Sufi psychology

Nafs is considered to be the lowest principle of man. Higher than the nafs is the Qalb (heart), and the Ruh (spirit). This tripartition forms the foundation of later, more complicated systems; it is found as early as the Koranic commentary by Ja'far al-Sadiq. He holds that the nafs is peculiar to the zalim (tyrant), the qalb to the muqtasid (moderate), and the rūh to the sābiq (preceding one, winner); the zālim loves God for his own sake, the muqtasid loves Him for Himself, and the sābiq annihilates his own will in God's will. Bayezid Bistami, Hakīm at-Tirmidhī, and Junayd have followed this tripartition. Kharrāz, however, inserts between nafs and qalb the element tab', "nature," the natural functions of man. The spiritual body (soul) was created in adult form of the living body.

At almost the same time in history, Nūrī saw in man four different aspects of the heart, which he derived from the Koran:

Sadr (breast) is connected with Islam (Sūra 39:23); qalb (heart) is the seat of īmān (faith) (Sūra 49:7; 16:106); fuad (heart) is connected with marifa (gnosis) (Sūra 53:11); and lubb (innermost heart) is the seat of tauhīd (Sūra 3:190).

The Sufis often add the element of sirr, the innermost part of the heart in which the divine revelation is experienced. Jafar introduced, in an interesting comparison, reason, aql, as the barrier between nafs and qalb -- "the barrier which they both cannot transcend" (Sūra 55:20), so that the dark lower instincts cannot jeopardize the heart's purity. Each of these spiritual centers has its own functions, and Amr al-Makkī has summed up some of the early Sufi ideas in a myth:

God created the hearts seven thousand years before the bodies and kept them in the station of proximity to Himself and He created the spirits seven thousand years before the hearts and kept them in the garden of intimate fellowship (uns) with Himself, and the consciences—the innermost part—He created seven thousand years before the spirits and kept them in the degree of union (waṣl) with Himself. Then he imprisoned the conscience in the spirit and the spirit in the heart and the heart in the body. Then He tested them and sent prophets, and then each began to seek its own station. The body occupied itself with prayer, the heart attained to love, the spirit arrived at proximity to its Lord, and the innermost part found rest in union with Him.^[1]

"Nafs" (self or ego) is the aspect of the psyche that can be viewed along a continuum, and has the potential of functioning from the grossest to the highest level. The self at its lowest level refers to our negative traits and tendencies, controlled by emotions, desires and its gratification. Sufic psychology identifies seven levels of the nafs, which have been identified in the Quran.^[2] The process of growth depends on working through these levels. These are: tyrannical self, regretful self, inspired self, serene self, pleased self, pleasing self and the pure self.^[3][4]

In Sufi psychology the heart refers to the spiritual heart or qalb, not the physical organ. It is this spiritual heart that contains the deeper intelligence and wisdom. It holds the Divine spark or spirit and is the place of gnosis and deep spiritual knowledge. In Sufism, the goal is to develop a heart that is sincere, loving and compassionate, and to develop the heart's intelligence, which is deeper, and more grounded than the rational, abstract intelligence of the mind. Just as the physical heart supplies blood to the body, the spiritual heart nourishes the soul with wisdom and spiritual light, and it also purifies the gross personality traits. According to Sufic psychology emotions are from the self or nafs, not from the heart. The qalb mediates between the Nafs and spirit. Its task is to control the nafs and direct the man toward the spirit.

The spirit ruh is in direct connection with the Divine, even if one is unconscious of that connection. The spirit has seven levels or facets of the complete spirit. These levels are: mineral, vegetable, animal, personal, human, secret and secret of secret souls. Each level represents the stages of evolution, and the process that it goes through in its growth. The spirit is holistic, and extends to all aspects of the person, i.e. the body, the mind and the soul. Each level of the spirit has valuable gifts and strengths, as well as weaknesses. The goal is to develop the strengths and to achieve a balance between these levels, not forgoing the lower ones to focus only on the higher ones. In traditional psychology, Ego psychology deals with the animal soul, Behavioral psychology focuses on the conditioned functioning of the vegetable and animal soul, Cognitive psychology deals with the mental functions of the personal soul, Humanistic psychology deals with the activities of the human soul and Transpersonal psychology deals with ego-transcending consciousness of the secret soul and the secret of secret souls.

