The Principle of Shura and the Role of the Umma in Islam

Abstract

Muslims, or at least the vast majority of them, have been very vocal
about the necessity of establishingan Islamic state in the world, or, if it is
not possible, to set up a unitary Islamic state, at least, several Islamic
states. The idea of an Islamic state has many implications touching both
the form and the substance of the state and raising questions like unity
and multiplicity of such states, the nature of legislation and source of
power and whether or not it ought to be a democracy. In this paper, I
shall discuss only this last question which immediately concerns only the
form of the state but which has obvious far-reaching consequences for
substantive issues as well-for example, the source of power and the
nature of legislation.
But, although Muslims have been very anxiously expressing the need
for an Islamic state, there is little consensus on any of the basic matters
mentioned above, the least on the issue to be discussed in this paper, viz.,
the form of an Islamic state. Yet, the absolutely fundamental importance
of the issue cannot be denied since it centrally involves the question of the
Muslim Umma and the nature of its role in an Islamic state. We will first
try to delineate the bearing that the teaching of the Qur’an has on the
subject, then briefly characterize both the views of the classical Muslim
jurists and the practice of the historic community. Then, we will give the
essentials of the current positions and, finally, indicate our conclusion.
The Qur’an formally announced the establishment of the Muslim
community in Madina in connection with three events: the declaration of
the incumbency of the Hajiof the Ka’ba upon Muslims, the declaration of
the duty of Jihad and the change of the Qibla from Jerusalem to the
Ka‘ba. We will not go here into the question of the timing of these events
because it has no direct bearing on our present problem. It is sutficient to
point out that the pilgrimage was the first to be announced, then
probably came Jihad and then the change in the Qibla. Be that as it may,
the Haji and Jihad are treated in close approximity to each other in Sura
22 (al-Haji), while the Haji and the Qibla change appear close to each
other in Sura 2 (al-Baqara), the two Suras being contemporary or closely ...