What is the soul at peace?

It is the highest state of the soul. A person no longer finds any pleasure in evil, even the thought of it pains them, and they are completely at one with the will of God.

The Holy Qur’an describes three inner states of a human being. The first is the soul that urges evil. It is the voice that keeps tempting a person to do wrong. When the conscience falls silent, it drives them from one small wrong to the next, bigger one.

The second state is the self-accusing soul, which the first verse above speaks of. This is the conscience. Someone who does something for the first time that they know is wrong often suffers greatly. Some cannot sleep afterwards. But when the same wrong is repeated again and again, the pain grows weaker until it falls silent altogether. Then evil has become a habit. Most people live between these two voices. In some areas of their lives good has the upper hand, in others evil.

The third state is the soul at peace. Here a person has not only pushed back the voice of evil but silenced it completely. They no longer find any pleasure in going against the will of God. Even the thought of something evil is a torment to them. In this state the inclination to evil that lies in every human being has itself submitted to God.

This is a state of deep peace. What such a person thinks and does is in harmony with the will of God, and so there is no longer any dissatisfaction within them. The last verses above describe this soul, returning to its Lord, pleased with Him, and He with it.

No one simply falls into this state. It is the fruit of a long inner struggle. Yet every step in which one listens to the conscience instead of overriding it brings one closer.