Training The Lower Faculties - My Shaytan Has Become A Muslim

The image of training the horse or the dog conveys the most nearly accurate impression of the activity of the Sufi: the lower faculties are not to be killed, but trained so that even they may serve on the way to God.
A story told about the Prophet Muhammad well expresses this faith in the training of the base soul; the expression used here for the "lower qualities, instincts," is shaytan, "Satan": "When asked how his shaytan behaved, he answered: 'Aslama shaytanl; my shaytan has become a Muslim and does whatever I order him/ " i.e., all his lower faculties and instincts had been turned into useful tools in the service of God. Provided that man obeys God in every respect, the lower soul will obey its master, as everything in the world will obey the one who has completely surrendered his will to the will of God.
The struggle against the nafs has always been a favorite topic of the Sufis, and they have never tired of warning their disciples of its ruses, not only in the crude forms of sensual appetites but in the guises of hypocrisy and false piety, which must be carefully observed and obliterated.
"The nafs has a rosary and a Koran in its right hand, and a scimitar and a dagger in the sleeve, (M 3:2554)"

Mystical Dimensions of Islam - Annemarie Schimmel