Spiritual Intelligence: Depth

Salaam,

We have become obsessed with metrics: ROIs, KPIs, NPS, EBITDA and every other acronym out there.

When I ask people what they do, it's often what they produce and can measure.

"I helped company X grow to $100M ARR"

"I make [app/product/podcast]"

"I am a finance director"

But when I ask "what does your work mean, not what it produces?" I often get confused stares.

It's easy to measure and optimize surface level outputs, but in doing so, have we forgotten about depth?

We live in the age of the screenshot. The highlight reel. The "AI summary". Everything is optimized for quick consumption. Not so that we can make more conscious decisions, but so that we can consume more. That meal kit to make cooking dinner convenient, is so that we have more time to consume Netflix.

Unfortunately, depth doesn't screenshot well. Meaning doesn't fit in a dashboard. Our inner essence can't be graphed on a Gantt chart. And that's the problem that we face today: we ignore and neglect what is difficult. We have been bio-hacked to avoid anything that doesn't give us pleasure. So instead of focusing on digging deep into our essence, we focus on outputs we can measure and optimize what we can see.

Here is the spiritually intelligent reframe:

Optimizing for surface-level measures of success is why traditional success feels shallow. True success is something that cannot be measured and optimized.

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The Ocean Metaphor

Success is like the ocean. If we are not mindful, all we see is the surface. Wavy, turbulent, and impacted by others (surface winds, boats, the sun, etc.). Although surface water is necessary, there is another dimension that is not affected by the surface, that is clam even during the storm. That's deep water.

Most professionals and entrepreneurs swim only in surface water: visible achievements, measurable outcomes, comparable success, while the deep water remains unexplored.

Every action, every achievement, every experience we have in this worldly plane has a surface-level and a deeper-level view. It is our job to seek deeper levels of meaning from our daily actions. There is always an opportunity to create more depth in our work, even if we've been performing it for years at the shallow-level. There is always another opportunity to grow closer to Allah through more depth.

The Qur'an speaks of "batin" and "zahir" the inner and outer, the hidden and manifest (these are also, in absolute terms, Names/Attributes of Allah). The Qur'an talks also of "qalb", the heart, not the organ, but as the essence or inner dimension. From a spiritual perspective, every action (from the "mundane" to the sacred) has an inner and an outer. Take the prayer for instance, the outer are the physical movements of the prayer - the standing, kneeling, and prostrating. But the inner dimension of prayer is taqwa or God Consciousness. Both the inner and outer are necessary for a meaningful experience.

Unfortunately, most of us live entirely in zahir, the visible, measurable, comparable. But batin is where meaning lives. Where purpose resides. Where truth reveals itself.

Surface vs. Depth

Surface asks: How much? Depth asks: Why?

Surface measures: Quantity Depth measures: Quality

Surface celebrates: Achievement Depth celebrates: Meaning

Surface compares: You to others Depth compares: You to your potential

Both matter. But one without the other is what creates that hollow sense of success that you have been feeling. That all too familiar "I will be happy when [I graduate from Yale/Get a job in Big Tech/ Pay off my parent's debt / Make it to the C-Suite/etc]".

In search of depth

So how do we "achieve" depth? There is no one way to deepen our life but it almost always starts with stillness. The reason why we cannot experience depth anymore is because we are always moving: from one idea to the next, from one project to the next, from one social media app to the next. Remaining still physically, mentally, and spiritually has become a massive challenge.

Take the example of the Blessed Prophet (PBUH), before prophethood, he would spend weeks alone in the cave of Hira. Weeks in silent meditation and contemplation. Weeks exploring the deeper meaning of life beyond what Quraysh offered. It was ultimately in these moments of solitude and reflection that he (PBUH) received the first revelation or "a Heavy Word" [73:5]. So depth is both an experience and preparation for what's to come.

The Depth Practice

Every week, schedule one hour of depth work. Not deep work in the Cal Newport sense of "focused productivity".

Depth work: sitting with questions that have no immediate ROI:

• What does this success mean?
• Who am I becoming through this work?
• What would I do if metrics didn't matter?
• How is my soul evolving?

No agenda. No outcomes. No metrics.

The Cost of Shallowness

Why focus on depth? Because if we are tethered to the surface, we are destined to be miserable. Surface level metrics change all the time and we want our hearts anchored to something more lasting (or, ideally, Everlasting). A few years ago, going to grad school was a "flex". Today it is deemed a waste of money. A few years ago, being on social media was seen as "too much sharing". Today, being an "influencer" is all the rage. Chasing the surface will always leave us at the mercy of ephemeral trends.

A Simple Audit

You don't have to become a monk to experience depth. Every interaction has the potential to go deeper, to be more that what it seems, to be a means of getting closer to Allah. Look at the previous week:

• How many conversations went beyond the surface?
• How many decisions considered meaning, not just metrics?
• How many moments of genuine depth did you experience?
• How many periods of silence, solitude, and reflection did you schedule?

If you are having difficulty answering these questions, then this your invitation to try some of these next week inshAllah.

The Ultimate Depth

The Quran states:

"We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth" (41:53).

"The horizons" that's surface, the external, the visible.

"Within themselves" that's depth, the internal, the hidden.

Both are signs. But depth makes truth clear.

What depths are you avoiding in pursuit of surface success? What would emerge if you went deeper than metrics? Reply to this email and let me know.

Peace and blessings,

James