Shura constitutes one of the four cardinal principles in the Islamic perspective on socio-political organisation.

The other three are justice, equality and human dignity.Shura is also a central issue in the on-going debate among Muslims over political reform. In the Arab world, even the most conservative powers that be have come around, after prolonged recalcitrance, to recognise the Shura imperative in public life. This is mainly because they have begun to see the inevitability of accommodating at least some measure of Shura reform. But they still have to be dragged kicking and screaming, as it were every step of the way.

What is the Shura Principle in Islam?
It is, as I see it, essentially parallel to the democratic principle in Western political thought, having analogous aspects and about the same tendency or direction. It is predicated on three basic precepts.

First, that all persons in any given society are equal in human and civil rights. Second, that public issues are best decided by majority view. And third, that the three other principles of justice, equality and human dignity, which constitute Islam's moral core, and from which all Islamic conceptions of human and civil rights derive, are best realised, in personal as well as public life, under Shura governance.

Shura, as a principle, is rooted in the Qur'an itself. The Qur'an has presented Shura as a principle, and not as a system, of governance. The distinction is important to note, because the Qur'an thereby has left it to successive generations of Muslims to continue to strive toward a more perfect realisation of the Shura principle.

It is the more progressive and more authentic view of Shura as a binding decision-making process that is gaining ground in the contemporary Islamic thrust for reform

In the Qur'an, two modes of political consultation are mentioned. In the one, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is asked to consult with his companions, but, ultimately, to decide on his own. In the other, the community of the faithful is described as the one that (among its other attributes) administers its affairs by mutual consultation.

In the one, consultation is mandated but is not binding; in the other, it is depicted as constituting the very process by which binding decisions on public matters are reached. In the one, the Prophet is personally involved, in the other, it is the community deliberating on public matters collectively.

The conservative, not to say reactionary, view on Shura recognises it only as discretionary, non-binding consultation. This view, needless to say, is the one the powers that be, presumptuously comparing themselves to the Prophet, find more to their convenience. But it is the more progressive and, I submit, more authentic view of shura as a binding decision-making process that is gaining ground in the contemporary Islamic thrust for reform.

What precisely supports this latter position? What is there in the Islamic jurisprudential framework that favors the broader rather than the narrower interpretation of shura?
For an answer, let us review some fundamental Islamic precepts that rarely receive due consideration in discussions about political Islam.

I am using the term "fundamental" here advisedly, realising full well the undeserved notoriety this term has gathered when used in relation to Islam. But I use it nonetheless, because the legal precepts involved here are more than peripheral in Islamic jurisprudence. Only by understanding these precepts in the context of an overall framework, can one begin to grasp the fullness and coherence of the Islamic perspective on governance. I shall cite the original Arabic terms for these constructs, then give their translation in English.

In the first place, Islam stipulates rida al awam, that is, popular consent, as a prerequisite to the establishment of legitimate political authority, and ijtihad jama'i, that is, collective deliberation, as a requisite to the proper administration of public affairs. Beyond that, Islam stipulates mas'uliyah jama'iyyah, that is, collective responsibility, for maintaining the public good of society. And by affirming all humans as equal before God, Islam stipulates equality before the law; for to claim parity before God and disparity among ourselves is plain hypocrisy.

Finally, by rejecting man's subservience to anyone but God, Islam stipulates freedom as the natural state of man, hence liberty within the limits of law is an Islamic stipulation. The famous rhetorical question asked by the second Khalifa, Omar Ibn Al Khattab, "When (implying by what right) ... when did you enslave the people, knowing that they were born free by their mothers?" speaks volumes about Islam's innate resentment of anything that arbitrarily violates personal freedom.

Islam rejects all kinds of autocratic authority or privilege; that is, it rejects hereditary rule, for no particular lineage has monopoly over competence and integrityThese are authentic Islamic positions, stressing popular consent, collective deliberation, shared responsibility, personal freedom, justice, equality, and dignity of the human individual, all conceived within the Shura.

Conversely, any thorough and objective reading of Islam would show that by its intrinsically egalitarian perspective, Islam rejects all kinds of autocratic authority or privilege; that it rejects hereditary rule, for no particular lineage has monopoly over competence and integrity.

"The best person you can employ," says the Qur'an, in the words of a thoughtful daughter counseling her father "is the one who is competent and honest." Surely, in the weighty matter of governance, the people ought to be able to employ, through election, those they deem the most competent and honest amongst them.

At the root of the Islamic constitutional framework  is the fundamental notion of ummah, the nation, which constitutes the social basis of Islamic polity, and the body through which members perform collective responsibilities and attain collective well-being. The ummah is bound together by a common moral outlook, and a common commitment to do what is right and shun what is wrong.

The significance of this lies in the absence of any racial, territorial, political, or any other exclusionism.

The ummah of Islam, as such, encompasses the entire Muslim populace living anywhere on earth, and it also includes peoples living in the Islamic lands, who though not formally Muslim, are nevertheless at peace with Islam.

This all-inclusive notion of the ummah comes through clearly in the directive that the fourth Khalifa, Ali Ibn Abi Taleb gave to Malik Ibn Al Ashtar Al Nakha'i, upon dispatching him as governor to Egypt at a time when Egypt was more Christian than Muslim. Ali wrote:

"Know, O Malik, that I am sending you to a country, which has been subjected before you to both just and unjust rulers, and so the people will judge you in the same way that you now stand in judgment of your predecessors. Therefore, let good works be your true assets. Discipline yourself, and covet not that which is not rightfully yours.

Train your heart to feel compassion for the people, to love them and be kind to them. Do not behave like a ferocious beast toward them, snatching away their sustenance, for the people are of two categories: they are your brothers in religion and/or your fellow human beings".

(To be continued)