The first profession for Rasoolullah sallallahu alaihi wassalam was shepherding. In Sahih Bukhari, Rasoolullah (SAW) says, “Allah has not sent a prophet who is not a shepherd”. His companions then asked “and you?” “Yes I used to herd sheep for compensation from the people of Mekka”.

Its striking that Allah subhanahu wa thaala trained all of His prophets as shepherds especially that of sheep. There are some lessons to be learned from the Anbiya being shepherds specifically that of sheep (or goats).

Responsibility

The most important lesson or training that they learn being shepherd is responsibility. Rasoolullah (SAW) says in the hadith, “You are all shepherds; you are all responsible for your herds”

A shepherd usually takes care of someone else’s flock. They are hired and need to be reported to a higher authority. The shepherd cannot go back to the owner and say, “I am sorry, I lost a sheep today. That sheep happened to be stupid.” It doesn’t matter what the sheep does, how bad the flock goes, how intelligent it is, whether they are united or not, whether they obey or not - the shepherd is held accountable.  The shepherd is responsible for the herd even though the herd is not responsible for itself.

The Anbiya of Allah one day will be accountable to Allah (SWT) for their people.  Similar is the case with anyone who is accountable for their family, group, community, society or nation.

Patience

Herding sheep teaches the Anbiya patience. That’s the second lesson that Anbiya learn. Sheep take their own time on their own pace to fill their tummy. Shepherd need to have patience and wait accommodating their pace. The sheep might end up fighting each other or sometimes spending their time playing. You can’t really tell them, “Come on guys, finish up. We need to leave” You need to sit there waiting and you are doing this day in and day out. That takes a lot of patience. You have to bear with them even if you are not able to communicate well with them or if they can’t communicate well with you.

The Anbiya learned to be very patience with their people. Remember what Moosa alaihissalam went through Bani Israel. His experience was terrible; however Moosa had a training in shepherding more than probably any other prophet. He was a shepherd for 10 years. When he left Egypt and got married to the daughter of Shuaib, he was asked to take care of Shuaib’s flock of sheep for 8 or 10 years. The contract was for 8 years, but then Shuaib said it would be favour Moosa would do for him if he herded his sheep for another 2 years.

The ayah in the Quran does not state if the Moosa did it for 8 or 10 years, however Rasoolullah wants to know. He asked Jibreel how long did Moosa work for Shuaib. Jibreel said, “He worked for the most complete and perfect term” In other words ten years. As Anbiya of Allah, he did the best job.
Nuh aliahissalam spent 950 years in da’wah and he was so patient with his people. He tried every different way to persuade his people to the straight path. He tried publicly and privately; at night and day time; every way and they were rejecting his message. Imagine doing the same thing again and again for 950 years. That takes a lot of patience.

Being patient does not mean you should not toughen up. As a Muslim, there are times when you need to do more than just dawah. You should be prepared to go into situations that may challenge you.    

Protection

The third lesson that the Anbiya of Allah learn is protection. There are various dangers, seen or unseen, that sheep could face. There could be wolves and other beasts around. There could be diseases that could inflict the sheep. The shepherd needs to be consistently on top of all these making sure that the sheep is free of all dangers.

The Anbiyas of Allah are very protective of their people. They need to be protective both physically as well as psychologically.
In Madina, at night, a commotion was herd. So, some of the Sahabah picked up their swords, got on to their horses and raced to the source of the commotion. They found to their amazement that Rasoolullah (SAW) was already on his back from the source telling them everything is fine. Even though the Sahabah was so fast and swift in getting there, Rasoolullah (SAW) was already there checking what’s happening.

Rasoolullah (SAW) would warn his people from shaitan and any other possible dangers that they would face. He warned us of every possible dangers both in the present as well as that would happen in the future. He told the Sahabah, “I’ve warned you of dajjal like no other prophet”. He provided more details than anybody else. “If he comes out while I am among you, I will take care of him. If he comes out after I pass away, then everyone is responsible for their own protection.”

The sheep is closer to earth and their sight is very limited. They can see so far that a small obstacle can block their view, but a human being standing tall has a longer view and from that vantage point of view can see any approaching danger sooner than the sheep. He can therefore give advance warning to the herd of any approaching danger a few feet away.

Similar is the case with the Anbiya. They sense and detect any dangers before us. They have the clearest vision, the longest view, and the vantage point that none of us have and they know what is good for us. Rasoolullah (SAW) says “the analogy of me and you is like someone sitting next to a fire at night. I am grabbing you by your clothes dragging you away from it while you are releasing from me jumping into the fire” When you have a fire or a lamp, it attracts insects and bugs at night. They are attracted by any source of light. When they see fire, they think its light not knowing it will burn them. So the analogy of Rasoolullah (SAW) is like him standing next to a fire while we are attracted to it, jumping in it, without knowing the dangers.  He is there grabbing by our clothes preventing us from jumping into the dangers, while we are forcing towards it. He knows its fire, the danger that we don’t know.

What happens if you see a blind man walking towards a trench? You are not going to sit there, watching him approach the trench and telling him “hey man, you are gonna fall soon”. You are going to scream at the top of your voice giving him immediate warning “Watch out. Be careful.” There is no time to think of any polite words to tell him. That’s exactly what the Anbiyas were telling. They were giving us plain straight words of the upcoming danger. It’s not because they lack in sensitivity or that they want to hurt the feelings of others; because they want to save other people. They really cared about them. The shepherd may hit the animals, not because he wants to hurt them but to save them.

