We are living in the time where there is an infinite crisis of identity among the individuals. Everybody needs everyone else to define (find) their strengths, weaknesses, purpose in life. The real who am I? is lost from every I am and every other person is following their idol celebrity blindly. In the age of constant distraction, where the shelves of self help books are stacked up building a huge tower, yet finding a person who is acting upon these help books is a task similar to finding a person in a dark night with a torch light at hand. Good part is, we realize that there is something wrong with the personnels that require fixing.
When i (re)started reading books after a long time of non-reading period (since I thought the age of books was taken over by movies, video courses and tutorials, audios etc.) It occurred to me that there is no alternative to book reading. The active perception of the surrounding while reading, is, far more unique and profound than the passive perspective of the director of a movie/video. Another motivation to start reading was the first word of the first revelation of the Holy Quran (a.k.a The final testament) from the Almighty Allah in Cave Hira was "اقرا" (Iqra) which means "Read". So, I am happy to be a reader again fulfilling this command.
I began with the Best selling self help and leadership books (mostly from U.S. writers) of the past three decades. Albeit my knowledge of the biography of our beloved Prophet (Peace be upon him) was minuscule, I could not resist to be caught off guard while reading, from the fact that either the whole books were somewhere implemented in the life of the greatest Prophet (Peace be upon him) or it was said by him (Peace be upon him) in a very concise and effective way. Michael Hart's book 'The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History' puts Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) in the first place, a selection for which he had to apologize in the introduction of the book since his primary audience was western population. Hart asserted that Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was "supremely successful" in both the religious and secular realms. Due to his neutral and deep research, he couldn't place anyone else in the first place except the final Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him).
Quran talks about the manners of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) as the greatest, Allah says:
وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلَىٰ خُلُقٍ عَظِيمٍ - 68:4
And indeed, you are of a great moral character.
I believe to be successful in both the realm (in this world and in hereafter), we must follow his teachings completely. And for sure, there is nothing required to be successful that the Final Prophet of Allah (Peace be upon him) has kept away from us. However, the first step is to know him. Indeed, he is such a charismatic personality that "The more you know him, the more you will love him". So, while we get to know about living personalities, let's not be lazy in knowing the best of creation, in order to have the criteria to judge who is closest to the best; hence followable in terms of theory and/or practically.
So, I am thinking to start writing up one-liner or few lines from his teachings what correlates to the best selling self-help/leadership book that I will read. If I could not find anything to write, there could be two main reasons:
1) My incompetence, inability and laziness
2) The book's message is not right or not that important for our salvation in the hereafter and success in this world
Here are few lines per book as a start:
"Leader eat last" - Simon Sinek
Umm Ma'bad story, when she met Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and he milked the weak goat, collected it in a container, gave everyone to drink and only drank after making sure that everyone else including the host was full.
https://www.dorar.net/h/d1604dce554e9418abcce3b69fa28d1e
"Start with Why" - Simon Sinek
The way of Sahaba who would never start anything, unless they ask themselves 'Why?' they are doing so.
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