The Concept of Ulul Albab Principal Leadership

Abstract

Leadership issue is one of the vital elements in achieving success of a school organization. This issue has been debated among educational reseachers and scholars from time to time. However Islamic leadership theory is still less emphasized in schools compared to Western leadership theory. Thus, this article aims to elucidate the concept of Ulul Albab leadership and identify its distinguished characteristics. Notwithstanding this Ulul Albab concept has been implemented in several schools, its achievement also requires dynamic leadership. It is found that the Ulul Albab leadership has three main dimensions namely Quranic, Encyclopedic and Ijtihadikc and these are in line with the Quranic verses (16 verses) related to the Ulul Albab theme. The findings give some implications on the leadership of future leaders and generations.

Islamic educational leadership

“…The approaches that were used by the prior authors are various. Few of them used a literature review method on the concept of Islamic educational leadership (see Jaffar et al, 2019;Othman et al, 2018;Salleh, 2018); several used a quantitative approach (for instance, Abdullah & Kassim, 2012;Othman & Wanlabeh, 2012;Taib et al, 2016); some used a mixed-method approach (see Ahmad & Salamun, 2017;Ail & Abdullah, 2016;Salamun & Shah, 2012;Salamun, 2015). However, studies that used fully a qualitative paradigm provide more insights into the issue and show interesting findings about Islamic educational leadership in the Southeast Asian context (see Abbas & Tan, 2020;Brooks et al, 2020;Milligan, 2010;Mutohar, 2020;Raihani, 2007Shulhan, 2018).…”

“…In addition, Jaffar et al (2019) analyzed 16 Quranic verses about ulul albab theme, which simply means gifted individual, and proposed the concept of ulul albab principal leadership. They found that this type of leadership has three dimensions: Quranic, encyclopedic, and ijthadic.…”

“…They found that this type of leadership has three dimensions: Quranic, encyclopedic, and ijthadic. The first dimension means that Quran is the only and absolute preference for a leader as well as a way of life; the second dimension portrays an educational leader's intelligence and knowledge quality; the last dimension context is an effort to do continuous improvement and consistently commit toward perfection (Jaffar et al, 2019). As can be shown, this is an effort to try an approach to characterizing ideal educational leadership based on Quran verses.…”

The Case Study of Islamic-Education Leadership Model: What We Can Learn from the Dynamics of Principals’ Leadership in Indonesian Excellence Islamic Boarding-Schools

“…There are emerging studies that explore Islamic education leadership but no study has been carried out in the Indonesian context. Authors such as (Jaffar et al, 2019;Othman et al, 2018;Salleh, 2018) have attempted to define the concept of Islamic education leadership. Few studies focused on the context of Southeast Asia regarding Islamic educational leadership in the Southeast Asian context (Abbas & Tan, 2019;Arifin et al, 2018;Milligan, 2009;Raihani, 2008Raihani, , 2017Shulhan, 2018).…”

“…There has also been limited research using exploratory research design such as qualitative case study. Research on Islamic Education leadership, in a nutshell quantitatively researched in Malaysia, using the term, Rabbani (Ahmad & Salamun, 2017;Salamun, 2016;Salamun & Shah, 2012), murabbi leadership (Ail & Abdullah, 2016), ulul albab leadership (Jaffar et al, 2019;Taib et al, 2016). The underlying concepts are values-based leadership practices in Islamic-schools and influenced by moral values according to the will of Allah SWT.…”