Life and Teachings of the Prophet Muhammad
4. The Concept of the State in Islam
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Abdul Aziz declared it publicly that he was returning this
nomination to the people and it was up to them to choose
whomsoever they wanted. At this turn of events, all the people
gathered in the mosque chorussed: “We accept you as our caliph.”
Only after this general consent did Umar accept the caliphate.
The first phase of Islamic history is known as the golden phase.
There is no doubt about it that consultation is an established
practice in Islam and we see this from the precedent set in this
golden period. Yet there is a high degree of flexibility in the
principle of consultation in Islam. It is not a hard and fast rule.
That is why we find that all the five caliphs were appointed by
different methods. Then another fact is that the area of this
principle of flexibility in Islamic democracy is very vast. As we see
during the Umayyad period, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, the founder
of the Umayyad Caliphate, nominated his son to succeed him. This
was clearly the way of kingship or dynastic rule, going patently
against the precedents set in the golden period. But this method
introduced by Muawiyah became so common that it was adopted
by almost all the succeeding caliphs right from Muawiyah to
Aurangzeb. Yet the Islamic scholars in general accepted their
caliphates giving them their silent approval. This shows that there
is great flexibility in the Islamic concept of democracy based on
consultation.
This flexibility goes to the extent of even accepting dynastic
kingship, if circumstances demand it. As for the governments
established on the principle of dynastic rule, the scholars held the
