Nafs / نَفْسُ

Revisiting Human: Body or Soul?  Part II: Nafs / نَفْسُ 

Note: In 2017, I published a post titled Human: Body or Soul?. In this series, I intend to restudy the ayaat to improve the understanding, and to increase in submission, in sha Allah  

I have explored the ayaat about the Nafs since then. Here's a link to all posts about the Nafs. 

Summary of learnings until now: 

We have a Nafs.  

In this world, the Nafs is removed and returned to the living body daily. 

Even in the absence of the Nafs, during sleep, our body continues to perform all essential functions to exist. 

In our sleep, we can see dreams. 

In the presence of our Nafs, while awake, we are able to think, to plan, to eat and drink, and some other functions which require consciousness. 

While awake, we can interact with the world around us. 

The dead body doesn't have a Nafs. 

The Nafs, and The Gullet, are in pledge for what they earn in this life. 

The Nafs seems essential for a flourishing life in the Hereafter, so it is essential for the body to retain the Nafs eternally. 

The people of Hell will permanently lose their Nafs on the Day of Judgement, and will suffer consciously. 

So, the Nafs is:

• not us 
• not consciousness 
• not essential to exist 
• essential to flourish, and live a good life   

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From the original post: 

NAFS  

The Quran repeatedly mentions the NAFS. 

God created the first humans from a single NAFS:

O mankind! Be conscious your Rab (Lord/Sustainer), the One Who created you from a single nafs, and created from her her mate, and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And be conscious of Allah Whom you ask, with it, and the wombs. Indeed, Allah is over you Ever-Watchful.  

[Al-Quran 4:1] 

As quoted in The First Humans, three ayaat inform us that it is God who has created human beings from a single NAFS. God is the Master Creator. He begins creation, and He delegates some of the creation tasks to some beings in His government, as indicated by The Creator I and The Creators We mentioned through various pronouns across the Quran. For difference between the two, please read the section similarly titled at the bottom of this post. 

وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ وَنَعْلَمُ مَا تُوَسْوِسُ بِهِ نَفْسُهُ وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدِ

We swear that We have created the human being and We know what his NAFS whispers to him. We are closer to him than even his jugular vein.  

[Al-Quran 50:16, Translator: Muhammad Sarwar] 

The information that the NAFS whispers to us indicates that the NAFS is not ‘the us’ but rather resides inside us. 

The Quran describes three kinds or states of the NAFS as: 

The NAFS-e-AMMARRA is the NAFS that urges us to evil.

The NAFS-e-LAWAMMA is the NAFS that we speak of as our conscience.

The NAFS-e-MUTMAINNA is the NAFS that is satisfied and contented with God, and God is pleased with it.   

Furthermore, it seems that our NAFS is in pledge, something that is removed from us daily, and what we risk losing permanently in the Hereafter: 

And leave those who take their religion (as) a play and amusement and deluded them the life (of) the world. But remind with it, lest is given up to destruction a NAFS for what it (has) earned, not (is) for it besides Allah any protector and not any intercessor. And if it offers ransom - every ransom, not will it be taken from it. Those (are) ones who are given to destruction for what they earned. For them (will be) a drink of boiling water and a punishment painful because they used to disbelieve.

[Al-Quran 6:70] 

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ رَهِينَةٌ 

Every NAFS, for what it has earned, (is) pledged,

[Al-Quran 74:38] 

The above slide is from the presentation: Rethink Genetic Engineering in the Light of the Quran. Whenever humans have tinkered with and attempted to make fundamental changes in the human body, and consequently messed up, they have been unjust to their NAFS, and thus suffer the physical consequences of Wronging the NAFS. Even sin and disbelief have been described in physical terms as a disease of the heart (qalb), rust upon the heart and lying sinful forelock. Does the NAFS contain the master-copy of our genome? 

وَفِي الْأَرْضِ آيَاتٌ لِّلْمُوقِنِينَ

وَفِي أَنفُسِكُمْ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ

And in the earth (are) signs for those who are certain, 
And in your NAFS. Then will not you see? 

