ARTICLE – The nafs and Inner Well-being.

Introduction
One of the vital yet neglected components in shaping an individual's mental health is religion.
Religion is often viewed as a belief in a higher, unseen power. Undeniably, this is an element of
religion, yet it’s a narrow perspective. Any religion, whether it's Hinduism, Christianity, or islam,
has a purpose for every belief or action. Persistent belief is what transitions into our habits,
which are rooted in the subconscious mind and ultimately influence the development of
positive or negative thoughts. Religion appears to be a psychological necessity for mankind.

NAFS in islam.
The Quran talks highly about nafs which refers to “self” or “soul”. The nafs is like a very
powerful sports car that if you able to command that sports car, to ride it, to control it, you will
be able to go where no one else has gone before, for you use it very good. However, if you don’t
know how to control it, and that sports car is out of control, you will crash it. You will crash it
and you are going to hurt yourself and others. (said by sheikh abdul kerim)
The three types of nafs mentioned in the quran are
nafs al ammara (the commanding self)
nafs al lawwama (the self-critical soul)
nafs al mutmainna (the soul at peace)
If we have nafs al-ammara, it means the self subjugates us, we listen and follow its commands.
Nafs al lawwama is when we realise our imperfctions and thrive to correct them/ or be better.
And the last type of nafs is nafs al mutmainna, which implies the heart and mind being at peace.

Nafs al-ammara
This state is when a person loses himself and the nafs overpowers him or her. This leads to a
person being completely controlled by its desires, whether it be good or bad for them. When
this state occurs, a person starts sinning more and more, to the point where it is worshiping its
nafs and obeying its nafs more than the Creator. The more we keep sinning, the more
discomfort is caused to our soul, as said in a hadith by the Prophet (p.b.u.h) “Righteousness is in
good character, and wrongdoing is that which wavers in your soul, and which you dislike people
finding out about.” Doing sin is referred to as wavering the soul which means the person will
lack inner peace, experience loss of purpose, increased self doubt and much more . All of these
are breeding grounds for mental health issues like depression and anxiety etc. Another effect of
sinning that people often neglect is the impact of it on ones self esteem. Each time we vocalise
this negativity, more chemicals are released in our brain, increasing anxiety and irritability. This
is the way cognitive neuroscience explains how destructive thought patterns and language can
affect one's mental wellbeing.
People often start negative self talk, which lead to many major issues like feeling worthless or
not being able to do enough. This leads to having very less or no hope in life for positive events.

Nafs al lawamma
With nafs al-lawwama we are conscious of our imperfections and, inspired by our hearts, we
see the results of our actions and our weaknesses and aspire for perfection. When we
acknowledge our wrongdoings, we then start to rebuke them, feel guilty about them, we feel all
of these emotions, and fight our nafs till we succeed. When we accomplish our goal, we then
realize the power and control we have over our nafs and that we are not as uncontrollable as
we think we are. We become closer to God and understand his boundaries set for us and why
they are set for us. We feel a sense of purpose when we control our nafs the way God wants us
to, and work towards being a better version of ourselves for God, which also motivates us to
help people out in our society, workplace, or other areas of life without expecting anything
back. When people start doing positive acts not for other people but for God and themselves, it
has a huge impact on one's mental well-being, as their happiness and peace of mind are not
dependent on others' reactions to their actions. It teaches them to be emotionally independent
and not breed the elements that cause depression, low self-esteem, or identity crises. All of
these acts have a positive impact as your actions create a sense of purpose in life, reducing the
negative self-talk and seeing the positives not only within themselves but also within society.

NAFS AL MUTMAINNA
The last stage is when a person reaches a state of inner tranquility and contentment achieved
through unwavering faith, submission to God's will, and righteous actions. When one reaches
this state it becomes more gratefull , appreciating life a lot more than constant comparison and
complaining which also leads to them being more happy and at peace. Not only this when a
person faces trials in his or her life they becom more patient as they trust God and are hopeful
and come out stronger from the challenges they face. However reaching this state does not
mean a human cannot feel emotions like sadness or loneliness at times, as we know from the
time of Prophet after the death of his infant sons he was deeply shaken and felty sad and
another example whn hazrat Khadeeja passed away and so did his uncle in the same year the
Prophet did feel lonelinss but not hopeless as Allah reveald verses to help him feel better.

We need to understand that these three states are not permenant in ones life, they can reach
nafs al mutmainna and then go back to nafs al ammara which is completely normal. Life is a
constant struggle and some need more help than others to fight their nafs, to overcome their
fears but it is possible and the first step to do it is actually realize that change needs to happen,
you need to see the factors, try out things to help you fight your nafs to reach mutmainna and
consistently fight to stay in that state and even if you collapse and go back to your old habits,
Our lord is merciful he forgives and guides us, he protects us in ways we cannot even imagine,
and we need to remember all the emotions we feel are placed by Allah the positive or negative
ones and Allah has also made a cure shown us the right way to deal with the negative ones
through verses in the quran or throught the prophets