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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Defending the Woman's Rights Chapter Ten : Consultation With Woman Family is a small society. Managing this small society is so hard and delicate. The father and mother, as the basic axes of the family, cannot easily manage the family if they do not have the power of understanding and decision-making. The family management has various aspects, like economic, cultural, medical, legal, ethical and educational aspects.

These aspects exist in the husband and wife's relationship, the relationship among the children, and the children-parents' relations. The small- and large-scale managements are identical in some respects, so the managers of small societies, such as family, should follow the methods of large-scale successful managers in their own small society. One of the factors in successful management is consultation.

In other words, though the final decision is made by one person, s/he consults with others before making plans and decisions. This has a two-fold result. First, the manager's consultation with other people in a system gives them self-confidence and self-esteem. The second result is that the system benefits from the experience, knowledge, and information of all the people.

It is evident that 'Not everyone knows everything' and only by consultation the helpful information of all individuals is gained. That is why consultation is considered a criterion for the growth of cognition and future knowledge and has been too much emphasized in Islam. The Holy Qur'an says : (And consult with them in the affair ...) 1 Getting advice from others is also stressed in traditions.

Imam Ali (a.s.) said, "It is an incumbent duty of a wise person to add the views of prudent men to his own view." 2 The Holy Qur'an has mentioned 'consultation' in three verses. One is addressed to the Holy Prophet (a.s.) to consult with the Muslim Umma on important issues, which was mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. This is not the consulting about laws, of course, because the lawmaker is only Allah in Islam, but in the way of carrying out the laws.

The history of Islam has many cases of the Prophet's consulting with his disciples, like when the Muslims dug the trench in the al-Khandaq Battle by the idea of Salman. Another instance of Qur'anic verses about consultation is this verse : (... and their affair is a matter of counsel among themselves) 3 This verse is about the entire Muslim nation.