Before exploring this vital and complex subject Allah, let us first
understand that the message of the book Quran is only addressed to the living
human beings of the present moment; it is not addressed to the distant past or
about people long buried in history. The true purpose of the Quran’s symbolic
narratives is to bring self realization, self-experience, self-testimony,
self-belief, Harmony, Peace and Soundness within - There is no room for hate,
jealousy, rivalry and subjugating or imposing your ideology on others. It is a
message for those who have faith in themselves / who trust themselves / who
believe in themselves (يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا) –
The Quran continually urges its readers to trust their own inner
potential rather than leaning on others, for true peace and inner soundness
arise only when one discovers the strength already seeded within. A very
important statement of the book Quran is that Allah helps those who help
themselves and change what is in their nafs. We are the Owner of our own selves;
Allah is not a distant God but a living mercurial Energy residing within which
we need to nurture carefully and consciously in order to experience peaceful
and well guided life.
The purpose of the book Quran is simply not about narrating traditional
stories to derive lessons out of it. The Quran is the book of Islam so its
message has to be live, in present guiding everyone to peace, security,
soundness of mind, body and soul; it can't be anything else. Individual’s
mental peace is more important than a peaceful atmosphere outside or in past.
Without internal peace we cannot achieve outside peace.
The best lessons always come through living experiences or by personally
experiencing an incident or witnessing memorable happenings in our own life, or
psyche that's why the inner Quran is called ahsanal hadith (أَحْسَنَ الْحَدِيثِ)
that sends shivering to our skins (39:23) - Ahsan means deep, heart touching,
well grounded in knowledge and hadith means live narratives not dead
narratives. The Quranic signs (الْآيَاتِ) are not
defunct signs but they are meant to be lived, felt and witnessed within
ourselves, not merely read through the stories or lives of others who never
walked our path.
We also need to know the difference between inner Quran / Kitab and
physical book Quran - In the context of the physical book of 114 chapters
which we commonly recognize as "Al-Quran" - the book never talks
about itself. The true essence of the word Kitab, Quran and Arabic is not what
we generally conceived. The Quranic term Kitab is our inner script, the word
Quran represents our own compilation of thoughts that speak to us and the word
Arabic signifies our own mother tongue, the opposite of arabiyan is ajmiyan
(foreign). In the context of the book Quran arbiyan means the language which is
clearly understandable.
The 114 chapter Quran is not a book of cosmic events, nor a record of
divine theatrics in the heavens or the earth. It is, rather, a manual of inner
engineering - an instruction of the hidden mechanics of human conscience. Allah
in this sense is not a distant invisible God but the inner Engine and the
Engineer of our own being - the living Intelligence that animates and
sustains the architecture of our inner world.
To understand Allah is to understand our own intelligent engine that governs
drives and observe our own existence. The peace and balance we seek outwardly
are reflections of an inner synchronization and alignment yet to be achieved.
Thus, to know our Engineer is to awaken and tune up with the Engine within,
this is the true purpose of the message of the book Quran.
The Quran is not a book of external performances of mindless rituals -
it is a symphony of the soul. We are called not to imitate the noise of outer
ceremonies but to hear our own music, to compose our own melody, and to conduct
the orchestra of our own being. Each of us carries within a distinct harmony, a
unique rhythm of divine planning. Our task is to listen deeply and to play
according to the notes inscribed in the depths of our heart. In Quranic context
this music / poetry of consciousness / conscience is called شَعَائِرِ اللَّهِ
-
The Quran does not seek to inform us who created the heavens and the
earth, who sends rain, or who grows the seed into fruit. Nor it is concerned
with describing the pregnancy of Maryam, nor the splitting of the moon, or the
setting of the sun. Its language transcends the literal and the
"historical accounts".
The Quran does not narrate the stories of "Abrahamic prophets"
for the sake of belief, heritage or lineage; the Quranic nabiyeen are our own
inner informative apps of our own programming. These nabiyeen are our own
informative apps which we need to activate or revive them, so that they guide
us, struggle, fight on our behalf and help us to spread Islam (peace &
soundness) within by conquering the inner Satan, the inner corruption and the
ever demanding soul.
Every narrative, every term in the Quran are not meaningless, they
ultimately points inward toward our own vibrant inner mechanism. Within its
entire framework, our foremost duty is to comprehend our inner script
(al-Kitab) - Kitab is the clear leader (إِمَامٍ مُبِينٍ) of
our own psyche (نَفْسٌ) naturally
designed uniquely for every individual. In simple and bold words our
inner Kitab is our Allah, following our inner kitab is following our Pure Conscience
(Allah). And since the most frequent and central word of the Quran is
Allah, our highest task is to recognize and understand the presence and
paradoxical function of Allah within the context our own conscience and
psyche (nafs) -
The Quran has nothing to do with the traditional notion of a Monarch God
- a distant ruler who sits upon a celestial throne, issuing decrees and
controlling the fate of His subjects from the sky. Such a conception belongs to
the archaic mythology coming from human imagination. Such imagination of Allah
is not related to the metaphysical (بِالْغَيْبِ) theme of
the book Quran.
