As Islam holds individuals and societies responsible for their own fate, so too people must be responsible for governing themselves. The duties entrusted to modern democratic systems are also those that Islam delegates to society. The Qur'an includes the following passages: "Establish, all of you, peace" (2:208); "spend in the way of God and to the needy of the pure and good of what you have earned and of what We bring forth for you from earth" (2:267); "if some among your women are accused of indecency, you must have four witnesses (to prove it)"(4:15); "God commands you to give over the public trusts to the charge of those having the required qualities and to judge with justice when you judge between people" (4:58); "observe justice as witnesses respectful for God even if it is against yourselves, your parents and relatives" (4:135); "if they incline to peace (at war), you also incline to it" (8:61); "if a corrupt, sinful one brings you news (about others), investigate it so that you should not strike a people without knowing" (49:6). These are some examples of a corpus of verses from the Qur'an that addresses the whole society and assigns it almost all the duties entrusted to modern democratic systems.

People cooperate with one another by sharing these duties and establishing the essential foundations necessary to perform them. The government is composed of all of these foundations. Thus, Islam recommends a form of government based on a social contract. People elect the administrators and establish a council to debate common issues. Also, the society as a whole participates in the auditing and control process of the government.