The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 142
CH. 3 ĀL-E-‘IMRĀN it is in the interest of religion or the community to do so. Normally, he respects the view of the majority, but the Islamic or (Shūra or Mushawarat) is not parliament in the sense in which the word is generally understood in the west. Islam enjoins only consultation and not decision by votes, which are two different things. Consultation is meant to help the Khalifah to know the views of his followers and to enable him to respect them as far as possible. It is not at all intended to tie his hands. It is on record that the Holy Prophet rejected the advice of the majority of his followers on certain occasions, and on others he even refused to accept their unanimous opinion. For instance, regarding the treatment of the prisoners of Badr he accepted the advice of Abu Bakr and rejected that of 'Umar, 'Abdullah bin Rawāḥah and Sa'd bin Mu'adh (Musnad, i. 283). At Hudaibiyyah, he signed the treaty in clear opposition to the advice of his Companions (Bukhārī, ch. on Shurūt). Similarly, Abū Bakr discarded the almost unanimous advice of the Muslims by sending the expedition to Syria under Usāmah, immediately after the death of the Holy Prophet (Athir, ii. 139). In contrast to this, it is also on record that the Holy Prophet sometimes sacrificed his own view to that of his followers as he did in marching out of Medina for the Battle of Uhud. The context of the verse, however, shows that here the injunction was primarily meant with regard to the hypocrites, and nobody could say that the Holy Prophet was bound to do 582 what the hypocrites advised him. PT. 4 The advantages of consultation are: (1) The Khalifah or Amir comes to know the views of his followers. (2) He is helped in arriving at a correct decision. (3) Representative Muslims get an opportunity to think about, and take personal interest in, important state affairs, thus receiving most useful training in matters of administration. (4) The Khalifah is enabled to judge the mental and administrative capabilities different individuals, which help him to assign the right work to the right man. (5) It enables him to know the aptitudes, aspirations and tendencies as well as the moral and spiritual condition of the different members of of his community, and thus he becomes able to effect an improvement, wherever necessary, in his people. The meaning of expressions like, put thy trust in Allah, is generally misunderstood. In the language of the Quran, 65 (trusting in God) does not consist in disregarding the material means of doing a thing. On the contrary, as taught by Islam means that a person should first make use of all the resources at his command and then place his trust in God to bless his efforts with success, believing all the time that the means can be successful only if and when God wills it and that the true cause and the real source of all success is God alone. The words, put thy trust in Allah, as used in the present context, also hint that if the Prophet or the Khalifah were to be bound to accept the counsel