The stations of the self (nafs)

Sufism reads the ripening of the nafs as a series of stages. The commanding self (ammāra) calls a person toward wrongdoing; the blaming self (lawwāma) questions its own deeds and reproaches itself; the tranquil self (muṭmaʾinna) comes to peace and settles into balance. The sources sometimes add a few further degrees to these main stages. The map says that inner ripening happens not all at once but step by step.