Mujaawarah can only be lived; it requires physical presence and face-to-face conversations. It happens at the communal level, where learning takes place in freedom, not fear. It can only happen with trust, honesty, mutual nurturance, among people who are ready to really listen to one another with full attentiveness. The stress is not so much on information and content as on re-thinking and unlearning much of what has been learned before entering the mujaawarah – including beliefs.

Mujaawarah does not have to follow any particular format. It embodies a simple idea in the sense that it can be done by all people using what is available. Though simple, it is usually not easy, because it is contrary to what we were taught. All what mujaawarah needs are people who decide to meet over a period of time to learn what they want to learn, or do what they feel needs to be done, in freedom with no authority they have to please; a social structure where people learn, think, act, relate, and manage their affairs outside confines of institutions.

It does not necessarily require license, budget, professionals, or visible outcomes. It stresses convictions ignored in modern institutions such as every person is a source of meaning and understanding and every person is unique (cannot be compared with others along a vertical line). As a medium for learning, it is radically different from institutional learning. In mujaawarah, the subject of study includes people’s lives in the context where they live. Learning is not something a person gives to another, but something a person does to oneself (within a group) that involves sharpening character through actions and interactions. [However, there is need to stress that a mujaawarah is a medium not a value (a bunch of thieves can form a mujaawarah); that’s why wisdom needs to accompany mujaawarahs we form or talk about.]