Shafaqna India: Islamic Centre Of England presented: The Ranks of the Soul in Islam | Self-Purification | HIWM Seyed Hashem Moosavi
In Session 8 of this Islamic self-refinement series, HIWM Seyed Hashem Moosavi explores the “Ranks of the Soul” (Marātib al-Nafs) and their critical role in spiritual growth, ethical discipline, and self-purification in Islam.
This lecture focuses on the first and most dangerous rank of the soul: Nafs Ammārah — the soul that commands evil. Drawing from the Holy Quran, Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and narrations from the Ahlulbayt (A.S.), the session explains how unchecked desires, arrogance, laziness, vengeance, hypocrisy, and comfort-seeking shape human behaviour and distance a person from Allah.
Topics covered in this session:
• What is Nafs Ammārah?
• The stages/ranks of the soul in Islam
• Quranic analysis of Surah Yusuf 12:53
• The Greater Jihad against the self
• The psychology of sin and desire
• Spiritual purification and moral discipline
• Cain and Abel as a Quranic example of destructive envy
• The path toward Nafs Lawwāmah and Nafs Muṭma’innah
This lesson provides a deep Islamic perspective on self-awareness, spiritual psychology, and inner transformation.
Speaker: HIWM Seyed Hashem Moosavi
