Relationship

Concept of Democracy in Islam

Islam is the best possible democratic system. In Islam everyone has the right to have a say in all that happens which will affect them or their community. Any matter can be brought up, but there can never be a matter to be decided upon that has already been decided by Allah. For example, Allah has already told us that we should pray five times a day so there could never be a proposal put to a vote to see if people should pray only one time each day.

Islamic democracy does not require a majority vote system, but a majority vote system would be acceptable if that is what people wanted. Allah is the ultimate source of what is right and wrong (lawful) and no laws could ever be passed or brought to a vote that were against His already stated Will. But in Islam political systems other than the majority vote are also acceptable, as long as every person has a chance to have their opinion heard and their rights guaranteed under Islam are granted.

Allah has told us that the ‘consensus’ of His ummah would never be wrong: He never said the ‘majority’ of His Ummah would never be wrong. For matters of great importance consensus is usually far superior to majority. Consensus in Islam means everyone in a small group and almost everyone in a large group. If you happen to have disagreed with the consensus position before the vote it is your responsibility to support the consensus position after the vote – and to do so with good feeling. This is a good idea so that you don’t have people who were unhappy with the decision doing all they can after the vote to undermine those decisions they don’t agree with like happens so often in majority vote systems.

Ultimately the political system in Islam tries to stay out of people’s private life as much as possible and individual freedom is highly prized. It is expected that each individual will govern themselves according to the Will of Allah, so not much control from government should be necessary. All decisions made that affect the social whole by either government or private organizations should always be based on the premise that whatever they do will be consistent with the Will of Allah so it is hard to go very wrong.

Overall I would say the democratic political and social systems of Islam, although different from the Western systems, are superior to those of the West in every way.