Female Competencies from the Narratives of the Qur'an: Queen of Sheba's Crisis Management Style as a Leadership Model

Abstract

This article examines the skills and competency of women in managing crises as narrated in the Holy Qur'an. The various kinds of crises (social, cultural, religious, and political crises) that exist in societies are illustrated in the Qur'an. It also gives different stories showing women's ability to manage and find solutions to crises. Among the different crises portrayed in the Qur'an, this article explicitly addresses the political crisis encountered by the Queen of Sheba (Bilqis) in her kingdom with Prophet Sulaiman (PBUH) as an example and how she managed it. It explains how the Queen managed the crisis with minimum loss through her leadership skills. A qualitative method is applied to analyze data derived from various sources such as theses, journals, and articles related to the principles of crisis management from an Islamic perspective and followed by exploring the crisis management models by being directed to the Al-Qur'an (the primary sources of Islam) and its interpretation. In this study, the political crisis, its management strategies, and its recovery results are analyzed. The study results show that women can be successful leaders with leadership characteristics, management, and personal skills.