There was a family of snails who used to live within sight of a palace. It was a momentous journey for them to make from their humble home to the palace.
The elder snails regaled the young ones with stories of the splendours of the palace: the gold, precious stones and other luxuries. The part that used to facinate the young ones the most was that once they reached the palace, they would be served on silver platters.
A few enterprising youngsters, spurred on by the glories the’d been promised in the stories, decided to make the difficult journey. After many weeks of painstaking travel, they reached the gardens of the palace. Ah, they thought, journey’s end and all the promised delights!
The palace cook, coming into the garden to collect herbs, saw the group of snails. He scooped them up and took them in to cook. That night they were indeed served on silver platters: served to others to eat and not themselves treated like kings.
This is the parable of the devil: he beguiles us with false promises of joy and happiness if we commit sins like adultery, taking drugs, making illegal money and so on. We engage in these sins only to find that there is no pleasure in them for us, rather he gets delighted at our misfortune. Only in obedience to Allah Ta’ala lies true happiness. The devil falsely promised Aadam and Hawwa (alaihimus salaam) eternal life if they ate from the forbidden tree. They ate and were expelled from Paradise
The Snails: Story
