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The soul is born with primordial innocence and virtue (the
‘fitra’). God says (in a Hadith Qudsi):
“I have created My servants pure in religion (hunafa) but the
devils lure them away from their religion”.5 (See also: Al-Baqarah,
2:135–136; Al-Nisa, 4:125; Yunus, 10:105; Al-Nahl, 16:123;
Al-Rum, 30:29–30; et al.).
Nevertheless, we see in the Holy Qur’an that the soul has three
‘parts’, or rather—since the soul as such is necessarily indivisible—
that the soul has three ‘modes’. These are:
i. ‘the soul that incites unto evil’ (‘al-nafs al-ammarah bil su’—Yusuf,
12:53);
ii. ‘the soul that blames’ (‘al-nafs al-lawwamah’—Al-Qiyamah, 75:2), and
iii. ‘the soul at peace’ (‘al-nafs al-mutma’innah’—Al-Fajr, 89:27).
‘The soul that incites unto evil’ is obviously the evil or the ‘lower’
part of the soul—what in modern English might be called the ‘ego’.
It is in a constant struggle against ‘the soul that blames’—what in
modern English might be called the ‘conscience’. God says in the
Holy Qur’an:
O
you who believe! You have charge of your own souls. He
who errs cannot injure you if you are rightly guided. Unto
God you will all return; and then He will inform you of what
you used to do. (Al-Ma’idah, 5:105; see also: Fussilat, 41:46;
Al-Jathiyah, 45:15; and Al-Taghabun, 64:16).
Thus the Prophet Muhammad said to his companions, on
returning from war: “We have returned from the Lesser Holy War to
the Greater Holy War”. When asked what the Greater Holy War was,
he replied: “[It is] the war against the ego [nafs]”.6
If the ego wins this ‘(inner) Greater Holy War’, then the soul
becomes evil and ceases to believe in God, but if the conscience
5 Sahih Muslim, no. 2197; Sahih Ibn Habban, no. 653.
6 Ahmad bin Hussein Al-Bayhaqi, Kitab Al-Zuhd, Vol. 2, p. 165, no. 373.
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