Once, a well-known Muslim ideologue from the West, while addressing a Muslim conference, declared:

Rebellion against a tyrant is obedience to God!

THIS phrase portrays the mindset formed by a political interpretation of Islam. The modern generation of Muslims are generally influenced by this political interpretation. Today, the agitations and protests across the world in various countries in the name of ‘Islamic Revolution’ are a product of this political interpretation. This sort of so-called ‘revolutionary politics’ can by no means whatsoever, be considered as Islamic politics. In stronger terms, this politics is actually Satanic politics in the name of Islam. The foundingfather of this politics was Satan himself. Today, the flag-bearers of this sort of politics are undoubtedly following in the footsteps of Satan, not of Islam.

To focus on one’s work without confronting the authorities is the method of the angels. And confronting the authorities and agitating, fired by the ‘politics of opposition’, is the method of Satan.

The Quran relates that when God created Adam, there were two other creatures present — the angels and the jinn. God ordered the angels and the jinn to bow down before Adam. The angels obeyed this commandment of God, but Satan, who was the head of the jinn, refused to obey this order. And so he became a rebel against God.

This was the first incident of revolt against authority in human history. This political revolt or the ‘politics of opposition’ is undoubtedly the practice of Satan. To focus on one’s work without confronting the authorities is the method of the angels. And confronting the authorities and agitating, fired by the ‘politics of opposition’, is the method of Satan.

Strangely, this negative politics of Satan has prevailed throughout almost the whole of human history, among both believers and others.

The direct result of this negative politics is that instead of becoming a history of progress and development, human history became a history of destruction.

Why is it that almost the whole of human history turned into a history of this sort of Satanic politics? The reason for this is that the Creator has given man an exceptional feature and that is the ego. It is actually the ego that provides man a special status in the whole of the cosmos.

This sort of so-called ‘revolutionary politics’ can by no means whatsoever, be considered as Islamic politics.

There are two aspects of the ego — the positive and negative. In collective life, be it within the family or in the wider society, it always happens that people face experiences that prick their egos. On such occasions, if a person can control himself — if he can properly handle the issue of ‘ego management’ — he would have used his ego, as it were, in a proper manner. But if his ego is provoked and he lets it affect his entire personality, he will create immense problems for himself, and for others, too. He will have failed in the art of ‘ego management’.

One has to always face this issue of managing the ego. When this problem occurs in the political sphere and one fails to manage one’s ego properly, it is what is called the ‘politics of opposition’. This is what challenging the political authorities is about. Because most people fail in the art of ‘ego management’, almost the entirety of human history presents a picture of political destruction.

The solution to this problem is explained in the Quran and Hadith in terms of what can be termed as the 'politics of patience' or sabr. The politics of patience is no politics of defeat. It is but another name for political status quoism — that is to say, to accept, in practical terms, the status quo as far as the issue of political power is concerned, and, without confronting the political authorities, to avail the opportunities present in the non-political sphere.

It is this formula that is expressed in a Hadith report, according to which the Prophet indicated that:

God grants to non-violence what He does not grant to violence.