.png)
The Essence of the Soul and the Self
In previous articles, we explained that the soul is the faculty of distinguishing between symbols and signs; it is the faculty for tracing verses and proofs. It is through the breath of the soul that humans become vicegerents of God; for the breath of the soul grants them the ability to distinguish signs and understand them to return to the origin. The universe results from God and is attributed to the Creator, the Truth, and the All-Knowing. This can only occur through the soul, as it is the capacity to connect the cause and the effect, between the creation and the Creator. It is a link, support, and means to connect the servant to their Lord, symbolically represented as the peak of a mountain that connects the higher and lower realms, between heaven and earth (see the article on the mountain and the bird). Through this, we can understand the connections and separations, the governance and details. It is the capacity to connect and cut, to understand and comprehend, to know the root of what occurs and link it to the origin, to understand the law and comprehend the verses and signs.
As for the self, it is derived from the linguistic root of "nafs" (soul) and "tanfas" (to breathe). The process of taking in air and expelling it is breathing, and air and identity share letters from the root, hence identity stems from air. Between the terms air and self, you find the truth of your identity. Your identity is drawn from the air you breathe, thus your self is your identity; one of the meanings of identity is the collection of characteristics and traits that make a person or thing itself and distinguish it from others. Therefore, when you define your identity, you are speaking about your self. When you breathe air, you reinforce your self, thus feeling your identity, and this is the self. It is cut from the identity found in the air, so you feel your identity. This self is akin to the breath you take from the complete self, which is the universe. Your partial self is the breath you take from this complete self, and upon death, your self separates from the collective self, leading to a disconnection from the air and the identity of this worldly life.
The self is an indicator of the expansion and contraction of a thing, the self is a process of life and death; it is an experience of life and death.
The Difference Between the Soul and the Self
The self is shared among all creatures. The inanimate have a self, the plants have a self, the animals have a self, and humans have a self as well. There are countless selves; everything in this universe breathes: “And by the morning when it breathes” (Qur'an 81:18). God has a self, which is the universe or the complete self, which is subject to the law of mercy, duality, and pairing. He created you from a single self, which is God's self, and then came the selves in pairs: “O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women” (Qur'an 4:1). However, not everything has a soul; only humans possess the soul that God granted them, as it is the gateway to understanding the hidden mystery that does not manifest in the universe except through its symbols, which is God. The mystery is what has veiled itself with this embodiment, and this embodiment is God's veil. Therefore, at death, the veil is lifted from you: “Indeed, you were in heedlessness of this; but We have removed from you your covering, and your sight has become sharp today” (Qur'an 50:22). This means that the embodiment goes away when you are lifted and enter the world of contact and complete connection with the world of mystery, where your sight becomes sharp and does not err.
One of the fundamental characteristics of the self is that it is dual: “And when the souls are paired” (Qur'an 81:7). Every self, when it breathes, inevitably expels a breath that another will take; thus, the self has a dual nature drawn from the collective self. This can be observed in the process of breathing, which is inhalation and exhalation, taking and giving, expansion and contraction. Breathing is a mixture of pleasure and pain, desire and fear. For example, when you desire, love, and connect, you draw the self to you. Your inhalation of the self is a process of connection, attachment, and desire, thus increasing your identity. Conversely, when you sigh or lament, you expel your self; thus, your identity diminishes, for when you are in pain, you let go of the air or self and expel it outward. You can observe this in yourself; when a person desires something, they wish to breathe it in and incorporate it within themselves. When they lament something, they sigh and release it, as if what they missed has exited from within them. In describing certain psychological ailments, it seems as if a person's self has been pulled from their body due to a shock, as if it has been expelled and cannot return to them, which leaves them shocked and empty, halting their pleasure and pain due to that shock; it becomes as if they are not breathing. Meanwhile, the soul is singular and does not believe in duality because it is taken from God and brings you back to Him. There is no existence of a twin soul because it embodies duality.
We selves discern right from wrong because the self is always related to duality and mercy: expansion/contraction, connection/separation, while the soul is singular. In the world of the soul, there is no distortion or error; everything is perfect and one; everything is connected to one another in the world of ideals and examples.
The soul is a gateway to the non-sensory; it is support beyond the senses, connecting you to the doors of understanding, perception, knowledge, intellect, and true insight—not through the senses . Meanwhile, the self is attached to the senses and interacts with the tangible.
The soul leads us to the truth along one straight path, while the self has degrees. The commanding self, which is the lowest rank of the human self, corresponds to the animal rank. It commands you to do evil, and all its signs and indications are evil. It has not tasted nor connected to the world of souls. There are the blaming self, the tranquil self, the satisfied self, and other selves.
