A brief way, insha'Allah ta'ala, to say a few things about that is that Allah subhanahu ta'ala created us and of the lata'if that he created in us, of these subtle divine creations that he subhanahu ta'ala laid in us to identify us also as human beings, one of those is the nafs. The nafs is not the thing you can touch. The locus of the nafs is not something you can pinpoint exactly.
It is this, lafeejah, that has to do with the overall human identity. There is a ruح, there is a nafs, there is a qalb, there is a aql, and there are other things. But these are the main elements that we could deal with in this. in this discourse to help us understand our nature and how our nature needs tazkiyah. When we say tazkiyah to an-nafs, the tazkiyah of my nafs, what is this nafs that needs tazkiyah?
And we need to answer those questions from the Qur'an and from the sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ essentially and from that which Allah ﷻ graced some of his servants of ulama and awliya of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, of this ummah of Muhammad ﷺ, and their experiential experiences, we learn many things about these essential realities of which is the nafs. Now, the nafs inside of us, those traits and those... drives inside of us are many. Those drives actually inside of us help us identify the, if you will, the different shades or the different dimensions or the different realities of a nafs. The human being as an essential reality is not what the physical body is.
Our physical body in essential reality, as we look deeper and deeper at the human being, the essential reality of the human being physically is not what the physical body is. speaking, are protons, neutrons, and electrons, atoms and molecules, which every other living creature shares with us, even stones. Non-living creatures share that property of being made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. And the way we look, and the way a tree looks, and the way an insect looks, and the way a cow looks, or a hyena looks. The differences between those physically is based simply upon the arrangements of those molecules made of those atoms made of the same protons, neutrons and electrons. So we look the way we look because of that.
different arrangement, and essentially, physically, we're the same. Now what characterizes me as a human being is what I am inside, what I feel inside, what I know inside, what I harbor. inside, the traits inside of me, the drives inside of me, that's what characterizes me. And those are where our study of the nafs comes. So we have drives inside of us that are, for example, in essential reality no different than those of a Livestock, animal, cattle, cow, forgive me, please forgive me, or a pig, or an insect.
Some of us, if in our lives, our essential focus and our essential drives and the quality average time that we spend in the pursuit thereof If we are like that, then our essential reality is no different than the essential reality of that other creature. For example, forgive me, a cow or a llama or a camel or a pig, whose main pursuits... And that what makes that creature satisfied and pleased and therefore we say happy is the attainment and the acquisition of those means. Eating, drinking, sleeping, playing, copulating. And if we are like that, and a quality time is spent in that way, then we have a nafs, we call this, the essential reality inside of me is a bahimi nafs, is a cattle-like nafs.
because as I think I mentioned before Allah tells us in the Qur'an and when he speaks to us about happiness and about tazkiyah he laid them together قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا tazkiyah is related to happiness now what is this happiness that I want defines the process or the elements of the process of my tazkiyah if I want to be be as happy in my essential reality of happiness as, for example, a cow or a pig, in the sense of my emphasis in life is to work and strive and do things, to ultimately eat and drink and play and copulate and sleep, then my pursuit of happiness is not distinct in essential reality from that of a cattle. And then we have another level of a... another nafs, a nafs that is those drives inside of us, and if we seek to satisfy them, and we live a style of life that is congruent to these following traits, meaning in this case, the following traits that are predatory.
A predator finds satisfaction when killing, when usurping, when killing the competition, when stealing. when overwhelming others and a hyena when it does that or a wild dog when they do that in nature they do that and you look at them after that and they look so cute. and so peaceful.
And that's the way their nature is, in addition to eating, sleeping, and so on. This is a predatory nature. So if I, as a human being, follow a course of happiness to be satisfied by certain means that are such as, let's kill the competition.
Such as usurping others, such as being enraged against others. Part of the traits of a predator, of a wild beast, an animal, is rage and anger and violence. are expressed by me and I find satisfaction in that and we are happy and we celebrate that and we party because we have killed the competition, for example, then in that elation, in that happiness of mine, in essential reality, I'm not happy. I'm not different than a predator.
So that's a qualitative and quantitative sometimes way for me to gauge what I am inside. And that's a predatory nafs. Even worse, there is a shayatani nafs. Inside of me, I could be one whose pursuits of happiness lie also in addition to the previous ones. Could lie also in the traits and the characteristics of a shayatan.
of an Iblis, of a devil, and what are some of the characteristics of a Shaytan? Arrogance, delusion, ostentation, love to be the head of others, deceit, lying, backbiting, sowing seeds of animosity. Shirk of all sorts. And then I find pleasure in that.
That's a shaytani pursuit, lying, cheating. Every time I express such a thing, such a khuluq, such a character, such a trait, I am actually in a sense wearing the heart of a shaytan, the personality of a shaytan. My nafs at that moment, my inner reality at that moment is shaytani.
That's a shaytani nafs. And some of us human beings feel elated and are happy. on account of having fulfilled such drives inside of us, instead of the tazkiyah process to help us liberate our hearts from these characteristics that are nafsani.
Because otherwise... The heart will become a nafs. When these traits that I mentioned of the nafs are predominant inside of me, in this projection into two dimensions as we sometimes do on the board, this projection of the beyond, two, three dimensions and three dimensions.
projection into two dimensions, then this heart is taken over by the nafs. And I become a nafs. So I say, I love you, I hate you, I dislike you. I agree with you, I disagree with you, this is right, this is wrong, I feel. Which is I that does all of that?
This I could be simply a combination of one of those three selves or nafs. Luckily, there is another nafs, another state, the angelic self, the angelic nafs. One, since it is angelic, an angel's nature. is to find satisfaction and pleasure and happiness in that which is lofty, spiritual, moral, ethical. Knowing, to know is angelic.
To know the divine is the ultimate goal of knowledge. And then to be in response to that grace of knowledge, to be in dhikr, in dua, in kindness, in siddq, in truthfulness, in humility, in humble. to be always that way and to pursue that path, that's an angelic nature. That nafs is a malaiki nafs.
And it is either this one or a combination of the other ones that will take over the identity of what we call a heart. Wallah ta'ala.