Spirit is beyond the realm of creation. It is directly connected with Alam e Lahoot(Unity of attributes and names) which is from Amr Allah (Command of Allah), Therefore, Spirit already knows everything including its own source.

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Unconscious mind

Unconscious mind

The unconscious mind consists of processes in the mind that occur automatically and are not available to introspection. Although these processes exist beneath the surface of conscious awareness, they are thought to exert an effect on conscious thought processes and behavior. Empirical evidence suggests that unconscious phenomena include repressed feelings and desires, memories, automatic skills, subliminal perceptions, and automatic reactions. The term was coined by the 18th-century German Romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Mineral

Mineral

In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.

Vegetable

Vegetable

Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, leaves, roots, and seeds. An alternative definition of the term is applied somewhat arbitrarily, often by culinary and cultural tradition. It may exclude foods derived from some plants that are fruits, flowers, nuts, and cereal grains, but include savoury fruits such as tomatoes and courgettes, flowers such as broccoli, and seeds such as pulses.

Animal

Animal

Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, during embryonic development. Over 1.5 million living animal species have been described—of which around 1 million are insects—but it has been estimated there are over 7 million animal species in total. Animals range in length from 8.5 micrometres (0.00033 in) to 33.6 metres (110 ft). They have complex interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs. The scientific study of animals is known as zoology.

Human

Human

Humans are the most common and widespread species of primate in the great ape family Hominidae, and also the most common species of primate overall. Humans are broadly characterized by their bipedalism and high intelligence. Humans' large brain and resulting cognitive skills have allowed them to thrive in a variety of environments and develop complex societies and civilizations. Humans are highly social and tend to live in complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families and kinship networks to political states. As such, social interactions between humans have established a wide variety of values, social norms, languages, and rituals, each of which bolsters human society. The desire to understand and influence phenomena has motivated humanity's development of science, technology, philosophy, mythology, religion, and other conceptual frameworks.

Holism

Holism

Holism is the idea that various systems should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book Holism and Evolution. While his ideas had racist connotations, the modern use of the word generally refers to treating a person as an integrated whole, rather than as a collection of separate systems. For example, well-being may be regarded as not merely physical health, but also psychological and spiritual well-being.

Ego psychology

Ego psychology

Ego psychology is a school of psychoanalysis rooted in Sigmund Freud's structural id-ego-superego model of the mind.

Cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning.

Humanistic psychology

Humanistic psychology

Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that arose in the mid-20th century in answer to two theories: Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism. Thus, Abraham Maslow established the need for a "third force" in psychology. The school of thought of humanistic psychology gained traction due to key figure Abraham Maslow in the 1950s during the time of the humanistic movement. It was made popular in the 1950s by the process of realizing and expressing one's own capabilities and creativity.

Transpersonal psychology

Transpersonal psychology

Transpersonal psychology, or spiritual psychology, is a sub-field or school of psychology that claims to integrate the spiritual and transcendent aspects of the human experience with the framework of modern psychology. The transpersonal is defined as "experiences in which the sense of identity or self extends beyond (trans) the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, psyche or cosmos". It has also been defined as "development beyond conventional, personal or individual levels".

Four Dimensional Model of Islamic Psychology

There is now a substantial literature on combining these elements - ruh, qalb, nafs, and aql (mind) - to create an Islamic model for human behavior which can be the basis for an Islamic Psychology and Psychotherapy. A detailed overview of this work is available in Abdallah Rothman, Developing a Model of Islamic Psychology and Psychotherapy Islamic Theology and Contemporary Understandings of Psychology (2021). The diagram to the right provides a compact pictorial representation of the model.

Lataif are special organs of perception in Sufi spiritual psychology, subtle human capacities for experience and action. Depending on context, the lataif are also understood to be the corresponding qualities of that experience or action.

The underlying Arabic word latifa (singular) means "subtlety" and the phrase Lataif-e-sitta means "six subtleties" (although the number of lataif can differ depending on the specific Sufi tradition). All lataif (plural) together are understood to make up the human "subtle body", known as the Jism Latif' ^[5]

Realizing (or activating or awakening or "illuminating") the experience of the individual lataif (and thereby the Jism Latif as a whole) is considered by some Sufi orders to be a central part of the comprehensive spiritual development that produces the Sufi ideal of a Complete Man (Al-Insān al-Kāmil).