In truth, the Allah of the book Quran is not a defunct God enthroned
outside the evolutionary cycle, but the very Conscience Psyche (Nafs) that
breathes through it. Allah is not a being apart from existence, but the Being
within all beings - nearer to us than our own jugular vein. Allah
is not a Creator but an Evolver (الْخَالِقُ)
who involves Himself in the evolution of His own Nature (fitrah) - (30:30)
To imagine Allah as a distant cosmic king or an external creator,
separate the universe and its inhabitants from this ever evolving vibrant
Energy; thus it diminishes the infinite nature of Consciousness that resides
within all of us. Such concept of separate distant God reduces the role of
boundless sacred inner Essence into an absolute External Authority / Dictator
that only demands unquestionable obedience, appeasement and flattery. In doing
so, we fail to grasp that the metaphors and theophanies used in the context of
Allah are not literary expressions, but profound symbols, vibrant signs
pointing toward the Divine Reality within and around us.
The Quran does not ask humanity to worship or serve a remote
"Invisible All Powerful Deity" who governs through fear and greed but
it encourages its readers to awaken the Conscience (Allah) that
governs, serves our own lives through our own level of consciousness - the
moral and behavioral law imprinted in the very fabric of the soul known as
human psychology. We are the book of Human psychology, we need to read it,
contemplate over it, witness it, judge it, understand it and follow it. We
cannot separate ourselves from our own psychology or Psychology of Allah
(Conscience). The Psychology of Allah is our own psychology but at micro level.
The book of Allah is not outside, it is a catalogue embedded within. The book
within (Al-Kitab) is our own Guide, Judge, Disciplinarian, Examiner,
Controller, Supervisor, Recorder, Punisher, Avenger, Vigilante etc.
This Conscience (Allah) does not control us as a tyrant controls slaves;
it guides us as light guides the eye. The eye is blind without light; likewise,
the soul is barren when it imagines itself apart from the Conscience (Allah). -
As the eye has no meaning without light, so our being has no essence when
severed from the Allah - For it is not we who see - it is the Light (Allah) within
us that grants sight.
Thus, the divinity in the Quran is not a Lord demanding unconditional
submission, but the Universal Conscience / Psyche (Nafs) calling
or guiding the human self to remember (zikr) its own
self, its own existence, its own conscience, its own script (Al-Kitab), its own
unique role of service (ibadah) to develop our own
Consciousness in order to be cautious and aware. We need to listen
and obey to that faint but clear voice of the conscience, recognize by the book
Quran as our inner rasul. The inner rasul is worried about us, wants to
cleanse us, teach us the script and develop us.
Remembrance (zikr) is given too much importance in the book
Quran because it restores and revives the connection (salah) with
the revelation (wahi) from our own inner script (al-kitab).
It is the soul’s act of turning inward, back to the specially designed unique
script, the original self - turning inwards to our own inherent script is to go
towards our actual purpose of our life which we forgot and got ourselves
entangled in immorality and ignorant deeds - remembrance (zikr) of
Conscience is remembering Allah, remembrance is to know who we truly are, what
is our purpose crossing beyond names, titles and nations. The Conscience (Allah) does
not impose Its will by force, but It tends to reveal Itself through the quiet
recalling (zikr) that continuously sheds away all the
artificial layers (يَصْنَعُونَ) - 29:45 and bringing it back to
our original inner script through real connection, honesty, reason, that gives
the direction to our acceptance (qibla) of our own selves.
The Quran’s God is not above, but within; not commanding from the sky,
but prompting through our own conscience. The real sovereignty of Allah is not
dictatorial in nature but Ethereal - the sovereignty of Truth over falsehood,
of Consciousness over illusion, of the Real over the transient. To know Him,
therefore, is not to look upward or backward but inward; for the throne of the
Real is not suspended in heaven - it is established in the heart that has
awakened to Great Oneness.
The Quran is not a chronicle of a religious deity residing in the
heavens, nor a memorial to a "beloved messenger" resting in Saudi
Arabia. Rather, the path to peace, fulfillment, and inner security lies in
following the guidance from our own inner scripture (Al-Kitab), the actual
authentic Book of Allah is inscribed within our own consciousness. In Quranic
terms, the true Kitab of Allah is none other than our own inner script - The
114 chapter book in Classical Arabic is a guide which directs us to follow,
understand the Book within, the Quran within, the Furqan within, the Bayaan
within and the Guidance (Huda) within.
The Divine Conscience speaks to each of us in the unique language of our
own soul - not through borrowed words, but through the silent grammar of inner
knowing. It directs us toward our unique role in existence, guiding us through
the script inscribed within our being since before time. This inner revelation,
when heard with the ear of conscience, becomes the compass of our destiny - the
voice of the Eternal speaking through the syllables of our own self.
21:10 - We have indeed sent down to you a Book in which lies
your remembrance; will you then not reason? (Quran 21:10)
The Kitab is not a physical book external to man but the eternal script
inscribed within the depths of his being - the divine code of consciousness.
Zikr, therefore, is not mere verbal remembrance; it is the awakening of that
embedded memory, the reactivation of the sacred record written upon the soul.
To remember Allah is to remember the Book of Conscience, for the true Zikr of
Allah is the Zikr of the Kitab - the remembrance of the primordial knowledge
etched into our inner essence. Zikr is the resonance of our inner scripture,
the vibration through which the soul recognizes the Divine imprint within
itself.
From the linguistic perspective, remembrance is the opposite of
forgetfulness (ghaflah). Forgetfulness is not the loss of memory; it is the
loss of presence -forgetting who we truly are, what we truly need to serve,
follow and what the world truly means. When the heart forgets, it becomes
heavy, reactive, scattered, when it remembers, it becomes awakened, balanced,
and at peace.
The purpose of Zikr is not the repetition of sound, but the revival of
awareness - the call to think, to ponder, and to employ the faculty of reason
(taaqilun). Through Zikr, man reawakens his lost conscience, uncovering his
original nature (fiṭrah) that has been buried beneath layers of worldly
information, illusions, and forgetfulness.
