Human Self (Nafs)

Mankind is a God creation, which consists of two elements: Body and Soul (ar-Rouh). First element is the Body, then God breathed on it the Soul. There the Soul transforms into Self (Nafs), which was provided by God all capacities of hearing, sight and intelligence. By that the Self is prepared to be qualified to take the responsibility of being khalifah (=vicegerent) on earth. God says in the Qur’an: “He (God) Who perfected everything that He created, and He began the creation of mankind with (nothing more than) clay; and made his progeny from a quintessence of the nature of a fluid despised. He proportioned him and breathed into him of His spirit. And He made for you the (faculties of) hearing and sight and feeling (and understanding), (yet) how seldom are you grateful” (32:6-9).

When the life of a person comes to an end, God pulls out the Rouh and puts the Nafs into death, and Body’s structure stops completely.

From many ayat of the Qur’an we understand that the Trust of God is given to the Self (Nafs) of every person. Every Nafs gets the faculty of distinguishing between right and wrong. The Human being should learn that his success, his prosperity, his salvation depends on himself, on his keeping his Self pure as God made it; and his failure, his decline, his perdition depends on his corrupting his Self by choosing evil. During its life, the human Self is undergoing a test period: “Every (human) Self shall taste death, and We will try you with ill and good as an ordeal, and then unto Us you shall be brought back” (21:35).

During that test period God is watching over every Soul: “As for him who have transgressed the bounds of what is right, and preferred the low-life to the good of his Self, that Hell-fire will indeed be the abode” (79:37-39).

The Qur’an mentioned 3 kinds of Human-selves: The Self, which is ever inciting to evil (An-Nafs al-ammarah bis-sou’), The Reproaching-Self (An-Nafs al-lawamah), and The Self in Rest and Satisfaction (An-Nafs al-Mutmainnah). This third kind of Self will be welcomed to Paradise in the Day of Resurrection: “O you Human-Self at peace! Return to your Lord, pleased, pleasing. Then enter among My servants. And enter My Paradise!”(89:27-30).

After finishing the test period of the Soul, God will send the angel who is in charge of stopping the task of the Nafs, by pulling out the Rouh out of it: “Say: The Angel of Death, who has been assigned for you will take off your Self, then you will be brought back to your Lord”(32:11).

And in the Day of Resurrection God will revive the Self again and will return it to its Body, which will be reemerged from the grave.

“The Day when the earth shall be changed into another earth, as shell be the heavens, and when (all people) shell appear before God, the One who holds absolute sway over all that exists”(14:48).

“And (on that Day), the trumpet (of judgment) will be sounded, and all (creatures) that are in the heavens and all that are on earth will fall down senseless, unless they be such as God wills (to exemp). And then it will sound again – and lo! Standing (before the seat of Judgment), they will begin to see (the truth)! And the earth will shine with the light of its Lord and the Book shall be set in place, and the prophets and witnesses will be brought. And judgment will be made between them with truth, and they will not be wronged. And every Nafs (=self) will be paid in full for what  it did, and He is best awake of what they do” (39:68-70).

It is interesting that God incites people to reflect on the phenomenon of sleep and death of the Nafs (human-self). He said in the Qur’an: “God takes (the consciousness of) human-Selves at the time of their death, and, those that have not died in their sleep, then He retains those for whom He has ordained death and releases the others until an appointed term; truly in that there are signs for a people who reflect”

(39:42). The reflection is recommended to be done until the last Day of our life.