Ethical leadership in the 21st century: Philosophical foundations and reconfiguration in the Arab-Muslim world

Abstract

Ethical leadership is now a central topic of reflection in moral philosophy and the humanities, in a context marked by a crisis of legitimacy, normative fragmentation and ecological urgency. This article offers a conceptual analysis of ethical leadership in the 21st century, questioning the conditions for its reconfiguration in the Arab-Muslim world. Using a philosophical and hermeneutic approach, the study brings together the contemporary moral thinking of Max Weber, Hannah Arendt, and Hans Jonas with the classical resources of Islamic philosophy and ethics: Al-Fārābī, Ibn Roshd, Al-Mawardi, and Ibn Khaldoun.

We support the hypothesis that ethical leadership cannot be conceived as a simple exercise of power or a formalistic application of norms, but rather as a responsible praxis based on justice and the preservation of the common world.

Finally, the article shows that the Arab-Muslim world offers original normative resources for thinking about contextualized ethical leadership capable of responding to contemporary challenges without succumbing to postmodern relativism or the ideological instrumentalization of religion.

Keywords: ethical leadership; khilāfa; amāna; Islamic ecosophy; emergent reason.

Received Date: October 20, 2025

Accepted Date: November 11, 2025

Published Date: December 01, 2025

Available Online at: https://www.ijsrisjournal.com/index.php/ojsfiles/article/view/543