Every Heart Has A Hole

You don’t need to be religious to recognise the wisdom that may hark from a religion. There is something to be said about ancient wisdom.

The Quran makes constant references to the idea of the “heart.”

And that every human heart is born with a hole — a hole that humans spend their lives desperately trying to fill.

They may look to fill it with worldly riches — material possessions.

They may look to fill it by accomplishing some grand achievement — and bask in the glory of admiration that the world will give them.

They may look to fill it with the company of other human beings — the memories and experiences they can forge with them.

We do what we do because we are clambering to fill the hole.

Writing in the 14th Century, Imam Ibn al-Qayyim said:

“Were a person to be given the entire world and everything in it, that would never fill the void.”

One cannot strive for something without first silently admitting to themselves that something is missing.

A human baby is born kicking and wailing. Without the care of other humans, and food and water to survive, it will perish.

From his very entry into the world, the man is lumbered with a stack of needs he must fulfil. Otherwise, he will die.

Like a clueless intern with no starting motivation for the job, the human arrives at their desk at 9 AM, on their first day, to find a skyscraper of papers they need to get through.

They never asked for this job. No one ever asked to be born.

What is a human being’s life if not one drawn-out exercise in forced labour?

Being alive is all you have known. Completing tasks, working a job, engaging with other humans, and thinking is all you have known.

Thus far, nothing remarkable has been said. The real question lies in asking:

“Of what consequence is all this?”

What is the consequence of spending a life running on a hamster wheel? Chasing one desire after another? Looking for the next way to fill the hole in your heart after the previous way evidently didn’t work?

Human beings spend their entire lives running manically around in a circle. It is no surprise they eventually get dizzy.

Eventually, we become jaded. Frustrated. Angry. Bored.

No solution for your troubles appears present. Nothing fills the hole in a lasting way.

But, oh, how quickly we forget that nothing works.

Just as we start to mature — to become wise — a new carrot is dangled in front of us.

Imagine a child excitedly unwrapping presents on Christmas day only to find that,

Once the ribbon has been untied and all the wrapping has been removed,

And the tape around the box lid has been cut,

There is only nothing inside.

How many more presents will you unwrap?

Perhaps we continue to unwrap them in a fit of exhilaration because the next box always looks a bit different.

A different colour. A different ribbon. A different size.

But the result is always the same.

The box

Is always empty.

It is doubtless true that every human is born with a hole in their heart. If it were not, people would not be running around doing the things they do.

But surely a solution must exist. Surely, temporary fixes and plasters are not all there is. Surely, there must be a way to make the heart whole.

Perhaps the only way to fill the hole

Lies in realising

That it cannot be filled.