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The science of management

علم الإدارة

Management as a science, as presented in Tareq al-Suwaidan's Practical Administration course: a human discipline as old as humanity, which he divides into four parts — administrative operations (planning, organising, directing, controlling), administrative functions, administrative skills, and the modern trends he added.

Depth

At a glance

Region
Global / Diaspora
Review

Politics, governance and authority

Summary

In the first episode of his Practical Administration course, Tareq al-Suwaidan presents management as a human science as old as humanity, and holds that the community's second problem after identity is management — the problems of health, education and armies are, to him, management problems 1 2.

His division of the science

Al-Suwaidan divides management into four parts: administrative operations, administrative functions, administrative skills, and a fourth part he added himself, the modern trends in management 3. The agreed operations are four: planning, organising, directing and controlling; the disputed ones he judges too small to count as primary — coordination falls under planning, staff selection under organising, and implementation under planning or controlling 4 5. The administrative functions are six: personnel, purchasing, financing (including accounting), production or service, and marketing 6. The five chief skills: decision-making, presentation, negotiation, running meetings by the nominal-group method, and active listening 7 8. Among the modern trends he names: teamwork and organisational behaviour, change (of individuals and of organisations), the learning organisation (on which he has a book and an album), ethics or religion in management, and the skill of delegation 9 10.

Who needs what

Everyone who manages people needs the operations, whatever their position; the functions are needed by the organisation, not by every manager; and the more skills a manager gains, the better his performance 11 12.

People and things also explored

Ahl al-Diwan (those paid from the state register of soldiers and officers, and the rules of their conditions and distribution)· Ahl al-Hall wa al-Aqd (those who loose and bind: the men of power whose choice confirms the imam)· Ahl al-Mahalla (the people of a quarter, their imam, call to prayer, and their part in the oath and blood money where a body is found)· Islamic management· Experience versus service, and self-development· The nominal group technique· Leadership and the leader's six roles· Situational leadership

Sources

  1. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:06:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  2. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:07:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  3. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:44:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  4. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:48:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  5. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:49:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  6. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:53:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  7. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:56:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  8. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:58:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  9. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:59:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  10. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 01:01:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  11. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:45:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  12. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 1, at 00:47:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The science of management”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/ilm-al-idara/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Ahl al-Diwan (those paid from the state register of soldiers and officers, and the rules of their conditions and distribution)

Diwan is a Persian loan-word meaning a collection of sheets and writings, in which the army and those given grants were written; for the jurists it is the register in which the names of those in state service who receive a stipend from the public treasury are recorded, and the office that keeps it. Umar ibn al-Khattab was the first to set up the diwan, according to two accounts. The people of the diwan are of several kinds: soldiers, on conditions that are regulatory, such as puberty, freedom, Islam, health and fitness for fighting; holders of office, such as governors, judges, scholars, collectors, imams and muezzins; and the needy. The Companions differed on preference in distribution: Abu Bakr and Ali made it equal, while Umar and Uthman preferred by precedence in Islam, and Umar added kinship to the Prophet; Abu Hanifa and Ahmad followed the latter view.