Freedom and equality are two substantial concepts that political thinkers have attempted to explore throughout history. Their responses have led to various philosophical and intellectual schools. No political system has been set up and reached stability without appropriately answering these two basic questions. As a modern lifestyle predominant in the majority of human societies, democracy addresses these two concepts not as questions but as two substantial assumptions. These two concepts, along with public sovereignty and liberalism, have become the critical points of democracy. Likewise, these concepts, particularly justice, have a long history in Islam, as long as the history of Islam itself. Thus, it is natural for Islam to have provided naturalistic responses. Now that democracy is attempting to find its way in Muslims' lives, it would be interesting to challenge Muslims' historical responses to freedom and equality or compare them with those of democracy. The main question in this paper is about the final position of democracy's most important characteristics in the different perceptions of Islam and democracy in Islamic countries, including Iran. This paper also tries to foresee the approaches of each Islamist group involving traditionalists or modernists to these characteristics. Since there are diverse intellectual denominations and views among Muslims on freedom and equality, this paper aims to concisely examine the approaches of Muslim traditionalists and modern intellectuals and discuss democracy in the Muslim world. We will hopefully examine the concept of public sovereignty as another cornerstone of democracy from the same perspective.
