Advanced Quranic Sciences

First: Nafs (Soul/Self)
Used in the Quran with multiple meanings:

1. The person/individual: "Every soul shall taste death" (3:185) — every human being.
2. The spirit/life: "Allah takes the souls at the time of their death" (39:42).
3. The commanding/blaming/tranquil self: Three stages of the moral soul mentioned in the Quran.
4. Plural selves/persons: "Our persons and your persons" (3:61) — meaning the people themselves.

Second: Ruh (Spirit)

1. The spirit placed in humans: "And He breathed into him of His spirit" (32:9) — what Allah deposited in the body.
2. Jibril (Gabriel): "The Trustworthy Spirit brought it down" (26:193).
3. The Quran: "Thus We revealed to you a spirit of Our command" (42:52).
4. Its reality is unknown: "They ask you about the spirit. Say: the spirit is from the command of my Lord" (17:85) — the Prophet (peace be upon him) stopped at this limit.

Key distinction: Nafs is linked to identity, moral accountability, and judgment — it is what is resurrected and recompensed. Ruh is linked to life and divine command — its reality belongs to Allah's hidden knowledge.

Source: Ibn al-Qayyim, Al-Tibyan (p.254); Ibn al-Qayyim, Al-Ruh (pp.3–15); Al-Suyuti, Al-Itqan (2/99); Al-Tabari, Tafsir (17/507)

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