What the Text Establishes
Shahrur defines shura as the exercise of freedom by a group of people within a cognitive, ethical, aesthetic, and customary framework.
He makes freedom to express one’s opinion—through the presence of differing opinions—and equal freedom of expression among divergent views one of its primary foundations. He also states that shura assumes successive historical forms and undergoes historical development according to the structure of society and its cognitive ground.
Limits of the Reading
The text does not assert that pluralism is a condition for development and freedom, nor does it define the multiplicity of opinions as pluralism in the technical sense.
For further reading: Muhammad Shahrur: State and Society، Critique of authoritarianism and monism.
Plurality · Freedom · Monism · State and Society · The people and the state translate plurality within a political unity