Colossians 2:12 Meaning Having Been Buried with Him in Baptism

Ṭahāra: Purity Al-Ghazali counted washing the body as the lowest degree of purity, and a heart cleared of everything but God as the highest. Someone can go through the outward act and come out the same person, since water only reaches the skin. The point of the washing sits further in, where old habits and old loyalties get put down.

Die before you die: the self goes first Sufis repeat this line constantly, passing it down as words of the Prophet. The death it names happens while a person is still walking around: pride, plans, and the grip on running one's own life all get let go. Someone who has been through that has little left to lose later, and the new life starts well before the grave.

Fanāʾ: The self passing away Sufis use the word for the point where a person stops standing at the center of their own picture. The wanting to be counted, to be right, to be admired, loses its hold. The change shows up in ordinary hours, in how little a person has left to defend.

God alone is the doer: nothing rises by its own strength Al-Ghazali uses this phrase in his writing on trust in God. A person who has put down self-importance cannot lift himself back up, and trying would only rebuild the thing that was buried. Confidence rests on the one whose work it is, so whatever life comes back is received as a gift.

Baqāʾ: Living on afterward Junayd described the Sufi as someone God causes to die to himself and then live in him, and this word names the second half. A person returns to an ordinary life, same name, same work, same family, without the old need to come first. From outside the life looks unchanged, though the power keeping it going is no longer the person's own.