ENGLISH ISLAM – SR3

NOTES
1.2 : HUMAN NATURE AND THE HUMAN CONDITION

HUMAN NATURE AND THE HUMAN CONDITION

Human Nature
According to Islam, the human being is born in the state of original inherent nature of the human being.
Man comes into the world with a pure and wholesome nature. Whereas sin and corruption in human
being are merely accidental and violation of his original nature. The role of prophets and the scriptures
is just to help human nature to flow in its true channel and to guide human nature to its ultimate goal of
eternal felicity. This Qur’anic theory of human nature also implies the fact that if man consciously
decides to submit himself to the will of Allah, he experiences no conflict in his personality. (10:62)
while, on the other hand, if he missuses his freedom of choice by denying God and not submitting to His
will, would be in a state of inner conflict and his personality gets disintegrated. Man has been given the
freedom of choice to do good or evil. Man has also been granted potentialities to acquire knowledge of
how everything else in the universe functions as well as the knowledge required for his felicity.
The components of Human Nature are nafs(psych), ruh( soul/spirit), qalb(heart), etc.

NAFS/ PSYCH
Nafs (Ahfus or Nufus) lexically means psych, self, life, person, heart and mind.
Nafs is used normally to denote to the personality of a person. It also means knowledge and intellect. It
is used for a person as well. It is further used to express greatness, superiority, courage, resolution and
punishment.
The Quran has described three main types of Nafs which are:-
1. Al Nafs ul Ammarah; -
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. 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.
2. Nafs-ul-Lawwamah:-
Lawwam means to self incriminate, to self reproach, to have blame of oneself. This is the 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(The self at peace):-
The third and highest stage of Nafs. Heremutma’in means two things. Number one is that they are
content with the will of Allah, there is nothing else make them happy. So, it’s heart’s content lies in
that which Allah Almighty is happy and pleased with. Second meaning of mutma’in is that has
reached a state of serenity. The serene, contented, tranquility, at peace nafs. It has no unlawful
desires. It has desires, that is what the nafs does, but it only desires good things.

QALB/ HEART
The qalb (heart) is an immaterial and formless spiritual entity or basic subtle element
which has got connection with the material heart. The qalb has the capacities to acquire
comprehensive intuition, to retain real knowledge, the gnosis (ma’rifa) of God and the Divine
mysteries, (‘ilm al-batin) and to gain far greater insight than that of human intellect. The Qur’an
considers al-Qalb as the seat of wisdom and intellect. The qalb is nourished by dhikr (remembrance
of God). Its health also depends on its purity and freedom. It is the organ of a perception which is
both an experience and a taste (dhawq). Al-qalb is also the master of human body which controls its
organic and physical functions. All external behavioral acts of man are actually the reflection of
states and conditions of al-qalb. There are 3 types of qalb,
1. The Healthy Heart
It is a heart purified from any passion that challenges Allah’s commands and safeguarded against
the worship of anything other than Him.
2. The Dead Heart
This is the opposite of the healthy heart. It does not know its Lord and does not worship Him. It
clings instead to its lusts and desires. It worships things other than Allah.
3. The Sick Heart
This is a heart with life as well as illness in it. The sick hearts are those that find whatever they
do, attractive to them. They are wrapped up in fantasies, they are contemptuous, and they follow
routines and old patterns, doing ‘what their forefathers practiced’.

RUH/SOUL
Muslims believe that the death of the physical body is not the end. After their time on
Earth, humans will have eternal life in the afterlife.

Muslims believe that all humans have a soul. They believe the soul to be a non-physical
part of humans that lives on after the death of the physical body. Many believe that it is the soul
that will live on in the afterlife.

The main distinction between the body and soul is that:

 the body is mortal

 the soul is immortal
Humans' time on Earth will be judged by God and this will determine what happens to the soul
in the afterlife. Muslims believe that humans will either go to Heaven or to Hell.

Death is describes as the taking up of the souls, which is accomplished by the Almighty
Allah and the angel of death (Malakul Maut). Death of man is explained in such a way that when
the death of a person approaches his worldly reality is completely taken up through the Almighty
Allah and the angel of death and nothing from it is wasted. That which is taken up leaving
nothing behind is nothing but the soul of man. If man had been only a body without a soul,
nothing would have remained that it should be taken up by the Almighty Allah and the angels, as
the body of every man after death will decay and deteriorate.

Verses which state that after death, man will return to the Almighty Allah

Every soul must taste of death, then to Us you shall be brought back. (29:57)

Such verses show that all human beings will return to the Almighty Allah. It is known
that returning can be imagined only when the same person who lived in world, remains and then
returns to Allah. If man had been only this material body, which decays after death and if
nothing known as soul had existed, return to Allah would have been meaningless as the body of
man is not capable of returning.

When your Lord said to the angels; Surely I am going to create a mortal from dust: So when I
have made him complete and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down making obeisance to
him. (38:71-72)

In the above mentioned verses, the blowing of the spirit of God into the body of man is
regarded as his excellence, because the angels were asked to prostrate before man and pay
obeisance to him. The word of soul is used in many occasions in the Holy Quran and the above
verse is one of them.

Immortality: The idea that the soul lives on after the death of the body

Immortality means the ability to live forever or eternal life. When a person dies, his soul does
not perish. A soul is immortal. It lives. It only migrates from this world to another ‘new’ world. Separated
from soul, the body is placed in the grave. It is the teachings of our faith that soon after death and burial,
the angels question him about his beliefs. If he is a truthful believer, he gives them correct answer. The
angels then give him good news that he would live in peace and happiness till the Last Day. And if the
dead turns out to be an unbeliever, in a state of serious sins and obstinate rebellion against Allah, he is not
able to give correct answer to the questioning angels. He is then plunged into a dreadful punishment
which is not to cease till the Last Day.

On the last day the world will end. Then after a long period of time, when Allah will wish, all the
people who have ever lived will come to life again and rise once again in a new world. The body of every
person who has ever lived on the earth will rise, at Allah’s command and be united to its soul. This is
called Resurrection or the Day of Great Rising.
PHYSICALISM

Physicalism is the philosophy that all phenomena can be described in terms of space and time. It is
the view that all that exists is ultimately physical-which can be tested and proved by science.

Naturalists believe that the only things that really exist or matter in the universe are physical things
operating according to natural laws. There are no miracles. There are no souls or spirits. There are
no prophecies. There is no inspired Scripture. It's just physical stuff operating according to
physical laws.

The reasons for some people to believe:

 The principle of causal closure of the physical domain, guarantees the self sufficiency of the
domain.
Causal Closure of the Physical: the idea that every event has a physical cause. (Whatever on
earth is self-sufficient, no need of God, everything has a cause, there is nothing beyond
that).
 The first thing to say when considering the truth of Physicalism is that we live in an
overwhelmingly physicalist or materialist intellectual culture.
 The second premise is that mental events cause physical events-for example we normally
think that events such as wanting to raise your arm (a mental event) cause events such as
the raising of your arm (a physical event).
 The third premise of the argument is a principle of causation (Everything has a cause for
existing).