How Evils of the Soul and the Devil Are Overcome

Imām Ibn Taimiyyah, may Allāh have mercy on him, said:

[Let the slave of Allāh] be a witness to the fact that his being patient is [really] him issuing a verdict upon his [own] soul, compelling it and overpowering it.

When the soul is compelled by him and overpowered, it won’t crave taking him into possession, turning him into a prisoner, and throwing him upon destruction. [But] when he becomes obedient to it, listening to it, compelled by it, it won’t stop until it destroys him–[unless some] mercy comes to grace him from his Lord.

So if being patient had nothing in it other than his overpowering his soul and the devil [that’s with] him, then [that’s enough]–it’s then that the power and authority of the heart stand out and its soldiers stand firm in resistance, so it feels delight, increases in might, and drives out the enemy from within it.

Jāmiʿ Al-Masāʾil, vol. 1, p. 172.