[Suratu'sh-Shams (xciv) 10]. '(Men's) souls are naturally inclined to covetousness' [Suratu'n-Nisa' (iv) 127],

It would seem that in the last three passages, at least, there is a tendency, if not more, to distinguish between the man as a whole, and something in hint, or belonging to him, which is called the 'nafs'. In xii. 53, this soul (nafs) is said to be prone to evil. Baidawi and Zamakhshari both take this as applying to the human race, and as being equivalent to 'every one is prone to evil.' Ghazali would interpret this 'nafs' as being the lower nature of man — man's natural animal desire — which, according to this interpretation, the verse states is prone to evil. He finds the word used here rather in that sense of 'nafs' which is common among the Sufis. In either case, the sense is not just exactly that which would have been conveyed by the expression had it come from the pen of St. Paul, for instance. The very exception by which it is followed ('except those on whom thy Lord shall show mercy') changes considerably the force of the words, whichever way the words of the exception are to be explained, and the commentators are not quite certain how they are to be taken. It would seem that what is meant is that those who are not experiencing, or who have not experienced the mercy of God (which is sometimes employed in the Qur'an to express what we would more naturally describe as grace, and which according to the Qur'an is offered to all, though it does not become effectual in all), who are actually described as being prone to evil, or, following Ghazali's interpretation, are fiercely tempted by this 'nafs', whose inclinations are towards evil.

In either case the passage does not teach that man is sinful by nature even after the fall.

Looking at the next passage [Sura (xci) 7-10] we see nothing, in the words employed, to lead us to the conclusion that all men are by nature sinful or even prone to evil. The verse simply states, as has already been explained (p. 13), that man has the power of discriminating between good and evil, and the power of choosing the one or the other; and that the happiness or the misery of the individual depends on what that choice is.

In the last of these three passages [Sura (iv) 127], Sale's translation, by inserting the word 'naturally', changes very much the meaning of the verse, and even Rodwell's 'Prone' is rather strong. The idea of the verse, as it stands in its context, appears to be that covetousness or avarice is ever a present temptation to mankind, and what is spoken of is not so much the nature or disposition of the human soul, as the terrible temptation which avarice is to it. A careful study of the whole passage in which this verse occurs, but which cannot be given here in detail, leads to this conclusion.

It is hardly possible to say that the Qur'an represents human nature as sinful. Even if it teaches that man is prone to evil, though this, too, is doubtful, the inclination is not regarded as being in itself in any way sinful, but as arising simply from human weakness which, as we have seen, is regarded as belonging to man by creation.

On the other hand, the Qur'an, while admitting that the lower or animal side of man is the constant cause of great temptations to evil, asserts that there is in human nature a capacity for, nay a tendency towards higher things. Thus we find such passages as, 'Wherefore be