Luxuries of this World makes us forget the Hereafter

Once a man was passing through a forest, when a wild elephant attacked him. The man was scared and started running, while the elephant also chased him. When the man saw that the elephant had neared him, he became disheartened (and lost hope of surviving). Suddenly his eyes fell on a nearby well, wherein the branches of a nearby tree were hanging in it.

He caught hold of it and hung in the well. When he looked at the branches, he saw that two huge rats (one white and the other black) were cutting at the stems speedily. When he looked towards the feet, he saw four serpents coming out of their holes. While when he looked inside the well, he saw that a large python was ready to swallow him, with its mouth wide open. Again when he looked on top, he saw a branch filled with honey. The sweetness and savour of the honey made him negligent about the danger of the pythons who could devour him any moment.

The well (referred herein) in the world which is full of miseries and misfortunes. The branches being the life of man, and the two rats being the days and nights which reduce a man’s age. The four serpents are the four elements by which a man is created, viz. air, bile, phlegm, and blood. Man is unaware of these and does not know as to which of these four would become the cause of his death.

The huge python is death which is always prepared to devour man, while the branch full of honey are the pleasures and luxuries of this world (which man sucks negligently). This is the best example of a man remaining engrossed in the fancies of this world and being careless of death and the hereafter.

It is related from Imam Ali (a.s.), that once he was passing through the market of Basra and saw some people busy in buying and selling. He started weeping and turned towards them and said, “O slaves of the world! And O the kings of this world! You are spending your days in false swearing, Usury, and sleeping a sound sleep at night. And these pleasures have made you forget the hereafter. When will you gather provisions for the journey, and when will you start thinking about the hereafter?”

The Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.) says:“Those people who have completed forty years of age, are like crops whose time of harvesting has neared. Those who complete fifty years hear a voice calling out: What good deeds have you sent forth before you, and what are you leaving behind you? Those who reach sixty years of age are ordered to become ready for accounting in Qiyamat, and those who reach seventy years of age hear a voice calling out: Count yourself among the dead.”

From the Book Manazelul Akhreah - Stages of the Hereafter