The Soul (Nafs) النَّفْس

Overview

An-Nafs (Arabic: النَّفْس; plural anfus) is the Quranic term for the human soul or self — encompassing both the living person and its moral and psychological states. The word is used extensively across the Quran, sometimes interchangeably with ar-Rūḥ (in the senses where they overlap), but more often in ways that emphasise the moral self that strives, errs, repents, and is held accountable.

The Quran identifies three principal states of the nafs:

1. An-Nafs al-Ammāra bi-s-Sūʾ — the commanding self that incites toward evil (Surah Yusuf 12:53).
2. An-Nafs al-Lawwāma — the self-reproaching soul (Surah Al-Qiyamah 75:2).
3. An-Nafs al-Muṭmaʾinna — the tranquil soul (Surah Al-Fajr 89:27).

Quranic references

• Surah Ash-Shams 91:7–10 — "By the soul and He who proportioned it, and inspired it [with discernment of] its wickedness and its righteousness — he has succeeded who purifies it, and he has failed who instils it [with corruption]."
• Surah Al-Baqarah 2:286 — "Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear."
• Surah Az-Zumar 39:42 — "Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that do not die [He takes] during their sleep."
• Surah Al-Anʿam 6:151 — "Do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden, except by [legal] right."
• Surah Yusuf 12:53 — "Indeed the soul is a persistent enjoiner of evil, except those upon whom my Lord has mercy."
• Surah Al-Qiyamah 75:2 — "And I swear by the reproachful soul."
• Surah Al-Fajr 89:27–30 — "O reassured soul, return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing."
• Surah An-Naba 78:40 — "On the Day a man will observe what his hands have put forth."

Hadith

Anas reported the Prophet ﷺ said: "None of you will enter Paradise by his deeds alone." They said: "Not even you, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: "Not even me, unless Allah envelops me in His mercy. So strive to act rightly." — Sahih al-Bukhari 5673; Sahih Muslim 2816

Significance

The nafs is the locus of moral struggle and accountability. Classical scholarship (Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn al-Qayyim) develops the doctrine of tazkiyat an-nafs — purification of the self — as the work of a lifetime, which the Quran in Surah Ash-Shams 91:9 identifies as the criterion of success.

See also

• An-Nafs al-Ammara
• An-Nafs al-Lawwama
• An-Nafs al-Mutma'inna
• Ar-Ruh
• Iman
• Muttaqin

References

1. The Quran (Sahih International translation): Surahs Al-Baqarah 2:286; Al-Anʿam 6:151; Yusuf 12:53; Az-Zumar 39:42; Al-Qiyamah 75:2; An-Naba 78:40; Al-Fajr 89:27–30; Ash-Shams 91:7–10.
2. Sahih al-Bukhari 5673; Sahih Muslim 2816.
3. Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, ar-Rūḥ; Madārij as-Sālikīn, sections on the nafs.
4. al-Ghazali, Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm ad-Dīn, book on disciplining the soul (with classical hadith caveats).