The words made from the root word of the Arabic word Nafs shows an amazing range of meanings... and this range gives us an idea of the potential of the nafs... it can exist anywhere from the highest of high to the lowest of low. The nafs can be as delicate as breath, as precious as a jewel or as gross as excretion. It's nature is competitive as well as being helpful.
Nafs: breath, life, soul, spirit, psyche, self, ego, person, lower self.
Nafas: breath
Nafîs: precious, fine
Nafasa: to help others
Nâfasa: to vie or compete
Nâfisa: miserly
Nâfis: gross, excretions
Nafsi: state of mind/mood
Nafsiyah: psychology
The nafs starts its career in an undeveloped form but is equipped with potentialities of corruption as well as development & getting closer to the Most Perfect Self, Allah (SWT), Whose attributes serve as an objective standard for the human self.
In the Qur'an the Nafs is associated with
Remembrance of Allah (SWT) 7:205.
Belief 10:100.
Guidance 27:92.
Gratitude 27:40.
Purification 35:18.
Patience 18:28
Earning good and evil 2:281
Fear 20:67
Liking 5:30
Manifesting and hiding 2:284
Secrets 12:77, 33:37
Reflection and pondering 30:8
Action 16:111
Striving 29:6
Taking account 17:14
Examining 10:30
Negligence 39:56
Evil desire 79:40, 20:96
Pride 25:21
Injustice 35:32
Whispering 50:16
Niggardliness 47:38
Selfishness 59:9
Infidelity 9:17
Reward and Punishment 20:15
It has no knowledge of the future 31:34
It has a custodian over it 86:4 probably angelic.
