Background: The Nafs
Conceptualizing the process and importance of tazkiah necessitates a basic understanding on the nature and faculties of the soul from an Islamic perspective. The soul (nafs) employs the body to attain its goals. The soul has also other names, including spirit (ruh), intelligence (aql), and heart (qalb) although these terms have other usages. The primary faculties of the soul are:
- Intelligence (al-quwwah al-aqliyyah) – angelic.
- Anger (al-quwwah al-ghadabiyyah) - ferocious.
- Desire (al-quwwah al-shahwiyyah) - animalistic.
- Imagination (al-quwwah al-wahmiyyah) - demonic.
The value of these forces is obvious. Reason distinguishes good and evil: ghadab (anger) helps defend against aggression: sexual attraction maintains survival of the human species; and imagination allows visualization of universals or particulars. Reason is man's guiding angel. Anger brings violence; passions (hawā) encourage immorality; and imagination provides material to formulate demoniac plots and machinations. If reason controls the other faculties, it moderates excesses and ensures useful performance. Allah says in surat Ash-Shams: "And by nafs (soul), and Him Who perfected him in proportion; Then He inspired him corruption and its righteousness; Indeed he succeeds who chooses to purify his own self; and indeed he fails who corrupts his own self." The soul is in a continuous jihad (struggle) between these four powers for domination. The victorious trait determines the soul's inclination.
In a hadith from Imam 'Alī ibn Abī Tālib, he is related as saying: "Surely God has characterized the angels by intellect without sexual desire and anger, and the animals with anger and desire without reason. He exalted man by bestowing upon him all of these qualities. Accordingly, if man's reason dominates his desire and ferocity, he rises to a station above that of the angels; because this station is attained by man in spite of the existence of hurdles, do not vex the angels."
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