CII talk delivered by Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed. 18-11-10 [Question 1 of 3]

Q1: Can you please explain the different types of nafs, nafs-e-ammara, nafs-e-lawwama and nafs-e-mutmainna.

A: In the Quran-e-Kareem the word nafs is used in two ways.

1. First way that the word nafs is
used, is to indicate our own-self. Some people would translate it in
English as self, some people would translate it in English as soul. An
example of this is when Allah Almighty says in the Quran:

وَاذْكُرْ رَبَّكَ فِي نَفْسِكَ

 And remember your Rabb inside your-self

[7:205]

2. The second way the nafs has been used in the Quran, which is quite frequent, is that the nafs is
referring to a specific part of our self and it is that part of our
self that has desires, appetite, some people call it ego. It has anger,
it has passion, it has lust, desire, it has all these things. Some
people may even call it the carnal self or the carnal soul. This nafs is
not part of the Ruh, its part of the physical human being. So
if we wanted to say that we have some physical part of our creation,
that is our body and our nafs and then Allah Almighty has also
put inside of ourselves an inner or spiritual part of our creation, that
is our ruh. This nafs is part of our physical self, even though its not
part of our physical body.

Three adjectives have been used in the Nobel Quran to describe three different types of nafs.

1. Nafs-ul-ammarah.

 إِنَّ النَّفْسَ لَأَمَّارَةٌ بِالسُّوءِ

 Indeed the nafs that overwhelmingly commands a person to do sin.[12:53]

So this refers to that nafs, that is
ruling over the self. This means that the nafs commands us and tells us
what to do. So when the nafs has any desire, any wish, any appetite, it
simply commands us, it dominates us. It is that nafs which is sovereign
over a human being, it has sovereignty over us. What it means is that
the nafs is sovereign over us, if it is Ammarah, it means we
are subjugated by it, we are sub-ordinate to it, we listen and follow
all of its dictates and commands. So this is the first type of nafs
and the sign that a person has this type of nafs is that they sin
willingly, blatantly, remorselessly, in any way that they ever want.

And if we think about it, in many
places in the west, this concept is actually glorified because people
say ”you should do whatever makes you happy, do whatever pleases you, do
whatever your heart desires”. They may glamorize that by saying that
it’s the heart but actually there are many people, whether in east or
west, even muslims now, that are doing what our passion desires. So that
means that we have a nafs-ul-ammarah.

2. Nafs-ul-lawwamah.

Lawwamah, lawwam, it’s the same type of word as ammar and Allah  Almighty has mentioned this in Quran:

وَلَا أُقْسِمُ بِالنَّفْسِ اللَّوَّامَةِ

[75:2]

Lawwam here means to self incriminate, to self reproach, to have blame, to do mulamat of oneself. So, this is that nafs that does sometimes bring a person to do sin, but then that nafs self
incriminates itself, it reproaches itself, it feels bad, it feels
guilty. And then this guilt is supposed to increase so much so then the
person leaves those sins because they feel so guilty about them. So, the
sign of this is precisely  that the person has such a nafs that when
they commit a sin they feel remorse, regret, they feel guilt, they feel
shame, they feel embarrassment, they wish they could take it back, they
wish they never did it, they may even intend at that moment never to do
that again. So, they are fighting a battle with their nafs. Sometimes they make sin and sometimes they are able to stay away from sin.

3. Nafs-ul-mutmainnah.

يَا أَيَّتُهَا النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ ارْجِعِي إِلَى رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةً مَرْضِيَّةً

 To the righteous it will be said “oh reassured soul, return to your Lord well pleased, and pleasing to Him”

[89:27-28]

So, Allah Almighty addresses the mutma’in nafs. And mutma’in here means two things.

a) Number one is that they are mutma’in, they are content with the hukm of
Allah Almighty, there is nothing else that makes them happy. So, this
person is also doing what makes them happy. But this person has been
molded and trained and disciplined it in such a way, that the only thing
that makes it happy, that gives it solace, the only thing that it ismutma’in on,
that it is content with, is what Allah Almighty is please with, what
Allah Almighty is content with. So, it’s heart’s content lies in that
which Allah Almighty is happy and pleased with.

b) Second meaning of mutma’in is that
has reached a state of serenity. The serene, contented, tranquility, at
peace nafs. And obviously, the peace here means that it has aman,
itminan from doing sin and also aman and itminan from desiring sin. It
has no unlawful desires. It has desires, that is what the nafs does, but
it only desires good things. The sign of this is exactly what we just
mentioned that this person, not only do they not do sin, they no longer
desire sin. That faculty, that part of their humanity that desires, only
and only desires things that Allah Almighty views as desirable and has
stopped desiring those things that Allah Almighty has labeled as
undesirable.

So, these are the three types of nafs. Nafs-ul-Ammarah, Nafs-ul-Lawwamah and Nafs-ul-Mutmainnah.

Article source: ZaynabAcademy