The transience of the world (fana al-dunya)

The transience of the world in Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's teaching: this world is a temporary visit after which people return to their true abode, and it is fickle and does not last. ¹ He gives examples of a vanishing palace and of tyrants who became mere traces. ^{2 3}

The Sheikh tells of a king who built a palace and admired it, until a man pointed out two defects in it: its ruin after a time, and the death of its owner. He then goes on to mention tyrants who became traces (needs_source: the parable is not named in the recording). ²

The Sheikh refers to the pharaohs who have become traces in museums, and he expects the coming conflict to be over water and warns against its pollution (needs_source: the forecast of a conflict over water is the speaker's own and has not been verified). ³

The Sheikh cites sayings handed down that call for making the world a means of obedience and for contentment, and he describes the world as fickle and not lasting (needs_source: the sayings are not attributed in the recording). ⁴

The Sheikh holds that people in this world are on a temporary visit, after which they return to the true place they set out for. ¹

The Sheikh holds that what matters to a person is not the world's age of millions of years, but the period he lives in it, and so he should take account of his own life span. ⁵

The Sheikh tells that Noah was asked about the world and said that he found it like a house with two doors: he entered by one and left by the other, and that a person in it is like a rider who rested under a tree and then moved on (needs_source: the saying is not sourced in the recording). ⁶