The System of Mushawarat in Jama'at-e-Ahmadiyya — Page 337
T he S ystem of M ushawarat in J ama ‘ at - e -A hmadiyya give our advice as to whether it is practicable or not. We have to focus our attention on whether or not adopting this idea w ill be useful for the Jama'at. The third opinion may be that the proposal is irrelevant, and it does not ad dress the actual problem. Hence the proposals in this connection should be specific, so that our time is not wasted. For instance, you can say that the proposal does not address the actual problem, and, therefore, does not offer the proper solution, and that such and such is the proper solution. Now there is no time to present this new solution as a new proposal and to give it a legal shape, but it w ill serve as a useful advice, and I believe there is no harm in stating this opinion. ” (Report Majlis-e-Shura 1983, p. 67] T h e O u t c o m e o f C o n s u l t a t i o n When Hadrat Musleh-e-Mau‘udra formally established Majlis-e-Mushawarat in 1922, he gave the following guidelines: “Our aim is not to vote and make decisions, but, in ac cordance with Islamic traditions, our aim is to learn the various points o f view and to discern the various aspects o f the proposals, so that what is useful can be adopted. In this age people might say, “Why not base our decisions upon the votes?” But our religion has prescribed for us, jAlJcJfjS* cUyc-lj) i. e. , ‘Seek advice, but when you have made a decision, do not worry about what people w ill say. ’ This has all along been the practice in Islam. For in stance, when an attack was launched on Persia, the enemy destroyed a bridge and many Muslims were mar tyred. Sa‘d bin Abi Waqqas wrote back that if immediate assistance was not forthcoming, the Muslims would be 3 3 7