Thus, to remember Allah is to remember oneself, for the act of
remembrance is the return of consciousness to its own divine origin - the
moment when the forgotten mirror remembers the Light it was meant to reflect.
Remembrance is thus a
journey of return - from multiplicity to Unity, from sound to silence, from the
self to the Self. In that awakening, man does not merely remember Allah; he
remembers who he truly is - a reflection of the Divine Light, momentarily lost,
now found again.
“Am I Not Your
Lord?" - The Forgotten Covenant
And when your
Consciousness took from the species of Adam, from their manifestation, their
offshoots, and made them testify concerning them (anfusihim), ‘Am I not your Lord?’
They said, ‘Yes, we bear witness. (Quran 7:172)
This verse unveils the
primordial memory of the soul - a moment before time, when consciousness first
awakened to the Divine Presence. It is not a historical event, but a
metaphysical reality, eternally inscribed within the fabric of existence. Each
soul carries within it the echo of that cosmic dialogue - the first
remembrance, the first “Yes,” the first surrender to the Absolute.
The question - “Am I
not your Lord?” - was not a demand for affirmation, but a spark of awakening.
It ignited the awareness that “I am” is only known through the awareness of
“Who you are". In that instant, the human spirit recognized / remembers
its origin - not as a being separate from Allah, but as a mirror of His Light.
When man forgets this
covenant, he forgets himself. His inner world becomes fragmented, his
conscience veiled. But through Zikr, remembrance, reflection, and awakening,
the soul begins to hear again the faint reverberation of that ancient question
echoing through the corridors of its being.
Every true remembrance
is thus a return to that moment - the re-enactment of Alastu (Am I not). To
remember Allah is to relive that first affirmation, to respond once more from
the depth of one’s soul:
“Yes, indeed - You are
my Lord.”
In this remembrance
lies the secret of Tawhid: there was never a separation to begin with. The call
and the response, the Lord and the servant, the Knower and the known - all are
manifestations of one eternal Reality conversing within Itself.
Thus, the Covenant of
Alastu (Am I not) is not a tale of the past; it is the pulse of the present,
eternally whispering within the heart of every conscious being:
“Return, O soul, to
your origin - for the One you seek has never left you.”
17:13 - And [for]
every person We have kept / manage his fate (power to fly) under his neck
(capacity), and We will produce for him on the moment of awakening a book
[kitab] which he will be connected that will be life reviver / wide open - [Then
it will be said], -
17:14 - Read your book / script
[kitab]! Sufficient is your nafs upon you, this moment as an accountant.
Quranic verse 2:146 and 6:20 says that
we recognize al-kitab as we recognize our own children; still we are ignorant
and seek to understand the outer foreign book for the guidance of our
nafs.
The Quran unveils a
profound mystery when it declares, “We have sent down upon you a Book in which lays
your own memory card; will you not then reason?” (21:10) - this is
not a reference to an external scripture at all, but to the inner book of
being, the book of consciousness inscribed within every soul. It is a mirror in
which one’s true self is reflected, a reminder of the origin we have forgotten.
Each human
being, the Quran continues, carries this book of destiny bound to their very
neck (17:13-14). The neck - the seat of breath, speech, and
conscience - symbolizes that this script [kitab] is inseparable from one’s own
existence. Our “fate” is not imposed from outside but it is our inner capacity
to soar through the energy within and choices we ourselves sustain. On the
moment of awakening - when awareness dawns and illusions fall away - this book
opens from within, and one hears the eternal voice: “Read your own book; your
own self is sufficient to judge you.” It is the moment of self-revelation, when
conscience (zameer) becomes its own witness.
And yet, the Quran reminds us again: “They recognize the Book as they recognize
their own children, yet they deny it.” (2:146, 6:20) - Meaning,
the truth of guidance is intimately known to every heart, as familiar as one’s
own child. But in our material pursue we forget, we seek the outer script while
neglecting the living scripture written within the soul.
2:101 - And when a Rasul from Allah present /
arise / brought them assuring truth that which was with them (Kitab), a
differences occurred from those who already had access to the book; ignored the
book of Allah beyond their manifestation as if they never knew at all [what it
contained].
Thus, the essence of all these verses is a call to self-recognition: the real
revelation is not in the physical pages before us, but in the depth of the
consciousness that reveals it. The inner Kitab itself is (كِتَابَ اللَّهِ)
Consciousness of Conscience breathing within but we are suppressing its
practical manifestation (ظُهُورِ) - the archive of being, memory, and moral
vibration - ever reminding us that the journey to truth is not outward but
inward, where the Divine Script has already inscribed its words. In other words
if you are ignoring the Kitab within you are ignoring your Allah therefore your
Allah is your KItab - أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ - Obey Allah and Obey Rasul in other words obeying
the Kitab within, Obeying the moral compass of the Conscience (Allah).
The Quran never calls for passive imitation or blind adherence; rather, it
persistently summons the reader to awaken their aqal - to reason, reflect,
contemplate, and meditate. The divine command to “obey Allah and obey the Rasul
was never intended as an invitation to unthinking submission, but as a call to
align one’s consciousness with the voice of eternal informative apps (nabiyeen) embodied
within. Yet, over time, we have reduced this profound injunction to mere
literalism, assuming that following the text or its translation is equivalent
to following Allah and His dead Messenger. Does the Quran ask us to follow a
deceased personality alongside Allah, or has our misunderstanding of the very
essence of Allah and Rasul distorted the message? This confusion stems not from
the Book, but from our failure to grasp its symbolic and psychological depth of
message.
