Abstract
The term Shūra has become an important term in modern political history of Islam. Its importance and centrality can be gauged by the fact that Muslim modernists, traditionalists and fundamentalists use it equally to propound and promote their own political ideas. This term and concept were part of Fazlur Rahman‟s political thought and central to his overall idea of an Islamic State. However, with the passage of time his arguments changed corresponding to the changes in the prevailing situation. The current article focuses mainly on his thought on shūra in his early writings from 1950s and 1960s. Though in the first decade of his career he had no independent views of his own on shūra and he based his arguments on the subject mainly on the arguments of classical thinkers such as Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Shibli, Hali, Chiragh Ali, Amir Ali and Iqbal at home and Jamal al-Din Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, Namik Kemal and Zia Gokalp abroad. On the contrary, during the 1960s he developed his independent thoughts on shūra. The current work will highlight the fact that his ideas were grossly influenced by the prevailing socio-political conditions in Pakistan at that time and he appears to contradict himself on some of the arguments about the authority of the head of the state. This situation also highlights the dilemma of a thinker who also has to play the role of a reformer at the practical level in a given political situation.
Highlights
Shūra is a pre-Islamic Arab institution in which the elders of the tribe used to gather to consult each other on important socio-political and economic matters
Coming back to Fazlur Rahman, we find that it was in the 1960s that his idea of an Islamic state and the role of shūra in the state political system emerged of its own
After surveying briefly Fazlur Rahman‟s idea of an ideal Islamic society and state as its working instrument, we must turn to his idea of an Islamic state as he envisaged in the given Pakistani milieu of his own time, that is the practical situation of Pakistan during Ayub Khan‟s reign, which was a given situation for Fazlur Rahman to work with
Summary
Shūra is a pre-Islamic Arab institution in which the elders of the tribe used to gather to consult each other on important socio-political and economic matters. The verse 3:159 addresses this situation, “This is due to mercy from God that you treat them lightly, for had you been heavy and hard-hearted, they would have left your side...pardon and forgive them, and consult with them in the matter.” These three instances apply to different situations and categories of Muslims and it could be gathered from these Qur‟ānic passages that they expound the concept of an egalitarian society for Muslims where their matters in general should be sorted out through consultation. Concept of Shūra in Fazlur Rahman‟s Political Ideas example Ottoman Turkey and its provinces like Egypt, associated European material success with its political system and started to argue in favor of such political system for their own countries They tried to search the base for this type of concept in the sources of Islam. The term shūra and its derivatives appeared occasionally in titles of governmental institutions reflecting the essentially restricted role prescribed for them, such as in Morocco, Egypt and Pakistan
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