NAFS
/ ALLAH / ZAMEER / SOUL / MIND / SPIRIT / SELF / PRIDE / SATAN
In
the book Quran the word Nafs and its derivatives occurs 298 times, with
more than 7 different shades of meanings that are related to nafs are breath,
aspire, self, soul, mind, man, life and person. The word nafs (psyche)
is used to refer inner side of human being, which is related to person's subconscious
mind, conscious mind, spirit, attitude, mood, impulses, deepest feelings and
behavior.
The
word nafs popularly known as self / khudi or self existence is not a substance
or thing but an innate nature or true self that desires to evolve, develop
often with avarice to achieve higher goals or self esteem. Nafs has the
tendency to think high of her own self. In collective form nafs / self can
evolve or deteriorate humanity and in individual capacity it yearns to manifest
itself.
Man
is Nafs and everything that happens in his / her life is due to
acceptance or rejection by his nafs (psyche). Psychology is the only
subject which entire mankind can relate with. Nafs is an important
part of Man’s life hence the extraordinary subject needs an extraordinary book
therefore the theme of the book Quran is all about human psyche (nafs) or
psychology, a rare or unknown subject in those days.
It
is not at all easy to explain this abstract subject of human mind so the book
Quran uses figurative language in its writing. The book Quran uses personification
by attributing human characteristics to nonhuman things. This personifies non
physical objects and makes them more relatable. Such writing is also called
theophany.
In
Islamic philosophy, each individual has an aspect of the self worth that is
called “Nafs” which is split into many layers. Every day, a thinking person
enters into a psychological warfare with their anxiety or darker side, their
lowly desires, pride, delusion and ego. Satan, pride or ego is thus the lowest
level of the self (nafs), due the adoration of oneself and coveted desires nafs
clings to the surface of lower consciousness. Nafs consist of layers of
multiple shades which keep on changing its complexion; Allah / Conscience is
the highest, most knowledgeable and the most brightest tone of Nafs, resides in
higher consciousness of Man.
Achieving
psychological up-gradation or spiritual transformation, nafs / self has to involve
in a constant struggle for cleansing the lower or dark nature of the self. This
struggle is inferred as holy war within self (nafs); popularly known as jihad i
akbar or tazkiya nafs in Islamic philosophy.
Why spiritual transformation is important?
Why so much preference is given to spirituality over material in all religions?
Spirituality is important because it can help people handle their fluctuating
life style by teaching them the real meaning of life and can improve their
overall well-being. It can also help people cope with difficult times, such as
loss, trauma, illness, and other phases of life. Spirituality is a broad concept that involves a sense of
connection to something greater than flesh & bones; an inquisitiveness to
search beyond the materialistic way of life.
My
humble study observed that the term nafs in the book Quran is mostly used for
nafsiyaat (psyche or psychology) that is mainly related to human mind with
self. The entire mankind possesses single Psychology (nafsi wahidah),
that’s why the message of the book Quran is for all mankind because it relates
to human species.
The
other terms of the book Quran that relate to our mind are kitab, quran, furqan,
hidayah, zikr, sajda, ruku, salat, taqwa, ilm, nabi, rasul, malaikah, Iblees,
satan, bayat, hajj, qalb, islah, hakim, tafakoor, tadaboor, aqal, foaad,
baseer, shahadah, shaoor, baligh, takaboor, guroor, fakhr and many more
important Quranic terms, these all are related to intellect or intelligence of
man. It won't be an exaggeration if I say the entire book Quran only talks
about the psyche (nafs) of human beings and nothing else. All the names,
characters in the Quran do not represent any person, place, thing or history
and geography.
The
most important term Allah is also connected with Conscience and our psyche
(nafs) is also connected with mind
The
term Rabb is connected with Knowledge and Guidance is also connected with our
agitated mind,
The
term Rehman is connected with the teaching of inner Quran (compilation of our
own thoughts that continuously speaks) is also connected with our mind.
Even
the term Satan and other negative term in the book Quran relates to mind. Nothing
is separate; everything is interconnected within our nafs. We rise; we fall
within our own selves or nafs. Jannah and Jahannum is inside, so Allah and
Satan too are inside, nothing is unconnected or unrelated, the entire theme of
the book Quran is interlinked with one another in sequence order.
