Islam and Democracy
By Prof. Dr. Bunyamin Duran
In this lecture I will try to analyze the relationship between Islam as a religion and democracy as a political system. I will try to discuss some important questions about the possibility of an Islamic democratic system. Some questions are the following:
1-What is Islam?
2-What is democracy?
3-What is the nature and capability of human kind in the forming of politic systems?
4-Are there sufficient safeguards for human rights in the Islamic laws, which can make it possible to establish a democratic society?
5-Is Islam compatible with democracy or not?
6-Is it possible to establish an Islamic democracy in a Muslim society?
7-What is the Islamic tradition in democratic culture?
8-Can we find clear democratic lines, which go back to prophetic tradition?
To be able to answer to these questions we have to explain some of the aspect of Islam, which related to our studies.
Islam is an Arabic word, derived from a linguistic root, which means both ‘peace’ and ‘submission’. In the Qur’an the appellation ‘Muslim’ is applied to all the righteous. For instance, Abraham is described as ‘ever inclined to God and in submission to Him’ (3:67).
But this submission as pointed out by Kierkegaard, means not a masochistic but deeply conscious submission, as has been experienced in prophet Abraham. The conscious submission is a result of a strong identity, which reflects them as a critical thinking, expressing, reasoning, and behaving with wisdom.
The nature of the man in the Koran
The purpose of man’s creation is that he should receive the impress of God’s attributes and should, within the limits of his capacities, become a manifestation of them (51:56). To aid man in the achievement of this purpose he has been endowed with appropriate faculties and capacities. "Surely, We have created man in the best mould"(95:4).
The Qur’an teaches that man’s nature is pure, ‘the nature made by Allah; the nature in which He has created mankind’ (30:30). The Prophet said: Every child is born in according with divine nature…’
The Qur’an stresses the equality of mankind as deriving from the unity of its common creator, Who created man of one species and Whom all man owe allegiance and obedience.
In my opinion one of the basic aims of the Qur’an and is that a person attains a physiological balance in his or her behaviors. This position is stressed in de Qur’an as sirat al mustakim, (Koran, 1/6), this means in the terminology of psychology neither a sadistic nor a masochistic position, but a physiologically balanced position. Both sadistic and masochistic attitudes are pathological situations. We know that every person has more or less sadistic and masochistic tendencies. A masochistic tendency means a feeling of oneself as meaningless and worthless, this emotion brings about that a person eludes his responsibilities and ethical obligations. One of the destructive results can be the submission of oneself to the will of political or religious leaders, or disappearance of the identity of a person in idolizing actors, football players or movie stars. According to the psychologist Erich Fromm the religious protestant approach of the unimportance of the human will has favored the submission of the German people to the will of Hitler and the Nazi party.
Another aspect of mankind is the inclination to sadistic behavior connected with the feeling that man is comparable with God. A sadistic man considers himself as the centre of the universe and wants badly that everybody and everything is willing to serve and even to worship him. In this situation Divine Determining confronts him, saying: "Know your limits, you cannot be God, you are only a weak creature". Divine predestination and providence and man’s power of choice are the final degrees of belief to save the soul from pride and sadistic actions, and the latter, to make it admit to the responsibility.
Strong identity
Another attribute, which the Qur’an envisages, is a strong identity. Without achieving a strong identity a person could not fulfill a religious and political mission.
It is my conviction that religious thinking is man’s highest form of thinking. To be able to realize religious thinking one needs a well developed mind and a refined logical system.
Even an utmost developed human intellect is not necessarily able to understand adequately religious matters. For this reason, a lot of scientists could not understand religious subjects, although they had a highly developed intelligence. Intelligence is the ability of discovering materialistic aspects of every thing, while the mind is the capability of discovering the essence of things.
Religious faith and thought, in according to Kierkegaard is above the aesthetics and ethical thinking and thought. Thus an important question is raised, how can a strong identity be achieved?
Max Weber pointed out that true religion is the matter of city-dwellers, not the matter of peasants. According to Weber the essence of peasant’s religion is not true religion, which is based on scripture, but is archaic religion based on idolatry. In this theory the bearers of true religion must be city-dwellers; because the city is the sphere of freedom. A strong identity shapes well in city-dwellers. A strong identity requires a high economic level of prosperity and a most refined culture, as well as institutionalized freedom. (Turner, 1991, p.99)
Universal Ethical Principles
In many of his verses, Qur’an indicates the most important of the universal principles on which Islamic ethics is based. I want here to remark some of the ethical principles. Islamic ethic is depending on justice, truth, freedom, mutual consultation, co-operation, solidarity, brotherhood, peaces and so on.
Justice is one of the bases of social life and important need for each individual, every society and all nations. The basis of justice is equality. The justice which is not based on equality there is no justice.