Now let’s come to the topic - “Allah is not a Religious God but a Universal
Conscience / Psyche (Nafs) embedded in everyone of us.” Let’s
unpack and elaborate this statement more carefully in Quranic and Islamic
language, without compromising the essence of Tawhid (Oneness).
Oneness is not about ritual worshiping to please Allah or blind obedience to
One God -
Oneness (Tawhid), in its purest and most universal essence,
is the realization that all existence is but the manifold expression of a
single, indivisible Reality. It is the awakening to the truth that nothing
stands apart, for every form, every being, and every breath emerges from the
same Eternal Source.
As the Quran proclaims: “Wherever you turn, there is the Face of
Allah” (2:115); “He is with you wherever you are” (57:4); and “We
are closer to him than his jugular vein” (50:16).... "So
turn your face toward al-masjid al-haram. And wherever you are, turn your faces
toward it.Indeed, those who have been given the script / book well know that it
is the truth from their Lord...." (2:144) - These
revelations dissolve all the illusion of separation; unveils the seamless unity
that reinforces all the multiplicity. The masjid al-haram is our inner state of
humbleness or ego-less state where we need to remain inclined 24x7.
Tawhid is not a doctrine to be believed, but a way of seeing
the connection of Oneness in everything - a vision of Reality itself. It is the
recognition that Being is One, that the One manifests inexhaustibly as the
many. Every soul appears distinct, yet each is but a thread in the single
tapestry of Divine Consciousness - separate only in form, eternally united in
Essence. In the Quranic perspective, one is “Muslim” not by label but by inward
alignment with the Will of Allah, by moving in harmony with the natural order
He has set. To live Tawhid is therefore to become a surrendered self - one
whose ego dissolves into trust, whose actions flow from the certainty that
there is no reality but the Real. Those who do not surrender are not Muslims at
all - Fighting internally or externally are not the solution; in surrender lays
the solution of peace.
Oneness / Tawhid is
not a perception but a conviction of unity beneath apparent diversity. It is
the awareness that the boundaries we draw - between self and other, subject and
object, life and death - are constructs of the mind, not divisions in reality
itself.
In the natural world, Oneness / Tawhid are visible everywhere: every
atom is connected through invisible forces; every life-form participates in the
same web of energy; every thought and action reverberates through the whole.
Science calls it interdependence, philosophy calls it unity of being, and
psychology recognizes it as wholeness.
To experience Oneness is to move beyond fragmentation - to see that the
part contains the whole, and the whole lives through every part. It is the
dissolution of the illusion of separateness and the awakening to the seamless
continuity of life.
In essence, Oneness Tawhid is the harmony / synchronization of existence
realizing itself through countless forms.
Clarifying the Sentence: “Allah is not a Religious God but a
Universal Psyche (Nafs) embedded in everyone.”
The phrase “Allah is not a God” here does not deny divinity - rather, it
rejects the anthropomorphic idea of God as an external deity sitting apart from
the process of evolution. One of the important attribute of Allah is Khaliq -
Note: Khaliq does not mean Creator. Khaliq is an active participle
word which signifies one who is involved in building our character or evolution
- akhlaq is one of the derivatives of Khaliq and khalaq. Therefore
Khaliq is not a Creator but an Evolver involved in our mental evolution. The
Quran has nothing to do with the creation of the Universe; the book must be
purely understood within the context of the metaphysical aspect within human
being.
The Quran implies that Allah is not a “separate being among beings,” but
the very Reality (al-Haqq) that sustains and permeates all
existence or evolution. The concept of a Creator and creation is a Biblical
concept - Islam and the Quran has nothing to do with slave and Master Concept.
The separation between a Creator and His creation or Master and slave is the
biggest cause of idol worship in religions. Instead of looking inwards in our
own selves we look upwards or expect help or guidance from external weak
sources which cannot help themselves.
Why Quran uses a plural form of the word Creator when the general
concept is that "Creator" is One God? - نَحْنُ الْخَالِقُونَ
- We are the Creators - 56:29 then in 23:14 Quran
says اللَّهُ أَحْسَنُ الْخَالِقِينَ Allah is the best Creators when
Allah is consider as One then why Quran uses the word Creators (الْخَالِقِينَ)
in plural, is this verse hints that there are many Creators? If we take the
meaning of Khaliq (خَالِقُ) as Creator then according to verses we need to
accept that there are many Creators. If we take the meaning of Khaliq as
Evolver in the context of human evolution then we need to understand that human
evolution is a gradual process by which humans are developed from earlier forms
of life over millions of years; it is driven by several forces at different
stages thus Quran uses plural form of خَالِقُ
- but the main subject of the Quran is spiritual or mental evolution of human
beings
He evolved you in stages. (71:14)
You shall surely ride stage after stage. (84:19)
Then He made his progeny from an extract of humble fluid - (32:7-8) the
word ja3l signifies no material is used so fluid must have some other
meaning
Why I interpret Allah as Zameer (Conscience / ضمير)? Because
when Allah is Ahad it signifies the One divided into Infinite Multiplicity,
manifests all around us as the individual conscience - the silent witness
within the heart that knows everything without learning. And when Allah is
Wahid - The One who unites all multiplicity, He is the Universal Conscience -
the all-encompassing awareness in which every soul and every act of knowing
arises. The distinction lies not in opposition, but in perspective. Ahad points
to the spiritual aspect of a unit of individual, while Wahid reveals its unity,
its interconnection within entire evolution. Just as Zahir and Batin, or Awwal
and Akhir, are not contrary attributes but complementary mirrors of One
Reality, so too Ahad and Wahid express the same Conscious Essence - the
Infinite that unites Itself both within and beyond all forms.
