The Nafs
Sufis refer to the 'Nafs'. There are a number of nafs
but they are commonly equated with the base nafs: anger, sexual desire and appetite.
The nafs cannot be killed, the desires must be overcome by rising above them.
A common analogy is with a donkey. The donkey represents the base desires and
if you ride a donkey but don't have control of it, the donkey does what it wants.
It will stop and graze or chase a jenny down the road. Donkeys can be extremely
stubborn and difficult to control.
Taking command of the nafs is considered to be a battle. It is the real Jhad (al-jihad al-akbar) – the greater battle and many people who refer to jhad as being a fight against a mortal enemy (al-jihad al-asghar) fail to appreciate this.
Many religions use fasting as means of gaining control over the nafs. In Islam in the holy month of Ramadan the devotee must not eat, drink or have sex from dawn till sunset. Christianity had a similar abstinence during Lent, although few Christians follow this nowadays. Eating and then breaking the fast at sunset is more effective than simply fasting as you have to fight the battle anew, as it were, everyday. This battle is what separates humans from animals. No species others than humans can forgo something they desire for spiritual reasons.
The Mulla Nasruddin was once camping and he tied his donkey up next to his tent. During the night it got quite cold and the donkey moved his head into the tent to keep warm. Nasruddin simply wanted some sleep so begrudgingly allowed the donkey to keep his head warm. The donkey then moved his front legs into the tent. Again Nasruddin didn't throw him out. Then as the night got colder the donkey moved his whole body into the tent and in the process completely pulled the tent out leaving both Nasruddin and the donkey exposed to the elements.There was a time when the structure of society put restrictions on the nafs. Eating was restricted to meal times; sex to after marriage and if a man desired to wear woman's attire he would do it in the privacy of his own home instead of making a public exhibition of himself. Nowadays not only is giving way to desires considered acceptable, there are a host of so-called advisers who tell us that this is the correct course of action and that to withhold losing our temper when we are annoyed will cause great psychological damage or that to restrict sex to after marriage will somehow cause AIDs to wipe out the human race.
I pointed out previously ('Guilt Free') that people like to do what they want – that is what their nafs wants – and to justify it with an ulterior motive.
