Islamic thought. Iqbal stated: "It is probable that Nietzsche borrowed it (Übermensch) from the literature of Islam or of the East and degraded it by his materialism." Sufism's conception of nafs Three principal stages There are three principal stages of nafs in Sufistic Wisdom, also mentioned in different verses of the Quran. The Sufis call them "stages" in the process of development, refinement and mastery of the nafs. The inciting nafs (an-nafs al-ʾammārah) In its primitive stage the nafs incites people to commit evil; this is the nafs as the lower self, the base instincts. In the eponymous Sura of the Quran, Yusuf says "Yet I claim not that my nafs was innocent: Verily the nafs incites to evil." Islam emphasizes the importance of fighting the inciting nafs in Quran as well as in hadith. One tradition holds that Muhammad said after returning from a war, "We now return from the small struggle (Jihad Asghar) to the big struggle (Jihad Akbar)". His companions asked, "O prophet of God, what is the big struggle?" He replied, "The struggle against temptations." This stage is generally divided into the levels al nafs al-hayawaniyya and al nafs al-iblissiyya. Al nafs al-hayawaniyya ("the animal state") describes the self, which runs after material possessesion, sensual desires and animalistic pleasures. Al nafs al-iblissiyya is even lower than the animal state, because the self seeks to replace God in the love for itself. The Quran enjoins the faithful "to hinder the nafs from lust", and another traditional narration warns that "the worst enemy you have is [the nafs] between your sides." Rumi warns of the nafs in its guise of religious hypocrisy, saying "the nafs has a rosary and a Koran in its right hand, and a scimitar and dagger in the sleeve." Animal imagery is often used to describe the nafs. A popular image is a donkey or unruly horse that must be trained and broken so that eventually it will bear its rider to the goal. Rumi compares the nafs to a camel that the hero Majnun, representing the intellect ('Aql), strains to turn in the direction of the dwelling-place of his beloved. The self-accusing nafs (an-nafs al-luwwāmah) In Sura al-Qiyama the Quran mentions "the self-accusing nafs". This is the stage where "the conscience is awakened and the self accuses one for listening to one’s ego. One repents and asks for forgiveness." Here the nafs is