Arabic vocabulary
How to say “self” in Arabic, with pronunciation and real example sentences from OpenArabic texts.
وَإِذا تجلى بِصِفَات الْعدْل والانتقام انقمعت النَّفس الأمارة وبطلت قواها من الشَّهْوَة وَالْغَضَب
And when He manifests with attributes of justice and retribution, the commanding self is restrained, and its forces of desire and anger are nullified…
النَّفْسُ — the self. Subject of 'was subdued', nominative, after its verb. The lower self, brought to heel.
From: Reflecting on God's Names →والذي نفس محمد بيده ما من كلم يكلم في سبيل الله إلا جاء يوم القيامة كهيئته يوم كلم،
By the One in whose hand is Muhammad's soul, there is no wound inflicted in the Cause of Allah except that it will come on the Day of Resurrection in the same state it was when it was inflicted,
نَفْسُ — soul. This is 'soul' as the first half of a pairing with 'Muhammad' that follows, 'the soul of Muhammad', joined directly with no word for 'of'. It is the subject of the small clause inside the oath; its pairing-form signals another noun owns it.
From: Paradise for Those Who Strive →والذي نفس محمد بيده لولا أن يشق على المسلمين ما قعدت خلاف سرية تغزو في سبيل الله أبدا،
By the One in whose hand is Muhammad's soul, if it were not hard on the Muslims, I would never remain behind any expedition that fights in the cause of Allah, ever,
نَفْسُ — soul. This is 'soul' as the first half of 'soul of Muhammad', joined directly for 'of', and the subject of the small clause inside the oath. Its pairing-form signals it is owned by the name that follows.
From: Paradise for Those Who Strive →والذي نفس محمد بيده لوددت أن أغزو في سبيل الله فأقتل،
By the One in whose hand is Muhammad's soul, I would love to fight in the cause of Allah and be killed,
نَفْسُ — soul. This is 'soul' as the first half of 'soul of Muhammad', joined directly for 'of', and the subject of the clause inside the oath. Its pairing-form shows it is owned by the name that follows.
From: Paradise for Those Who Strive →فإن النفس أمارة بالسوء، تميل إلى الشهوات، وتأنف من التكاليف، وتفر من المشاق
For the self is inclined to evil, leans towards desires, resents obligations, and flees from hardships.
النَّفْسَ — the self. This is the subject of the 'indeed' clause but it stands in the object case because the emphatic particle before it governs it that way. With 'the' it is definite, 'the self', and what follows describes its bent.
From: Struggling Against the Self →وَالنَّفْسُ مَطِيَّةُ الْعَبْدِ الَّتِي يَسِيرُ عَلَيْهَا إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ أَوِ النَّارِ
And the soul is the servant's mount on which he rides to Paradise or Hell.
وَالنَّفْسُ — and the soul. wa- opens a verbless definition, marking 'the soul' as the definite subject. The conjunction ties this onto the prior discussion, and the al- names the known thing being characterized.
From: Patience and the Human Self →وَهُمْ إِبْلِيسُ وَالْهَوَى وَالنَّفْسُ وَالدُّنْيَا
They are Iblis, desire, the self, and the world.
وَالنَّفْسُ — and the self. Again wa- adds the next item to the list, and al- ('the') pins it down as the specific inner self being counted among the enemies. The definiteness matters: these are named, identified adversaries, so each carries 'the' to mark it as already known.
From: The Four Inner Guards →فَعُرِفَ سَيِّدُهُ أَنَّهُ قَدْ صَدَقَ فَطَابَتْ نَفْسُهُ
Then his master realized that he had been truthful, and his soul was pleased.
نَفسه — his soul. A noun with the possessive '-hu' (his), the subject of 'became pleased'; the idiom 'his soul was pleased' simply means he was content. The suffix points back to the master, the one now satisfied. One word holds the noun and 'his'.
From: Luqman's Wisdom and Trial →وَعَرَضَ لِي نَفْسَهُ وَدَعَانِي إِلَيْهَا وَأَنَا أَسْرَعُ شَيْءٍ إِلَى نُصْرَةِ أَوْلِيَائِي،
He showed himself to me and invited me to it, and I am the quickest to come to the aid of my allies.
نَفْسَهُ — himself. This is a noun meaning 'self' with -hu, the 'his' possessor, fused to its end, so one word means 'himself'. It is the direct object of the showing verb, the thing presented. As a reflexive object it loops the action back onto the doer.
From: Under God's Shield →OpenArabic teaches words like نَفْسُ through real bilingual reading with native audio and spaced-repetition practice.
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