Qoran Shenakht

God Almighty governs human societies according to fixed and immutable laws called “divine sunnahs.” These sunnahs are sometimes conditional upon human action and will and sometimes absolute and non-suspendable. In this context, “resistance” as a social strategy and a purposeful process for preserving identity and confronting domination plays a key role in the realization and manner of operation of many of these sunnahs. Using an analytical-descriptive method and relying on the Qur’an, this article seeks to explain the place of resistance in the system of divine sunnahs. The findings show that the relation of resistance to divine sunnahs is determined by the “status of will” in those sunnahs. In absolute sunnahs, resistance is a reaction after the occurrence of the sunnah and a condition for benefiting from the conditional sunnahs that subsequently operate; in conditional sunnahs, resistance itself is a condition for the realization of the sunnah; and in competitive absolute sunnahs, it affects the quantity and quality of its realization. Accordingly, resistance is not merely an ethical choice but a grand strategy and a structural element in the mechanism of the governance of divine sunnahs over human societies. Understanding this status provides the theoretical framework necessary for analyzing socio-historical developments from a Qur’anic perspective.