The Concept of the Soul (Nafs) in the Philosophical-Thesavvuf Discourse

Abstract

At the very beginning of the paper, the historicity of the human desire for the Truth was pointed out, with a special reference to the concept of tasawwuf as a way of searching for the Truth within the Muslim religious tradition. An explanation of the concept of Tasawwuf, as well as its historical development and certain teachings that are practiced within the twelve present Tasawwuf (Dervish-Sufi) orders, was presented. On that occasion, it was pointed out that in the Tasawwuf tradition, the path to knowledge is as important as the knowledge itself (Truth), and according to that, in this paper we especially tried to clarify the organs of cognition: ruh (spirit), aql (mind), qalb (illuminated heart), fu’ad (spiritual heart), hiyal (spiritual imagination) and nafs (soul). Special attention was paid to the concept of the soul (soul) as an organ of cognition, where the existence of seven levels of mental cognition was highlighted. Namely, in the Tasawwuf tradition, seven levels of the soul are mentioned, and those are: “the soul that is inclined to evil” (an-nafs al-Ammara), above which is the “soul that chastises itself” (an-nafs al-Lawwama), which is below the “inspired soul” (an-nafs al-Mulhimma). After the third stage, the spiritual journey moves along paths from “calm” (an-nafs al-Mutmainna), through “satisfied” (an-nafsar-Radiyya) and “one with whom God is pleased” (an-nafs al-Mardiyya) to “pure souls” (an-nafs as-Safiyya, or an-nafs al-Kemaliyya). At the very end of the work, the significance of the spiritual journey (as-sayr as-suluq) is emphasized, during which the dervish, through the spiritual struggle (muyahed) with himself and his personal passions, rises to the cognitive horizons where nothing exists but the Almighty God.