Important point:
Allah is I (Ana) - Allah is He (Huwa) - Allah is Him (Hu) - Allah is We
(Nahnu) - These pronouns I, He, Him, We, are all zameer (Conscience) in Arabic
language. The book Quran uses these pronouns to represent Allah/Rabb in the
context of the message of the Quran - So Allah represents Conscience /
Consciousness with no labels - Zameer is without Label / Name as it is not a
noun.
Even the prepositional phrase lilahi (لِلَّهِ)
is not a single word but a preposition prefixed to pronoun - jār wa majrūr (جار ومجرور),
with the pronoun dependent on the preposition – Lilahi means for Him only (لِلَّهِ)
– will be consider as genitive case but not a proper noun.
Allah is Psyche / Soul (Nafs) - Again soul or psyche has no name or
label -
Allah's fitrat and human fitrat is same
So when the Quran uses nafs or other pronouns for Allah, it is neither
linguistic, nor physical or psychological moreover it is to emphasize that
Allah / the nafs / the Conscience is not a distant God but the main driving
force behind the human and all existence.
The Quran presents Allah not as an external “object” among other
objects, but as the Living Reality underlying and witnessing / experiencing all
existence from within the evolution.
اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ
“Allah is not a God but He (Huwa), the Ever-Living,
the Ever-Lasting.” (2:255)
The words Al-Hayy (The Ever-Living) and Al-Qayyum (The Everlasting)
indicate pure, self-aware existence which cannot perish - Allah is Existence
that knows Itself, depends on nothing, yet everything depends on It.
In other words, Allah is Conscience Being with Consciousness, but
functioning at different Levels.
3:2 - "Allah is not a God except He (Huwa), the
Ever-Living, the Everlasting." The Quran clearly says Allah is
not a God, not a smaller or a bigger God - Allah does not carry any names, any
addresses, or any genders. He is above every idea, or noun - The Arabic word
Huwa is a pronoun (zameer) and in Quranic language it is called Conscience -
zameer (ضمير) that no vision can grasp Him, He grasp all
visions - Huwa is zameer and zameer means conscience - All other names of Allah
are either name, attributes or character but huwa is nameless.
Human conscience (ضمير / zameer) is the inner witness that knows right
from wrong before reasoning.
3:18 - Allah witnesses that He is not a God except He (Huwa), and [so
do] the Malaikah and those possesses knowledge - [that He is] establishing /
standing with justice. There is no God except He (huwa), the Exalted in Might,
the Wise.
In the Quranic view, this inner witness is a reflection of the
Conscience Awareness within man:
وَنَفَخْتُ فِيهِ مِن رُّوحِي
“And I breathed into him of My Spirit.” (15:29)
This “Divine Breath” is not a "Respiratory System of God" but
a energy of Governing Consciousness (رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ) -
the capacity to be aware, to discern truth, to feel moral weight.
Hence, conscience is the microcosmic reflection of the macro-cosmic Governing
Consciousness (Rabb) - Allah’s awareness reflected in the heart of man.
So when the Quran says:
أَلَمْ يَعْلَمْ بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ يَرَىٰ
“Does he not know that Allah sees?” (96:14)
- In the context of the Quran it is not an external surveillance; it is
the awakening of the inner vision, the Conscience, the remembrance that the
Seeing Reality is actually seeing through you and is in you.
Why “Allah is Conscience” - not as identity, but as source of human
guidance
To say “Allah is Conscience” does not mean conscience is Allah in
totality, but that the ground and source of all conscience is Allah - the
Universal Guide present in every conscious being.
In Philosophical language: "Allah is the Conscious Ground of
Being." - Quran does not talk about the "Creator of the
Universe" but the Evolver of human character, our awareness because
the book Quran is the catalogue of building or operating human character, its
subject is human beings and not any scientific innovation.
Allah is the Consciousness through which our inner world is known.
Thus, our ability to introspect, feel guilt, love truth, or perceive
beauty, empathy - are all manifestations of the Divine Conscience functioning
within human evolution.
Conscience (Allah) as the Inner Revelation -
The Quran also speaks of Allah guiding from within:
وَهَدَيْنَاهُ النَّجْدَيْنِ
“And We showed him the two ways (of good and evil).” (90:10)
This inner moral compass is the voice of the Divine Conscience. Here We
is also is zameer (conscience)
When a person silences ego, prejudice, and desire, that inner voice
becomes audible - not as speech, but as a silent certainty that guides the pure
heart.
We need to understand the Psychology (nafsiyat) of
Allah, the psychology of nafs too is the psychology of Conscience (Allah).
The Quran does indeed use the word nafs for Allah in a few verses. For
example:
“Allah warns you against His Self (nafs).” (Quran 3:28)
“He has prescribed mercy upon Himself (nafsihi).” (Quran
6:12)
"And I have produced you for Myself" (linafsi) -
(Quran 20:41)
This raises a question: since nafs is usually used for humans (self,
ego, soul, psyche), why does the Quran use it for Allah? Does that mean Allah
has a self / psyche like we have? Does it imply He has an ego or desires?
Short Answer:
When the Quran employs the term nafs in reference to Allah, it does not
suggest that the divinity possesses a human body, form, or gender. Rather, it
signifies that the Allah's Psychology and human psychology are
structured upon the same archetypal foundation - the same existential
pedestal of consciousness.
