Every man's -- and I suppose every woman's -- "permanent" address, as they call it, in this most obviously and stubbornly impermanent world, is as follows:
Name: whatever that is
Door Number: whatever that is
Street: whatever that is
Town, city or village: whatever those are
Country: whichever one that is.
None of these things is real. And everyone knows that. They are all arbitrary, make-believe, fleeting, impermanent.
In Hiya Illaa Asmaa-un Sammaitumoohaa!
Everyone knows that a few years from today -- whatever the length of time -- none of these pretenders to permanence will be found to exist.
They will all be gone and they will all have turned to dust and found space in the vast empty space of shoddy and faded collective human memory.
Qur'an says it most clearly:
Kullu Shaiy-in Haalikun Illaa Wajha-h.
Paraphrase:
"Everyone and everything shall perish except God Almighty."
And yet the human story is one of desperately searching for permanence in a place which by its very nature is not permanent.
How foolish can a human being be!
Ever looking for permanence where there is none.
And ever ready to trade the impermanent for the permanent.
END
