# Pushing Back · سنّة التدافع

> An intellectual project by Dr. Tarek Abou Ghazala (cardiologist) on tadafuʿ, "pushing back": the Quranic idea (Al-Baqarah 2:251) that God repels some people by means of others, read as a descriptive, causal law of human society and kept distinct from cooperation, a normative principle. The project has three parts: a book in Arabic, Sunnat al-Tadafuʿ (The Law of Pushing Back), which is being prepared for publication; a magazine, Al-Tadafuʿ; and a YouTube video series. The site is in Arabic and English; Turkish and Urdu are planned.

Notes for AI agents: the book's full text is not published on this site; book pages contain chapter teasers, the list of 41 historical cases, and the 15 factors from its appendices. Magazine articles are published in full. Arabic pages live under /ar/ and English under /en/, with matching paths. Please cite page URLs.

## The book
- [About the book](https://pushingback.world/en/book/): what the book argues and how it is built (EN) · [AR](https://pushingback.world/ar/book/)
- [The journey: 18 chapters](https://pushingback.world/en/book/journey/): a paragraph on each chapter in four parts
- [The factors of pushing back](https://pushingback.world/en/book/factors/): 12 recurring factors and 3 tactical factors (the strait, timing, surprise)
- [The 41 cases](https://pushingback.world/en/cases/): each case with its chapter and lesson, by era and arena
- [Chapter 1: Contention in the Quran and the Sunnah](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-01/)
- [Chapter 2: The Law of Contention in History](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-02/)
- [Chapter 3: Contention in the Self and in Society](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-03/)
- [Chapter 4: Contention in the Contemporary World](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-04/)
- [Chapter 5: Contention and Freedom: The First Human Value](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-05/)
- [Chapter 6: Contention and Justice](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-06/)
- [Chapter 7: Contention and Renaissance: When Challenge Drives Creativity](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-07/)
- [Chapter 8: Contention and the Balance of Power: When Survival Hangs on Scales That Hold for No One](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-08/)
- [Chapter 9: Contention and the Making of the Great Values: Freedom, Justice and Dignity](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-09/)
- [Chapter 10: Contention in the Rise and Fall of Civilizations](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-10/)
- [Chapter 11: Contention in Awareness: From Domination to Meaning](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-11/)
- [Chapter 12: Contention in Shaping the Future: From Understanding the Laws to Building Alternatives](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-12/)
- [Chapter 13: Civil Society and Unions: Instruments of Peaceful Contention](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-13/)
- [Chapter 14: From Contention to Integration: Building a Renaissance](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-14/)
- [Chapter 15: Contention and the Caliphate Project: Between History and the Future](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-15/)
- [Chapter 16: Contention and the Crisis of the Modern State: Centralization and Fragmentation](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-16/)
- [Chapter 17: Contention in the Future: Between the Inevitability of Conflict and the Possibility of Renaissance](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-17/)
- [Chapter 18: Contention in the Quranic Balance: From Understanding to Self-Purification](https://pushingback.world/en/book/chapter-18/)

