Psalms 148:4 Meaning Praise Him

Nothing exists that does not praise God, though you do not understand their praise: the praising is already underway A line from the Quran that Sufis return to constantly. Calling on things far past your reach to honor God does not start anything, it joins something. The praise was full and steady long before you spoke, and your part in it is small, welcome, and late.

Tajallī: God coming into view through what he makes Ibn Arabi's word for that showing. Anything that exists carries some trace of its maker, and a vast thing can carry more of that trace than a small one. So when your attention lifts toward something enormous, the awe you feel is aimed past the thing itself, at whatever is showing through it.

Faqr: Poverty before God The Sufi word for owning nothing of your own. Even the hugest thing you can name did not put itself there and cannot hold itself in place for a second without being held. Its praise is that dependence made plain, and yours is the same admission in a smaller voice.

Ḥayra: Bewilderment Ibn Arabi's word for the mind giving out in front of something too big for it. Once you try to picture level above level above level, thought quietly stops working and wonder takes its place. Sufis count that stall as one of the better things that can happen to a person, since it leaves you standing before God with no tidy idea in the way.

I cannot count your praise; you are as you have praised yourself: praise admits it falls short The Prophet said this while bowed low in prayer. Anyone reaching to honor something immense hits the same wall, where the words are too small and piling on more does not close the gap. Saying so out loud is the most honest honoring available, and it lifts the burden of having to be equal to what you are praising.