The Woman That Hired The Prophet ﷺ

When somebody's interviewing, they're putting a mask on. I don't just go through the resume. I don't just ask the boilerplate questions. I hate generic answers. And if I see that, then the interview's over.

Why not hire somebody that has experience?

Exactly. And that's the thing. There were people with more experience. There were people that were well known for it. But she was looking for somebody who was even more experienced. Trade men could not come with the results that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam did because of his.

Welcome to a new episode. In this episode, we're going to learn one of the fundamentals of business, which is hiring and managing a team. And who better to learn from than someone who hired the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.

Allahu akbar. What a beautiful hook, bro. Look at. You broke the Internet with that one right there. So. So when we talk about business, the most important aspect you have is the people that work in it. And that's why important principle is who you hire, who you keep, because they're

the ones who represent the business.

You could have the greatest product in the world, but if your team sucks and if your team is not up to par, you cannot move that item. And if your team is good and your skill set is good and your skill pool of your team, they're not just a bunch of yes men, they're not just a bunch of dishonest people trying to further their careers and so on, then you can make great success come out of that. And the skill of interviewing people and hiring the right people is a very, very difficult skill to master. Yep.

There's literally businesses that just do this. There's. There's recruitment companies who are specialized in just hiring and filtering through applicants just to hire people. And they get paid millions of dollars just for placing people because of how difficult it is to screen and interview people. Subhanallah.

And I'll tell you this myself, as somebody who's worked in medical device industry for way too many years that I don't want to mention makes me feel old. But since, you know, the mid-90s, a long time being a manager and then being a director and then being a vp, I've had to interview people sometimes for days on end and bring them back for it. And I'll tell you this, it's a skill because when somebody's interviewing, they're putting a mask on. And for you to be able to see through that and not go in the fluff of a resume and not go in the fake references that people bring and, and be able to see with this person fit and gel with the team that I have and give it a balance. You don't want just everybody on one side. You want something that can balance.

You want somebody who's nice with speaking with people, somebody who's more calm, somebody who's better at managing, etc. How would you actually screen someone? How would you go through it and know, does that person have the skill set that they need to do this job?

When I interview, my interviewing style is very different from others. I don't just go through the resume. I don't just ask the boilerplate questions. I hate generic answers.

What's your favorite question?

Actually, when hiring, the favorite question I have is what is your greatest weakness? Because I hate to answer. Oh, I work too hard. Oh, I'm just too good at my job. Because you know that's not true. You're lying to me. That is not your greatest weakness.

That is a. I'm a perfectionist.

I'm a perfectionist. That is not a weakness. You're taking a skill and you're repackaging as a weakness. And you think I'm foolish enough to buy that? Never. Right. So I go through a resume, but I look for breaks in the resume. I look for gaps in the resume. I look for things that don't make sense in the resume. Inconsistencies. I do my reference checks before I bring the person in. So I've already got background. I already know why you were let go when you were let go. I don't if you were let go.

Tough interviewer.

Okay. Okay. Watch out. I mean, you know, we'd interview people for high level jobs, executive jobs. So we. I mean, this would be. This would be, you know, and I will do things like test them with a lot of situational questions. Okay, this is a situation. What would you do? And the greatest thing I'm looking for is somebody trying to BS me, me. Somebody trying to lie to me, somebody trying to pretend to be something. And if I see that, then interview is over. I don't need to hire you.

Is this something you've learned from Islam?

To be honest, it's something I've learned from experience, you know, from a lot of years of interviewing and so on.

How does it tie back to Islam? Because we're speaking here in the context when Khadija hired the prophet.

So this is the exact thing that we see here that Khatija didn't hire the prophet. Sallallahu alaihi wasallam because of his experience, because there were more experienced men in quraish to take caravans.

What job was it?

This was a business manager, you could say, meaning that she had caravans that she had inherited from her husband that had passed away. And these caravans would go to Syria, they would go to Yemen, they would travel and they would take goods and product from one to the other. And they needed somebody to be a manager, to be a supervisor, travel with the caravan, to travel with the caravan to make sure that business trade goes well, to make sure the accounts payables are paid, to make sure that customer service is met and to make sure that the employees and they had at that time, because it's pre islam, they had slavery, so those slaves would be one treated well, but at the same time, you know, honest and capable of doing what they were going to do.

So she was looking for someone that can ensure business goes well. But in this scenario, why not hire somebody that has experience that did it already?

Well, exactly. And that's the thing. There were people with more experience. There were people that were well known for it. There were people. But she was looking for somebody who

was honest because he's going to be handling the merchandise, he's going to be

handling merchandise, wealth, money, he's going to come back. She will have no insight into what happened until she has to trust him. So she was looking for honesty. And what the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam was well known for was being honest, trustworthy, somebody that you could rely upon and would give you the honest truth and make sure that even every penny, every dirham that's there would be brought back and accounted for. And when she saw that in him, she said, I want to hire him. And when he was hired, sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And he traveled with the caravan and he performed his duties with honesty, integrity. She asked her servant at the time, who was in the caravan, how did he act? She did a background check on him.

Okay, so he went on the first trip and when he came back, she asked him how it went.

Yes, okay. And from the honesty and the great character of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, she promoted his role to basically managing her whole business. And that led to a lot of gains in her business. She saw that her business was blessed. It had baraka the she was making great profit. Even more experienced trade men who were people that had much more experience could not come with the results that the prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam did because of his honesty, because his reputation. So choosing the right team and choosing the right team leader was the key to success for her business. And as a woman, she was a very intelligent and successful businesswoman in the history of the Arab, in the history of Islam.

