Home » Hanafi Fiqh » Qibla.com » Jihad al-Nafs (Striving Against One’s Lower Self) & the Path of Sufism

Jihad al-Nafs (Striving Against One’s Lower Self) & the Path of Sufism

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Qibla.com

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

I was listening to some girls talk the other day, and they were saying that there was no evidence for jihad al nafs, that all the evidence for it was fabricated, or so weak as to be worthless, and so jihad can only mean fighting physically. I am very confused by this. If you could explain this to me and show me the evidences, I would really appreciate it.

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Walaikum assalam,

Affirming one reality is not a valid reason for negating another.

Physical jihad is a reality, whose obligation and rules are clearly established.

At the same time, the Prophet (Allah bless him & give him peace) himself used the term jihad for other than physical combat:

He said (Allah bless him & give him peace), “The striver (mujahid) is the one who strives against his lower self in obedience of Allah, and the migrant (muhajir) is the one who leaves wrongs and sins.” [Related by Imam Ahmad, with a strong chain of narrators, with similar wordings being transmitted by Imam Tirmidhi, and others]

This striving against one’s lower self and appetitive impulses is in order to make one’s beliefs, actions, and desires accord to the Sacred Law the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) came with.

This is why the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace be upon him, his family, and companions) said, “None of you [truly] believes until his whims follow that which I have come with.” [Nawawi said: an rigorously authenticated (sahih) hadith, narrated in Kitab al-Hujja, Ibn Taymiyya said: Abu Hatim narrated it in his Sahih]

The process of striving against one’s lower self is part of the science of tasawwuf.

This answer was indexed from Qibla.com, which used to have a repository of Islamic Q&A answered by various scholars. The website is no longer in existence. It has now been transformed into a learning portal with paid Islamic course offering under the brand of Kiflayn.