28/05/2026
Why Don’t Many Mosque Committees Delegate?
A major sign of healthy leadership is being able to hand over tasks to other people without micromanaging them to death. One book I’d highly recommend for anyone sitting on a mosque committee or running a Muslim organization is Islamic Perspectives on Leadership by Rafik Issa Beekun. He dedicates a whole chapter to delegation, and honestly, it’s probably the most detailed breakdown I’ve found in any book so far.
What I really liked was his analysis of why some leaders absolutely refuse to delegate. It basically boils down to a few different factors, but there are three main excuses that really stand out:
1. The need for control : "I am a perfectionist It must be done right!"
2. Ego and insecurity - "If I delegate too much the organisation won't need me"
3. Time and efficiency constraints - "By the time I explain it I could do it myself"
The need for control comes from a leader having this insatiable desire to be across every single micro-decision. These types are usually incredibly impatient with delays, hyper-competitive, and they genuinely don't understand why everyone else doesn't share their intense, frantic sense of urgency. All this does is burn out the people around them and completely kill off any creativity.
Ego and insecurity are probably the worst of the three, it’s an almost Firaun-style of control. It’s when someone is desperately clinging to power because they’re terrified that others are out to steal their spotlight or take their position. Sadly, we see this exact behavior in so many of our masjids, organizations, and even within families. If you don't build strict checks and balances into the structure of the organization, this ego problem will ruin it.
Now, time and efficiency constraints is probably the most understandable excuse. We've all been there. But while knocking a task out yourself might fix a short-term bottleneck, in the long run, it has a massive negative knock-on effect on the team’s growth. If the committee actually invests the time into properly training the team, it frees up the leader's headspace so they can step back and focus on the high-level things they're actually good at.
