For You and For Me

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.