Quotes & Sayings About Nafs

Your worst enemy is hiding within yourself, and that enemy is your nafs or false ego. — Rumi

If you want an enemy, the soul (nafs) is sufficient. If you want advice, death is sufficient. — Said Nursi

Great men are great until they know it. Saints are holy until they know it. — Idries Shah

Change your 'Nafs', change the world. — Nouman Ali Khan

In Sufi terms the crushing of the ego is called Nafs Kushi. And how do we crush it? We crush it by sometimes taking ourselves to task. When the self says, 'O no, I must not be treated like this,' then we say, 'What does it matter?' When the self says, 'He ought to have done this, she ought to have said that,' we say, 'What does it matter, either this way or that way? Every person is what he is; you cannot change him, but you can change yourself.' That is the crushing ... It is only in this way that we can crush our ego. — Hazrat Inayat Khan

An individual enters the final stages of the Way when the nafs begins to release its grip on the qalb, thus allowing the ruh - which is present in all humanity, but is cloaked in the veil of the self - to absorb the qalb as though it were a drop of dew plunged into a vast, endless sea. When this occurs, the individual achieves fana: ecstatic, intoxicating self-annihilation. This is the final station along the Sufi Way. It is here, at the end of the journey, when the individual has been stripped of his ego, that he becomes one with the Universal Spirit and achieves unity with the Divine. Although — Reza Aslan

Never have I dealt with anything more difficult than my own soul, which sometimes helps me and sometimes opposes me. — Al-Ghazali

His constant fight is with the Nafs (self-interest), the root of all disharmony and the only enemy of man. By crushing this enemy man gains mastery over himself; this wins for him mastery over the whole universe, because the wall standing between the self and the Almighty has been broken down. Gentleness, mildness, respect, humility, modesty, self-denial, conscientiousness, tolerance and forgiveness are considered by the Sufi as the attributes which produce harmony within one's own soul as well as within that of another. — Hazrat Inayat Khan

Nothing kills the soul that commands to evil (Nafs al Ammarra) like seeing the beauty of the heart. — Shams Tabrizi

There are four types of oceans. Passions are the ocean of sins, the self (nafs) is the ocean of lust, death is the ocean of life, and the grave is the ocean of distress — Umar

To blame others for our misfortunes is always a victory for the nafs. — Timothy Winter

Your nafs (soul/desires) is your first battlefield. If you are victorious over it, then you will find the other battlefields easier. — Hassan Al-Banna

For every Pharoah there is a Moses. — Idries Shah

The major barrier to understanding is wishful thinking and following that which pleases one. — Idries Shah

My Nafs screams out for what it desires. But my will to be free screams louder. — Yasmin Mogahed

That Islam you see on TV does not represent me,
I'm too busy waging jihad against myself,
My own nafs are my enemy.
I'm sorry that Muslim and Muslim lands do not represent Islam,
Our religion is perfect, but we on the other hand ... — Boonaa Mohammed

You cannot have two foundations. Either you stand and act from your heart and soul, or your life will flow from the animal soul, the nafs, your lust and greed and forgetfulness, which are characteristics of what dies and does not surrender to receive the compassion of God. — Bahauddin

O Lord, make my soul a sanctuary, a fortress within. That no one and nothing can disturb. A place of calm, silence, and serenity, untouched by the outside world. The soul that Allah (swt) calls al-nafs al mutmaina (the reassured soul). (Qur'an 89:27) The soul that Allah (swt) calls back saying: — Yasmin Mogahed

The impatient man is his own enemy; he slams the door on his own progress. — Idries Shah

Instead of an outer-oriented jihad - defined as "the war against infidels" and carried out by many in those days just as in the present - Rumi stood up for an inner-oriented jihad where the aim was to struggle against and ultimately prevail over one's ego, nafs. — Elif Shafak

Your Nafs is just like a suckling child. If you do not take the pains to wean him, he will yearn for his mother's breast even when he's grown up. Therefore you should not try to satisfy your lust by indulging in sins. This will only increase the desire for more sins. The same is the case with the disease of gluttony. The more a person eats, the more his hunger increases. — Busiri

The Path to the Truth is a labour of the heart, not of the head. Make your heart your primary guide. Not your mind. Meet, challenge, and ultimately prevail over your nafs (false ego) with your heart. Knowing your ego (higher self/soul) will lead you to the knowledge of God. (2) — Various

To say "yes" to the Sufi way is to say "no" to imagined escapes. — Idries Shah