Is consultation (shura) obligatory or recommended?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Is consultation obligatory, or is it merely informational?
The Shaykh : What we hold is that it is informational and not obligatory. Many of the modern writers who go to the extent of saying that it is obligatory do so only because they observe a lack of trust in the ruler who manages the affairs of the Muslim community. Consequently, they adopt the view that it is informational—that it is obligatory and not informational—and then they fall into a problem that Islam does not recognize, which is that the issue is decided by majority rule.
The questioner : Voting.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The Shaykh : What we hold is that it is informational and not obligatory. Many of the modern writers who go to the extent of saying that it is obligatory do so only because they observe a lack of trust in the ruler who manages the affairs of the Muslim community. Consequently, they adopt the view that it is informational—that it is obligatory and not informational—and then they fall into a problem that Islam does not recognize, which is that the issue is decided by majority rule.
The questioner : Voting.
The Shaykh : Yes.
Source
سلسلة الهدى والنور، المجلس 1296 — d3watuna.com (5:23)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.