Allah has evolved humankind upon the very pattern (فِطْرَتَ اللَّهِ
- fitrat Allah) upon which He has manifested His own Nature. The verse “There
is no alteration or change in the evolution of Allah” (لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ) points toward
a gradual process of our evolution of our nature (فَطَرَ النَّاسَ) based on what
we do - amal / deeds are important - that the pattern of evolution of human
character is based upon our deeds (53:39) (9:105) (41:46, 74:38,
91:9-10). Thus, to comprehend the psychology of Allah is to perceive the
Nature of Allah, and to align one’s being with that Nature is the very
establishment of Deen (Quran 30:30).
Those who imagine Allah as a distant, anthropomorphic deity - a
“Super-being” separate from existence - remain veiled from this subtle truth.
They fail to understand why Allah declares to Musa, “I have constructed /
produced / made you for My nafs” (20:41), a statement that will
confound a traditional or even a non-conventional Muslim. The word used
here is اصْطَنَعْتُكَ the root is ص ن ع - basically means to
manufacture, construct, fabricate, prepare - word صَانِعٌ
means manufacturer, handicrafts man - تصنيع
means manufacturing and مصنع means factory - This word cannot be used for making
of human beings.
The Arabic word اصطنعتك (isṭana‘tuka) in verse 20:41 does not mean
“chosen.” It denotes careful crafting, inner refinement, and intentional
shaping. It implies a process of spiritual evolution - where life’s trials,
exiles, and awakenings are not random, but the divine sculpting the soul for a
higher purpose. Metaphysically, this verse speaks to every being’s journey of
becoming - we are not accidental products of matter, but deliberate quality
production of Divine Consciousness as done in factories. Each experience - joy,
pain, loss, revelation - is part of a alchemy by which the Divine molds the
finite into a mirror of the Infinite.
“And I have made you for Myself” means I have designed your existence as a
vessel through which I may behold Myself. The map or a configuration of human
being is not completed till he raises himself to the level of Musa. You cannot
see or speak to your Allah (conscience) until you develop your inner
musa.
The phrase لِنَفْسِي (li-nafsī) is profoundly metaphysical. A general
conception is that Allah, being beyond need and form, does not “need” anything
for Himself. But, this expression is clearly saying Allah is in need of Musa -
without the inner app musa we cannot speak, listen to our Allah (Conscience) -
Allah and the entire Quranic terminology must be understood symbolically, not
anthropomorphically or literally.
The book Quran reveals that the evolution of consciousness is from the Divine
Conscience - disclosure (tajalli) - the Infinite knowing Itself through the
finite.
65:12 - It is Allah (conscience) who has evolved several layers of
higher and from it lower consciousness, the like of them. [His] command
descends between them so you may know that Allah has control / power over all
desires and that Allah keep safe all desires with knowledge - Interpreted by ahleaqal
Verse 65:12 describes the psychological architecture of the nafs (soul /
psyche), that it is our conscience who is responsible to develop our layers of
consciousness - but if we see traditional interpretation of this verse it says
that Allah created seven heaven and earth so that He may showcase His powers
(Qadir) and has knowledge over all things.
Same thing is said by Ibn ʿArabi in his own words:
“The Hidden Treasure desired to be known; therefore, He created the cosmos so
that He might be known.”
Thus, the human being - and in this verse 20:41, where Moses becomes the
eye of the Divine, through which God beholds His own reflection in time and
form. In other words, “I have fashioned you for Myself” means:
“I have brought you into being so that My Consciousness may awaken through
you.”
The Ontological Meaning - Human as the Divine Mirror
Philosophically, this verse unveils the metaphysical relationship between
Evolver and evolution:
Evolutionary process is not separate from God but a mode of His divine
manifestation.
The “for Myself” denotes belonging and identity - the soul belongs not to the
world of forms but to the Divine Essence.
It is a statement of ontological intimacy: that the true purpose of existence
is to realize our origin in the Divine Reality that fashioned us in His mold.
This resonates with the verse:
“And He breathed into him of His Spirit.” - (32:9)
The spirit within is thus not other than the Spirit that fashions.
To awaken to that is to fulfill the purpose of being “made for Him.”
The book Quran is a symbolic scripture, containing ayat (signs) through
which we discover ourselves. Its language is theophanic (tajalli) - a
revelation through symbols and manifestations rather than literal descriptions.
Hence, beyond grammatical mastery or linguistic scholarship, one must awaken
the eye of symbolism - the inner vision capable of reading the psychological
and spiritual codes encrypted within the text.
Quran Clarifies Allah cannot be compared to any Nafs
(psychology) - All souls are uniquely wired to their matchless
desires, they cannot be compared as Allah too is Ahad but linked with Wahid
(Oneness) - We are molded in the fitrah of Allah and each fitrah is unique,
matchless or different but wired to Single Source
Allah immediately removes any comparison:
“There is NOTHING like unto Him.”
(Quran 42:11 - 112:4)
This means: when a word used for nafs / psyche is also used for Allah,
its meaning changes according to the given context.
Just like:
Allah has ‘Hand’ → means power or authority (not a limb).
Allah has ‘Face’ → means His eternal presence (not a human face).
Likewise, nafs for Allah → His Divine Self/Psyche, beyond form and
limits but possess all the characteristics of nafs.
Quranic metaphysics understands nafs of Allah as pointing to His
Ultimate Selfhood, from which all existence flows.
Ibn ʿArabi explains:
"Only Allah truly says 'I'. Every other 'I' you hear from creation
is borrowed from Him. He alone truly has a Self (nafs), we only have
reflections of being."
This means Allah having nafs does not reduce Him to human levels - it
actually elevates the human understanding by showing that all selves exist only
from His Self. We don't have separate identities.