So whenever we see a Nabi of Allah standing up and giving us staunch warning, it’s because they care about their people. When Rasoolullah (SAW) stands on the minbar and says, “anzarthukum un naar, anzarthukum un naar” (I am warning you from hell fire, I am warning you from hell fire), his voice go up and up in such a way that the people in the market could hear what he was saying. He was repeating the same thing again and again.

Simplicity

A shepherd lives a simple life. You cannot have all the accessories of life in the middle of the desert. You cannot take your BMW, air conditioner, couch, TV, remote controls, refrigerator, and different types of food in the desert. All you can carry out there is a few items and that’s it! You have to give up all other things even if you are a wealthy person while you are shepherding.
So shepherding teaches the Anbiya how to lead a simple life and to be accustomed to different environments. It could be raining, cold, hot, and windy and they still need to feed the animals. Rasoolullah (SAW) would travel from one place to another getting accustomed to various conditions such as battles. All this was possible because he was trained as a shepherd.

Closeness to the creation of Allah

The life of a shepherd pulls you out from the artificial world. You are out with the creation of Allah, close to nature. The life we are leading could create some harmful scars on our hearts and our way of thinking. Living in this concrete world where everything is artificial is against the natural disposition of our creation. We were created from this earth and we are close to nature and are part of it. Keep us away from that, in this artificial world, is like keep us away contemplating the creation of Allah. Look at how many references in the Quran is made to the creation of Allah – the sun, the moon, stars, heavens, rivers, oceans, the plants, etc. Why are they mentioned? It is draw attention to His creations so that we are aware of His abilities. The creations of Allah are the attributes of Him. If you want to learn the Greatness of Allah, look at His creation. If you want to learn the Wisdom of Allah, look at His creation. If you want to learn the knowledge of Allah, look at His creation. Basically if you want learn all the Names of Allah, you will its reflection in His creations.

A shepherd is given the opportunity to contemplate about nature. Not every one of them takes advantage of it, but the opportunity is given and the Anbiya made the most of it. Rasoolullah (SAW) used to spend a lot of time thinking about the creation of Allah, wondering about it.

Why specifically sheep?

These are some of the lessons to be learned being shepherds. Now what about sheep? How come it’s specifically sheep? How come it wasn’t about camels or cows? We can argue that Rasoolullah grew up in Arabia and it is not custom to raise cows, however they did raise camels. Rasoolullah (SAW) was never in his life a shepherd of camels. Similar is the case with other Anbiyas, it was specificallu sheep.

Sheep are weak animals compared to camels and cows. Therefore they need more protection and care. Because of this weakness, they could easily fall prey. When Rasoolullah (SAW) warn us from shaitan, he brought his experience, and he would say, “Stick with the Jamaa (group), because the wolves feasts from the strayed sheep” He was literally saying be with the group of Muslims or you will be in trouble. He learned this from his experience as a shepherd. The wolf does not hit the flock, but the lonely one. We are weak as these sheep when it comes to shaitan. Shaitan can tempt us and attack us. Being part of a group of Muslims help us to avoid such temptations.

Another lesson to learn from shepherding sheep is that we are affected by the environment we work in. Our work leaves permanent influence on our personality. Shepherds of sheep are different from the shepherd of camels or shepherds of elephants. They are different than cowboys. Why? They are dealing with a different animal. Sheep tend to be very compassionate, very merciful, and weak. So the shepherd of sheep tends to become merciful and kind with them because they are fragile animals. You cannot be too harsh with sheep. The Anbiya of Allah learned how to be compassionate with their people.
When it comes to camels, the animal tend to be arrogant and you cannot be soft with it otherwise it will take advantage of you. With the camel, you will have to meet its arrogance with strength. You meet the pride with pride. That made the shepherds of camels rough, tough and sometimes rude. That is something the shepherds learn from the environment they live in.

A Side Note

What you do affects you. Teachers tend to have different personality than doctors. Doctors have a different personality than engineers. Engineers have a different personality than skilled workers. Skilled workers such as a mechanic have a different personality than farmers. Your work affects your personality. Usually doctors, after being in practice for a while, tend to start scribbling instead of writing legibly. They need the help transcriptionists.  Being a teacher for some time, makes you such a fatherly figure and is always giving advice; they might even do this with their peers. People who stay in the academic field for long time tend to be scholarly and there is a level of sophistication in the way they speak, they tend to pick words and phrases unlike someone who has less education. The influence could be both ways. Your personality will affect your profession and your profession will affect. You tend to choose a profession that suits your personality, but then that profession would push them further in those trades.

Usually a person who stays long in the sales or marketing world tends to be deceptive than others. It also depends on the type of business you’re working in. You tend to trick your customers to buying your products even though it does not have much value than other products in the market. That’s because of the daily business you deal with. Similar is the case with politicians who are usually assumed by others as tricky and deceptive. An actor, who keeps on putting different faces daily, teaches them something. It affects their personality. As a Muslim, we need to be careful of the profession we choose. This does not mean to say that we should not spread in other fields, but keep in mind that you need to choose a profession that suits your personality and also keep in mind that your work will affect you. Every type of work out there has something good in it, and it’s up to us to take advantage of that good and to eliminate the bad of the field. Being deceptive and tricky in politics doesn’t mean we should not go for such field. As Muslims, we need to change image of politics. If you look at the history, you would find very few Sahabis who did not assume office after the time of Rasoolullah (SAW). Whether it is governorship of a state or being a mayor of a town or leading an army, you would find them there. But the political environment that they lived was absolutely different than what we see today. It was an environment of honesty and straight forwardness, accountable and responsible, and serving the people.

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