But that shows us specifically here how we know that in Islam you have to be honest. As a business owner, you always have to be honest and deal with honesty. And that was what she was doing.

Yes.

Now you know that when you hire people, they represent your business.

Yes.

And it links to the same point. You have to make sure when you hire people because they represent your business, they also have to be honest and trustworthy. Otherwise your business won't be an honest and trustworthy business. And that goes against what you have to do as a Muslim.

Yes.

Subhan Allah.

And one of the things that I like to do a lot of times in interviewing is do role playing. Meaning I'll tell them, like, I'll give you an example. I was hiring for a call center. I was very young and I told them, okay, I went over your resume, I asked you regular questions. Now I'm gonna have you answer an actual call. Now, of course, I don't want to put them in front of an actual customer. So I would have a team member be on the other side, but they would think that this actual customer. Okay, Right. And I would have that team member be very difficult on purpose because it was funny, first off. Secondly, I wanted to see them how they would handle stress. Right. If they were overly accommodating, then I knew they were faking it. And if they were harsh and rude, then that's not the person I want.

What were you looking for?

I was looking for balance. Somebody who will take care of the customer. And this is a tech support, so it's not sales. Who would make sure that they're always polite, they're never going to be rude, they're never. But at the same time, they will be able to control that conversation.

Okay, so how did it go?

Some people got hired, some people didn't. Right. I mean, I used to do this all the time. And the example back with Khatija, when she saw the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's honesty in his first trades, she promoted him. And when she saw that he was running her business at 100% Barakah wealth coming in, making profit, honesty, everything accounted for. When she background checked the people that owned the caravan, they all said yes, he was the Most kind, the most gentle, the most caring, the good leader. Then she offered to marry him and she sent that proposal. You know, people think women in Islam and this, she sent the proposal to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.

Seeing his good character, subhanallah say, paid off not only in the business and the baraka he had, but also, yeah, he built his reputation as the trustworthy.

And when the dawah began and when the call towards Tawheed began, she was his greatest supporter.

She knew he was always honest because it was something crazy to believe, because

she had seen him in business, she had seen him in personal life.

And that goes back to the example we mentioned earlier in a previous episode when you mentioned if you want to be, if you want to know if someone is honest and if you can know the true self, do business with them.

Exactly.

And she got to do business with him and realized that he was honest, Subhanallah.

And when she saw that in business, in money matters, in matters of financial stability, he was so honest. And in matters of the family, he was so honest in the matters of dealing with neighbors. And people used to leave trust with him, meaning the amana, meaning they didn't have banks, so if they had money and they needed somebody to hold, they would come to him and say, hey, can you hold this for me? And every bit of that he made sure was paid back. Let me show you something beautiful from the life of the Prophet. Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. You know, when he was making the hijrah, as we know, the famous hadith about how the people had gathered around his house with weapons and, you know, he left Ali radianhu behind. He left with Abu Bakr, him. In Abu Bakr went. He left Ali Radian in his bed. Why? Why did he leave Ali behind? Do you know?

No.

Because those people that were standing outside with swords and spears trying to kill the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam still had their amana, their wealth sitting as trusts. And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was so careful about the amana and so careful about returning the trust and the financial responsibility of somebody trusting you in business. Today, if a customer gives you their business and they give you some wealth and you're supposed to produce something that's an amana, you need to make sure that that trust is fulfilled. The Prophet was so careful that he left Ali behind in danger and said, when I leave, make sure that this is returned to this person. And this is returned to this person. Those people are trying to kill him. He didn't say, forget them, they're trying to kill me. So I'm going to take their wealth. No principled right. He made sure that trust is given and returned to each person. And then Ali Radian met him in Medina.

So in other words, in essence, what's the key to make a good hire? What makes a good team member? If you're looking to hire someone, finding

somebody that first and foremost is trustworthy. If I give them a task, I know they will do it and if they're unable to do it, they'll be honest about it with me. If there's a deadline they can't meet, they're not going to try to BS their way around it. They're not going to try to fake it till they make it. Finding somebody that I can rely upon, finding somebody that will fit the responsibilities that I want them to do and do their best even if they make mistakes, even if they're not the most qualified. But if they are the most trustworthy, I would take them over others because I need people that I can trust, that I can rely upon, that I can lean on, that I can know that when I'm giving them a responsibility that they will do their best. And if they're unable to, they'll come to me and tell me, you know what, I'm sorry, this is not realistic. These deadlines aren't going to work. Here's what we can do.

Subhanallah. Beautiful.

Summarize it for us.

One of the most important things when doing business is not just being transparent with your clients and when you're trying to make a sale, but ultimately when you're looking for clients, if you're selling your services, they're constantly checking if they can trust you before doing a transaction with you. One of the core questions people would have is are you, is this real? Can you deliver on what you're promising? That's one of the headline leading questions that people would have before doing business with you. They would ask, is this legit? Have people done it before? Are you overselling it? Or did you actually deliver on what you promise? And whenever doing business, you need to keep this top of mind. Not just because it works in worldly matters and you would be more successful in business being trustworthy, but because just like we know and Allah ordered us to be trustworthy and we can see here, even the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam when he was working was known for being trustworthy. And he was not just doing this because Allah ordered him, but he was also more successful. He got promoted from being trustworthy. So if you hire people, make sure you look if they're trustworthy, and if you want to be hired, make sure you come across as trustworthy.

Beautiful summary. Till the next episode.

Inshaallah baraklaamu alaykum warahmatullah wawakatuhatuh.