Authors
Abstract
The Islamic governance system consider the ruler as a representative of people, and he is a human being, he can be right or wrong as he isn’t infallible. Islam has granted the right to the public to advise the ruler if he was mistaken, and support him if does the right thing. Based on what has been mentioned, the ruler should seek peoples’ opinion and consult them to get the sound view about how the best to serve the public. The modern state has put in place various tools to ensure a genuine implementation of these rules, namely Democracy or the social contract. So is there any jurisprudential practise help to embrace democracy in Islam? This study aims to clarify the meaning of Democracy and its validity from an Islamic perspective. Opinions have differed over the issue of Democracy between those who adopted it unconditionally, and those who completely rejected it. Those who supported it didn’t’t consider the fact that Allah is the ultimate and supreme source of legislation in Islam. And those who dismiss it on the ground that it undermines the rule of the divine law, and it relies entirely on the majority rule. And they also argue that we have the Islamic alternative of democracy; the principle of consultation “Shurah”. This has shown a dire need for an academic study to shed the light on this matter, and a judicial approach between democracy and consultation, and to clarify the areas of where democracy can be applied, and explain the Islamic law perspective of the majority rule and its impact on legislation.
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