🏺 Made from clay
Being made from clay reminds Muslims to be humble. The body comes from the earth and will go back to the earth.
Muslim Beliefs about the Universe and Human Beings » Body, Nafs and Qalb: Human Nature in Islam
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 1, 1.2 (Islam)
- What Muslims believe about the body, the ruh, the nafs and the qalb
- What fitrah means and why Islam has no teaching of inherited sin
- Why Muslims believe human beings have a soul that lives on
- How Muslims respond to physicalism
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Unlock This CourseClay and spirit: how Allah made human beings
In Do Humans Have a Soul? Human Nature and Physicalism you met dualism, the view that a person is a body and a soul. Islam teaches a form of this view.
The Qur'an tells how Allah made Adam, the first human being, in two steps. First he shaped Adam's body from clay (Qur'an 15:26). Then he breathed into him of his spirit (Qur'an 15:29), and Adam came to life. So Muslims believe every person has a body from the earth and a spirit from Allah.
Key terms:
- Ruh: the spirit. The breath of life that Muslims believe Allah gave to Adam and gives to every person.
- Nafs: the self or soul. The inner person, with its wants and feelings, that makes choices.
- Qalb: the heart. Not the organ that pumps blood, but the spiritual centre of a person.
- Fitrah: the natural leaning towards Allah that every person is born with.
- Dhikr: remembering Allah, often by repeating his names or short phrases of praise.
The Qur'an says little about what the ruh is. It says that the ruh belongs to the command of Allah, and that humans have been given only a little knowledge of it (Qur'an 17:85). Muslim scholars differ here. Some say ruh and nafs are two names for the same soul. Others say the ruh is the life Allah gives, and the nafs is the self that results when ruh and body are joined.
The body: a trust from Allah
Muslims do not see the body as bad. The Qur'an says Allah made human beings in the best of forms (Qur'an 95:4). But Muslims believe the body is not theirs to treat as they like. It is an amanah, a trust, just as the earth is.
🤝 Looked after for Allah
In one hadith the Prophet Muhammad told a companion who was fasting and praying too much, 'Your body has a right over you.' So Muslims aim to eat well, rest and keep clean, and Islam forbids alcohol.
The nafs: the self that can change
The Qur'an says Allah formed the nafs and gave it a sense of what is wrong and what is right. The one who keeps it pure succeeds, and the one who spoils it fails (Qur'an 91:7-10). The Qur'an speaks of the nafs in three states.
🔥 The nafs that urges wrong
Left to itself, the nafs pulls a person towards wrong (Qur'an 12:53). It wants comfort, praise and its own way.
🔍 The self-blaming nafs
This nafs blames itself when it does wrong (Qur'an 75:2). The person feels regret and wants to do better. It works like the conscience.
🕊️ The nafs at peace
This nafs is calm and content with Allah. The Qur'an pictures it being told, 'Return to your Lord, well pleased and pleasing to him' (Qur'an 89:27-28).
So the nafs is not evil. It can be trained, and Muslims see prayer and fasting as ways of training it. Sufis, Muslims who focus on the inner, spiritual side of the faith, often describe the three states as stages on a journey. Other Muslims say a person can move between all three in a single day.
The qalb: the spiritual heart
Muslims believe the qalb is where faith and intention sit. In a well-known hadith, the Prophet Muhammad said that there is a piece of flesh in the body: if it is sound, the whole body is sound, and if it is spoiled, the whole body is spoiled. It is the heart.
💖 A sound heart
The Qur'an says that on the Day of Judgement wealth and children will not help anyone. Only the person who comes to Allah with a sound heart will gain (Qur'an 26:88-89). It also says that hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah (Qur'an 13:28), which is why dhikr matters to Muslims.
🔒 A hardened heart
The Qur'an speaks of people whose hearts became like stones, or even harder (Qur'an 2:74). Muslims believe that repeated wrongdoing and forgetting Allah harden the qalb.
Fitrah: born leaning towards Allah
The Qur'an speaks of the fitrah, the nature on which Allah made humankind (Qur'an 30:30). A hadith says that every child is born on the fitrah, and that it is the parents who then bring the child up in one religion or another.
