# Kings Chased Thrones. He ﷺ Chased This Instead | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine

**Author:** Tom Facchine
**Series:** Imam Tom Live
**Published:** 2025-11-05
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/sE8Fn17MjYw
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/kings-chased-thrones-he-chased-this-instead-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine
**Topics:** History, Politics & Practical Theology

## Description
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ wasn’t like other leaders. He had no luxuries, no throne, and didn’t lead with power as a motive. So how did he lead? Imam Tom highlights the characteristics that made him the greatest leader to ever walk the earth and what allowed Islam to become revolutionary in just a matter...

## Transcript
**[0:00]** The Prophet (ﷺ) was the best leader to ever live. Ever. Ever. One of the things that made the Prophet (ﷺ) the best leader ever was that he did not ever enrich himself. He did

**[0:18]** not act for his own material interest. In fact, we find him neglecting his material over and over and over again. So when the Prophet (ﷺ) was sleeping on a mat made of reeds and he had a leather pillow and Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه) came in and he saw the Prophet

**[0:38]** (ﷺ). You know how when you fall asleep and you take a nap and you wake up and you've got the lines on your face? The Prophet (ﷺ) had lines on his side from the hard surface that he was sleeping on. Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه) said, Ya Rasulullah, I have seen that there

**[0:55]** are kings of Persia and Rome that sleep on cushions and they have all of these luxuries. Aren't you more deserving than they are? Very, very interesting that Umar (رضي الله عنه) would say it that way. That's the shubha. That's the doubt that Shaytan plants in our mind. Don't I deserve

**[1:12]** it? Shouldn't I indulge? Aren't I owed this? I work hard. I have this. I have that. I should be able to. The Prophet (ﷺ) he said, that is for them in the dunya and that is for us in the afterlife. The Prophet (ﷺ) led a life of abstention and of minimalism. That was

**[1:33]** a key example for how all leaders should be. The Prophet (ﷺ) never built a palace. Period. Full stop. The first thing the Prophet (ﷺ) did when he got some sort of political power was to build a masjid, was to build a house of worship even before he had taken care of

**[1:52]** his own residence building a place where he could sleep. He took care of the project, the mission, the community. That this is what he was going for. Compare that to the leaders today and we see the leaders are competing with one another to build the finest palaces,

**[2:10]** to build the tallest towers, to have the most impressive, useless, wasteful, extravagant everything. Another way in which the Prophet (ﷺ) led in a paradigmatic way, a way that is an example for everyone to follow is that he led with compassion and connection. The

**[2:31]** Prophet (ﷺ) cared about people and he was available to people. Compare that to the leaders today. You can't touch them. You can't even get close to them. They have a security retinue. They close down the roads whenever they're going. They're paranoid and they're

**[2:48]** afraid for their own security. But the Prophet (ﷺ) had more reason to be afraid for his security and yet he wouldn't take away his own availability to the people. Did that expose him to danger? At times, yes it did. There are a few examples in the seerah where there were individuals

**[3:06]** who either attempted or wanted to attempt to harm the Prophet (ﷺ). But the response was not to have a security retinue that would tackle every potential threat in sight and to stop anybody from coming close. The Prophet (ﷺ) was available to the people. He mixed

**[3:22]** with the people. He was able to connect. He knew the people's states. He knew the people's news. He knew what was going on. And that availability built trust and that trust was part of what he was able to leverage in order to convince and persuade and minister to

**[3:39]** his community. And look at the results. The results are unprecedented. What the Prophet (ﷺ) was able to build in his 23 years of a mission is more than any dictator, tyrant, president could possibly build if they were even given 100 or 200 or 300 years.

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