Nothing Lasts Forever, It Must Pass

A wise man once asked a ringmaker to engrave a sentence on the inside of the wise man's ring, the sentence was: "nothing lasts forever, this must pass."

After the ring was finished carving, the sage continued his journey. Along the way, he started working as a laborer for a large company owned by the richest man in town. The wise man worked diligently even more diligently than most of the other workers.

A worker asked him, "why do you work so hard when our salary and life will not change by working harder. Do what they pay us for."

The wise man smiled and simply said, "this must pass."

After several decades, the company went bankrupt. The rich man who used to own the company fell into poverty with debts piling up everywhere. The wise man, with the money he had been saving, tried to buy the company, because it had fallen bankrupt, the rich man sold his assets at a cheap price because he urgently needed money.

Not so long ago, the bankrupt company had begun to rise. Now, the wise man is the richest man in town while the former owner of the company is now a worker in the company he used to own.

The worker who used to ask the wise man, ran into him and was a little shy. The sage watched his old friend then held out his hand in greeting. The old worker awkwardly gave a greeting. Then the wise man said, "This must pass."

Several years later, disaster struck. The great fire destroyed all of the company's assets. The old owner died as a result of the accident and the sage fell into poverty. Everyone was shocked by the incident and all the workers lost their jobs. Hardly anyone survives in the city after what happened. The wise man's old friend moved to another city to make a living.

Before moving on, the old friend visited the sage. The old friend thought the wise man would be sad and felt it was the end of his life so he tried to cheer up, but what he thought didn't happen. The sage remained relaxed and kept smiling. As they shook hands, the wise man said, "This must pass".

The old friend in the new city was reaping success. He became a very respected rich man. Then one day he remembered the sage and decided to visit him. According to the news, after the company was burned down, the wise man fell into poverty and became an ustad in the mosque teaching children the Koran. As it turned out, when the old friend visited, the sage had died.

The old friend was really sad, he asked one of the people there to show the tomb of the wise man. The old friend visited the sage's tomb. His grave is full of thistles and weeds because no one cares about it. The sage had almost no family in the city. While eating others seem to be maintained. However, on the tomb of the wise man it was written: "this must pass".

Not long ago. The city was hit by flash floods. Almost all the houses of the residents were submerged. Once the waters receded, old friends visited the town and offered their aid. Not forgetting he visited the tomb of the sage, but the tomb is now gone.

When the old friend walked to the remains of the company that had not yet been built after being burned down, he instead found the tomb of the wise man, lying with the rest of the mud that littered the ruins. The tombstone was plain, mud had covered the words, "this must pass".

Even this must pass shall pass. The old friend smiled, then laughed. The people were astonished by the old friend's attitude. The old friend then shook hands with all the injured, hungry, and miserable residents, while not forgetting to say, "nothing lasts forever, this must pass".