ANA-ANANIYYAH – أنا

 

Literally: Ana is I.

Trusting one’s own self. Following one’s own desires and benefits. Believing and thinking that one’s actions and being are his own possessions. Self-centredness. Proud. Egotism.

Ananiyyah and ana express material and ma’nawî equipment and features of man. Ananiyyah is the attribute of human fitrah, which is equipped with universal abilities and capacities. The function of it is to make man understand and feel the essence of the attributes and names of Allah to an extent. In one aspect, ananiyyah is called Amanah al-kubra.

If due to forgetting the hikmah of its creation and abandoning the duty of its fitrah, the ana views itself solely in the light of its nominal and apparent meaning; it becomes the means of ignorance and darkness in belief and îmân, it causes a decline in personal morality and social relationships.

Ananiyyah also expresses the state of man’s material and ma’nawî faculties and feelings which look to transient life. If through the consciousness and tarbiyyah of îmân it turns toward the eternal life, it attains istiqâmah and turns toward its real duty. That is to say, the way of ananiyyah to the negative or positive side is open.

(Please refer to the compilation of Ana-Ananiyyah)