Nafs and Ruh: Contravailing Forces of our Being The Pull of our Lower Nature verses Moving to Serenity Everything in life has contravailing forces which are in a constant [motion, like] the pull of the nafs downward, so to speak, toward the world and the lower parts of our nature; and the pull of the rūh upward. The word nafs in Arabic has a number of meanings. One meaning is the essence or nature of something s reality, what makes it apparently real. It is associated with life of the physical world, and with breath. To the Sufi, the meaning of nafs really encompasses the totality of the latā if (the subtle organs of perception), the attributes, the faculties of the physical spirit, the natural instincts. When Allah showered His Nur upon His creation, and the spirit of the human being came into the clay, then the nafs was activated or empowered with certain basic instincts for good and for evil. It was said in the nass of the words of the Qur an, by the nafs and by the proportion and order given to it, and its enlightenment and inspiration as to its wrong and its right. Allah talks about these two aspects of nafs, the wrong and the right. What Allah says prior to that tells us something more. He says, By the sun and his very splendor, and by the moon as she follows him; by the day as it shows through the sun s glory and by the night as it conceals it; by the firmament and its wonderful structure; by the earth and its wide expanse. We should see first that Allah paints this vast picture of the physical universe and its power, its intricacy, and the implication of its length of existence and time. Then He introduces nafs, perhaps to point out to us the vastness and complexity of the nafs itself, against the backdrop of this huge, complex universe. 1
When we think about creation, let s not think only about this earth. Let s think about all of the planets, and all of the stars, and all of the galaxies, and all of the matter and dark energy that Allah Swt created, and then He created the nafs / self. Maybe this is a kind of attempt to explain in some rational way that duality of the human being, the actions that cause us to do things that are wrong, or even embarrassing, or even just to make excuses for ourselves in this world. Even making excuses is a problem, and an expression of the nafs. We know how easy that is. How many excuses did you make today? The attributes of the nafs are very chameleon like. It changes from one moment to the next. Our doubts are part of our nafs. Our very rational questions about Allah and the Prophet (sal), and practices, and religion, are all part of the nafs. At the same time, as you know, you can be pulled toward spirituality. There is something right about spirituality. And then we split the hairs: I like spirituality; I don t like religion. I like the concept of justice, but I don t know about this God thing. This is the duality we live in: the pulling upward and the pulling downward. And every moment there is a different shape, like the clouds moving. Every time you look up, the clouds are there, but they have different shapes. Each breath / nafas we take sets the stage for a new deception, a new excuse, a new doubt, a new question, a new act of righteousness and goodness, a new submission. It never ends, not in the physical world; hence, the necessity to understand the alam al-khalq (the world of creation), and our expectations in the world of creation. But if we are to understand nafs, we have to understand it s related to the cognition and understanding of Allah Swt; therefore, the most that nafs can be, the most that anything can be of this world is an isharat an indicator, a hint of something greater, of Hu or It. The depths of the nafs are incomprehensible, just as a full understanding of the Divine is impossible. It is ever changing. It is difficult to understand nafs 2
because let s just say, how easy is it to manage your own self? Allah Swt gave us means and gave us guidelines to work with ourself and to transcend at times, for a period of time, that pull downward, so as to experience states and stations of peacefulness, of tranquility. It was said by Imam Ali (ra), I and my nafs are nothing but a shepherd herding his sheep. That is, he gathers them from one side, yet they are scattered again on the other side. There s not much you can do about it but sort of herd them along, as they have their mind of their own. Then, of course, there are the dimensions of the nafs we are familiar with, nafs ammāra, the lower self that incites us toward doing wrong actions; the nafs lawwama, the accusing or blaming self; nafs mut mainna, the serene self. Each has its own attributes and characteristics, but they are characteristics of the same nafs. They are not separate selves. It begins with a self incited toward the lower aspects of life, and eventually works toward the end when we have examined our self, and protested against the pull downward. We have inclined ourselves away temporarily from disobedience and competition and anger. We become calm by the nafs mut mainna. And we realize that calmness really couldn t possibly have just come from ourselves. We were never able to control ourselves, or overcome our torpor, or overcome our anger, or our excuse-making, or our laziness, or our fearfulness, or our doubts. If we follow certain guidelines and instructions for trust, and we think sincerely, then we have these moments of peacefulness and tranquility. We know they come from some other dimension, by the fayd of Allah Swt. The nafs / lower self loses the battle, or at least [it is] at a different maqam, and is transformed into contentment. When that happens, we have achieved to the nafs mut mainna, the serene self. We could say that in the beginning, the nafs tries to pull the soul down toward the world, but 3
