As protesters were gathering in Tahrir Square in Egypt in early 2011, the calls for the resignation of the autocrat, Hosni Mubarak, gradually displayed religious undertones. Placards with Quranic phrases were commonplace, for instance, the verse which states ‘Now such were their houses – in utter ruin – because they practised wrongdoing’ (Aboelezz, 2014, p. 606). That scripture and faith are invoked should not be surprising; Egypt is a deeply spiritual society, and furthermore, Islam confers a form of legitimacy to a cause in a way which few other notions could. Equally unsurprisingly, defenders of the Mubarak regime were appealing to faith to discredit the mass uprising (Lee, 2018). Anwar Ibrahim, one of the most prominent modern Muslim politicians and thinkers of Islam in Malaysia, described the fatwas issued by the ulama in Malaysia against demonstrations led by the opposition in the country as imitating the tactics of Mubarak's Egypt, where edicts were issued in support of his rule. The dialectic between proponents and opponents of activism against state repression has been a recurring theme in the history of Islam. Soon after the death of Prophet Muhammad, Muslim scholars and theologians attempted to grapple with the idea of the permissibility of disobeying tyrannical rulers. Companions of the Prophet held different positions on the matter. Abdullah ibn Umar, son of the second Caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattab, was willing to accept the authority of the despotic Umayyad Caliph Yazid ibn Muawiyah (d. 683) since he prioritized the preservation of the unity of the Muslim community and social stability;