Conclusion
Why does Quran use nafs for Allah? - To affirm His conscious, living
Divine Self within us -
What does nafs mean for Allah? - His Psyche/Being, beyond form or limits
Any anthropomorphism? No - Quran rejects similarity (42:11)
Surah al-Anʿam (6:103): لَا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ الْأَبْصَارَ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ
“No vision can closely overtake / follow / reach / grasp It, but He /
It can overtake / follow / reach / grasp all vision; and He is the Subtle, the
All-Aware.” - The word تَدْرِيكٌ
has following meanings - closely or consecutively overtake / follow / reach /
grasp
This verse is not a
denial of seeing Allah - it is a paradoxical revelation of the Phenomenal
Mystery of seeing itself.
It tells us: the insight or the eye can never see the Visionary, because
the Visionary is the very Light through which the insight envision. In short it
means all revelation / understanding passes under His Super-vision.
When the Quran says “no
vision can grasp Him,” it unveils a deep truth - that Allah cannot be
captured as an object of perception. Every image, form, and concept
belongs to the realm of limitation, but He is the Limitless, the Invisible
to the eye but behind every sight.
To the deep thinker,
this means:
You cannot see Allah
(Conscience) with your outer eyes, because it is He who sees
through your eyes.
Your seeing is His
seeing, but the ego mistakes the window for the light.
He Grasps All Vision
When the verse
continues - “He grasps / overtakes all visions,” - it means that every act
of perception, awareness, or consciousness is already contained within the
Divine Perceiver. All sights, all thoughts, all awareness’s are tiny
waves in the Ocean of His Knowing.
You see only because
His Light moves within you:
“Allah is the Light
of the heavens (higher consciousness) and the earth (lower consciousness).”
(24:35)
Thus, He is not seen
as one thing among others - He is the very Seeing by which everything else
appears.
The Subtle and the
All-Aware
The verse ends: “He is
the Subtle (al-Latif), the All-Aware (al-Khabir).”
Here the Quran hints
that His Presence is not absent - only too subtle to be grasped by the eyes or
the ordinary senses.
He is not hidden by
distance, but hidden by closeness. He is the innermost of the
inner, too near to be noticed, too immaculate to be pictured.
The Inner Realization
- The true vision of Allah is not through the eye, but through the
eye of the heart (basirah) - when the heart becomes a mirror free of
dust.
When the self
disappears, only the Visionary remains. Then it is realized
that: There was never “I saw Him,” but “He saw Himself through me.”
This is the secret of
mushahadah - the contemplative seeing of the wise philosophers not seeing
God as another being, but awakening to the One Being that sees through all
beings.
In Summary
No vision can grasp
Him -
for He is the
Vision itself.
Yet He grasps all
visions -
for all sight is a ray
from His Light.
He is the Hidden who sees
through every eye,
the Near who is never
an object of nearness,
the Self that
perceives all selves.
My understanding of the book Quran compelled me to call Allah the
“Universal as well as individual Psyche (Nafs)” or Universal Spirit or
Universal Consciousness. This is to express that the Divine but Mercurial
Consciousness is immanent within the whole cosmos, as the inner essence of our
selves. This term aligns closely with the Quranic concept of evolution from
Single Soul (Nafs wahidah) - 4:1 / 31:28 - from which
world of souls or every psyche forms and evolve - the Quranic
term anfusukum explains this - His Divine Breath in Mankind -
15:29 / 32:9 is the Spirit of Being animates in all beings. Universal
Submission is every being bows to the same inner mechanism of Being 13:15
/ 16:49
The Essence from the Quranic Point of View
If we express all nafs is One in pure Quranic terms, its essence is
this:
All evolutionary beings is one living organism, animated by the
Nafs and Ruh of the Divine, bound by a single consciousness - the nafs
wahidah.
Quranic Grounding
The Immanence of Allah
“We are nearer to him than his jugular vein.” (Quran 50:16)
This verse shatters the idea of an external, distant God. The Divine is
portrayed as intimately embedded within the very center of our consciousness -
the “inner self.”
“He is with you wherever you are.” (Quran 57:4)
And to Allah belongs the east and the west. So wherever you [might]
turn, there is the Face of Allah. Indeed, Allah is all-Encompassing and
Knowing. (Quran 2:115)
This points to the omnipresence of Divine Being, not as spatial
nearness, but grounded in existence within - the ground of awareness itself.
When the Omniscient is present within then where is the need to go
anywhere or to refer any book because Allah the Source of all guidance is
within you. You are the Masjid Haram, you are the Kabah, you are the Qibla and
you are the Quran - You just need to attune yourself to the frequency Allah and
you will find your station, your maqame mahmood.
The Universal Breath of Life
“Then He breathed into him of His own Spirit (Ruh)” (Quran 15:29;
32:9)
Here the Quran speaks of Divine Infusion - every human soul is a
manifestation of the Universal Spirit. The “breath” is not a physical act of
blowing but the inflow of consciousness, the awakening of Divine Psyche.
The One Self Behind All Selves
And your evolution and your resurrection are but as that of a single
soul (nafs wahidah). ? Quran (31:28)
This verse implies that multiplicity of beings is but the diversification
of one essential consciousness - the Universal Nafs. All individuality springs
from and returns to that singular Divine Psyche.
Ibn ʿArabi calls creation the Self-disclosure (tajalli) of the Divine
Nafs.
He says:
“The cosmos is the outward form of Allah’s Nafs, and man is its inward
consciousness.”
