The first stage is the giving of inspiration and the giving...
The first stage is the giving of inspiration and the giving of control to man over his own soul. In other words, the smallest sign of the acceptance of man's deeds by Allah is that first of all he earns a penetrating insight, he becomes radiant and clear-sighted.
The Qur'an says: إِنْ تَتَّقُوا اللَّهَ يَجْعَلْ لَكُمْ فُرْقَانًا “If you are careful of (your duty to) Allah, He will grant you a distinction” (8:29) It also says: وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا “And (as for) those who strive hard for Us, We will most certainly guide them in Our ways.”(29:69) Secondly, man conquers and subdues his own soul and physical forces; man's will-power becomes powerful over his bodily and animal desires; he becomes the master of his own existence; he acquires merited control within the limits of his own existence.
The Qur'an says: إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَر “Surely prayer keeps (one) away from indecency and evil.” (29:45) About fasting, it says: كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ “Fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard (against evil).
(2:183) And about both forms of worship, it says: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ “ O you who believe! Seek assistance through patience and prayer.”(2:153) In this stage of servility, that which be- come man's lot is that through a kind of insight man's bodily passions and tendencies are conquered. In other words, the first effect of servility is sovereignty and wilayah over the carnal soul.
The second state is control and wilayah over various thinking processes, that is, control over the imagination. The faculty of the imagination is one of our most astonishing powers. By virtue of this faculty, our mind can at any instant turn its attention from one subject to another, and, so to speak, take the form of an association of ideas or a chain of mental phenomena.
This faculty is not under our control, rather we are surprisingly under its control, and so whatever we may want, it is impossible for us to fix our minds on one determined subject so that our attention does not turn to something else. Without control, the faculty of the imagination pushes us in this direction, then in that.