The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1625 page)

 
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(Arab.). A work of
supererogation
in Islam, based on
Qur’
n
17. 79: ‘Perform vigils during a part of the night, reciting the Qur’
n, as a n
fila for yourself.’ The most obvious naw
fil (pl.) are additional
al
ts
; see also
ROSARY
.

 
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(Arab.; cf. Heb.,
nephesh
). The individual self or soul in Islam, which exists in conjunction with
r
(see below). In the
Qur’
n
, nafs is sometimes nothing more than a reflexive pronoun (‘you yourself’). But it also has stronger content as ‘living person’ (21. 35 f.), and as the self or soul removed by God at death (39. 43). It is the subject of accountability at the Day of Judgement (
Yaum al-D
n
) (2. 281).
R
(cf. Heb.,
rua
) is the breath breathed into humans by God to create living beings, and is thus less individualized, but it carries the consequential meaning of a speaking being, hence something like ‘spirit’. Nafs is frequently the lower self, the self with appetites and passions, ‘the soul which incites to evil’ (12. 53).
R
Allah
is the name of Jesus/‘
s
in Qur’
n 4. 169, and by implication of
Adam
(15. 29), perhaps reflecting the first Adam/second Adam symmetry of
Paul
.