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Sufism

Sufism

Sufism, also known as Tasawwuf, is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ritualism, asceticism and esotericism. It has been variously defined as "Islamic mysticism", "the mystical expression of Islamic faith", "the inward dimension of Islam", "the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam", the "main manifestation and the most important and central crystallization" of mystical practice in Islam, and "the interiorization and intensification of Islamic faith and practice".

Subtle body

Subtle body

A subtle body is a "quasi material" aspect of the human body, being neither solely physical nor solely spiritual, according to various esoteric, occult, and mystical teachings. This contrasts with the mind–body dualism that has dominated Western thought. The subtle body is important in the Taoism of China and Dharmic religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, mainly in the branches which focus on tantra and yoga, where it is known as the Sūkṣma-śarīra. However, while mostly associated with Asian cultures, non-dualistic approaches to the mind and body are found in many parts of the world.

Al-Insān al-Kāmil

Al-Insān al-Kāmil

In Islamic theology, al-Insān al-Kāmil, also rendered as Insān-i Kāmil and İnsan-ı Kâmil (Turkish), is an honorific title to describe the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The phrase means "the person who has reached perfection", literally "the complete person". It is an important concept in Islamic culture of the prototype human being, pure consciousness, one's true identity, to be contrasted with the material human who is bound by their senses and materialism. The term was originally used by Sunni Sufis and is still used by them, but it is also used by Alawis and Alevis. This idea is based upon a hadith, which was used by Ibn Arabi, that states about Muhammad: "I was a prophet when Adam was between water and clay."

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Sufism aspires towards developing a soft, feeling, compassionate heart. Understanding through the ‘‘heart’s intelligence’’ is superior to understanding through the intelligence of the head. Indeed, the intelligence of the heart is the only instrument that can be used to discover the ultimate truth.^[6] To Sufis, reason is limited in many ways and cannot outgrow its inherent limitations. In particular, when reason denies intuitive knowledge and ‘‘blinds the eye of the heart’’, it becomes the target of strong criticism from Sufism. This stands in stark contrast to the Aristotelian and contemporary western emphasis on logical reasoning as the highest human faculty, which should rule the whole personality. On this basis, happiness cannot be achieved by reason and intellect, rather happiness is pursued via intuition and mystical experience.^[7] Another important concept in Sufism is the ego (the self or the nafs). The ego is a part of our psyche that consistently leads us off the spiritual path, a part of the self which commands us to do evil. The ego can impede the actualization of the spiritual potential of the heart if not controlled by the divine aspects of the personality. To achieve authentic happiness, the ego should be actively fought against throughout life.^[8] The ultimate state of happiness for a Sufi is the annihilation of the individual self. This state refers to the destruction of the individual self to become one with the Divine Being.^[6][7]

One of the most influential Sufi psychologists was Al-Ghazali (1058–1111). He discussed the concept of the self and the causes of its misery and happiness.

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Al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali, full name Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad aṭ-Ṭūsiyy al-Ġazzālīy, and known in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was a Sunni Muslim Persian polymath. He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theorists, muftis, philosophers, theologians, logicians and mystics of the Islamic Golden Age.

Depression (mood)

Depression (mood)

Depression is a mental state of low mood and aversion to activity. It affects more than 280 million people of all ages. Depression affects a person's thoughts, behavior, feelings, and sense of well-being. Depressed people often experience loss of motivation or interest in, or reduced pleasure or joy from, experiences that would normally bring them pleasure or joy. Depressed mood is a symptom of some mood disorders such as major depressive disorder and dysthymia; it is a normal temporary reaction to life events, such as the loss of a loved one; and it is also a symptom of some physical diseases and a side effect of some drugs and medical treatments. It may feature sadness, difficulty in thinking and concentration and a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping. People experiencing depression may have feelings of dejection or hopelessness and may experience suicidal thoughts. It can either be short term or long term.

Happiness

Happiness

Happiness, in the context of mental or emotional states, is positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Other forms include life satisfaction, well-being, subjective well-being, flourishing and eudaimonia.