[Al-Quran 51:20 - 21]   

أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ يُزَكُّونَ أَنفُسَهُم بَلِ اللَّهُ يُزَكِّي مَن يَشَاءُ وَلَا يُظْلَمُونَ فَتِيلًا

انظُرْ كَيْفَ يَفْتَرُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ وَكَفَىٰ بِهِ إِثْمًا مُّبِينًا

Do not you see [towards] those who claim purity (for) their NAFS? Nay, (it is) Allah, He purifies whom He wills and not they will be wronged (even as much as) a hair on a date-seed.
See how they invent about Allah [the] lie, and sufficient is it - (as) a sin manifest.
[Al-Quran 4:49-50]

If the RUH is God’s command that grants life, the NAFS is neither pure nor a ‘spiritual’ component, then there doesn’t seem to exist a spiritual aspect of us: 

Those who avoid great sins and the immoralities except the small faults; indeed, your Lord (is) vast (in) forgiveness. He (is) most knowing about you when He produced you from the earth and when you (were) fetuses in (the) wombs (of) your mothers. So (do) not ascribe purity (to) your NAFS. He knows best (he) who fears. 

[Al-Quran 53:32] 

In Surah ash-Shams, after drawing attention to the God’s amazing creations: Sun, Moon, Day, Night, Sky, Earth, the surah includes the NAFS in the list in these terms: 

By the NAFS, and the proportion and order given to it; And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right;- Truly he succeeds that purifies it, And he fails that corrupts it! 

[Al-Quran 91:7-10, Translator: Yusuf Ali] 

Q67:2 informs us that God created Death and Life to test us. Q2:28 and Q40:11speak of two deaths and two lifes in sequence. Q7:172 informs us that the descendants of the Children of Adam witnessed their Nafs. Does it mean that every person is essentially his/her own body? The physical body (hardware) and the nafs (software)? 

What does it mean to purify the Nafs? What does it mean to corrupt it? Or does it mean to grow or stun it, like the growth or stunning of a seed sowed in the Earth? For more on this, please read the section titled Growth of the Nafs in The Same Religion (الدِّينِ). 

And what does it mean to adhere to the Fitrat upon which Allah 'fatara' Humans (fitrata Allahi allatee fatara alnnasa AAalayha) and to not to make changes in the creation of Allah? Is it permissible to edit the genome; harvest and transplant organs; build chimeras; abort fetuses? Do we have sufficient clarity about our creation to confidently consider all or some of these as permissible? Or are these acts of corruption and crimes against creation? Please also read Allah, fāṭir (فَاطِر) of the Skies and Earth. 

Proponents of life-extension technologies quote Q5:32 to state that saving a life is like saving all mankind. Doesn't the ayat contain the exception clause 'he who kills a soul other than (for) a soul or (for) spreading corruption in the earth then (it) is as if he has killed all [the] mankind'? Wasn't Adam attempting life-extension when he tried to achieve Immortality as per Q20:114-124? Wasn't Adam the most knowledgable person as he had been taught all the names by God Himself? Weren't the ancients mightier and more knowledgable than us? Were they not also committing crimes that were corrupting creation?     

And what exactly is death, the one that pre-exists this life, and the one that follows this life?  Can we risk disobeying God based on our ignorance of the scripture? 

And Allah created the heavens and the earth in truth and that may be recompensed every NAFS for what it has earned, and they will not be wronged.

Have you seen (he) who takes (as) his god his desire and Allah lets him go astray knowingly, and upon his hearing and his heart and puts over his vision a veil? Then who will guide him after Allah? Then will not you receive admonition?

And they say, "Not it (is) but our life (of) the world, we die and we live, and not destroys us except the time." And not for them of that any knowledge; not, they (do) but guess.

And when are recited to them Our Verses clear, not is their argument except that they say, "Bring our forefathers if you are truthful."

Say, "Allah gives you life, then causes you to die; then He will gather you to (the) Day (of) the Resurrection, no doubt about it." But most (of) the people (do) not know. 

[Al-Quran 45:22-26] 

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