DRAFT: Nafs

 قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ

اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ

لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ

وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ

Say, "He (is) Allah, the One.

Allah, the Eternal, the Absolute.

Not He begets and not He is begotten.

And not is for Him equivalent any [one]."

[Al-Quran 112]

وَلَا تَدْعُ مَعَ اللَّهِ إِلَٰهًا آخَرَ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ كُلُّ شَيْءٍ هَالِكٌ إِلَّا وَجْهَهُ لَهُ الْحُكْمُ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُون

And (do) not invoke with Allah god other. (There is) no god except Him. Every thing (will be) destroyed except His Face. To Him (is) the Decision, and to Him you will be returned.

[Al-Quran 28:88]

DRAFT

Do they not contemplate within their nafs? ... [Al-Quran 30:8]
Soon We shall show them Our signs in the āfāqi and in their own nafs until it becomes clear to them that He is the Real. Is it not sufficient that your Lord is witness to all things? [Al-Quran 41:53]
And be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget their own nafs... [Al-Quran 59:19]

Purpose

This purpose of this study is to try understand what the nafs is, and where it lies in the human body. 

The Quran repeatedly mentions the nafs. Sins are committing injustices against the nafs, and we are warned against making changes in the nafs. Our nafs is removable from our body. It is in pledge. The Quran warns of the loss of the nafs in the Hereafter, and it is described as the most depriving dispossession, the extreme loss!  

Full Text 

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ رَهِينَةٌ

Every Nafs because of what she earned (remains) mortgaged,

[Al-Quran 74:38, Translation: Dr. Kamal Omar]

... 

The Quran mentions the NAFS several times. According to a search result:

The triliteral root nūn fā sīn (ن ف س) occurs 298 times in the Quran, in four derived forms:

• once as the form V verb tanaffasa (تَنَفَّسَ)
• once as the form VI verb yatanāfasi (يَتَنَافَسِ)
• 295 times as the noun nafs (نَفْس)
• once as the form VI active participle mutanāfisūn (مُتَنَٰفِسُون)

The following is a list of data found across The Quran*. Please do cross-check the original ayat and translations, and report any mistakes in this list in the comments below.

* reference numbers format [The Quran denoted by Q surah number:ayat number]  

