Tawāzun
Definition
Tawazun — balance — is al-Ghazali's answer to the misunderstanding that takes his condemnation of the world as a call for total withdrawal from worldly engagement. He is not prescribing monastic renunciation: he is prescribing the correct proportioning of the heart's loves and investments. The world should receive from the heart what it actually deserves — the attention and effort required to fulfil one's genuine worldly obligations — and no more. The Hereafter should receive what it actually deserves — the primary loyalty of the heart, the best of one's time and energy, and the deepest and most sustained attention. This proportioning is what zuhd actually means in practice.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
How the scholars use Tawāzun.
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"Good character divides into two categories: restraining desires and anger, known as chastity, and maintaining justice in abstaining from desires and acting accordingly. Allah says, "Do not transgress in the balance and establish weight with justice and do not lose the balance." For example, someone who refrains from marriage despite capability, or abstains from eating to the point of weakness in worship, has caused loss in the balance."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 32: Patience and Gratitude
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"leading to conflict and mutual destruction due to external competition, much like internal humors cause destruction through imbalance. Medicine maintains balance among internal conflicting humors, while politics and justice maintain balance in external competition. The science of maintaining humor balance is medicine, while the science of maintaining people's conditions in dealings and actions is jurisprudence."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 1: The Book of Knowledge
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"And those whose scales are light, they are the ones who have lost themselves." He then said: "Indeed, the scale becomes light with the weight of a grain or becomes heavy." He also said: "And whoever's good deeds and bad deeds are equal will be among the people of the Heights." Based on this, does the weightier side nullify the lesser, making it as if it never existed, or does it only nullify what it directly opposes in balance, leaving the effect for the excess amount? There are two opinions among those who advocate for balance."
— Ibn al-Qayyim, Volume One
Appears in
1 book in the library
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