Islam does not teach that sin is passed down from the first humans. The Qur'an says Adam and his wife, known to Muslims as Hawwa, disobeyed Allah, were sorry and asked to be forgiven (Qur'an 7:23), and Allah forgave (Qur'an 2:37). The Qur'an also says that no one carries another person's burden (Qur'an 6:164). So Muslims believe a baby is born without sin. Why people later do wrong is covered in Sin, Unbelief and Shirk in Islam.
Why Muslims believe in a soul that lives on
- The Qur'an teaches it. It says that Allah takes souls at the time of death (Qur'an 39:42).
- The spirit is not from clay. Muslims believe the body returns to the earth but the ruh came from Allah, so it does not rot away with the body.
- Life has a purpose. The Qur'an asks whether people thought they were made for nothing and would not be brought back to Allah (Qur'an 23:115).
- Justice needs it. Muslims believe each person must answer to Allah. That can only happen if the person still exists after death.
What Muslims believe happens next is in Akhirah: Resurrection, Judgement, Paradise and Hell.
Islamic responses to physicalism
Remember, physicalism says that only physical things are real, so there is no soul. Muslims give several replies.
- The Qur'an already answers this view. It describes people who say there is nothing but this life. It replies that they have no knowledge of this and are only guessing (Qur'an 45:24).
- Science has limits. Science measures physical things. The ruh is not physical, so Muslims say that failing to find it in a laboratory does not show it is not there.
- Brain science is welcome. Many Muslims accept what science shows about the brain. For them, the close link between brain and mind shows how body and soul work together in this life.
Common mistakes
Do not write that the nafs is evil. Only one of its three states pulls towards wrong, and it can be trained. Do not write that Muslims believe people are born sinful. Fitrah means the opposite. Do not describe the qalb as the organ in the chest. In Islam it means the spiritual centre of a person.
Exam-style question
Paper 1 style. Parts (a) and (b) test AO1. Parts (c) and (d) test AO1 and AO2.
(a) Identify three reasons why some people believe that human beings have a soul. [3 marks]
(b) Choose one religion. Outline two beliefs about the human body in this religion. [4 marks]
(c) Choose one religion. Explain beliefs about the nature of human beings in this religion. [6 marks]
(d) 'A human being is nothing more than a physical body.' Evaluate this statement, showing you have considered different points of view. In your answer you should refer to at least one religion. [12 marks]
Model answer
(a) 1. Their holy book teaches it (1). 2. They believe life must have a purpose beyond death (1). 3. They believe justice needs people to answer for their lives after death (1).
(b) Muslims believe the body was made from clay (1), which means it comes from the earth and will return to it (1). Muslims also believe the body is an amanah, a trust from Allah (1), so they must look after it, for example by not drinking alcohol (1).
(c) Muslims believe a human being is more than a body, because Allah shaped Adam from clay and then breathed his ruh, or spirit, into him. This means each person has a physical side and a spiritual side.
Muslims believe each person has a nafs, or self, which can urge wrong, blame itself or be at peace. This means people are not fixed: they can train the nafs through prayer and fasting.
Muslims also believe the qalb, the spiritual heart, is the centre of faith. A sound heart is what counts on the Day of Judgement, so Muslims practise dhikr to stop it hardening.
Finally, Muslims believe everyone is born with fitrah, a natural leaning towards Allah, so people are born without sin.
(d) Plan. For: physicalists say only physical things are real, and no soul has ever been found; thoughts and feelings change when the brain is damaged; many humanists say the self ends when the body dies.
Against: Muslims believe Allah breathed the ruh into a body of clay, so a person is both; the Qur'an says those who claim there is only this life are guessing; science measures physical things, so it cannot rule out a spirit that is not physical; for Muslims the nafs and qalb explain conscience and the peace found in dhikr.
Possible conclusion: judge each point as you go, then pick a side. For example: I disagree, because showing that the mind depends on the brain in this life does not show there is nothing more. Or: I agree, because a soul that cannot be tested gives no good reason to believe in it.
Exam tip
In part (d), notice the words 'nothing more'. Muslims agree that a human being has a physical body. The debate is about whether there is something else as well, so aim your arguments at that.