the way things actually stand, against which a judgement is true or false
General Technical Meaning
Nafs al-amr is the objective standing of a thing apart from any positer’s supposition or consideration. In truth-bearing use, a judgment is true when it corresponds to that reality.
In ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Works
Bidāyat al-Ḥikmah
fact of the matter — definition and use
Nafs al-amr is defined as the comprehensive ground of the being of existence, quiddity, and rational notional concepts against which propositions are matched.
Limits of this account
It does not identify nafs al-amr simply with a separately existing intellect.
Uṣūl-i Falsafah wa Rawish-i Riʾālism
nafs al-amr as what a true cognition answers to
In Uṣūl-i Falsafah the author approaches nafs al-amr from the side of truth: a cognition is true insofar as it corresponds to reality and to nafs al-amr. The passage therefore shows the role the notion plays — it is what a true cognition answers to — rather than defining what nafs al-amr itself is.
Limits of this account
This passage does not define nafs al-amr. The Bidāyat al-Ḥikmah section above does that. Its immediate subject is truth and correspondence.
Read in context
Open a passage in the edition where this term is linked.