The Long View: The Moth and the Fire

A fourth lesson: these animals are closer to the earth, and their sight is very limited. Sheep can only see so far — any small obstacle would block their view. But a human being standing up tall has a longer view, and from that vantage point can see danger while it's approaching. The sheep can't, because the shepherd is standing up and staring in every direction. The first to notice danger would be the shepherd, and the shepherd therefore would give an advance warning to the flock. So you'd have this flock of sheep grazing around happily, and they don't know that there's some danger a few feet away, but because of their short-sightedness they can't see it, while the shepherd can. And that is the case with the prophets: they sense and detect the danger before it approaches us, and they have the clearest vision, and the longest view, and a vantage point that none of us has, and they know what is good for us.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says that the analogy of me and you is like someone sitting next to a fire at night. When you have a fire at night, what happens? It will attract insects. If you have a lamp outside your house, and it's nighttime, you'd have all of these moths flying around it — they're attracted by any source of light. If they see fire, they think it is light, not knowing that it will burn them. So all of these moths and flying insects are attracted to the fire, thinking it's light, and they get there and they burn. You just hear a sound — what you're hearing is really an insect exploding, it's just burning alive. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says that's the analogy of me and you: "I'm like somebody standing next to this fire, and you are attracted to it, and you're jumping into it, while I'm grabbing you by your clothes, dragging you away, and you are releasing yourselves from me, forcing yourselves into it." Wa anā ākhidhun bi-ḥujazikum ʿan al-nār wa antum taqaḥḥamūna fīhā: I am holding you back by your waist-belts from the Fire, and you are hurling yourselves into it. He knows that it's fire; we don't. He sees the danger; we don't. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was inviting the people to Jannah, and they are forcing themselves onto the path of Hellfire. So the rāʿī, the shepherd, sees the danger and realises it, and is warning, giving very strong warnings to the flock.

If you have in front of you — if you see a blind man walking, and in front of this man is a deep trench, and this man is blind, he can't see, so within a few steps he's going to fall in that trench and he might kill himself — in that situation, what would your response be? You will jump up and scream and give that man immediate warning: "Be careful!" You're not going to sit there, think about it, and try to think about some very polite and pleasant words that you could deliver to this man — you're going to scream to the top of your voice and tell him, "Be careful!" And that's what the prophets were doing. They were giving a very plain, straightforward warning — not because they're lacking sensitivity and are attempting to hurt the feelings of others, no, because they want to save the other people, because they really cared about them. And the shepherd might strike some of the animals — not because he wants to hurt them, but because he wants to save them. So whenever we see a prophet of Allah standing up and giving what seems to be a very direct and staunch warning, it is because they care about their people.

When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) stood on the minbar and said, "Andhartukum al-nār! Andhartukum al-nār! Andhartukum al-nār!" — it is reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) stood on the pulpit in the masjid and told the people, "I am warning you, Hellfire," and his voice was going up and up and up. The narrator of the hadith said that the people in the marketplace could hear the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in the masjid, and he was repeating the same thing again and again: "I'm warning you, Hellfire." So they have a long view.