The Identity of the Human Being between the Soul and the Spirit
After defining the essence of the soul and the spirit and clarifying the difference between them, it becomes clear to us that a human being is a soul, not a spirit. Those who identify themselves as spirits are mistaken. The spirit is singular from God and is ideal; there is no place for duality in it. It is an abstract faculty for tracing the divine signs in the universe to return to God and unify Him. The spirit does not die, does not err, does not grieve, and does not rejoice; it is detached from all existence, as we previously mentioned, because it is from God, a gift from Him to humanity. Meanwhile, the human soul can err and succeed, rejoice and grieve, enjoy and suffer. So how can this be attributed to the spirit? Rather, these dualities and feelings pertain to the human psyche. In the scriptures, the soul is always connected to desire, while the spirit is linked solely to truth and reality:
﴾We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. And is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, Witness?﴿ [Fussilat 53].
Everything has its sign within yourself, and a sign of that is that you inhale air and release it; you breathe, contracting and expanding, and psychologically, you expand and grieve. By taking in air and breathing, you acquire an identity for yourself from the identity of the total soul. There is an animal soul that is immersed in desires and pleasures, clinging to the earth and disconnected from the spirit, unfit for the station of stewardship. Can the spirit be like this? The spirit is higher than the soul; it seeks to unify souls and guide them to the One by tracing symbols and signs, enabling humanity to understand the unperceived, so as not to fall into the trap of the Samaritan, who believed only in the tangible and remained within the closed wheel. In contrast, Moses, who was opened to a door from this narrow tangible thinking, was able to understand and grasp God's actions, names, and secrets:
﴾Indeed, it is a noble Qur'an (77) in a protected Book (78) that none touch except the purified (79)﴿ [Al-Waqi'a 77-79].
The soul has a life it experiences; thus, humanity must fulfill its trust and connect with the spirit and the One, to open a door in this world that seems closed, so as not to be seduced by it as the Samaritan was (see the article on the Samaritan and the Eye of the Antichrist), believing it to be everything, with nothing beyond it forever. Whoever touches the spirit, God opens for him the door to the secret of his existence, uncomposed, to the world of secrets and symbols and to the world of the spirit.
Immorality and Piety in the Human Soul
A person clings to their identity with their soul and desires, reinforcing their self and identity and insisting on it until they become arrogant and prideful. Arrogance is when the soul takes on desire and longing, causing you to grow in size like a balloon. In language, arrogance means an increase in size with identity, and the arrogant soul is one that continuously wants to take breaths, being in a constant state of craving and desire. Whoever is like this has taken their desire as their deity; they have fallen and descended:
﴾Have you seen the one who has taken as his god his own desire, and Allah has led him astray despite his knowledge and has set a seal upon his hearing and his heart and put over his sight a veil? So who will guide him after Allah? Then will you not be reminded? ﴿[Al-Jathiya 23].
This is in contrast to those who follow the spirit, for the spirit is elevated, descending with wisdom and not falling; it descends with command and signs. The soul must elevate and purify itself to meet the spirit so that the descent and interpretation are completed, and those signs are understood. A person becomes immoral when they insist on their self and identity as the truth, thus stepping out of divine mercy. How far this desire is from the spirit, which is the truth:
﴾And the soul and He who proportioned it (7) and inspired it with discernment of its wickedness and its righteousness (8)﴿ [Ash-Shams 7-8].
Immorality is what makes a person disregard their true identity and God. It is an attempt to escape God's mercy, believing that one can live like Iblis, who said, "I am better than him," reinforcing the identity. The arrogant self exchanges its vanity for God's mercy; the arrogant self believes it can live without God's mercy and descends into the abyss in arrogance, so as not to diminish before God's mercy. This is the difference between Iblis and Adam. As for Adam and his wife, they acknowledged their sin and sought forgiveness and mercy:
﴾They said, "Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the losers."﴿ [Al-A'raf 23].
Allah warns you about the self; if you have a self, Allah has a greater self than yours. The disbelievers are fought by Allah with His own self, while the believers are blessed by Allah with His spirit. They are the ones who feared the divine majesty or punishment with the garment of piety. When Allah says to you, "Beware of My seizing," it means to seize your self, for if you release it, My seizing will come upon you. An example of this is the arrogant one who believes he will not be seized; Allah seizes him easily—through sickness, loss of blessings, or loss of security.
As for piety, it is the elevation above lowly matters that may cause you to fall and distance you from Allah and prevent you from drawing closer to Him. The matters that bring you closer to Allah elevate you from this world to the Hereafter; this is piety:
﴾That home of the Hereafter We assign to those who do not desire exaltation upon the earth or corruption. And the outcome is for the righteous.﴿ [Al-Qasas 83].
The Hereafter is not for those who desire elevation in life; those who seek to rise in this world will descend in the Hereafter. Whoever acts with the wisdom of the spirit and takes only what they need from the good things will be rewarded for everything, and their end will be good. Therefore, do not let your self be grasped or released until you emerge from this trial in health. Do not grasp it until you release it from the bounty of Allah, and do not release it until it leads you into the grasp of Allah, ultimately leading to death in the end, for death is a truth, and no matter how you become arrogant and reinforce your self, Allah will seize it until it ends in death.