It is told that a king wanted to decorate his palace with engravings, so he gathered all the wise men of his time and asked them for one request: to write above his throne something that when he looks at it in every state and time, he benefits from it. He clarified his request to everyone, saying: I want it to be a eloquent wisdom that inspires me with what is right during times of difficulty and hardship, and during happiness, it doesn’t make me forget that it is transient, so it will be the best guide and advisor for me and help me overcome crises and consequences whenever I look at it.
He gave them some time for that. The wise men left him, confused, saying to themselves: What wisdom is that that will benefit him during happiness and hardship? What wisdom will be suitable in all conditions and times? For in hardship, we need someone to alleviate our misfortune and make easy for us the calamities and trials that befall us. And in happiness and prosperity, we need someone to share with us and pray for us for continued happiness and bliss.
Each wise man started thinking deeply until he produced the best he had in a number of phrases. Indeed, after several days, the king sent for them to know what they had concluded regarding the king’s phrase. The wise men came with their written phrases and started reciting them to the king, but none of them pleased him.
For the king was looking for a distinctive phrase suitable for every time and every age that suited him and suited his descendants after him. With it, he would overcome pain, feel happiness with it, and learn something useful from it. After most of the wise men finished presenting the product of their ideas and the essence of their wisdom, an old wise man came forward and said: Will my lord allow me to recite to him a phrase that benefits him in prosperity and adversity and makes him happy whenever he wishes?
The king paid attention to the old wise man’s words and said to him: Bring what you have, but if your wisdom is other than what you described, you will have no place in my court, and you will be exiled with that wisdom outside the country. The wise man agreed to the king’s condition and presented to him a piece of paper on which his wisdom was written: (All this will surely pass). The king looked carefully at the paper and started thinking about what was written on it.
The wise man expanded in his speech, saying: My lord, this world does not remain in one state. Fate is a day for you and a day against you. Whoever thinks he is safe from it has lost. Days of happiness, although they come, will not remain forever, so all this will surely pass. And sadness, my lord, didn’t leave you in your prosperity enjoying, but some day it will come to you and hurt your heart, but it will also pass and will not accompany you forever.
And victory, my lord, its days will come and knock on your door, and you will see with your own eyes then the people’s joy and the elevation of status, but it is also days that will come and pass as its predecessors passed. Defeat is possible and may happen for any reason, but it will also not last. Some, my lord, don’t pay attention to that wisdom, and when they fall into calamity and misfortune, they fill the world with screaming and wailing, forgetting that they are days and will pass.
Others, their happiness makes them forget that it is transient, and they think the condition will continue for them. So they resort to extravagance and extremism in happiness, and sometimes to foolishness, thinking that the kingdom of the universe is in their hands and that everything is facilitated for them. And from God’s wisdom, my lord, all our conditions are transient. Joy changes, sadness changes, and all this will surely pass. When the wise man finished his speech, the king smiled, convinced by that phrase written by the old wise man.
Then he ordered his men to copy that wonderful phrase not only above his throne, but in every corner of the palace and the kingdom’s squares, so that everyone who sees it would learn and realize that the permanence of conditions is impossible, and all the good or evil they go through will surely pass.