al-Tanazu wa al-Tawazun fi Hayat al-Muslim
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- Mu’assasat al-Ṭibā‘ah wa-al-Ṣiḥāfah wa-al-Nashr
al-Tanazu wa al-Tawazun fi Hayat al-Muslim (Conflict and Balance in the Life of a Muslim) is a contemporary Islamic treatise by Muhammad bin Musa al-Sharif examining the psychological and spiritual competition among noble aspirations within a practicing Muslim and outlining methods to achieve balance among them. The work was published as the sixth entry in the author's educational series Ma'alim 'ala Tariq al-Sahwah (Landmarks on the Path of the Awakening).
Purpose and Scope
The book addresses the internal struggle that arises after a Muslim overcomes common destructive spiritual vices, when multiple virtuous inclinations (al-nawazi') simultaneously demand fulfillment. Al-Sharif notes that failing to reconcile these competing religious and worldly demands frequently leads active individuals and Islamic callers (du'at) to despair, exhaustion, or the complete abandonment of their commitments.
The author defines tawazun (balance) terminologically as giving each matter its due right without excess or deficiency, rooted in knowing the realities, limits, and purposes of things. Tanazu' (conflict) is defined in terms of the inner attraction, yearning, and struggle of the soul toward various goals. Al-Sharif emphasizes that the book is addressed specifically to high-aspiring individuals who are torn between multiple noble pursuits.
Competing Drives and Methodology
The introduction identifies ten distinct internal aspirations that compete within a committed believer:
- Calling to God (al-da'wah ila Allah)
- Attaining strong faith and certainty
- Performing extensive worship and ascetic devotion
- Acquiring wholesome, lawful wealth
- Attaining public prominence and leadership
- Acquiring sacred Islamic knowledge (talab al-'ilm al-shar'i)
- Gaining contemporary cultural and intellectual awareness
- Participating in military struggle (jihad)
- Fulfilling the rights of family, kin, and companions
- Raising righteous children upon Islamic principles
For detailed treatment, al-Sharif condenses these into five primary categories that subsume the rest: seeking sacred knowledge, abundant worship, calling to God, jihad, and earning lawful wealth. To illustrate the historical reality of this tension, he draws extensively on the reflections of Ibn al-Jawzi in Sayd al-Khatir (Captured Thoughts), who described the perpetual inner conflict between mastering all sciences, isolating oneself for devotional prayer, earning a living, writing books, and attending to family.
In discussing specific drives such as seeking sacred knowledge, the author issues practical cautions, such as warning students of medicine, engineering, and the physical sciences against abandoning their secular specializations for non-essential religious studies, arguing that scientific and technical competence represents a communal obligation (fard kifayah) essential to the strength of the Muslim community.
Revisions and Editions
The treatise saw multiple revised editions under the author's supervision:
- Second edition: Integrated a section on full-time religious dedication (al-tafarrugh)—which the author had originally planned as an independent treatise—as well as a section on recreation and leisure (al-tarwih wa-al-istijmam).
- Fourth edition: Added further material to the third chapter.
- Fifth edition: Prepared six years after the initial writing, adding concise biographical notices in the footnotes for figures cited in the text, supplementary textual divisions, and scholarly indexes.
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