---
title: "What Does Nafs Mean? | Islam Is Mercy"
description: "Nafs means the self or soul — the inner self with its desires and conscience. Islam calls believers to purify the nafs, not to destroy it."
lang: en
url: https://islamismercy.com/en/glossary/nafs/
---

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3.  What Does Nafs Mean?

# What Does Nafs Mean?

Written by **Islam Is Mercy Editorial Team**· 1 min readAwaiting scholar review

## The short answer

Nafs means the self or soul: the inner person, with its desires, emotions and conscience. The Qur'an describes the nafs as capable of both good and evil, and teaches that success lies in purifying it — guiding our desires instead of being ruled by them.

## On this page

1.  Meaning
2.  How Muslims use it
3.  Example

**Nafs** (Arabic: نفس; plural *anfus* or *nufus*) is pronounced *NAFS*.

## Meaning

*Nafs* can mean simply *self* or *person*: when the Qur’an says that every nafs will taste death, it means every living being (Qur’an 3:185). But in Islamic spirituality, the nafs is the inner self with its appetites, ego and conscience. The Qur’an teaches that God created the nafs with an awareness of right and wrong, and that our success depends on what we do with it:

> وَنَفْسٍۢ وَمَا سَوَّىٰهَا ﴿٧﴾ فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَىٰهَا ﴿٨﴾ قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّىٰهَا ﴿٩﴾ وَقَدْ خَابَ مَن دَسَّىٰهَا ﴿١٠﴾

> 7And \[by\] the soul and He who proportioned it 8And inspired it \[with discernment of\] its wickedness and its righteousness, 9He has succeeded who purifies it, 10And he has failed who instills it \[with corruption\].

[Qur'an, Ash-Shams 91:7-10](https://quran.com/91?startingVerse=7&translations=20)Saheeh International

Muslim scholars, drawing on the Qur’an, describe three states of the nafs:

-   the self that urges towards wrong (Qur’an 12:53);
-   the self that blames itself — the conscience that feels regret after a mistake (Qur’an 75:2);
-   the self at peace, content with God and pleasing to Him (Qur’an 89:27-28).

## How Muslims use it

Muslims speak of “struggling against the nafs” — resisting laziness, anger, greed or pride. Scholars call this inner effort *jihad an-nafs*, the struggle against the self. Islam does not teach that the body or its desires are evil; eating, sleeping and marriage are good when kept within God’s guidance. The aim is not to crush the self but to train it, like a rider guiding a strong horse. Fasting, prayer and remembrance of God are all ways of strengthening that control.

## Example

*“I really wanted to send an angry reply, but my nafs isn’t going to win this time.”*

Learn more in [The Purpose of Life](https://islamismercy.com/en/start/purpose-of-life/) and [Mental Health and Hope in Islam](https://islamismercy.com/en/views/mental-health-and-hope/).

## Key takeaways

-   Nafs means the self or soul, including its desires and conscience.
-   The Qur'an says the nafs can incline to good or evil.
-   Spiritual growth in Islam means purifying and disciplining the nafs.

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## Sources

-   [Qur'an, Ash-Shams 91:7-10](https://quran.com/91?startingVerse=7&translations=20)

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