Professional Character Development in Islamic Military Leadership: Developing a Theoretical Framework

Leadership development is a vital segment of developing an effective leader to achieve the goals and strategy of the organization. In a military context, professional leaders with qualities, efficiency, and effectiveness are important to perform their task in operations. In Islam, the military personnel are not only responsible to defend their country but also to act as a preacher for the spreading of Islam. Therefore, they need to have a strong spiritual and physical capability. Their strength of spiritual and physical competence will support them in carrying out their duties and to not be easily deceived by enemy tactics and the temptations of lust. To produce professional leaders, leadership development programs have been designed and implemented by the custodian of training in a military organization. However, most of the concepts of leadership training in military training programs in the country are more Western-oriented and less applied to the spirit of Islam. Thus, this paper will focus on the key elements in the framework for the development of professional character in Islamic military leaders. This is also to produce a conceptual framework by using the al-Quran and Sunnah as a guideline which can be measured for its effectiveness in future studies.