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How To Master Your Nafs Part 1
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Part 1 The Nafs And The Mind

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The human being has 4 enemies, according to the Islamic tradition: your nafs
(lower self), your desires (hawa), shaytan (satan), and the dunya (this temporary
material world). In this article, Im going to define the nafs as it has traditionally
been defined, in the Quran and Sunnah. Then Im going to share with you how
this relates to your mind and emotions. Then, Ill give you some techniques you
can use to literally master your nafs, or at the very least, prove to you that you
can.
Much has been written about the nafs by Muslim scholars throughout the ages,
and much has been discovered more recently in Western psychology, and by
leaders of the human potential movement. This series of articles intends to
bridge that gap, and set you up with a new understanding that will literally
empower you to master your nafs. Indeed, its no coincidence that the Arabic
term for psychology is ilm an-Nafs knowledge of the self.

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The first thing to clarify is that there are several definitions that can be given to
the nafs, and the several ways in which the term is used throughout the Quran
and in Islamic literature.

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1. The Nafs as the Lower Self

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Start by thinking of the human being as having a heart a psycho-spiritual

heart the essence of what makes us human. According to the Islamic tradition,
this Qalb or heart contains 2 parts of us. The nafs the lower self and the
ruh the higher self. There is a precedent in the Islamic tradition to avoid overquestioning what the ruh is, because by essence its true nature cannot be
understood by the human mind. It suffices to say that it makes up the best part
of us.

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How To Master Your Nafs Part 1 | Quran For Busy People

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For those of you into psychology, this definition of the nafs is comparable to
Freuds understanding of the id (lower self, nafs), super-ego (higher-self, ruh),
and ego (self the balance between the two). However, what Freud writes about
the id and super ego does not necessarily equate to what the Quran and Sunnah
teach about the nafs and ruh. (The Islamic understanding of the ruh in particular
is very different to Freuds theories about the super-ego)
2. The Nafs as the Level of your soul.
Throughout the Quran, references are made to the nafs and from these scholars
have deduced that there are 7 distinct levels of the nafs. The first and lowest is
nafs al-ammarah the inciting soul which is completely unconscious and
unaware and so inclines towards evil. The highest is nafs al-kamila, the perfect
soul, believed by some to be a station attained only by the Prophets.
The 2 definitions above will give you much more clarity when you read Islamic
writings on the soul, where the term nafs is either being used to describe the
lower self or the current level of your soul.

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With these definitions in mind, I would like to let you in on a theory that allows us
all to understand the connection between our mind, thoughts, emotions and soul,
in accordance with the Quran and Sunnah.

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3. A Psychological Definition Of The Nafs.

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My contention is that the nafs is a word used to describe our thinking mind. This
includes every thought you have or are having right now of the past and the
future, and the emotional patterns triggered by your thoughts. If you want to
master your nafs, the most effective way to do this (as is done automatically by
all the pious people who have mastered their nafs) is to let go of your thoughts.
If this makes absolutely no sense to you right now and youre thinking

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But arent thoughts good?! Arent we meant to think? Isnt it I think, therefore
I am?
then hang in there, because youre about to have a spiritual insight that,
inshaAllah, will bring you much closer to Allah (swt), improve the power of your
Salah, and put a smile on your face for the rest of the day by allowing you to
master your nafs, right now.
The reason your mind, (or your nafs) has a strong reaction to this understanding
is that your whole sense of your self is based around your thinking mind. You
think you are your thoughts. You are not. You are much more than your
thoughts. You are the consciousness, the space, within which the thoughts exist.
Often your thoughts rush through your mind so thick and fast that you can go for
an entire day without ever having peace of mind a peace which can only come
by quieting your thoughts.And sometimes, perhaps during Salah, or the few
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How To Master Your Nafs Part 1 | Quran For Busy People

moments after a Salah, you will have been in a state where there was silence,
not just around you, but inside you. Silence inside your mind. You were free from
thought. Free from your nafs.
When your thoughts are completely quiet, you are fully conscious. When a
thought enters your mind, just notice that the thought entered. Observe the
thought. By doing this, you do not identify with it. You realise that you are the
consciousness that observes the thought, not the thought itself.
Play this game as you read this article. And rest assured that once you get the
point of this article, you can be in a state of no-mind, or no-thought, if only for
a few seconds to start with. Then, you can move on to the following articles and
train your mind (your nafs) so that you control them, rather than allowing them to
control you.
First you must simply notice your thoughts, and realise that you are not your
thoughts. The moment a thought comes up, observe it, and you are outside of it.
You realise that you are more than it.
Mind And Emotions
Its well established in different areas of psychology that your mind and your
emotions are linked. In cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), the aim is to realise
which thoughts came up when you felt a negative emotion, then write out the
distortions in that automatic thought, and think about the situation in a different,
more realistic way. This frees you from the negative emotion, and allows you to
improve your well-being.
In Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a central tennet is that you control your
mind, therefore your emotions and your results. NLP teaches you to direct your
focus or internal representations (ie. the pictures and words that make up your
thoughts) and to direct the way you use your physical body in order to get into
any emotional state you want. This is very cool, and very powerful, and Ill show
you how in a future article, inshaAllah.
Both these methods are good for helping you direct your mind and control your
emotions. In other words, they help you master your nafs. However, the deeper
spiritual state I want you to enter is to be completely free from your thoughtemotion reactional patterns.You can do this instantly, by simply noticing your
thoughts as they enter, and noticing the feelings inside your body when they
come up.
Some great questions to ask yourself consistently to help you enter this state
are:
Whats happening in my body right now?
Is my body at ease right now?

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How To Master Your Nafs Part 1 | Quran For Busy People

Am I at ease right now?

and notice what is happening inside your body. By asking yourself these
questions, you will interrupt the thought/emotion pattern and for a moment you
become present and fully conscious (free from your nafsy-thoughts).
Heres another great question I want you to ask yourself right now. Ask
yourself
I wonder what my next thought will be
Read that question again, close your eyes and pause before continuing.
What happened? Did you have millions of thoughts rushing through your mind
right away, or did you experience a few moments where no thoughts came up?
Most people, myself included experience the latter.
Now that youve experienced the state of no-mind for a few moments, commit
yourself to doing it for a few seconds before the Allahu Akbar at the start of
every Salah you pray today. For a deep, powerful, comprehensive training to
help you let go of thoughts and Master Your Nafs, click here.
To learn more about how to master your nafs, read part 2 here.

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