The
often repeated phrase "fasad fil ardh" is a main theme of the
book Quran, it relates to corruption, depravity and rottenness in mind or lower
consciousness. The Quranic phrase fasad fil al-ardh does not mean fighting or
spreading corruption / mischief on land or on the Earth. This important phrase
is about our own lower consciousness which must be kept clean, governed,
managed for the sake of peaceful and happy mind.
The
philosophy of Islam is not about governing the land or Earth it's only about
governing our own mind. The book Quran does not have a constitution to govern
lands or countries but it has immense guidelines on how to keep ourselves
peaceful.
The
subject of the book Quran is nafs and it discusses the topic of Nafs / Self in
the context of human beings to achieve peaceful happy and constructive soul /
nafs.
The
book Quran explains each and every dimension of human mind. One of the important
meanings of nafs in Lexicon also signifies human mind. In Quran one of the
attributes of Allah is Nafs but very few people can actually grasp or connect
with this major Quranic attribute. People will question if Allah is Nafs then
all the nafs have to taste death. Yes true, our nafs daily taste or experience
the cycle of death and its revival, it is a continuous struggle of life and death;
it is a continuous struggle of our nafs to remain divine. But man is ungrateful
and foolish the darker side is more appealing to him and he yields to satanic
forces and is deprived of peace, happiness and balanced life.
Allah
is represented by the pronoun هُوَ (huwa) in the book Quran - Huwa is not a
name or an attribute but one of the important nameless representation of
Conscience, commonly inferred as Allah. Huwa is categorized as الضمَائر (zameer) in Arabic grammar. Huwa is zameer (الضمَائر) in the Quranic sense. Zameer simply means conscience. In the
context of the book Quran Huwa represents the metaphysical pronoun of Allah. In
Arabic language huwa is rightly identified as conscience as the term Allah is
not a person, place or thing that can be illustrated by physical pronouns of He,
She or It. Allah is depicted as Conscience which is above the physical aspects,
that's why Huwa in Quranic sense is Conscience / Allah and not a personal
pronoun He, She and It.
In
Persian Khuda means which is self defined or self created and self guided. Huwa
هُوَ represents abstract conscience, our inner being much above the
general grammatical sense of noun and pronoun.
In
Quranic context Conscience itself is our inherent script (Al-Kitab), our
compilation of thoughts that speaks is our own Quran, our measuring instrument
is Furqan, our guidance and wisdom comes from our inherent Kitab. Following
Al-Kitab is following and obeying Allah. If we are connected with our Kitab
that means we are connected with Allah. We can never be separated from Allah or
the script of Allah. The Kitab too is not a physical object but it is the
speech of Allah compiled and embedded in us and downloaded (nazil) on our qalb
(intellect).
Nafs
is a mercurial Energy which can adapt and adopt all forms, it is up to us to
shape that energy or give it any character. Development or evolution of Nafs of
man is for the benefit of man and it is the only subject of the book
Quran.
In
the context existential self is all about the connection with the Evolver,
Evolution and the causes of Devolution of self. Evolution takes us towards
Hidden Garden of Enlightenment (Jannah) and Devolution take us towards
regression (Jahannum), these all are state of mind. Connection with the script
(Al-Kitab) is connection (salat) with Allah and the key of Jannah.
Our evolution stops when we are disconnected with our inherent script
(Al-Kitab).
When
we operate ourselves by our own whims and fancies we lose ourselves by getting
absorbed in the glamour of the material world all around us; by not connecting
our real selves with the inner world, ignoring our true self and our own
scripted role.
Taqwa
is self-actualization of self. When people imitate others they don't trust
themselves, they create an artificial purpose and meaning of life and live by
it. The majority of people are discontent with their life because they opt for
easy choices by copying others thus wealth continues to accumulate and man
continue to decay. Instead of exercising their own intellectual faculty they
misused their privilege of liberty of freewill and take shortcuts to satisfy his cravings.
One
of the characteristics of Nafs is that it likes to be worshipped, adored and
loved to be pampered. Ego, pride and arrogance are the negative characteristic
of self / nafs. Service to ego is service to Satan and service to positive
characteristics of nafs is service to our own positive energy, which is Allah.
So beware of our mercurial Nafs going astray and converting into Satan by
leaving the path of Allah.
The
intention of writing this article is that there are no two powers. All powers belong
to Allah. Satan and Allah are two sides of the same coin. We become the side we
feed. The book Quran is all about the management of self. It is not about
pleasing any God or serving any Devil. The book Quran is about our own self; it
does not discuss personalities, science, history or geography.
Peace / Salam
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