The Nafs Is Hell, And Hell Is Like A Dragon – Abdur Rahman’s Corner
The nafs is hell, and hell is like a dragon
that seas cannot extinguish or decrease.
It drinks the seven oceans dry, and still
that creature-burning fire will not die down.
Both stones and stony-hearted unbelievers
fall into it all wretched and ashamed.
It is not satisfied with nourishment
like this until God’s invitation coms:
‘Are you full up, are you replete?’ ‘Not yet!
Behold the fire, the heat, the conflagration.’
It gobbled up a world and swallowed it,
its belly calling, ‘Are there any more?’ [Quran 50:30]
God steps upon it from No Place, and then
it is made peaceful by ‘Be and it was’. [Quran 16:40]
For since this self of ours is part of hell,
and all parts have the nature of the whole,
It is for God to step on it and kill it.
Except for God himself, who’d draw the bow?
Masnavi 1.1384 – 1392
