Imam
Ghazali Rahmatullahi Alayhe wrote a beautiful story. It is more of an analogy
rather than a story.
He said that there was a person once in the
forest and all of sudden he heard the roar of a lion coming from a certain
direction .As he looked in that direction he found a lion was approaching him. Scared
and frightened he looked around to see if there was any tree high enough to be
climbed to avoid any harm. Unfortunately there was none .As the heart beat
continued to roar he found a well close by. And for a moment a thought of
jumping into the well crossed his mind with the intention of coming out when
the lion will be gone.
As
the roaring lion ran towards him and the man ran as fast as he could to escape
from it and jumped inside the well hoping to escape from the lion. As he was falling
inside the well, he grabbed onto the grass (roots) on the wall of well and
saved himself. The man was so relieved but when he looked down he saw a big
snake at the bottom of the well. It had its jaws wide open ready to swallow him
up.
The
man then looked up and saw two rats biting the grass (roots). A black rat and a
white rat were both chewing into the grass (roots). The scary lion was still
prowling outside the well.
The
man's heart was pounding as he wondered how he could escape from this. Then he
noticed a honeycomb in front of him which had delicious honey dripping from it.
He stuck his finger into the honey and put it inside his mouth. It was
delicious and for a moment he forgot about the lion, the snake and the two rats
chewing at the grass.
Imam
Ghazali Rahmatullahi Alayhe explained that the lion is like the angel of death
which is always looming above us. The snake with its jaws open is like a grave
which all humans will face. The black rat and white rat are like the day and
night which are always nibbling at our life (the grass in this case). The honey
is like this dunya which with its momentary sweetness makes us forget the death
and the eternal life.
Sigh!
Sadly we are so distracted, occupied and absorbed by this dunya
and its temporary glitter that we lost sight of our purpose i.e. worshipping
Allah swt, our main goal – the pleasure of Allah swt and afterwards Jannah.
“But you prefer the life of this world, while the hereafter
is better and that which remains” (Al-Quran.
Indeed, the Akhirah (hereafter) is better for us;
we need to use our time in this dunya to work for it.
We all still have this chance
for extraordinary positions of Jannah – to meet the beloved Prophet (Peace and
blessings be upon him), to meet the blessed companions (May Allah swt be
pleased with them all), and most of all to see Allah swt The Most High!
May Allah swt bless you
all with the best of both worlds .Ameen.
