Isaiah 40:17 Meaning All the Nations Are Like Nothing Before

Everything is perishing except his face: nothing else stands on its own A line from the Quran that Sufis return to constantly, and al-Ghazali read it as happening at every moment rather than at the end of time. Anything that looms over you frightens you mostly because you assume it will still be standing tomorrow. Seeing that it is already on its way out shrinks it back to its size, and its grip loosens.

Ẓill: Shadow Ibn Arabi called everything other than God a shadow. A shadow can stretch huge across a wall while owning nothing, since it moves only when the thing casting it moves. The powers that darken your life borrow every bit of their weight from elsewhere, and what is on loan can be called back at any moment.

Faqr: Poverty Sufis use poverty for the plain fact that no creature owns anything, and the Quran addresses all people that way. Standing under a great power, you feel poor beside it, as if it held something you lack. It holds nothing of its own either, and once that lands, you stop seeing it as rich and yourself as empty.

Kibriyāʾ: Greatness In a saying the Prophet passed on, God calls greatness his own cloak, worn by no one else. Awe is easy to misplace, and it tends to land on whatever stands loudest and largest in front of you. When greatness has one owner, the display reads as costume, and the awe you were handing it goes back where it belongs.

Tawakkul: Trust Al-Ghazali taught that trust in God grows straight out of seeing one actor behind all events. Facing something far stronger, a person counts odds all day: their strength, your strength, the chances. Trust leaves the acting to you while taking the weight of the outcome off your shoulders, and life stops hanging on the count.