Two Enemies, Unseen

Establishing ṣalāh carries within it a seventh matter, and a graver one: a war that takes place between the one who prays and Shayṭān. Allah (swt) says:

Shayṭān, the devil, Iblīs, is an ardent and sworn enemy, and Allah commands that he be taken as one's number-one enemy, in public and in private, because he invites those who follow him to join him in the fire of Jahannam, the Saʿīr. To stand in ṣalāh is to obey Allah and, in the same act, to defy Shayṭān entirely. There are, according to the scholars, two unseen enemies at war with every believer. The first is Shayṭān, of the jinn — a being every Muslim already knows something of. The second is al-nafs al-ammārah, the lower self, the animal self, the tyrannical, ever-commanding self. Allah (swt) refers to this nafs in Sūrat Yūsuf:

The nafs, by its nature, will always incite toward evil and disobedience, except in those upon whom Allah has mercy — those He protects. These two, the enemy within and the enemy without, are perhaps the greatest challenge that faces mankind, and many today give no thought to either: they have surrendered themselves to the whims of their own nafs al-ammārah, taking their own desires, their hawā, as their gods, and so have let go of the struggle altogether.

Human beings are created for the worship of Allah, but that worship was never made easy. The reward for achieving it with sincerity is immense — ultimately Paradise, and Allah's pleasure, His riḍā — but Allah placed enemies and challenges before it: one without, and one within. The one within, the nafs, is the greater enemy of the two, for it is impossible to win the war against Shayṭān without first winning the war against the enemy within.