The interim president of Idlib spoke about some features of the future Syrian state, and heralded the principle of “their affairs are conducted by consultation among themselves.” We have some knowledge about the subject of “their affairs are conducted by consultation among themselves” from ancient history, where we did not find in the folds of this history any clear, specific, and justified theoretical or practical intellectual indication regarding the content of “their affairs are conducted by consultation among themselves.” Therefore, we turned to modern history and to some of those interested in the principle of “their affairs are conducted by consultation among themselves.” Among these was Sayyid al-Qimni in his book “Thank You, Bin Laden,” then the book of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood member Bashar Awad “The Group and Power,” and others. These people tried to explain and clarify the problem in different ways!

Al-Julani refrained from using the word “democracy” in order to emphasize his rejection of democracy and his reliance on the concept of “their affairs are conducted by consultation among themselves.” It can be concluded that the alternative to the democracy rejected by al-Julani has become consultation among themselves, given the scarcity of countries and societies that operate by consultation among themselves. It can be assumed that those countries and societies did not pay attention to what Bin Laden and his successor al-Julani discovered regarding the concept of “their affairs are conducted by consultation among themselves.”

We were very surprised that the concept of democracy, with all its meanings, implications, contents, and intellectual foundations, was taken on an equal footing with the concept of “Shura,” that is, considering a political means with contents that convinced most of the 8 billion people as equivalent to the concept of Shura, which only convinced a very small number of the 8 billion people in the world , The reason is that the issue of Shura has no content, meaning, or proven benefit, How can democracy be placed on the same level as Shura? Knowing that they are two things that are different to the point of contradiction and have no connection between them at all, All of this indicates that the concept of Shura was not clear to people, as was the concept of democracy,That is, there is ignorance among the majority in this region of both concepts.

Democracy is a product of the Roman Senate, roughly ten centuries before the advent of Ibn Abdullah,Since then, democracy has meant the rule of free people by themselves, This is something that scholars of Islamic jurisprudence have failed to grasp, because they are inherently ignorant and uninformed, They have never engaged with it and therefore cannot differentiate between democracy and Shura (consultation), that is, between the Muhammadan system with its Bedouin origins and democracy with its Greco-Roman roots. These scholars are not experts in politics and governance, so they cannot evaluate a democracy that is absent from their cultural and intellectual framework. They don’t even have a translation for the word “democracy.” The word was simply taken as is and written in Arabic instead of its Latin origin. Consequently, it can be said that al-Julani is ignorant of the implications of democracy and even of the implications of Shura, which differs from democracy. This criminal of bombings and assassinations, al-Julani, has not cared about any of these matters. Even if he had cared, his efforts would have been futile. He is incapable of understanding them, With his very limited cultural and intellectual capabilities, he deals with the subject of democracy,Democracy is thought, and thought requires a mind, Shura is obedience and submission, which does not require the existence of a mind, Therefore, Al-Julani, in a sermon partially quoted from Abu Bakr, demanded obedience… Obey me!!!

If al-Julani had at least been able to understand Shura (consultation), he would have known that it is an ancient Bedouin Arab system, known to the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula before Islam, where the tribal sheikh had a Shura council, The Shura council was composed, according to the will of the tribal sheikh, of men who were characterized by sound judgment according to his standards,This system was associated with religion, like other systems that prevailed in the pre-Islamic era,In the Quran, it is said in Surah Al Imran, “And if you had been harsh and hard-hearted, they would have dispersed from around you. So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter. And when you have decided, then rely upon Allah. Indeed, Allah loves those who rely upon Him.” So whoever relies upon Allah does not need to rely upon reason. God commanded His Messenger to consult his companions regarding a problem that occurred after the defeat at Uhud. Therefore, God revealed to His Prophet the verse, “And consult them in the matter,” etc.

Democracy is based on the majority that emerges from elections, while Shura (consultation) rejects the majority because democracy is an imported principle with no connection to Islam, Few scholars believe that the essence of democracy is Islamic due to their ignorance of democracy! Generally, the rejection of democracy is based on “sacred” texts that claim the majority always stands on the side of falsehood and tyranny. The majority imposes the ruler and thus undermines God’s authority: “And if you obey most of those on earth, they will lead you astray from the path of God,” then “And most of the people, even if you strive for it, will not believe,” then “But most of the people do not know,” then “But most of the people do not believe,” etc. Therefore, in Islam, the opinion of the majority is not taken into account, In addition, there are matters that do not fall under the realm of voting because they are constants that do not accept change unless the community changes and is no longer Muslim. Voting only applies to matters of “ijtihad” (independent reasoning) or what is called “masalih mursalah” (public interest), such as electing the president, As for the religion of the president, it is not subject to voting. We do not know what connection there is between the presidency and a person’s religion, The President of the Republic!

  Religion does not rely on this method, nor does it favor one opinion over another simply because the majority agrees with it, Rather, it considers the opinion in itself: is it right or wrong? If it is right according to the texts and the position of jurisprudence, it is implemented even if it has only one vote, or no one at all, Abu Bakr and Umar acted according to this system of consultation, The Companions advised Abu Bakr not to fight the apostates and to make peace with the separatist, apostate tribes, but he did not heed the consultation and made the opposite decision to wage war on the apostates, Likewise, the Companions unanimously agreed that Caliph Umar should lead the Muslim armies to war against the Persians, except for Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, who suggested that the Caliph remain in Medina, The Caliph took Abd al-Rahman’s opinion alone and rejected the consensus. Democracy is very far from consultation, Democracy operates according to the opinion of the majority, not the opinion of the inner circle of the decision-maker, such as his friends and relatives.

Consultation (Shura) is not binding on the ruler, nor does it possess the tools to enforce it, nor the legislation to compel it, nor the institutions capable of doing so. Consultation is arbitrary and capricious, sometimes expanding like a tumor in a matter that was not intended for such expansion and is not in the ruler’s interest, as was the case in the Wars of Apostasy, which the majority of those who consulted saw as unnecessary, unlike Qaradawi recently, who believed that without the Wars of Apostasy, the religion would have been extinct,Thus, he indirectly confirmed that the religion was established by the sword. We do not want to discuss whether consultation is part of Sharia or not, because all of Sharia is rejected as harmful and misguided, After 1440 years of trying to implement Sharia, is there a state built on the foundations of Sharia?! Consultation was a pleasant practice among friends, and the matter was and still is as stated in the hadith: “Obedience to the ruler, except in matters of disobedience.” With the obedience that al-Julani commanded, there is no place for anything called consultation or democracy.