Democracy and Shura: Common Grounds and Challenges

Islam has its own paradigm of knowledge, which contains its own religious, economic, and political terminologies. One of the essential Islamic political concepts is shura, or mutual consultation. The importance of shura has been emphasized in the Qur’an with a chapter that holds the name Ash-Shura. Allah, the Almighty, says,

(And those who respond to their Lord and keep up Prayer and their rule is to take counsel among themselves, and who spend out of what We have given them.) (Ash-Shura 42:38)