The following was extracted from my translation of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī’s ʿUyūb al-nafs wa adwiyātuhā (Infamies of the Soul and Their Treatment). The entries are listed in the following format:
- infamy
- treatment
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Audio recordings from a course taught in 2004 are available here.
- Expecting salvation despite violations
- Travel the path of guidance, eat wholesome food, and seek complete protection from God
- Comfort by the form of repentance
- Adhere to grieving & crying so the nafs does not apply itself to feeling comforted
- Fearing harm where none lies
- Return to sound faith: “If God afflicts you with a misfortune none can remove it but He…” Q10:107
- Unselfconsciously slacking off in duties
- Continually seek refuge in God & make remembrance of Him; recite & seek its meanings; venerate the sanctity of Muslims
- Not feeling delight in ones duties
- Demand that the nafs be sincere, adhere to the sunnas in actions, and rectify the initial stages of affairs
- Expecting good while irritating others
- Know that God—even if He had forgiven all his sins—has seen him commit mistakes and violations
- Expecting success without any work
- Stay up late at night in worship; induce hunger & thirst; do things contrary to the nafs’ nature & deny it its lusts
- Truth and worship are contrary to its nature
- Extract the nafs from this world and return it to its Lord
- Preferring vile notions
- Resist evil notions from the very beginning lest they become ingrained
- Preoccupation with the infamies of others
- See the infamy of the nafs, know it, and be aware of its machinations
- Heedlessness and negligence
- Have a lonely heart containing pure sound belief in monotheism (tawḥīd)
- Self-pity
- See the grace of God Most High that is upon one at all times and circumstance
- Preoccupation with adorning the outward
- Be occupied with protecting one’s innermost secret
- Seeking compensation for its actions
- See shortcomings deeds and a lack of sincerity
- Lacking delight in obedience
- Eat the lawful, continuously make remembrance of God, serve the righteous, beseech God to rectify one’s heart
- Laziness
- Induce hunger
- Seeking leadership
- Adhere to modesty and brokenheartedness, have compassion toward people and sincerely advise them
- Speaking often
- Realize that what one says is recorded against him and that he is held responsible for it
- Extravagant praise and censure
- Discipline the nafs on candor & truthfulness until it does not transgress in praise when pleased nor censure when angry
- Discontentment with God’s guidance
- Know that one knows the outward appearance of things while God knows the outward appearance & the inner reality
- Wishing for the impossible
- Know that one does not discern the consequence of his wishes
- Being absorbed with worldly affairs
- Be occupied with maintaining remembrance of God at all times
- Showing off obedience
- Know that he has no benefit or harm for others; struggle in demanding sincerity from his nafs in performing its deeds
- Avarice
- Know that through avarice one forgets the sweetness of worship and is enslaved to others after God had set him free
- Avarice for obtaining
- Know that this world is not a permanent abode and that the abode of the after life is permanent
- Approving only its own work
- Impeach the nafs since it is predisposed to evil; assume the best concerning people because final outcomes are unknown
- Pity towards the nafs
- Turn away from the nafs; be occupied with it only a little
- Seeking revenge
- Feel enmity towards the nafs and despise it; feel anger at committing prohibitions
- Concern that one is honored
- Ascertain that people honor one only to the extent that God has put in their hearts & the inward is where God watches
- Concern for sustenance
- Know that God, the One who created him, has guaranteed sufficient sustenance (Q30:40)
- Oft sinning
- Seek forgiveness & repent w/every breath; fasting; pray at night; sit w/the righteous; & attend assemblies of dhikr
- Grabbing attention while neglecting the self
- Act according to what one preaches; preach via deeds—not words
- Joy, happiness, and demanding comfort
- Wake up to what lies ahead; know one’s shortcomings in what He ordered and his pursuit of what is forbidden
- Following caprice
- Read Q79:40, Q12:35
- Inclining towards fellowship
- Know that companions depart and that fellowship has separations
- Vigor in obeying and approving of it
- Know that the nafs‘s deeds are never free from defects
- Following lusts
- Deny the nafs its desires, induce it to perform what it dislikes, and contravene it in its demands
- Feeling secure from Satan
- Rectify slave-hood according to its conditions, and beseech God to bestow this
- Righteousness without sincerity
- Abandon visible humility except to the degree of inward humiliation in one’s heart and innermost being
- Blindness of God’s respite
- Know that respite is not from disregard: God will ask him of it & will recompense him for it unless He grants him mercy
- Spreading infamies of others
- Make himself an exemplar; love for people what one loves for himself
- Lack of vigilance
- Demand an increase in the quality—& then the quantity—of actions and statements; follow the Forebears
- Denigration and arrogance
- Return to modesty; believe in the sanctity of Muslims
- Laziness and disregard for the law
- Know that he is ordered directly by God Most High
- Donning the garb of the righteous
- Abandon external adornment until having rectified the interior
- Squandering time
- Know that time is dearest, so occupy it with remembrance of God, obey Him, & demand sincerity from the nafs
- Anger
- Induce the nafs to be content with the decree of God
- Lying
- Induce the nafs to tell the truth, and forsake being occupied with people’s contentment and hatred
- Stinginess and miserliness
- Know that this world is paltry and that it will cease to exist
- Its disposition for fancies
- Deem death near; be wary of God in all circumstances
- Being deluded by false praise
- Don’t be deceived by praise that disagrees with what God Most High knows about him and what one knows about himself
- Avarice
- Know that avarice will not bring about an increase in the sustenance God has destined for him
- Envy
- Know that the envier is an enemy of the blessing of God
- Persisting in a sin while fancying mercy
- Know that God has made His forgiveness obligatory for those who do not persist in a sin
- Unwillingly performing acts of obedience
- Induce hunger & thirst, travel, and induce the nafs to do what it dislikes
- Avarice and being tightfisted
- Know that death is certain & near; save and withhold only to the extent that one is certain to live
- Accompanying the rebellious
- Return to accompanying those who conform to God and those advancing towards God
- Heedlessness
- Know that God is not heedless, and that one is accountable for notions and aspirations
- Idleness by feigning reliance on God
- Adhere to pursuing one’s means of livelihood
- Departing knowledge for feigned achievements
- Adhere to knowledge
- Pride in what it gives
- Know that one merely delivers to others sustenance God had appointed for them
- Showing need while having enough
- Feign sufficiency even though one has too little
- Deeming itself superior
- Know one’s nafs, assume the best concerning his intimates
- Toiling for its happiness
- Know that God hates the exultant [overly joyful]. He Most High says, “Exult not; God loves not the exultant,” Q28:76.
- Ignorance of its Creator’s blessing
- Perceive the blessings of God during all circumstances
- Grasping at dispensations
- Avoid obscurities and know that they lead to doing the unlawful
- Disregarding lapses
- Make amends by seeking pardon and quickly repenting so that the nafs does not get accustomed to mistakes
- Being deceived by miracles
- Know that most miracles are deceptions and lures. (See Q7:182.)
- Sitting with the rich
- Sit with the poor, know that nothing the rich possess will reach one except the portion God has decreed for him