one is the beginning, one is the middle, and one is the end. You can be in the beginning for a long time. Sal Abdullah said, For every nafs there is a sirr/secret. That secret has not been revealed to anyone except for the Pharoah, saying, I am your Lord most high. There are 7 hijab to the nafs. If the person buries his nafs under the veils of this earth, avoiding the desires and the lusts, then his heart flies aloft. Once he completely buries his nafs, indeed his heart reaches the Divine throne. Abu Yazid said, When a peron s nafs dies, he is wrapped in the cloth of mercy and buried in the ground of benevolence. But when his heart dies, he is wrapped around with the cloth of curses, and buried in the ground of punishment. The implication here is that the heart stays alive only when the nafs dies. Junayd said, The nafs amara invites toward exclusively many deaths, and the followers of lusts are immersed in the afflictions, riddled by accusations of heinous crimes. Those accusations can come from our own self, our own reflection, our own contemplation of our lives, our actions, our words, our thoughts, our temperament. And each time is like we die. We experience many deaths. The strong one is not the one who conquers the people; indeed, the strong one is the one conquering his nafs. So, who are we? Scientifically, we are atoms and molecules, within which is poured this nafs and this rūh. The nafs is pulling toward the lower characteristics, and the rūh is pulling up toward the Divine sublimeness and the heart has an opportunity. The heart is opportunistic did you ever notice? It likes to be recognized, to seize the moment. So it takes sides with the winner of whoever is winning. If the lower nature is winning, the heart takes sides with that. If the higher nature is, the heart takes sides with that. If the nafs wins, then the heart is filled with desires and 4
vanity and temptations, excuses and manipulations, and insecurities. If the rūh wins, the qalb is filled with love. These subtle latā if (subtle organs of perception) exist even after the body has turned to dust. Because of the science of today, we understand that there is only the slightest difference between a human being and a worm, genetically, or a fly, or a mosquito. The faqir, the dervish, the seeker, the Sufi is given the power to differentiate themselves, even though we are basically all genetically the same. We have the power to look for the Nūri-Llāh, the Divine light, the light that transformed us from the lowest of the low that any living thing is, genetically, almost exactly the same to the highest of the high, to the most notable of Allah s creations, because we can see and be transformed by the Nūri-Llāh (the Light of Allah Swt). Understanding this self as it says in the Hadith Quds, Know thyself and know thy Lord is the very first step to knowledge / marifah. Knowledge is as endless as nafs is deathless, and as unattainable as understanding Allah Swt. This Divine knowledge, marifah, is built upon this ever-changing platform. Think about what you know. Then think about when you get into a bad mood, or anger, or distraction; where does all that knowledge go? How much worth does it have to you in that moment? It s on moving platform. Moving platforms are very scary. I remember being in Coney Island when I was a very little kid. We went on the steeple chase ride. They look like carousel horses, going down a track. You had a race with the other horses. When you get off, the floor is moving, and you have to get yourself across the floor; and I was scared to death. Then there was a clown there with a compressed air sprayer, and he blows up the skirts of all the girls as they came off. Everyone is screaming, and the floor s moving, and I m 5 years old. Knowledge is like that a moving floor. If you are serene then, think about your access to your knowledge. When your desires are motivating you, when your lowest 5
nature is motivating you (however you justify it) to drink, take drugs, do things that are illicit, eat bad food, to lie, to cheat. No matter what your education is, compare your knowledge [when motivated by the lower nature] to being in a state of serenity. Allah says that if we can rest in this peace and understanding, then we can manage the nafs. But the dervish behaves like a shepherd, and the flock is ever scattered. Allah Swt says to the righteous soul, O thou soul in complete rest and repose. This repose does not come only from some kind of effort that is a struggle, but it comes from our faith. Until we allow ourselves the possibility of being faithful (full of faith), we are always going to be pre-disposed to distraction. Our knowledge will act, in some cases, as a contra-indicator of that faith. We will access our knowledge to argue against iman. But that repose of the mind, of the soul is due to faith. Allah says, Those who believe and whose hearts find repose in the remembrance of Allah, truly in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find their repose or tranquility. That stage of tranquility, nafs mut mainna, lies in those who believe, and whose hearts become quiet in that tranquility. In the story of Ibrahim (as), he wanted to know how the dead were raised back to life. His reason for asking this question from Allah was to Calm my heart with serenity and repose. You see what was bothering him. He wanted to know what happened after death. He said that this will bring peace to my heart to be able to understand this. Ibn Abdullah said, Once the heart of the slave is at calm and repose in the presence of his divine master, then his hal (that momentary state of the heart) is empowered such that all things become familiar, all things become clear and manageable by him. When? When the heart is calm. When is it calm? When it is aware of the Divine Presence. How do you become aware of the divine presence? 6
