Nafs

Nafs is an interesting word. It is related to the word nafas which means breath. From this we can understand that it is the vital soul that derives from the current of the breath. But as our breath is subject to varying conditions and varying impressions in its incarnation and course of life so our soul limits its condition and becomes egoic. The Sufis have described stages of the soul in its experience of egoism. There are three major aspects, or stages, of the nafs which the classical Sufis describe and which Murshid himself describes.

Nafs al‑Ammara
The commanding Soul
 

The first of these is called the Nafs al‑Ammara which means the Commanding Soul‘. This is the impulsive, imperious, self‑centred ego. It simply knows its wants and pursues them ruthlessly. It has no respect for, no awareness even, of any but itself and its needs. That is perhaps a description of the Nafs al‑Ammara at its worst. Like all the aspects of the nafs it has its redeeming features. There is something healthy in the instinct for self‑preservation, survival, the satisfaction of one's needs and desires: that is a necessary dimension of human life, yet when it is out of balance it is an extremely destructive and indeed unpleasant aspect of humankind. It has its roots seemingly in the drive of survival of the fittest, the evolutionary impulse, which is perhaps to be discovered in our very genes, the impulse to survive through self‑assertion, domination; the old instinct of flight or fight. In human culture it becomes refined and its cultural expression is a kind of Epicureanism, a delight in gratifying all the appetites.

The human ego has two sides to its nature; one side is to strive for its nature's demands, and that side of the ego may be classed as the animal ego; but there is another side which manifests when the ego shows its agitations for no other reason than intolerance. This feeling is a kind of blindness, or intoxication, and it arises from an excess of energy coming out from the soul quite unrestrained; it covers, so to speak, the light of the soul as the smoke may cover the light that comes from a flame...

...The ego has a tendency to want more and more of what it likes, regardless of right and justice, also regardless of the after‑effect. Every kind of gratification of desires or appetite gives a tendency to want more and more. Then there is the desire for change of experience, and when a person gives in to it, it never ends. Excess of desire in appetites or passions always produces an intoxication in man. It increases to such an extent that the limited means that man has become insufficient to gratify his desires. Therefore, naturally, to satisfy his desires he wants more than what is his own, and he wants what belongs to other people. When this begins, naturally injustice begins...

...Reason always supplies an excuse for everything. But one cannot escape the consequences, and the remorse that follows proves that a fault has been committed...

...Self‑pity is the worst poverty. It overwhelms man and he sees nothing but his own troubles and pains and it seems to him that he is the most unhappy person more than anyone in the world...

...It is the nature of the ego to exist alone, and it cannot allow another to exist. No doubt the reason is still deeper, it belongs to the deep side of metaphysics...

Nafs al‑Lawwama
The blaming Soul
 

There is a further aspect of the nafs which is called the Nafs al‑Lawwama, meaning the blaming soul. This is the aspect of the nafs which criticizes itself. It is that in you which restrains you, holds you back, makes you hesitate, makes you think of others, makes you think of the consequences of actions. In this there is the quality of reflection and consideration, but there can also be a paralyzing fear and non‑acceptance of self. At first the infant pursues all of its desires naturally, but then for its own protection a parent must put up boundaries and must restrain it from doing things which might cause danger to itself or others. After it has been restrained a number of times it internalizes the voice that says ‘no‘ so that within its own mind there is a voice that is the voice of authority, the voice of limitation. We all go through life having internalized parental and social constraints that become part of our own being: this is necessary for us to live in a harmonious fashion in the world. But sometimes this internalized authority has become over‑powerful, so much so that every natural spontaneous inclination or every movement toward a higher purpose is kept in check by a harsh, domineering critical voice that one can never satisfy, that one can never come to terms with, that within oneself makes one feel that one will never be good enough. In nature this Nafs al‑Lawwama apparently has its basis in the counterpart to survival of the fittest, which is symbiosis, the cooperation of species to create habitats, to create ecosystems where all of the species benefit. In human culture its most notable expression is Stoicism, the philosophy of self‑discipline. These aspects of the self are also to be found in contemporary psychology, and Freud has given technical terms which almost exactly approximate these classical Sufi concepts. The Commanding Self is the Id, the Blaming Self is the Super Ego, and Freud has a third term which is Ego itself.

