Concept of Shūra in Fazlur Rahman’s Political Ideas at Practical Level

Abstract

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The term Shūra has become an important term in modern political history of Islam. Its importance and centrality can be gauged by the fact that Muslim modernists, traditionalists and fundamentalists use it equally to propound and promote their own political ideas. This term and concept were part of Fazlur Rahman‟s political thought and central to his overall idea of an Islamic State. However, with the passage of time his arguments changed corresponding to the changes in the prevailing situation. The current article focuses mainly on his thought on shūra in his early writings from 1950s and 1960s. Though in the first decade of his career he had no independent views of his own on shūra and he based his arguments on the subject mainly on the arguments of classical thinkers such as Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Shibli, Hali, Chiragh Ali, Amir Ali and Iqbal at home and Jamal al-Din Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, Namik Kemal and Zia Gokalp abroad. On the contrary, during the 1960s he developed his independent thoughts on shūra. The current work will highlight the fact that his ideas were grossly influenced by the prevailing socio-political conditions in Pakistan at that time and he appears to contradict himself on some of the arguments about the authority of the head of the state. This situation also highlights the dilemma of a thinker who also has to play the role of a reformer at the practical level in a given political situation.