Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

Bismillahir- Rahmanir-Rahim

1. Opening

Friends who are blessed by Allah, On the stage of life, we often define struggle as the effort to conquer the outside world—chasing a career, winning business competition, or defeating visible enemies. Yet in Islam’s spiritual hierarchy, there is a battle far greater, far quieter, and far more decisive for our salvation. That is the struggle against the self.Conquering personal desires, base passions, and lusts is the highest rank of jihād [jihād al-nafs]. When someone fails on this inner battlefield and is defeated by his own ego, his authority and influence before people collapse. A real example: a highly educated father who eloquently advises his son about health risks, yet at the same time cannot stop smoking himself. The father’s words will evaporate, losing their inner allure, because his tongue is not backed by victory over his own ego.

Psychologically and in neuroscience, humans have a moral reasoning system highly sensitive to inconsistency [cognitive dissonance]. When someone sees a wide chasm between a figure’s words and actions, the brain automatically rejects the message outright, deeming it false. In Islam, true victory is measured by the ability to control the steering wheel of the heart so it is not driven by base desire. The soul becomes cool and peaceful only when it succeeds in subduing its ego under the rulings of Allah’s sharīʿah.Allah SWT reminds us, with trembling effect, about the danger of following base desire in the Qur’an:

وَمَنْ أَضَلُّ مِمَّنِ اتَّبَعَ هَوَاهُ بِغَيْرِ هُدًى مِّنَ اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ

“And who is more astray than one who follows his desire without guidance from Allah? Indeed, Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.”

[QS. Al-Qaṣaṣ: 50]

The pinnacle of all struggles of the soul is conquering that inner desire. Rasulullah ﷺ defined the identity of a true fighter through his saying:

الْمُجَاهِدُ مَنْ جَاهَدَ نَفْسَهُ فِي طَاعَةِ اللَّهِ

“The true fighter [mujāhid] is the one who struggles against his own self [his desires] in obedience to Allah.”[HR. Aḥmad]

2. Lessons and Message

Let us enter a small family room on a quiet night. A boy sits with his head down in front of his father. The father, with a high and rigid tone, scolds his son for being caught lying and skipping school. The father lectures about the importance of honesty, discipline, and life responsibility. The son only listens in silence, tears falling, holding back sadness and disappointment in his chest.Why is the child so sad? Not because he is angry at being advised, but because he knows exactly that every day he sees his own father lying when called by business partners, habitually breaking promises to his mother, and being harsh at home. That night, the father’s advice felt like a knife slashing the son’s heart—not healing, but carving a wound of saddening hypocrisy. The father lost his leadership authority in the eyes of his own flesh and blood, purely because he was utterly defeated in taming his own ego in real life

So we can reflect on this highest rank of jihād with an intelligent smile, let us use an analogy about “The Circus Lion Tamer vs. The House Cat. ”Imagine a man named Tejo. Tejo works as an animal tamer in a big circus show. On a grand stage before thousands of spectators, Tejo appears extremely brave. He carries a whip, then commands a huge, ferocious lion to jump, stand, and enter a ring of fire. The lion submits! All the audience claps in awe, “Wow, Tejo is amazing—he can conquer the king of the jungle!”But once the show is over and Tejo goes home… guess what happens? The moment the door opens, his wife’s little orange house cat suddenly meows hungrily. Tejo instantly runs in terror, jumps onto the table, screaming hysterically, “Wife! Help! Your orange cat is going to maul me!”

Funny and astonishing, isn’t it? Outside the house he is praised for “conquering” a ferocious lion, but inside his own home he is utterly defeated and flees in panic just from being growled at by a small cat! Many of us modern Muslims act amusingly like Tejo the circus tamer. We feel great because we successfully lead companies, excel at conquering other people’s egos through debates on social media, or succeed in advising our subordinates. But when we face the “orange cat” inside ourselves—namely the desire to anger when insulted, the desire to be lazy when the adhān is called, or the desire for arrogance when praised—we immediately submit, lose, and bow down as slaves to our own ego! Let us not be champions at conquering lions outside, while being battered by our own ego inside the chest.

3. Conclusion & Closing

Friends, the profound moral message from this hierarchy of the soul’s struggle is a deep call to reorder the priorities of our battlefield: start with yourself before trying to change others. True authority is not born from high academic titles or the many theories we memorize, but from the footprints of our victories in subduing our personal ego under the guidance of tawḥīd to Allah SWT.

Let us discipline our inner selves starting today. When we want to advise our children or others, make sure we are the first to struggle, stumbling as we may, to practice it. Make every breath a moment to tame base desire, erode arrogance, and soften the heart in obedience. For indeed, the greatest victory before Allah is not when we succeed in reaching worldly peaks, but when we succeed in subduing the ego for the sake of seeking His pleasure and His Most Majestic Countenance.

May Allah SWT always strengthen tawḥīd in our hearts, and grant us spiritual strength to win the jihād against our respective egos

. والله أعلم بالصواب

الحمد لله رب العالمين

Wassalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

Abu Sultan Al-Qadrie