You practice. You pray. You sit in muraqabah. You serve. You serve the Prophet, the guide, your brother and your sister. You serve your heart. Hasan ibn Al Bin Qami was asked about this verse: To the righteous nafs will be said, O thou in complete rest and repose. And he replied, Once the hearts are refreshed with familiarity, beatitude and serenity, then they would know it beatitude due to the marifah, the cognizance of its Divine glory; refreshed due to knowing its mercy and fadl; serene due to knowing its true and loyal friendship and sufficiency to provide; and familiarity due to its Divine beauty and grace/luft. Someone asked Shibli (ra) what the meaning of that quote was. He said, That is when the nafs comprehends truly who is behind its power. When the nafs truly comprehends what is behind the force. And then it suddenly becomes calm. Aha! All of this restlessness, all of this argumentation, all of this doubt, all of this excuse making, all of this lack of trust, all of this intellectualization, all of a sudden changes when you become aware of where that power is from. Repose and serenity, mut mainna, comes as a momentary state/hal. For the person who maintains that practice and embraces that moment, it eventually becomes a maqam. Once one becomes filled with faith, faith-full, the knowledge one has takes its form. That is to say, all the aspects of your knowledge you recognize are interlinked. The heart becomes cleansed, and all because you are remembering where it all came from: dhikr. You are remembering the Source. The hearts become calm, and the pleasure is when our daily needs are fulfilled, when disasters are deflected by Allah. For that reason Allah said, To the righteous soul it will be said, O thou soul in complete rest and repose. Meaning there is no other force but rest and repose. Nothing can block you; nothing can damage you. And no other blessings are needed. Nothing can afflict you. 7
We can go through each of these stages of nafs, but what we will come back to is moment to moment, we have to repel, we have to deflect, we have to deal with our anxieties and stress, our habits, our doubts, our knowledge, our peacefulness, and our confusion. Once one knows that this is the journey, the sayr ul suluk, we take recourse in the Qur an, the texts, the writings of the awliya-llāh, because they keep reminding us. They keep affirming for us our journey. If you are going to be attracted to something, you attract yourself to the truth, or to knowledge itself about the truth, or to knowledge about how to find the truth, or to knowledge of what it is like to be in the company of a knowledgeable person who is living in that truth, beginning with Rasūlu-Llāh (sal). We sort of wallow in our own ignorance, and periodically, we look for the truth, grabbing with our muddied, ignorant hand the pure Book as a lifeline. When we learn to see with the eyes, we are looking through a quantum telescope. We are looking into another dimension. We are traveling through that quantum tunnel, majaz, and we see in a glimpse that everything is a metaphor for the truth. Everything is connected, and we are here in this world, and there simultaneously. We are peering into that other world, just like a person in the tomb looks upon Paradise from their barzakh. And how good you are depends on how wide open your window is. The one who is the best of the best, the barzakh is like a thin veil: clear, crystal or glass where you are looking out into the Paradise as if you are there. And time passes quickly, just like when you are in a movie theater. You are looking at the screen and you become involved in the movie, to the extent you feel the emotions of the movie or the characters. You are having conversations in your mind with those things on the screen. You are sensing what you are seeing, even to the extent that it brings back memories of sights and smells and sounds. There s hardly a veil 8
between you and reality. We have all had that experience. When your eyes, from the higher state, are looking at the suffering and misery in the world, sometimes you get a glimpse of another world. Sometimes you see a photograph of a child dying of starvation, but all you see in their arms is serenity and calmness. Have you seen those pictures? In that, Allah sends a message that when we resign ourselves to our truth and our reality, we become calm and peaceful. The mind stops; even the hunger stops. Taking the knowledge of life and bringing it into Tasawwuf, [which I am trying to do] every time I sit here, all this is isharat, a hint. We say in English, You take the hint or you don t. I gave a hint; but the person didn t get it. If you give someone a hint, they have to act on it, or choose not to act on it, trust or not trust. It s obviously not a matter of what you read in a book, or hear in a dars or lecture. But that serenity comes from a resolution inside one s own self. The example of the starving child in serene arms, a matter of life and death, is an example of another way one achieves nafs mut mainna, which is, one resolves themselves to their state, and that resolves the problem. That resolves all of the factors that cause the poverty, the starvation, or the disease, or even the destiny. It s all resolved. This is the complexity of the nafs ammāra. It is the reality of the moving floor. If you can understand that when you get down, there is going to be a moving floor, and you are going to have to find your way out, [then you can] resolve the fact that there are endless machinations of the nafs. But if one embraces the means and the direction, then the heart finds rest. I don t know any way other than that. 9
Since day to day life is so confusing, and so distracting, and so filled with regretful actions, words, thoughts, doubts and suspicion, lack of clarity, lack of good articulation, it seems to me that whatever we can steal for meditation, reflection, intention, tawajjuh toward Allah, we should be anxious to have. It s hard to understand why with all the distractions, we wouldn t, given the opportunity, spend a few moments, let alone an hour or 40 minutes, twice a day, in a state of peace or eventual tranquility why one wouldn t choose it. People should be knocking down the gates of the tariqah, if you know. Hey, here s the treasure. Here s the way to relieve yourself of those worries. As long as the person seeking that doesn t meet most of you, everything will be okay! I say it about the Global Youth Village: people should be knocking down the doors to come to it. What experience does one have, let alone hundreds if not thousands of people have, that last them 20, 30 years and mold their lives? How many people have that kind of experience? Not many. Then, remember it and praise it, even though it might be three weeks of their lives not four years of college, not 12 years of high school, 4 years of medical school, 6 years of graduate work and a Ph.d. Their loyalty is to a place where they spent three weeks. Isn t that pretty miraculous? I think so! The treasure is right in front of you. Why the heck don t you take it? The only answer is what? Tell me the last word in my dars: NAFS. Thank you very much. Salaamu aleykum, everyone. 10