Another principle is freedom. We are all born free, which makes freedom our destiny. This is reflected strongly in the Qur’an’s understanding of human free will, which distinguishes man from the rest of God’s creation. The notion of free will necessitates freedom of choice, and this is why the Qur’an so emphatically states:
‘There is no compulsion in religion) (2:256). To believe or not believe in God is left to the choice of man. Allah gave to man a capability of choosing between different alternatives. He can find through his intelligence the existence of God, even without messenger. Man is free in certain fields, for instance in making his actions without any divine interference.
The solidarity and co-operation are other important principles. For relations between Muslims and non-Muslims are based on peace. Life, honor, and property are inviolable. They cannot be violated without a credible, accepted lawful reason. It rejects violence and terror in the name of jihad. Armed jihad in Islam may not be aggressive, it can only be defensive.
Capability of Islamic law to establish a democratic society
Another problem in the establishment of a democratic state under the structure of Islam is the capability of Islamic laws, which have been given by God. There is no doubt about the role of Islam in attaining important rights to all mankind in the history. But the actual real problem is the capability of Islamic law to establish a modern democratic state.
We must analyze firstly the character of Islamic law to understand its capability to form a democratic system.
There are some basic principles, which are the essence of Islam, derived from the spirit of Qur’an: the protection of the soul, intellect, religion, property, and offspring. All regulations and laws must be harmonized with these principles. Otherwise they become invalid. There is a consensus among Muslim-scholars on their necessity. The rejection of one of them is accepted as a rejection of all of the Qur’an.
These are of course universal principles, but the main problem here is their applicability in different times and different places of the social, economical and political fields. How can these be actualized to different fields in different times and different places? Are there some sub-principles in the Islamic law, which are applicable to real daily life? Of course there are other sub-principles, the so-called al-maslaha al-mursala (the common good in Maliki law- school) and istihsan (individuel preference; in Hanafi law-school), which are accepted by some Muslim law-schools as important sources for legislation. At the same time they have given rise to numerous debates about the legality of both principles.
Maslaha occurs when there is no text: the Qur’an and the Sunna don’t confirm, but neither do they reject (a maslaha that became apparent after the age of revelation). For it allows the ulema to use their own analysis and personal reasoning in order to formulate a legal decision in the light of the historical geographical context, using their best efforts to remain faithful to the commandments and to the spirit of the Islamic legal body where no text, no ‘letter’, of the law is declared.
The maslaha as a source is close to the natural law in the western sense.
The common good can be used as a modern source of legitimacy. It can be said here that the establishment of a democratic system in our own time is clearly for the common good.
Thus, according to the spirit of the Qur’an, avoiding of the `common good`- principle is a great crime. For this reason, all Muslim societies have to look democracy as the spirit of Islamic governmental system and obligate their selves to establish a democratic system in their own country.
The rights of the individual in the Islamic state
The degree of the rights of the individuals in the Islamic state, particularly in the formation of a political system, is more important. Are the rights of man sufficiently safeguarded within the Islamic society to establish modern democratic institutions? What is the character of election right? Has a man the right to elect his/her rulers according to what he/she wants? Has a man also the right to remove a government, which fails to meet the demands of the people? Is the head of state appointed by God or selected by the people?
The personality of the individual in the Islamic state is prominent. It does not vanish in it; rather it develops face to face with it.
In order to simplify this study we will divide rights of the individual in the state into two: political rights and public rights.
Political rights of the individual
The political rights according to legal experts are: The rights that a person earns by virtue of his being a member of a political organization, like the right to elect and nominate, to hold public positions in the government and the running of government affairs.
The first and foremost right of an individual is the right to elect a head of state. This right is based on the principle of mutual consultation, which is established by the Qur’an and on the principle of group responsibility to implement the laws and the management of its affairs according to these laws. In fact, the principle of mutual consultation is a significant fundamental institution of the Qur’an. The Qur’an reeds as follows:
‘They conduct their affairs by mutual consultation’ (42:38)
This text is clear about the fact that the affairs of the Muslim, particularly the important among them, are to be decided through mutual consultation.
Also the group is responsible for the implementation of the laws and for regulating its own affairs in accordance with these laws:
‘O ye who believe, stand out firmly for justice, as witness to God even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin."(4: 135)
This text and others clearly indicate the group-responsibility of the Muslims for the implementation of the Islamic laws. But the group cannot achieve the execution of its powers as a group. This is not possible in practice. That is why the concept has appeared for the execution of the authority of the group. The group selects someone to represent it for the execution of its authority, in order to implement what it is obliged to do by the Islamic law.
This delegation is its absolute right; because the master is entitled to delegate his powers to someone else in matters that belong to him.
