One could almost say that, wherever nobody is talking about power, that is where it unquestionably exists, at once secure and great in its unquestionability. Wherever power is the subject of discussion, that is the start of its decline.’
Beck, Power in the Global Age, p. 57.
To understand power, Byung-Chul Han gives us the example of the cat and mouse. If you have ever had the unfortunate chance of witnessing a cat eat a mouse, you’ve then witnessed how power operates. I am not referring to the grotesque scene wherein the cat gnaws on the mouse with its teeth. The bite is raw violence. Rather, I am referring to what happens before the mouse’s ultimate demise: the cat allows the mouse to play; it gives it a false sense of ‘space’ i.e. freedom. That is not to say power is inherently evil. It operates everywhere. Take, for example, the young quarantined child who can no longer stand the constraints of the home. Theparent will allow him a new space, the backyard, and the child roams thinking it is now free. Here, again, power operates as when the parent warns, “Stay where I can see you!” The reason I am using these metaphors is because, as Muslims, we need to understand the nature of power before we can strategize on how to gain and employ it. Otherwise, just like the mouse or even the child, we are doomed to live under the illusion that we are free, more so because the powers that we want to resist are most powerful when they are invisible and silent.
