Spirit of the Mind: Divine Disclosure, Nafs and the Transcendental Self in Islamic Thought

Sanaullah Khan

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Spirit of the Mind

Divine Disclosure, Nafs and the Transcendental Self in Islamic Thought

In: Spirit of the Mind

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Sanaullah Khan

Sanaullah Khan University of Akron, Ohio USA

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 1–68

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004719033_002

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Abstract

In this essay, I show that while there may have been differences in terms of how Islamic thinkers have historically imagined the organization of the soul – whether as a singular entity or as multiple – it was fundamentally viewed as bearing the traces of the divine, and therefore the best way to come closer to God and to acquire knowledge of nature was to return to the natural state of perfection in which the ruh was blown into the body. The second concept that has remained central is that this spirit is continuously in competition and hostility with the lower self which is expressive of carnal and material desires and thus to come closer to God, it is necessary to cultivate purity of the soul so that the influences of the lower self on the soul can be restricted. In fact, the goal is that the lower self (nafs) comes completely under the control of the disciplined soul. In the first part, I talk about how the disturbances of the soul were viewed as forms of imbalances under the influence of the Greek humoral theory. In the second part, I turn to how spiritual weakness was viewed as a move away from the original state of perfection. In the third part, then, I consider how the heart became the seat of the soul in Islamic thought and it was only through the ethical cultivation of the heart that one could access the divine and control the nafs. In the fourth part, then, I consider light as the central category through which one couldaccess the divine. In the conclusion, I consider the category of the self using the long‐standing tradition of the “Perfect Man” and explore the idea of ascent to a transcendental unity.

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Spirit of the Mind

Divine Disclosure, Nafs and the Transcendental Self in Islamic Thought

Series: Brill Research Perspectives in Humanities and Social Sciences and Brill Research Perspectives in Religion and Psychology

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004719033

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 08 Oct 2024

Subjects
- Middle East and Islamic Studies
  - Philosophy, Theology & Science
- Religious Studies
  - Psychology of Religion
  - Sociology of Religion

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Spirit of the Mind

Divine Disclosure, Nafs and the Transcendental Self in Islamic Thought

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Spirit of the Mind

Divine Disclosure, Nafs and the Transcendental Self in Islamic Thought

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