The Dream

The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “The life of the world is sweet and green. Allah makes you generations succeeding one another so that He may try you in respect of your actions. So beware of the beguilements of the world and those of women. The first trial of Bani Israel was through women.” [Muslim]

Once a man saw in his dream that a lion was chasing him. The man ran to a tree, climbed it, and sat on a branch. He looked down and saw that the lion was still there waiting for him. The man then looked to his side where the branch he was sitting on was attached to the tree, and saw that two rats were circling around and eating the branch. One rat was black and the other one was white. The branch would fall on the ground very soon. The man looked below again with fear and discovered that a big black snake had come and settled directly beneath him. The snake had opened its mouth right under the man so that he would fall straight into it. 

The man then looked up to see if there was anything that he could hold on to. He saw another branch with a honeycomb. Drops of honey were falling from it. The man wanted to taste one of the drops. So he put his tongue out and tasted one of the falling drops. The honey was amazing in taste. So he tasted another drop, and then another, and as a result got lost in its sweetness. He forgot about the two rats eating his branch away, the lion on the ground, and the snake that was sitting right beneath him. When the branch suddenly broke he remembered all the dangers at once and woke up from his sleep.

Since this was a unique dream the man went to a pious scholar of Islam to learn its meaning. The scholar said, “The lion you saw is your death. It always chases you and goes where ever you go. The two rats, one black and one white, are night and day. The black one is the night and the white one is the day. They circle around, coming one after another, to eat your time as they take you closer to death. The big black snake with a dark mouth is your grave. It's there, just waiting for you to fall into it. The honeycomb is this world and the sweet drops of honey are the luxuries of this world. We like to taste a little of the luxuries of this world and they’re very sweet. Then we want to taste a little more, and then still more. We get lost in it and we forget about our time, we forget about our death, and we forget about our grave.”

May Allah wake us up from our sleep and save us before it's too late. Ameen.