Leadership in the history of Islam has been fundamentally shaped by two distinct yet overlapping models of religious authority: charismatic and exemplary. Prophet Muhammad was the original charismatic leader of the Muslim community—having assumed the dual mantle as messenger of God’s final revelation and political leader of the first Muslim community. From a Sunni perspective, charisma ended with his death. Muhammad’s legacy continued with the prophetic example of exemplary ethical and religious conduct—what became known as the Sunnah. From a Shia perspective, charisma continued in the bloodline of the Prophet’s descendants, through the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, Ali ibn Abi Talib. Sufis appropriated this latter understanding as well, positing Ali as the original Qalandar. This paper examines how modernist reformers of the 19th and 20th centuries sought to revitalize and renew the Islamic tradition in the context of colonial modernity, while negotiating with these two models of authority. The majority of these reformers were Sunni-identified and denounced the charismatic model through arguments about the finality of prophecy, often grounded in the logics of what Max Weber has described as rationalization—the replacement of traditions, values, and emotions with rational concepts and modes of operation such as civilization progress, western science and education, and bureaucratic order. This paper examines Weberian concepts of charisma and rationalization to understand some of the problems, tensions, and creative possibilities that emerged in the realm of Muslim leadership in the writings of modernist reformers. The paper argues that the charismatic paradigm evoked a contestation of power that led to an amplification of sectarian boundaries and exclusions. These disputes over the charismatic paradigm were foundational to the 19th century modernist project of reform itself.