Empires Return to Dust

الْمُذِلُّ

Al-Mudhill — The Humbler

كُلُّ مَنْ عَلَيْهَا فَانٍ * وَيَبْقَى وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو الْجَلَالِ وَالْإِكْرَامِ

Everyone that is thereon will pass away; There remaineth but the Countenance of thy Lord of Might and Glory

Surah Ar-Raḥmān (55:26-27)

ارادہ

Today, I will look at something I am attached to — a possession, a status, a comfort — and remind myself it is temporary.

تدبر

Al-Mudhill at cosmic scale humbles everything that rises in arrogance. Stars burn out. Mountains erode. Oceans evaporate. The mightiest empires in human history are now dust and ruins. Al-Mudhill's cosmic lesson is clear: nothing created is permanent. In Shaʿbān, this awareness is preparation — it strips away attachment to the temporary and redirects the heart toward the Eternal. Ramadan is more powerful when you enter it unattached to the world.

آیت پر تدبر

Everyone — kullu man ʿalayhā. No exceptions. Not a single created thing endures. Only His Face remains — and His Face is Majesty and Honour.

دعا

Seeking refuge in one attribute of His from another — His pleasure from His anger, His pardon from His punishment. The deepest theological humility.

حدیث

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: 'This world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the disbeliever.'

— Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2956