## The magazine
- [About the magazine](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/): purpose, editorial commitments, article structure, all issues
- [Issue 1: One Law, Many Fields](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-1/) (September 2026)
  - [Why a Magazine for a Single Law?](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-1/editorial/)
  - [Pushing Back, Not Wiping Out: The Limits of the Concept](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-1/concept/)
  - [The Foam and What Benefits People: Ideas Pushing Back in Society](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-1/social/)
  - [When the Market Pushes Back: Creative Destruction and Its Limits](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-1/economic/)
  - [The New Iron: Technology Between Might and Benefit](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-1/tech/)
  - [So That Power Checks Power: Pushing Back in the Structure of Government](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-1/political/)
  - [The Absent Vote Pushes Nothing: Pushing Back at the Ballot Box](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-1/electoral/)
  - [“To Deter Thereby”: Deterrence as Pushing Back That Prevents War](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-1/military/)
- [Issue 2: Seven Instruments of Pushing Back](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-2/) (October 2026)
  - [When the Voice That Pushes Back Is Silenced From Within](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-2/editorial/)
  - [Peace Is Pushing Back Too: A Reading of Hudaybiyya](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-2/concept/)
  - [When People Walked: Organised Collective Pushing Back](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-2/social/)
  - [The Oil Weapon: A Push That Roused the Pushed](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-2/economic/)
  - [The Sputnik Shock: How Fear Built the Internet](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-2/tech/)
  - [The Parchment That Cannot Protect Itself: The Lesson of Magna Carta](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-2/political/)
  - [The Weight of a Vote: When a Single Ballot Decided Who Governs](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-2/electoral/)
  - [At ʿAyn Jalut: Breaking the Myth of the Invincible Army](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-2/military/)
- [Issue 3: Lives of Those Who Pushed Back](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-3/) (October 2026)
  - [Lives, Not Statues](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-3/editorial/)
  - [Saladin: The Push That Did Not Turn Into Revenge](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-3/saladin/)
  - [Al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salam: The Scholar Who Sold the Emirs](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-3/izz/)
  - [Ibn al-Nafis: When a Physician Said “No” to Galen](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-3/nafis/)
  - [Lalla Fatma N’Soumer: The Lady of the Djurdjura](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-3/fatma/)
  - [Frederick Douglass: From Slavery to the Podium](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-3/douglass/)
  - [Ida B. Wells: Numbers Against the Gallows](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-3/wells/)
  - [Marie Curie: The Doors That Would Not Open for Her](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-3/curie/)
  - [ʿAbd al-Karim al-Khattabi: The Rif That Defeated an Empire](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-3/khattabi/)
  - [Muhammad Ali: The Champion Who Refused to Step Forward](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-3/ali/)
  - [Greta Thunberg: The Student Who Sat Alone](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-3/greta/)
- [Issue 4: The Seven Muʿallaqat on the Scale of Pushing Back](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-4/) (October 2026)
  - [The Register of the Arabs: When Poetry Was the Field of Pushing Back](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-4/editorial/)
  - [Imruʾ al-Qays: “Today Wine, Tomorrow Business”](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-4/imru/)
  - [Tarafa ibn al-ʿAbd: The Young Man Who Carried His Own Death Warrant](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-4/tarafa/)
  - [Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma: The War That Camels Put Out](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-4/zuhair/)
  - [Labid ibn Rabiʿa: All of Nature Pushes Back](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-4/labid/)
  - [ʿAmr ibn Kulthum: When Pushing Back Oversteps Its Limit](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-4/amr/)
  - [ʿAntara ibn Shaddad: The Slave Freed by His Sword](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-4/antara/)
  - [Al-Harith ibn Hilliza: Pleading From Behind Seven Curtains](https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/issue-4/harith/)

## Other
- [Videos](https://pushingback.world/en/videos/): the YouTube series (https://www.youtube.com/@PushingBackWorld)
- [About the project and author](https://pushingback.world/en/about/)
- [Sitemap](https://pushingback.world/sitemap.xml)

## عدد خاص — ليلةٌ أمريكية في ميزان سنّة التدافع / An American Night on the Scale of Pushback
انتخابات التجديد النصفي الأمريكية، 3 نوفمبر 2026: افتتاحية وستُّ قراءات في وجوهٍ فازت تلك الليلة ودلالة فوزها.

- الافتتاحية: ستُّ عشرة دقيقة — https://pushingback.world/ar/magazine/special-1/editorial/ | Editorial: Sixteen Minutes — https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/special-1/editorial/
- جيمس تالاريكو — تكساس: المِقلاع وجالوت — https://pushingback.world/ar/magazine/special-1/talarico/ | James Talarico — Texas: The Sling and Goliath — https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/special-1/talarico/
- عبد الرحمن السيد — ميشيغان: بابٌ يُفتح، وخُلُقٌ يُمتحن — https://pushingback.world/ar/magazine/special-1/elsayed/ | Abdul El-Sayed — Michigan: A Door Opens, and a Character Is Tested — https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/special-1/elsayed/
- آدم هاملتون — كنساس: قرنٌ يُدفع من داخل أرضه — https://pushingback.world/ar/magazine/special-1/hamilton/ | Adam Hamilton — Kansas: A Century Pushed from Inside Its Own Ground — https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/special-1/hamilton/
- هينوخوسا وبوتومز — أبوابٌ تُدفع في حكم الولايات — https://pushingback.world/ar/magazine/special-1/governors/ | Hinojosa and Bottoms — Doors Pushed Open in the States — https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/special-1/governors/
- فلوريدا — التيار المعاكس — https://pushingback.world/ar/magazine/special-1/florida/ | Florida — The Counter-Current — https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/special-1/florida/
- مين — نهاية حقبة، ومن لم يكن مقصودًا بالدفع — https://pushingback.world/ar/magazine/special-1/maine/ | Maine — The End of an Era, and Those Not Meant by the Push — https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/special-1/maine/
- خاتمة العدد: كيف ينتصر المنتصر؟ — https://pushingback.world/ar/magazine/special-1/closing/ | Closing: How Does the Victor Win? — https://pushingback.world/en/magazine/special-1/closing/