...Every beautiful action, thought or speech is derived from the effacing of self, or ego. For instance, every manner of courtesy comes from holding the reins of the ego. Beauty of speech always depends on the same effacement of the self, and so it is with thought. As soon as the ego expresses itself without control it hurts the ego of another person...

...No doubt it is difficult for many to discriminate between right and wrong, but by standing face to face with one's ego and recognizing it as someone who is ready to make war against us, and by keeping one's strength of will as an unsheathed sword, one protects oneself from one's greatest enemy, which is one's own ego, and a time comes in life when one can say, "My worst enemy has been within myself."

Man has the desire to do good and to refrain from doing evil because to do so feeds his vanity...

The first lesson that the ego must learn in order to develop into the humane state is that of pride in the form of self‑respect. As man has the inclination to have good clothes and good ornaments in order to appear in the eyes of others as what he considers beautiful, so he must feel the same inclination towards the building of personality by the ornamentation of every action and manner in the way that he considers good and beautiful.

Nafs al‑Mutmainna
The Soul at Rest
 

For the Sufis the integrated ego is what is called the Nafs al‑Mutmainna, which can be translated as the Soul at Rest. The term originates in a verse from the Qu'ran “O soul at rest return to your Lord, contenting and contented. Enter then among my worshippers, enter then my garden.”

I find this wonderful way to understand the quality of the Nafs al‑Mutmainna. It is content in itself and therefore able to offer contentment to others. It is that in us which is returning to its source. It takes its place among those who are devoted to the One. It takes its place in the Garden; whenever one is in the Garden one is necessarily in the state of Nafs al‑Mutmainna. The Nafs al‑Mutmainna is really the soul, the self that has become centred in the heart. Shaykh Ruzbihan Baqli Shirazi said: “When the Commanding Nafs is jolted with the shock of overpowering love it is transformed into the Soul at Rest. He says that the Soul at Rest is said to be within the heart.”

...Life is motion, and it is the nature of motion to strike against something. It does not require strength to stand against the jarring influences of life ‑‑ there is no wall of stone or of iron that can always stand against the waves of the ocean ‑‑ but a small piece of wood, little and light, can always rise and fall with the waves, yet always above them, uninjured and safe. The lighter and the littler man's ego becomes the more power of endurance he has. It is two strong egos that strike against one another. The little ego, the light ego, just slips over when a powerful wave of a strong ego comes for it to knock over itself against a stronger wall that may throw it over.

...The training is to be wise in life, and to understand what we desire and why we desire it and what effect will follow, what we can afford and what we cannot afford. It is also to understand desire from the point of view of justice, to know whether it is right and just...

...Self consciousness is like a chain upon every feature and limb of the body, and in self‑conscious person there is nothing of the smoothness that should flow like a fluid through every expression of life. Its only remedy is forgetting self and putting the whole mind into work and each occupation undertaken.

...The best way of dealing with the question is to let life take its natural course, and at the same time to allow the conscience to keep before it the highest ideal. On one side life taking its natural course, on the other side the conscience holding its highest ideal, balancing it, will make the journey easy...

...There are two essential duties for the man of wisdom and love; that is to keep the love in our nature ever increasing and expanding and to strengthen the will so that the heart may not be easily broken. Balance is ideal in life; man must be fine and yet strong, man must be loving and yet powerful.

...Besides all the other disadvantages that self‑consciousness brings with it, there is above all else one thing it does, it prevents man from realizing that the thought of self keeps him away from God. In the heart of man there is room for one only, either for himself or for God.

Then there is the core within us when we are truly at rest, centred in the heart, fearless, ready to encounter whatever life might bring, contented and contenting, returning to our source, present within the Garden.