When ‘Nafs e ammara’, the carnal soul of man is bridled with moral and ethical teachings and is cultured with the light and experience of ages, the nafs or the soul or the inner self turns to ‘Nafs e lawamma’ or the moral self. This moral self teaches man to be within the bounds of ‘Hoodadullah’ or the accepted norms, traditions and fundamental rules laid down by the Shariat. The moral code of conduct refines and chisels the ‘Nafs e ammara’ and grinds it to remove its chaff, namely the raw or rudimentary behavior more akin to carnal desires, passions and animal tendencies in man. The rough and tough behavior of the mind, body and soul is cultured with refined behavior. The rough feelings and outburst of temper tantrums, hatred, jealousy, and strong impulsive behavior is cultured and the inner self is made to listen to the commands of consciousness and intelligence. The moral self looks for uprightness and walks on path of goodness. It looks for beneficial tendencies and does not act in a harmful way to self and for others.
It walks on the path of learning and knowledge. ‘Nafs e lawamma’ is the inner good conscience which keeps alerting the mind and soul, whenever it turns unruly and misconducts itself.
“And I do call witness the self reproaching spirit (Nafs e lawamma)” Surah: 65:2
It is the moral self of man and it is a conscience keeper to make man to tread on the path of goodness and to be a law abiding person. The ‘Nafs e ammara’ is the passionate self, influenced by prejudices, anger, and ego and driven by animal instinct. The cultural training and fear of Allah keeps the actions of ‘Nafs e ammara’ under check and the inner self develops a voice and that is the voice of ‘Nafs e lawamma’. Thus we find the consciousness being a three layered. ‘Nafs e ammara’ – the raw passionate self, ‘Nafs e lawamma’ – the moral self and ‘Nafs e mutmaenna’ – the surrendered and subjugated self to the commands of Allah and to the love of Prophet (Pbuh). Whenever the inner consciousness is disturbed and gets awakened, it alerts the mind and reminds us of its responsibilities and duties for fulfillment. Nafs is the soul and lawamma is the questioning self. Thus in every human self, the upper most part of the consciousness is unbridled self, which is self centered and is carried away by self interest and emotions of anger, jealousy, self preservation and selfishness. The middle trained and educated self is the moral consciousness of man or ‘Nafs e lawamma’, which is the most important conscious. Its voice is alive and should not be deliberately stifled or made to wither away. The process of purification of heart and mind is helped through the questioning self i.e. ‘Nafs e lawamma’. Deliberately, closing the doors of ‘Nafs e lawamma’ makes a person hard hearted, stony, quarrelsome, egoistic and dictatorial. A lively person in his silent moments listens to his questioning self for his own correction and for guidance. Allah guides the soul towards the path of guidance, for which the consciousness should be made alive and its voice should be heard forever.
(The writer is editor of ‘Sufi World’. He can be contacted at internationalsuficentre@ gmail.com)