A friend who has almost finished memorizing the Qur'an told me of interesting insight from Suratul Yusuf.

The wisdom comes from verse 55.

“It shows two qualities of someone who is going to be responsible for the treasury,” the friend said.

So I went to check out the evidence.

Accordingly, this sentence has stuck since إنِّي حفيظٌ عليم

In case you don’t understand Arabic. The concise statement enumerates two requirements someone needs to fulfil to be qualified as a treasury manager.

Here’s the full translation of verse 55.

“[Joseph] said, "Appoint me over the storehouses of the land. Indeed, I will be a knowing guardian."

Another translation says:

“Joseph proposed, “Put me in charge of the store-houses of the land, for I am truly reliable and adept.”

So two requirements for that position are reliability and competence. That is someone trustworthy and knowledgeable.

In modern terms, that would mean the person knows about financial matters, resource allocation, economics and so forth. As for reliability, that’s a timeless quality that never changes.

Therefore, even if someone is competent, he shouldn’t be set upon the treasury if he’s not trustworthy.

So our leaders in both private and public sectors should pay attention to this verse. For example, the verse will help in the appointment of a Central Bank governor, minister of agriculture, a minister of finance and planning or a commissioner of finance. Even your local NGO will benefit from this.

To boot, if someone is already in this position, you can use these rules to evaluate their suitability.

Allah knows best.

#leadership

Ibraheem Dooba, Phd.