[Al-Quran 50:6-8] Have they not looked at the heaven above them - how We structured it and adorned it and how it has no rifts? And the earth - We spread it out and cast therein firmly set mountains and made grow therein [something] of every beautiful kind, Giving insight and a reminder for every servant who turns [to Allah].

Nafs

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ رَهِينَة

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

[Q74:38]


وَأَمَّا مَنْ خَافَ مَقَامَ رَبِّهِ وَنَهَى النَّفْسَ عَنِ الْهَوَى

But as for (him) who feared standing (before) his Lord, and restrained his النَّفْسَ from الْهَوَى,

[Q79:40]


When Adam and his wife prayed for forgiveness and mercy, they cried that they had wronged their nafs. Allah turned to them, and sent them temporarily to this earth. We all hope to return to The Gardens of Eternity, to inherit them as the progeny of Adam. 

The Quran explains in detail all we need to know. The noun Nafs is mentioned 295 times in it. 

The following is a chronological list of my learnings about and concepts related to the Nafs. 

In the earlier posts, the concept of nafs is not explicitly explored, and is often lost in translations which use pronouns instead of the noun. For example, a translation may read 'yourselves' even though the Arabic text 'أَنْفُسَكُمْ' translated literally means 'your nafs'. However, in hindsight, those learnings were important and significant to building up to a more explicit realisation of the concept. 

In posts since 2017, with the realisation of the importance of the nafs, there is a growing focus on the need to study and know more about the nafs as an entity independent of the body, a possession we risk losing.  

For a quick search, I've highlighted in blue, and placed a red exclamation mark next to the posts most-focused on Nafs: 



















 

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