The Universal Psyche is the mirror through which Allah contemplates
Himself - it is the cosmic consciousness, within which all beings live and
think.
Rumi’s Symbolism
Rumi often refers to the Divine as the Soul of all souls:
“You are not a drop in the ocean,
You are the entire ocean in a drop.”
For Rumi, Allah is not an “external god” but the living awareness that
experiences Itself through every being. When he says, “The lover and the
beloved are one,” he expresses the same insight - the Psyche experiencing
Itself in multiplicity.
Philosophical Synthesis
In essence:
Allah is the Infinite Consciousness embedded within,
“Evolution” is the projection of that Consciousness,
and the “Self” (nafs) is the mirror reflecting that Divine Light.
Thus, “Allah is not a God” (in the anthropomorphic sense)
but the Universal Psyche,
the Self of all selves,
the Light of all lights (24:35),
through which everything perceives, exists, and returns.
Quranic statement
Allah is not a distant deity,
but the very Consciousness through which you exist.
He is the Universal Soul breathing in every being,
the hidden Self behind all selves,
the Witness who witnesses through you.
As the Quran says:
“He is the First and the Last, the Outer and the Inner.” (57:3)
And as the famous Arabic aphorism:
“He who knows himself, knows his Rabb.”
------ Allah is called Nafs
That’s a profound question - and the answer depends on how we define
conscience.
If by “conscience” we mean moral awareness
That inner voice which distinguishes right from wrong in a reflective,
ethical sense - then animals may not possess conscience in the same self-aware
form as humans.
Humans are uniquely endowed with moral self-consciousness - the ability
to judge one’s own actions, feel remorse, and act upon abstract principles.
This capacity arises from what the Quran calls nafs al-lawwamah (the
reproaching self, 75:2) - the self that questions, evaluates, and holds itself
accountable.
As the Quran says:
17:44 - The several
layers of higher and the lower consciousness and whatever is in them seek
knowledge for Him. And there is not a desire except that seeks knowledge with
His approval, but you do not understand their efforts of seeking knowledge.
Indeed, He is ever Forbearing and Forgiving.
Thus, animals may not have moral conscience, but they do live in
spiritual alignment - without conflict, spontaneous reflections of evolutionary
law.
Whereas humans, with freedom and ego, can rise above "angels"
or fall below beasts - depending on whether they live by conscience or by
instinct.
Coming to dying of Nafs -
From the Quranic perspective, the “death of the nafs” does not mean that
Allah dies - understood as the inner moral compass and pure conscience - ceases
to exist. Allah does not die; rather, it is our receptivity to the Divine
presence within that becomes veiled. When the inner moral compass is silenced,
it is as though our inner Allah, our inner Guide, our inner Engine and the
Driver, falls into obscurity. Those who imagine Allah as a distant deity seated
in the heavens cannot grasp this subtle truth. The ‘death of Allah’ is nothing
but the death of conscience within us. And when this conscience collapses, it
mutates into a corrupted compass, pointing us toward false directions and
entrapping us in the whisperings of the lower self - what tradition names as
Satan. In reality, there are not two competing forces within us, but a single
Divine Force whose expression aligns with the side we nurture: the luminous if
we incline toward truth, the shadowed if we serve our desires.
Fine, let’s unpack Quran 3:185 through the lens of
common sense.
"Every soul shall taste death, and you will be given your full
recompense on the Day of Resurrection…”
(and it continues with the reminder that the life of this world is only
deceptive enjoyment).
This isn’t about physical dying but death as transformation, not
annihilation
1. The first “death”: dying of the ego.
Every soul shall taste death” as a mandate to dissolve the nafs, that
noisy inner gremlin that insists on separateness, pride, and self-worship. This
ego-death is the doorway to clarity. You don’t wait for the grave; you taste
death now by letting the false self collapse.
2. The “life” after ego-death: awakening to the Real.
Once the ego stops screaming for attention, a person perceives the Real,
the fact (al-Haqq). This is where the “recompense” begins even in this world.
You start receiving the fruits of inner surrender: presence, serenity,
tawakkal, and the sense of living inside Divine nearness rather than your own
mental storm.
3. The world as “deceptive enjoyment”:
Not that the world is evil; it just seduces you into thinking it’s
permanent. True seekers of knowledge roll their eyes at this because the whole
point is to see the world as a mirror, not a destination. Everything you cling
to here is basically sand in a fancy box.
4. Ultimate resurrection is the unveiling.
In Quranic sense the Day of Resurrection is not a cosmic event; it’s the
moment the veil lifts and every truth you avoided becomes unavoidable. All
inner states become visible. Every concealed intention is disclosed. The
polished hearts shine; the rusted ones reveal their rust. No shortcuts, no
filters.
In short:
This verse reminds the seeker to die inwardly before dying outwardly, so
that the “resurrection” becomes a return to the Source you already tasted in
life. Otherwise, you show up unprepared, like someone who slept through every
class and wonders why the final exam feels rough.
In essence the entire message of the book Quran is related to human
psychology (nafsiyat) and every term of the Quran must be inferred in the
context of human psyche (nafs) -
Humans must awaken the inner Consciousness (Rabb) and align it with the
Conscience (Allah).
Pure Conscience is the evolved form of fitrah, the divine instinct
refined through awareness.
I hope I have done justice to this profound subject; whatever beauty it
contains belongs to the majesty of the Quran and whatever shortcomings remain
arise solely from my own limitations.
May this humble attempt have done even a fraction of justice to the
vastness of this truth; for every insight flows from the Quran’s eternal
brilliance, while every imperfection springs only from the narrowness of my own
being.