In Islam, legitimacy of any power or institution is derived mainly from people’s acceptance of this legitimacy. In other words, one can’t gain legitimacy as a ruler unless people agree to not to have it imposed on them; the people are entirely free to choose their rulers. Islam does not accept a system, which involves any kind of dictatorship, nor does it accept a system of monarchy where the power is inherited within the same family. Indeed, one wouldn’t only point out to systems that call themselves monarchies, because there are many countries that call themselves republics, but indeed power seems to be circulated only within the elite.
The mutual consultation system is the source of parliamentary system in an Islamic democratic state. Thus we can clearly say that the community is the sources of power, the group of parliament and head of state and his/her cabinet is only representative. The head of state or cabinet derives his powers from the community.
Interestingly, a model exists in Islamic history for Muslims in using mutual consultation as a process of selecting a new leader. When the Prophet Muhammad was on his deathbed, many of his companions urged him to name a successor who would lead the community, but the Prophet refused to do so-a clear indication that he wanted the next leader to be chosen through mutual consultation rather than be imposed upon the community. As such, when the Prophet passed away, the most pressing issue for the community was to choose its next leader. Three Companions were nominated to take the post of khalifah (caliph) and in the end, the Prophet’s closest companion, Abu Bakr, was chosen to be the community’s new leader. Abu Bakr and his three successors, known collectively as the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs, were also chosen in a similar fashion that reflected popular consent. So the idea of choosing a leader in accordance with popular will is certainly not a new idea in the Islamic tradition. As such, the notion of elections is compatible with the idea of an Islamic democracy.
Accountability of Government
Free electing system of leaders is not enough to achieve an important Qur’anic governmental system. The accountability of government is also an essential principle of Islamic government. There are a lot of verses in the Quran, which indicate necessity of accountability of government. First, the Qur’anic teaching of mutual consultation does not end in selecting leaders but forms an essential part of governance in which leaders must conduct their affairs in a non-dictatorial manner. Second, leaders are not left to govern, based on their own whims and desires; rather their governance must be in accordance with the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah (4:59), which form the Islamic State’s constitution. Third, the Qur’an mandates that leaders pay back their trusts to those entitled to it ( 4:59), meaning that leaders are responsible to the citizens of the land.
Both Abu Bakr and `Umar ibn Al-Khattab, second caliph of Islam, reflected this notion of accountability in their inaugural addresses when they said to their community, "If I follow the right path, follow me. If I deviate from the right path, correct me so that we are not led astray." So certainly the role and responsibility of the people within a society extends far beyond choosing a leader within the Islamic political system.
Is it possible to create an Islamic democracy?
It is important to understand here what exactly the idea of democracy entails because too often the notion of democracy is confused with Western culture and society. As such, analysts often dismiss the compatibility of Islam with democracy, arguing that Islam and secularism are opposite forces, that rule of God is not compatible with rule of man, and that Muslim culture lacks the liberal social attitudes necessary for free, democratic societies to exist.
Arguments that dismiss the notion of an Islamic democracy presuppose that democracy is a non-fluid system that only embraces a particular type of social and cultural vision. However, democracy, like Islam, is a fluid system that has the ability to adapt to various societies and cultures because it is built on certain universally acceptable ideas.
So, what is democracy? In its dictionary definition, democracy is "government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives." As such, elections that express popular consent, freedom of political and social mobilization, and equality of all citizens under the rule of law become essential components of a healthy, functioning democracy.
Is the Islam and democracy identical?
We couldn’t easily say that the Islam and democracy is identical, because while democracy is a political system, Islam is a religion, which involves all aspect of materialistic and spiritual dimension of mankind. However there are some fundamental principles of Islam and democracy are similar: first, the idea or notion of freedom of the people to choose the rulers they want. Another idea that is similar is that of participation in the decision-making process in some form or the other. The third similarity between democracy and Islam is the notion of the removal of some governments, which fail to meet the expectations of the people.
According to some Muslim scholars there are also some differences between the Islam and democracy. The first basic difference is that in democracy, the ultimate authority lies with the people. In Islam, however, the ultimate authority doesn’t belong to people; it belongs to God alone. But this idea must not exaggerate. Because the common principles, which are fundamentals both in Islamic and democracy, are not only religious principles that depend on revelation, but at the sometime universal principles that depend on reason such as justice, trust, truth, believe, mutual consultation, transparency and so on. We can say depending on the last point of view that the importance and necessities of justice, mutual consultation and trust for example are double in the Islamic society than others. That means that both the ruler and the ruled in Islam are subject to a higher criterion for decision-making, that are, divine guidance and reason.
Therefore, democracy and the political system in Islam, although they may have some similarities, are not really synonymous.