Islamic Democracy and Western Democracy

If we consider that a democratic system implies a relationship of trust between the government and the people, this aligns with the spirit of Islam. According to a narration in Sahih Muslim, the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has defined the ruler as follows:

“Your good rulers are those who love you and you love them, and your bad rulers are those who hate you and you hate them, they curse you and you curse them.”

This clearly signifies that a relationship of trust between the government and the people is necessary, and there is no religious issue in expressing this public trust in any manner adopted according to the circumstances.

However, the contemporary concept of democracy, wherein the representatives of the people are perceived to possess all kinds of absolute powers, is contrary to the principles of Islam. Allama Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, in his presidential address at the annual session of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind in Calcutta on March 14, 1926, clarified the fundamental difference between Islam and the prevailing democracy with these words:

“There is some difference between the present democracy and Islamic democracy. For the present democracy, knowledge of the divine law is not necessary. Knowledge of the divine law is necessary along with other conditions for the governance of Islamic democracy. The second difference is that the majority or minority of narrators/voters is not the criterion of error and rightness, but being close or not to the Book and Sunnah is the identification/sign of rightness and wrongness. For this, it is necessary that our members of the state, just as they are familiar with Roman law and European laws, should also be familiar with Islamic laws, or rather, just as they are experts in European laws, if they are also familiar with Islamic law and its sources, then they are scholars themselves. They will no longer have to complain about the narrow-minded ‘mullahs’ and they will be saved from the conflict of religion or civilization.”

https://zahidrashdi.org/4332