I am referring to the aspect pertaining to the angels. For knowledge is acquired there through an intermediary from Allah. The Exalted Allah said: "It is not for any human being that Allah should speak to him except by revelation or from behind a veil or by sending a messenger to reveal, by His permission, what He wills." (al-Shura 42:51)
The nafs al-ammāra bi's-sūʾ (the nafs that commands evil) is desire (shahwa) and anger (ghadab). (Mizān, 47)
The nafs (nafs, the lower self) and the ruh (ruh, the spirit) are the places where both the shayṭān (Satan) and the angel first appear. The angel instills taqwa (God-consciousness) into the qalb (qalb, the heart), while Satan instills evil into the nafs. Thus, the nafs constantly desires that the qalb should drive the limbs to evil actions.
There are two other faculties in the body called reason ('aql) and desire (hawā). These act according to the will of whoever dominates them. The dominant force is tawfiq (tawfiq, divine enablement) and ighwāʾ (misguidance). In the qalb, there are two radiant lights: knowledge and iman (iman, faith). All these are the instruments, senses, and tools of the qalb. The qalb, like a king, sits at the center of these tools. They are like armies that come to the king, or like polished mirrors. These tools surrounding it show the outside, and the king (with their help) sees the outside and undertakes the necessary struggle. (Gunya, I, 102)
The nafs, in terms of ownership and creation, belongs to Allah. The one connected to the nafs has claims, desires, lusts, and pleasures. If you attain the ḥaqīqa (ḥaqīqa, inner reality) regarding opposition and enmity to the nafs, you become an enemy to your nafs for Allah's sake. (Futūḥ, 23)
The ruh is the source of goodness, and the nafs is the source of evil. Reason is the army of the ruh, and desire is the army of the nafs. Tawfiq (divine enablement from Allah) is the helper of the ruh, while khidhlān (the force leading to evil) is the helper of the nafs. The domain of both armies is the qalb. (Ādāb, 33)
The nafs al-nāṭiqa (the rational soul) is an essence in which it is inconceivable for sensory indications to be realized. Managing the body, contemplating its own essence and things, are among its characteristics. How could one imagine that this sacred reality is a body? When it is spiritually aroused, it almost leaves the physical realm and seeks the infinite realm. (Hayākil, 51)
The nafs cannot be eliminated, for it is not tied to a place and has no opposite. Its essence is continuous, and by it, it persists in existence. The connection between the nafs and the body is based only on longing (desire, yearning). With the cessation of this, the essence does not cease to exist. Know that the pleasure of every faculty is according to its highest perception, and so is its pain. The pleasure and pain of everything are according to what is assigned to it. (Hayākil, 80)
The nufūs al-nāṭiqa (rational souls) are of the essence of angels. Only bodily forces prevent them from their illnesses. When the nafs is strengthened by spiritual forces and the dominance of bodily forces over it is weakened—by eating little and staying awake much—it sometimes reaches the sacred realm and attains its holy origin, acquiring maʿrifa (maʿrifa, experiential knowledge of God) from Him. It unites with celestial souls that know its movements and requirements. Like a mirror that reflects the image of what is before it, it receives knowledge of the unseen both in sleep and wakefulness. (Hayākil, 85)
Its Giver (the one who bestows the nafs) is close to the Active Intellect (ʿAql al-Faʿāl); the Supreme Source (Mabdaʾ al-Aʿlā) is distant. (Hayākil, 95)
The nafs is, at first, a dark and worldly veil from which one is delivered; the qalb is, finally, a luminous and celestial veil from which one is delivered last.
The ruh is a subtlety entrusted to the qalb, the source of praiseworthy attributes and akhlāq (akhlāq, character), while the nafs is a subtlety entrusted to the body, the source of blameworthy attributes and character. Just as the eye is the place of seeing, the nose of smelling, the ear of hearing, and the mouth of tasting, so the nafs is the place of bad attributes, and the ruh is the place of good attributes.
All the attributes and qualities of the nafs originate from two foundations: the first is lightness, the second is greed. Its lightness comes from its ignorance, its greed from its covetousness. In terms of lightness, the nafs is like a spool rolling on a flat surface; it always acts according to its created nature and disposition. In terms of greed, it is like a moth circling a lamp and then throwing itself into its flame; it does not refrain from the fire that causes its death, nor is it content with a little light. Because of its lightness, it is impatient and hasty, whereas sabr (sabr, patient endurance) is the essence of reason. Lightness is among the attributes of the nafs. Only sabr can restrain the desire and tendency of the nafs toward its created direction. Reason subjugates desire and whim. From greed and covetousness arise avarice and ambition. These two qualities appeared in Adam, for he ate from the forbidden tree out of the ambition to remain eternally in Paradise.
Anxiety and joy are attributes of the nafs, for they persist as long as the nafs and its essence persist.
As long as the nafs retains the attribute of ammāra (commanding evil), pleasure, joy, and anxiety—which are the leash of the nafs—arise from it. Joy is the swelling of the wave of the nafs when the waves of the sea of temperament clash. When the Sufi rises from general maḥabba (maḥabba, love) and the state (ḥāl) to the beginning of particular love, he becomes a possessor of state, a possessor of qalb, and a possessor of the nafs al-lawwāma (the blaming soul). Then, states of contraction (qabḍ) and expansion (basṭ) come to him in succession, for he has ascended from the degree of iman to that of yaqīn (certainty) and particular love. For this reason, the Real (God) sometimes gives him the state of qabḍ, sometimes that of basṭ.
Al-Wāsiṭī said: (Allah) contracts you with what is in you (errors and sins), and expands you with what is in Himself (mercy and compassion).
(Abū Ḥusayn) al-Nūrī also said: He contracts you with yourself, and expands you with Himself.
The manifestation of the state of qabḍ is due to the emergence and dominance of the attribute of the nafs, while the manifestation of the state of basṭ is due to the emergence and dominance of the attribute of the qalb. As long as the nafs is ammāra, it is sometimes defeated, sometimes victorious. The states of qabḍ and basṭ are due to this condition of the nafs. The possessor of the attribute of the qalb is under a luminous ḥijāb (ḥijāb, veil) due to the existence of the qalb, just as the possessor of the attribute of the nafs is under a dark ḥijāb due to the existence of the nafs. If the possessor of the attribute of the qalb rises above the attribute of the qalb and emerges from its ḥijāb, then the state can no longer confine or govern him. Thus, at that time, he is beyond the influence of qabḍ and basṭ. As long as he is delivered from the luminous existence that is the qalb, and is freed from the ḥijāb of the nafs and the qalb, and attains proximity (qurbiyya), he is not subject to the states of qabḍ or basṭ. When he returns to existence from fanāʾ (fanāʾ, annihilation in God) and baqāʾ (baqāʾ, subsistence in God), the qalb returns to its true attribute, which is luminous existence. Then qabḍ and basṭ return to him. If he gives himself to fanāʾ and baqāʾ, then there remains no trace of the states of qabḍ or basṭ.
As mentioned in the Qur'an, the nafs possesses both kamāl (kamāl, perfection) and deficiency. Its perfection is reason and knowledge; its deficiency is ignorance and lusts. Just as the eclipse of the moon is due to the {wajh} (face, aspect) of the moon, and is caused by the darkness of the lowest layer of the world (dunyā), so too the deficiency of the nafs arises from indulging in lusts, and thus...