Tawajjuh al-nafs

توجّه النفسtawajjuh al-nafs

Preferred translation
soul's directedness
Also rendered contextually as
attention, its attention, orientation of the soul
Technical sense
the soul's directedness toward an object, on which a form's persistence and volition's strength depend

General Technical Meaning

In the attested usage, tawajjuh al-nafs is the soul’s directed attention through which mental apprehension occurs without spatial movement. Withdrawal of the soul’s attention from forms present in its faculties is dhuhūl.

Reader note. This entry is limited to the soul's directed attention in the reviewed philosophical usages. It does not cover generic attention or Sufi uses of tawajjuh.

In ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Works

In al-Manāmāt, ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī treats the soul's directed engagement as a causal variable in cognition and volition: a cognitive form persists while the soul remains directed toward it, and volition weakens when that directedness shifts to another desired object.

Source: Risālat al-Manāmāt wa-l-Nubuwwāt

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Canonical address: /glossary/tawajjuh-al-nafs/