I believe "lust", "anger", "fear", "tension" and "ego" are main internal enemies of human. Does Islam provide a way to win over these enemies? If yes what is that way?


In Islam combating vices of the ego and the flesh are usually referred to as "the greater jihad" or "jihad against the ego (or nafs in Arabic)", wherein jihad means 'struggle.' The term is rooted in a tradition wherein the Holy Prophet describes jihad with the self to be the greater jihad, while jihad with the external enemy being the lesser.

In scholarly works on Jihad with the nafs, lust has to be moderated by avoiding over-indulgence in desires of the flesh. Islam indeed prescribes a specific form of annual fasting which is mandatory for all Muslims to be held during the month of Ramadhan. Extra fasting can also be practiced for further spiritual development.

Fear is alleviated by knowledge of truth so as to prevent fears caused by man's ignorance, and also by confidence and faith in Allah who is the highest protector. Same can be said in general as for tension. However tension can be also caused by humeral imbalance or other biological conditions that must be treated primarily by medicine (preferably traditional humorist medicine).

Ego is harnessed by consciousness of man's inherent dependency on and indebtedness to Allah who is the source of all majesty and pride.

What passed was a brief outline about a major topic but sufficient for having a general idea. I drew upon my personal knowledge of Quran, Sunnah and the works of Muslim scholars of ethics and self-purification. On the latter, my main sources are the works of Imam Ruhollah Khomeini and Allama Muhammad Hussain Tabatabaei. For an extensive discussion of the topic, I recommend the first chapter of Ayatollah's Khomeini's famous Commentary on Fourthy Hadiths wherein he discusses different stages of struggle against the self in the profound light of Islamic Esoterism.


These are all common problems almost everyone goes through. A wise person is one who understands them and tries to stay away and when he/she is afflicted with one of these, he/she knows and tries to cure himself/herself of it.

The highest level is to work on increasing your taqwa and tawakkul. One way to do it is by fasting. You control your gaze while fasting and since you are in a pure form while fasting you tend to be in state of wudhu or often make wudhu and that takes care of anger.

Initiating salam to younger ones often helps with controlling the ego.

There's a dua that helps alleviate fear, you can google it

"allahumma inni aaozbika minal hammi wal hazan....."

When the rest get alleviated , tension for sure will get alleviated. Also, after every salat if you sit for a few minutes and make zikr that calms down the heart drastically as well.

Hope this helps inshaAllah.


اِنَّ الغَضَبَ مِنَ الشَّيطانِ وَاِنَّ الشَّيطانَ خُلِقَ مِنَ النّارِ وَاِنَّما تُطفَأُ النّارُ بِالماءِ فَاِذا غَضِبَ اَحَدُكُم فَليَتَوَضَّ
(نهج الفصاحه، حدیث ۶۶۰)

The anger is from devil, devil is from fire, fire will off with water. So when each of you anger then make Wudhu (وضو).

  1. (I translated it myself but I hope you can understand it.)

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