QUR'ANIC CONCEPTIONS OF THE SELF/SOUL

KEY POINTS

a. False Islamization vs. Islamic psychology

b. Constructing a new building vs. old building w/ Islamic paint

c. Detoxification – removing unIslamic aspects of Western psychology

d. Distinguishing the useful from the harmful

e. Understanding nafs from the Qur’an

f. Nafs as spiritual

g. Embracing the unseen reality

h. Conceptions of self as soul- spiritual reality

i. Nafs

      i. Spiritual identity that has free will

      ii. Personality

      iii. Will be taken into account after death

      iv. Good nafs and evil nafs

      v. Nafs al mutmainah 

j. Ruh

     i. The Qur'an itself

     ii. Jibril

     iii. The spirit that Allah breathed into humans

     iv. Always pure, never corrupted

     v. Returns to Allah

k. Ghazali's conception

     i. Nafs (battleground)

     ii. Ruh as pure

     iii. Shaytan is evil 

l. Using of this conception for diagnosis

m. Defense mechanisms against shaytan, not ego

n. Use this conception for your therapeutic approach

o. Treating the sicknesses of the heart

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