The topic of this seminar - 'Qur'ānic Concepts of Human Psyche' - is somewhat puzzling in many ways. First of all, the use of the word 'concepts' (in the plural!) leads one to think that presumably there are in the Qur'ān more than one doctrines or conceptual frameworks on or about the nature of human psyche. Or else the Qur'ānic injuctions on human nature or psyche do not fall into a consistent and systematic pattern. Again the Qur'ān, while dilating on the essential inner nature of man, uses its own variegated Arabic terms like rūh, nafs, qalh, etc., and it is quite problematic to assert that their connotations correspond exactly to the locution 'psyche' as used in the classical literature as well as in modem psychological disciplines. Indeed a critic may even level the charge that, to use Gilbert Ryle's phrase, a category - mistake is being committed here. Therefore, in order to avoid unnecessary complications and conceptual confusions, we shall start off by making an in - depth exploration into the usage, meanings and conceptual import of the word 'psyche'.
Professor G.B. Kerfred in his brief note in the Encyclopedia of Philosophywrites that psyche in Homer first means life and later means a departed life or ghost. The first