Ignoring the Lion to Smite the Flea

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Shaykh Taj ad-Din Abu al-Fadhl Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Atha’illah as-Sakandari (q.s.) wrote, in his Taj al-‘Arus al-Hawi li Tahdzib an-Nufus, “A real man is not someone who screams amongst people in gatherings; but rather a real man is someone who screams over his self, and steers it back to Allah (s.w.t.). 

Whoever is concerned with this world, and not bothered about the Hereafter, is like someone to whom a lion approaches for the kill, and then a flea comes and bites him, and so he becomes distracted with the flea, from paying attention to the lion.  Whoever is heedless of Allah (s.w.t.), he busies himself with the trivial; whereas the one who is not heedless of Him will preoccupy himself with none other than Him.  The best state for us is to lose this world in order to gain Hereafter.  How often have we lost the Hereafter to gain this world?  How awful is fear in a soldier!  How awful is a grammatical error from a grammarian!  How awful is the pursuit of this world for someone who feigns abstinence from it!  A true man is not someone who nurtures us through his words; rather a true man is only he who nurtures us through his gaze.”