Islam encourages shoora ─ consultation ─ and enjoins it in many verses of the Book of Allah. It describes shoora as something praiseworthy in the lives of individuals, families, societies and states, and as one of the most important elements in the life of the ummah. It is described as one of the basic features of the believers without which their Islam and faith is incomplete. This is mentioned in a special Surah which is called Surah ash-Shoora:
And those who answer the Call of their Lord [i.e. to believe that He is the only One Lord (Allah), and to worship none but Him Alone], and establish prayer, and who [conduct] their affairs by mutual consultation, and who spend of what We bestowed on them. [Quran (42):38]
Because of the high status of Shoora, Allah enjoined it upon His Messenger (Peace and Blessings be upon him):
And consult them in the affairs. [Quran (3):159]
The command from Allah to His Messenger (Peace be upon him) to consult his Companions came after the battle of Uhud in which he had consulted is Companions, and he followed their opinions instead of his own. The consequences of that had been pleasant; the Muslims had suffered the loss of seventy of the Sahaba (Companions), including Hamzah, Mus'ab and Sa'd ar-Rabee (may Allah be pleased with them). Yet despite that Allah commanded His Messenger to continue in consult his Companions, because there is a great deal of good in consultation, even though consequences may sometimes be unpleasant.
Prophet (Peace be upon him) Consulted his Companions
Hence the Messenger used to consult his Companions, indeed he was the person who consulted others the most. He consulted them at Badr, he consulted them at Uhud, and he consulted them at al-Khandaq (Ditch). He would forsake his own view and follow the suggestions of the youth in order to train them in consultation and to teach them how to express their opinions with confidence during the battle of al-Khandaq. He had thought of making a deal with (the tribe of) Ghatafan whereby they would get one-third of the harvest of Madinah, to make them split from Quraysh. But when the representatives of the Ansar rejected that, he consulted his wife Umm Salamah when his Companions refused to exit ihrâm, when he entered her tent saying,
"The people are doomed! I commanded them but they did not obey me."
It was too difficult for them to exit ihrâm for the Umrah that they had been hoping to perform. She suggested that he should exit ihrâm, so he went out to them and did that, and as soon as they saw him exiting ihrâm, they hastened to follow his example, jostling one another in the process.
The Messenger (Peace and Blessings be upon him) implanted the principle of Shoora in the Muslim Society, in word and deed. His guidance was followed by the Sahâbah, the Tâbi'een and those who followed them among the Salaf of the ummah, until shoora became a basic feature of the rightly-guided Muslim Society at all times and in all places.
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