Sometimes you accept something as the truth, but somewhere deep inside, that truth hasn’t settled. So this is a reminder to myself first, and to you the reader second, that there is only One Constant in life.

Don’t expect your parents to be there for you all the time, because – extremely bluntly put – they will die. And if they are around for a few more years, you will grow up and they grow old, and instead of relying on them, they will rely on you.

Your friends will come, and your friends will leave. Those you hold close will distance from you, and you yourself will distance with those who held you close. Many people enter and leave your life quite quickly, but some stick around. Some of those people who stick around, become quite close to you. Some of those people you get close to become like family. And family is always there, right? No.

There’s nobody to blame for life’s simplest mechanisms. Things like “moving on”, “becoming busy”, “parting ways” and “relocating” happen because we are all bound by time, and time brings change.

But sometimes, you forget about these. You think things will last. And as you see other things and other people flit in and out, some stay, and you think they are constants. Obviously you understand that they are also temporary, but you begin forget. Over time, you forget more and more, until that awareness leaves, and you begin to expect they’ll stay.

I think it takes losing a “constant” to remind you that there really only is One Permanent Thing. It reminds you that you’ve been living in a false reality. That doesn’t stop the sense of loss you feel when they go; but I also don’t believe in meaningless suffering. What better way for the Constant to remind you of His exclusivity than to cut you away from those things you attached yourself to? Now will you cling to the only lasting relationship you’ll ever have?

I guess even after all that, sometimes you still don’t fully realise the essential reality of God – that He’s always there, and that if you fully believed that, you wouldn’t ever cling to anything else because you don’t see worth in doing so. In fact you see only One, as all the realities come together and “wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah”.

If you don’t see that, then you slowly begin to forget this reminder, and make yourself vulnerable to another temporary attachment – however strong or weak.

At the start, I said I am writing this first for myself. So I speak to myself now: the next time you fall under an illusion, read this, and remind yourself of the truth: you only have one Sustainer and nobody loves you more than Him. So stop playing deluded games and give Him all your love.

“Materialism knows no enemy, except for the awareness of God’s presence.” ~ Expressionista4