Freedom of Self as mentioned in Quran - Term Paper Example

afs, and within the Quran it has been used 255 times, plus NAFSUN 61 times and in other forms ANFUSKUM 49 times, NAFSENE 40 times and NAFASUN 14 times. The term has several meanings, and often Islamic scholars have argued that it refers to the personality of a person. In addition, other scholars have attributed its meaning to ‘intellect’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘mind’. However, its reference to the ‘self’ is perhaps the intuition behind this paper. The self as perceived in the Quran is free, and freedom is an absolute part of the self, and even though it functions in the realms of nature, its actions moves from its own nature and is not derived through natural causes.

Steiner and Michael (147), human beings operations can be intuitively thought of as transcending the laws of materialism. Further, the Quran bequeaths the human self to be free and sense a pointer to the reason which compels the self to act as a moral agent. Functions and responsibilities do not have a meaning for a man if they are entirely determined. If the self were not thought of as free, then it would be mindless to the demands of ‘ought’ and would respond only to the demands of ‘must’, and in a sense the responsibility arises from its sense of freedom: it is capable of leading a moral life only because it is free.

This view implies that the self has a real choice of freedom, and has the ability to decide on any of the options that are available to it, and responsibility for its decision rests entirely on it. Obviously, the self does not enjoy absolute and unlimited freedom, as the freedom is controlled within the conditions under which it derives its existence. The self abides under the aforementioned restraints; however, the self flourishes only in the atmosphere of liberty. In a highly controlled society, its realms of activities may be subject to rising decline and such a society discourages every manner of self-expression and discourages liberty.

Under such conditions,