You are walking and you see a lion in front of you, you run to get away from it until you see a cliff. You see a rope, so you climb down it but at the bottom you see a crocodile. Then you see black and white mice nibbling on the rope. You see no escape and feel scared. Then drops of honey begin to drip in to your mouth from a honeycomb above. Due to the sweetness of the honey you forget about the danger around you. This is how we live our lives. The lion is malik-ul-maut (angel of death) who will eventually catch up to us. The crocodile is your grave that we forget about which is where we will end up. The black and white mice are the days and nights that pass by every day and the honey is the world. We are so engrossed in the love of this world that we fail to remember that everyday we are closer to death.
—[Imam Ghaazli (Rahimahullah)]
