Galatians 6:4 Meaning But Let Each Man Examine His Own

Muḥāsaba: Taking account of yourself Muḥāsaba means going over your own conduct the way a shopkeeper goes over the day's books, a habit al-Ghazali treats at length. Most people skip it, because the results are unflattering and a glance at someone else's failings is far more comfortable. Sitting with your own record, with nobody to measure it against, feels bare at first and then steadying.

Kibr: Pride Al-Ghazali points out that pride needs a second person, someone you can place below yourself. Standing on that comparison means your footing shifts every time the other person does better or worse. Feeling fine because a neighbor is doing badly tells you nothing about whether your own work holds up.

ʿUjb: Self-admiration ʿUjb is the quiet pleasure of admiring your own good deeds, and al-Ghazali warns that it grows without any audience. Once you start keeping score of what you have done well, the score becomes the point and the deed shrinks. An honest look at your work has to include how pleased you are to own it.

Deeds are empty shapes, their life is the sincerity inside them: the outside tells you nothing The line is Ibn Ata Allah's. Two people can do the same thing, one meaning it and one performing it, and onlookers cannot tell them apart. Only the person acting can check what was inside, which is why the inspection that counts is your own.

No soul carries the load of another: your account stands alone The Quran repeats this, and the Sufis build on it. Whatever the person beside you did or failed to do never lands on your side of the ledger. Once the account is clearly yours alone, comparison loses its purpose, because nobody else's result changes yours.