Emotional Intelligence

Dr. Goleman described emotional intelligence as a person's ability to manage their feelings so that those feelings are expressed appropriately and effectively. According to Goleman, emotional intelligence is the largest single predictor of success in the workplace.

Five components of emotional intelligence

In his book, Goleman presents five categories of emotional intelligence.

Self-awareness. A person has a healthy sense of emotional intelligence self-awareness if they understand their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as how their actions affect others. A person with emotional self-awareness is usually receptive to, and able to learn from, constructive criticism more than one who doesn't have emotional self-awareness.

Self-regulation. A person with a high emotional intelligence has the ability to exercise restraint and control when expressing their emotions.

Motivation. People with high emotional intelligence are self-motivated, resilient and driven by an inner ambition rather than being influenced by outside forces, such as money or prestige.

Empathy. An empathetic person has compassion and is able to connect with other people on an emotional level, helping them respond genuinely to other people's concerns.

Social skills. People who are emotionally intelligent are able to build trust with other people, and are able to quickly gain respect from the people they meet.

Does Emotional Intelligence skills helps us with discovery of God, establish connection with our Creator, and become a better person? Yes It definitely does helps us!

We can find out the leading qualities and characteristics of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him as an emotional intelligent person who managed his own emotions and able to understand the emotions of people around him.

Allah described him as a person of kindness, empathy and compassion, he felt pain and suffering of people around him when they were physically, mentally and psychologically suffered by the Quraish in Mecca and then during wars in Medina.

There has come to you a Messenger of your own. Your suffering distresses him: he is deeply concerned for your welfare and full of kindness and mercy towards the believers. 9:128

Prophet Muhammad SAW was their well-wisher and was much concerned about their welfare that he used all his talent to help them understand the concept of Oneness of God. He presented message of God to every individual as per their capacity, eventually help them enter into the folds of Islam. It would appear, Prophet was able to see the seeking spirit within each person , and after effective communication, people would surrender to the message of Truth and embrace Islam.

If we are self-aware of our emotions, understand our potential, able to self-coach and channelize our emotions to positive direction, we can learn to become master of our emotions, and achieve bigger goals in our life.

Believers, take care of your own souls. The misguided cannot harm you as long as you are guided. All of you will return to God. Then He will make you realize that which you used to do Surah Al-Ma’ida 5:105

If we manage our emotions right, we can become stronger and resilient, we will have patience and tolerance, which is necessary for every missionary of Islam. We can face any challenges and every challenge will train us to become a better person