muslims repeating the errors of Jews and Christians, even of peoples of other religions. It is in precisely this context that our Prophet foresaw that Muslims would, unfortunately, "imitate what the Jews and Christians did, and would follow the same path as them, even if they entered a lizard's hole."

This is a perfect example of the fact that Muslims cannot be superior to any other people, religion or society merely by saying "I became a Muslim," and that what builds a human being is universally defined actions and attitudes. Islam is in essence not against peoples, but against the actions those peoples commit: servitude to a fellow creature, people taking one another as lords, the sanctification of the religion of forefathers, ingratitude, arrogance, lying, and tampering with the book when it suits them. In general, whoever commits all these offenses, the leadership entrusted to him is taken away from him, as happened with the Children of Israel.

"Their prophet said to them, 'The sign of his kingship will be that the Ark will come to you, in which there is tranquility from your Lord and a remnant of what the family of Moses and the family of Aaron left behind, carried by the angels. Surely in this is a decisive sign for you, if you are believers.'" (Baqara, 247).

To what remained of most of the Children of Israel, who could not fit Talut into their expectations, whether because he was not of their lineage or because they considered themselves more deserving, and who for that reason backed out of the very war they themselves had demanded right from the start, their prophet says that the king appointed over them will not come empty-handed, but will come with a sign to establish his own authority. This sign has an entirely distinct importance from the standpoint of the sociological legitimacy of authority.

Along with all the divine providence and miracle, sociology is never neglected within the circle of precaution, and the social legitimacy of the one who is to lead society is also secured. That God made all His prophets from among people themselves, from among those they know, from among those who speak their language, is also in fact a favor to people. People are not obliged to exert an effort from the very beginning to learn the message that comes to them; indeed, were it so, most people would not undertake such an effort in order to change their own lives. Look how people are even more inclined to feign ignorance of a prophet who comes from among them, in their own language, supported by miracles.

Most probably, the Children of Israel, defeated by their adversaries, also saw the chest (the ark) fall into their enemies' hands, the chest which they had been carrying with them since Moses and which contained the sacred relics left by Moses and Aaron and their families, and which expressed the symbolic existence of the community. They are experiencing not only defeat but, because of it, an intense spiritual humiliation and unease.

God knows best, but God's sending Talut as a leader does not depend only on the prophet's pointing to him. Talut comes with a success that will, in the first instance, relieve the society's spiritual humiliation and brokenness by somehow rescuing this chest from the enemies' hands and bringing it back to his people, and that will win them a great moral victory.

Whether the bringing back of the chest took place by a miraculous way or in this way is not very clear, but we may think that this is what accords with the nature of the matter. Even its happening in this way is in itself a heroic act of the miraculous kind for that society, and will suffice to excite a crushed people, to make a hope sprout in them that they can fight and be liberated, and to shake off the torpor lying upon them.

The sakina that the Ark contains is exactly this. The sakina sufficiently secures both the sociological ground and the traditional legitimacy of Talut's leadership, which had already been confirmed by the prophet. Sakina is, to a degree, the climate that a charismatic leadership provides. It is the inner peace and the feeling of unity and solidarity that emerge after a Conquest. That is why it appears also in Surat al-Fath, as a state that God sent down into the hearts of the believers, so that faith might be added to their faith, and so that He might complete His blessing.

Yet the state of sakina, the unity and solidarity around the leader, the resolve to struggle for the cause, the devotion, the self-sacrifice do not continue at the same level to the end. Charisma or asabiyya is not an inexhaustible source of power. The road, by its nature, changes people. It tires some, corrupts some, seizes some with the rush to protect what they have gained, and the worldly blessings, spoils, lust and ambition for power that others see along the way begin to attract them more. Everything in fact unfolds in accordance with Ibn Khaldun's model of Bedouin life and urban life.

Talut, whose charisma was compounded by his bringing the Ark, the symbolic expression of the freedom that the oppressed Children of Israel had longed to reunite with, is now ready to set out to fight Calut, who is constantly threatening and crushing his people. Yet he is not sure how many of his people, who could believe in his leadership only after a miracle, can endure this arduous journey. He knows well that victory is not about crowds. He possesses the deepest knowledge of how a society, however small, that is qualified, faithful and meritorious can prevail over those who are numerous but weak in faith, competence and merit.

There are still many more trials awaiting those who set out.