The Quran declares that human beings are God’s ‘khalifa’ of vicegerents or representatives on earth. A ‘khalifa’ of God then cannot be a subject of another khalifa as a ruler as the status of khalifas are equal on earth. status. One khalifa cannot rule the others without the consent of the other khalifas in an area. Therefore the Quran prescribes self-rule or a democratic system in which a government must get the consent from the people it governs. A ‘khalifa’ of God can be a citizen or member of a community in which this system of governance is in place. The system also must incorporate periodic elections so that people can exercise this right to express their collective opinion.

This fundamental understanding has been missing from the consciousness of the Muslim world for a long time. Sahifat al-Medina or the Medina Charter, the very first written constitution in human history, fourteen centuries ago reflects this process of taking consent of the people. Even though there were no formal election to get the consent of the people under its jurisdiction. In a tribal system the tribal leaders expressed the consent of a tribe’s people and the Prophet [pbuh] being the Prophet of God got the consent of the people who converted in his system agreed and signed the document to govern the very first community the Prophet established in Medina. That was a democratic federal system of governance in which the people had the freedom to exercise their rights to choose their own religion and lifestyle and live under a common responsibility to maintain security and law and order.

When the Prophet was about to die many tried to get his endorsement as to who would succeed after he was gone. He repeatedly refused to make that choice, he left it to the community to decide who would be their next leader. This should have been the example for the Muslims everywhere at all time. But Muslims failed to follow the principles from their leader, they learned to accept it many centuries later with much difficulties from others who followed this principle. This indeed is a failure.