THE SIXTY-SEVENTH DISCOURSE On struggle with the self and description of its nature

Whenever you have fought with your own self and overcome it and killed it by the sword of opposition, God will revive it and it will contend with you and ask of you satisfaction of desires and relish for enjoyments from among sinful things as well as things permissible, with the result that you are to return to a struggle with your own self and attempt to overcome it, so that a reward may be written for you afresh every time. This is the meaning of the saying of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "We have returned from a minor jihad (meaning warfare with the unbelievers) to a major jihad. He meant that their (return was) towards a struggle with their own selves in perpetuity and recurrence — a struggle against desires and enjoyments, and against the self being engrossed in sinful things. This is the meaning of the word of God. And serve thy Lord, until there comes to thee which is certain (15:99) God has commanded His Prophet to serve Him and this implies opposition to man's own self because all service is declined by the self which desires just the opposite of it till the coming of certainty (death). If it is asked: How could the self of the Prophet of God decline service since he had no fleshly desires? Then God says: Nor does he speak out of desire. It is naught but revelation that is revealed (53:3-4) It will be said to you that He addresses His Prophet in these words just to make an affirmation with regard to this subject, so it becomes applicable to the general condition of his followers up to the moment of the advent of the Hour. Then He, the Mighty, the Glorious, gave His Prophet power over his own self, so that it might not harm him, nor oblige him to struggle against his own self and this distinguishes him from his followers. So when a believer persists in a spiritual struggle like this up to the point of the coming of death, and meets his Lord with a drawn sword besmeared with the blood of his self and his desires, He gives him what He has guaranteed him of the paradise in His word: And os for him who fears to stand before his Lord and restrains himself from low desires, the Garden is surely the abode. (79:41) When He has made him enter the garden, He will make it his abode and resting place and the place of return which will make him secure from any shifting and transference to any other place or any return to the worldly abode; and He will renew for him from day to day and from hour to hour all kinds of provisions for pleasure, and will bestow on him all kinds of dress and ornaments which will never end nor be exhausted, as the believer has been renewing in this world every day, every hour and every moment the struggle against his own self and desires. But as for the unbeliever and the hypocrite and the sinner, when they left struggling with their own selves and their desires in this world, and followed and made alliance with the devil, and then became mixed with various kinds of sins of unbelief and polytheism and similar things till death comes to them without their having adopted Islam and repented, God will make them enter the fire which is prepared for the unbelievers as is indicated in His words: Then he on your guard against the fire whose fuel is men and stones; it is prepared for the disbelievers (2:24). • When He has made them enter it and made it their place of flight and place of return and place of refuge, it will burn their skins and their flesh and He will give them fresh skin and fresh flesh accordingly, as He says: As often as their skins are burned, We shall change them for other skins (4:56) He, the Mighty, the Glorious, will do so with them because of their having made an alliance with their own selves and desires in this world in the matter of committing sins. So the inmates of fire will have their skin and flesh renewed at all times so as to cause them chastisement and pain thereby, whereas the people of the garden will have their provisions of pleasure renewed at all times so as to cause an intensification of the gratification of their desires and pleasures which are with them. And this will be as a result of their struggles with their own selves in order to make them accord (with the will of God) in this world's life, and this is what is meant in the saying of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him): "This world is the culture ground for the hereafter."