Nafs: Ego, Self or Personality

Nafs: Ego, Self or Personality How the Quranic concept of nafs contrasts with Freud’s theory of personality development and Nietzsche’s Superman

BY M. BASHEER AHMED

The Quran uses nafs to indicate our inner self or personality, the seat of our desires, anger, love, passion, and awareness of right and wrong; our consciousness; and the ability to achieve peace and self-satisfaction by controlling our self-centered desires. The Quran proclaims that each individual is responsible for choosing the appropriate behavior based on its guidelines: “O you who have believed, upon you is [responsibility for] yourselves” (5:105).

There are three types of nafs: al-nafs al-ammara, al-nafs al-lawwama and al-nafs al-mutma’inna.

The nafs al-ammara is dominated by inner desires, self-satisfaction and immediate gratification — “The human soul is certainly prone to evil” (12:53) — namely, greed, power and dominance without regard for right or wrong, justice or inequity. It seeks the pleasures of this world and embraces such characteristics as self-admiration and self-praise, arrogance and pride, lying, gossip and backbiting, envy and jealousy, criticism, dissatisfaction, selfishness, greed and love of self. Muslims are urged to control such desires by treating others with humility, respect, dignity and similar qualities.

The Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) once noted this struggle’s importance after returning from a battle, “We now return from the lesser struggle (al-jihad al-asghar) IN COMPARISON TO FREUD AND NIETZSCHE, THE QURAN GIVES A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONCEPT OF NAFS AND ITS ROLE IN DEVELOPING A PERSON’S CHARACTER IN SUCH A WAY THAT IT CAN REACH THE LEVEL OF AL-NAFS AL-MUTMA’INNA (THE SOUL AT PEACE).

to the greater struggle (al-jihad al-akbar). Ali (radi Allahu ‘anh) said, “The nafs al-ammara is like a wild horse upon which you are riding. If you move your attention for one second, he will throw you off.”

The nafs al-lawwama enables people to be conscious oftheir own imperfections by blaming themselves for following their insatiable desires and demanding instant gratification. It desires what is good, is aware of the excellence of good actions and keeps the self away from wrong actions and bad deeds: “I swear by the self-reproaching soul” (75:2). Engaging in wrong actions produces guilt, which increases so much that the person begins to correct or avoid such actions so that he/she will stop feeling shame, embarrassment and regret.

At this stage, the person’s conscience is awakened; the self begins to accuse him/her for obeying the id’s commands; and his/her consciousness, rationality and aspirations inspire the nafs al-lawwama to be perfect: “By the One who brought the self to equilibrium inspiring it with its transgression and its consciousness” (7:8). Anas ibn Malik reported: “The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, ‘All of the children of Adam [and Eve] are sinners, and the best sinners are those who repent” (“Sunan al-Tirmidhi,” hadith no. 2499).

The nafs al-mutma’inna is a state of serenity, tranquility and peace, for one has reached the stage where he/she no longer commits wrong actions and bad deeds: “As for you, O content soul, return to your Lord, pleased and pleasing” (89:27-28). Having lived a disciplined life, such people have finally become selfless and humble by abandoning false pride, greed and dominance. Their only desire is to serve humanity for the rest of their life, which should be everyone’s ultimate goal.

As we can see, the Quranic concept of nafs has an extremely modernistic undertone, much like Freud’s theory of personality development and Nietzsche’s Superman (Übermensch).

FREUD’S PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT THEORIES Freud postulated that the personality (human psyche) is structured into three parts — the id, the ego and the superego — all of which develop at different life stages. Humans are born with the id, the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that generates the desire for immediate gratification. The ego is the realistic part that mediates between the id and the superego, and the superego operates as a moral conscience.

These purely psychological concepts, which do not correspond to the brain’s structures, constantly interact among themselves. Ultimately, the ego must determine how to meet the id’s needs while upholding social reality and the superego’s moral standards.

The id drives newborns’ behavior, as they are concerned only with meeting their needs, and thus remains infantile. As it is the source of an infant’s bodily needs, wants, desires and impulses, it never considers reality and thus remains illogical, selfish and focused on obtaining pleasure.