1. Allah warns us against His Own Nafs [Q3:28, Q3:30] 
2. Allah has written on His Nafs Mercy (الرَّحْمَةَ) [Q6:12, Q6:54] 
• related 10:85-86 (saves believers due to His Mercy)
3. Allah knows whats in our nafs, we do not know what is in Allah's Nafs [Q5:116]
4. Allah created us, and some became كَافِرٌ and some مُّؤْمِنٌ [Q64:2]
5. humans created from a single nafs [Q4:1, Q6:98, Q7:189, Q39:6]
6. we have a nafs [ , Q83:26]
7. nafs is a possession like wealth and fruits, prone to loss [Q2:155] 
8. to have a nafs means to breathe? [Q81:18, Bible, Genesis 2:7 ... became a living nephesh]
9. taken by Allah during sleep and returned daily [Q39:42] [we are breathing while asleep] 
10. permanently taken at death [Q39:42]
11. every nafs will taste death [Q3:185, ]
12. not present in sleeping / dead people [Q39:42]
13. every nafs is guarded [Q86:4]
14. no nafs can die until the moment Allah decrees for it [Q3:145, ]
15. do not kill (وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا) your nafs [Q4:29] 
16. the killing of a nafs is liking killing all humans except in two conditions [Q5:32 ]
17. the nafs of shaheed do not die [Q2:154]
18. Allah grows the nafs of whom He Wills [Q4:49]
19. growth of nafs associated with taqwa (tazkiya, yuzaki, zakat) [Q4:49, Q53:32]
20. nafs associated with birr [Q2:44] 
21. sins are injustice against the nafs of the sinner [Q2:54, ]
22. they destroy (أَهْلَكَ) their nafs [Q6:26, Q9:42]
23. their Lord inspired His Messengers, We will surely destroy the unjust ( الظَّالِمِينَ) [Q14:13]
24. We fulfilled the promise ..., ... and We destroyed the extravagant (الْمُسْرِفِينَ) [Q21:9]
25. and they denied / belied (فَكَذَّبُوهُ) him, so We destroyed them [Q26:139]
26. ..., We destroyed them, [for] indeed, they were criminals (مُجْرِمِينَ) [Q44:37]
27. they say ... 'time destroys us', And they have of that no knowledge; they are only assuming. (يُهْلِكُنَا إِلَّا الدَّهْرُ) ... [Q45:24] 
28. patiently preach ... '... on the Day they see that which they are promised - as though they had not remained [in the world] except an hour of a day. [This is] notification. And will [any] be destroyed except the defiantly disobedient people?' (بَلَاغٌ فَهَلْ يُهْلَكُ إِلَّا الْقَوْمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ) [Q46:35]
29. fahishah different from zulm (injustice) against nafs [Q3:135]  
30. those who invent lies and avert from Allah's way, ... will lose their nafs, becoming the greatest losers [11:18..., 21, 22]
31. they think they are fooling Allah and the believers, but they are fooling their own nafs [Q2:9] 
32. those who worship other than Allah will lose their nafs & families in the Hereafter [Q39:15]
33. save your nafs and your families from The Fire whose fuel will be humans and stones [Q66:6]
34. nafs tastes and desires [Q41:31, Q43:71, Q83:26] check more ayaat 
35. nafs eats [Q32:27] 
36. foods halal/haraam on nafs [Q3:93 ]
37. nafs receives the guidance [Q32:13]
38. nafs whispers [Q50:16] 
39. Allah will show us the signs in our nafs [Q41:53] 
40. three types of nafs [Q12:53 لَأَمَّارَةٌ; Q75:2 اللَّوَّامَةِ; Q89:27 الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ ]
41. nafs الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ will be allowed to enter Allah's worshipper, and go into The Garden [Q89:27-30]
42. nafs has been given sense of its fujoor and its taqwa [Q91:7-8] 
43. no nafs is burdened beyond what it can bear [Q2:233, Q2:286] 
44. all good from Allah, bad, hardship from your own nafs [Q3:165, Q4:79]   
45. invoke salam on your nafs [Q24:61] 
46. every person in charge of their own nafs [Q4:84, ]
47. fight in the cause of Allah with your nafs and your wealth [Q4:84, Q4:95, ]
48. every nafs, and every mer (gullet?), in pledge for its deeds [Q52:21 (امْرِئٍ), Q74:38 (نَفْسٍ)]
49. Allah did a favour upon the believers by raising a messenger from their own nafs [Q3:164] 
• note that he is from the nafs of the believers, not from the nafs of the arabs 
• the Prophet is closer to the believers than their own nafs, and his wives are their mothers [Q33:6] 
50. Habitually sinful (ithman) deceivers (opposite of trustworthy) deceive their own nafs [Q4:107] 
51. whoever earns sin (ithm) earns it against its own nafs [Q4:111] 
52. the nafs is stingy, greedy, miserly, indisposed (ash-shoha) [Q4:128, also see Q3:19]  
53. whoever is stingy, is stingy against his own nafs [Q47:38]
54. whoever is saved from the stinginess of its nafs succeeds ... [Q59:9, Q64:16, ] 
55. stand firmly in justice (qist) witness even against your own nafs [Q4:135] 
56. killing a nafs recompense nafs [Q2:178-179 (Qisas) , Q5:45 (Bani Israel)]
57. intentionally killing a believer is unpardonable, recompense is Hell [Q4:92,93]

Some thoughts about what or where the nafs might be: 

• biological dark matter 
• absence should register a change in gravity, unless its too tiny to be detected 
• a seed in darkness? 
• waiting to sprout and grow; 
• body the land in which it is sown
• good land, seed will flourish; bad land, seed growth will be hampered 
• mirror matter 
• polar body formed at oogenesis? 
• inside the C2 vertebra 
• injury to C2 has highest potential for fatality 
• some explain nafs to mean neck 
• the solitary tract and nucleus 
• imagination, as opposed to dreams 
• the mind associated with voluntary actions as opposed to involuntary actions controlled by other parts of the nervous system? 
• the only thing apparently missing when we are asleep is the mind 
• those who lose their nafs in the Hereafter will neither be alive or dead, but will still eat, drink, suffer, plead, and try to escape
• examples of people who have lost their mind, partially or completely (insanity, madness, craziness)
• examples of headless creatures who continue to live 
• in the face / mouth (functions of speech and taste associated with nafs) 
• Hazrat Ali: insan is hid under his tongue (reference?? Source: 4020 - Ghurar Al-Hikam Wa Durar Al-Kalim, Exalted Aphorisms And Pearls Of Speech; check reference) 
• also see https://goddidntsaythat.com/tag/matthew-2237/ 
• the endocrine system, or the thyroid, or within it, as it regulates the metabolism, sends messages, and is associated with growth 
• below the tongue and above the thyroid, near the hyoid??? 
• telomere / chromosome 
• bioluminescence
• nur coming out in front and right? or from back?  
• three types of nafs, three types of people (Q56), three places of light emission (Q57) 
• as the nafs grows, nur will increase and be more visible 
• prayer for perfection of nur 
• to whoever Allah doesn't give nur, cannot get nur ...  
• related to qalb-e-saleem 
• energy metabolism in the heart, particularly right atrial musculature 
• glucose metabolism: role of HKs (hexokinases); & mitochondria
• related to miracle: Moses' hand turning white, without any disease? (Q20:22; Q28:32)   
• all good from Allah, bad, hardship from your own nafs [Q3:165, Q4:79]

Last updated on  December 4, 2020