The Worm and the Leaf

SOMEONE ONCE told a worm about a grape: how delicious and tasty it was. He told the worm to climb the grapevine and there he would find the grape.

So the worm set off on his climb up the vine. Along the way he alighted upon a vine leaf. He tarried and tasted of the leaf. He found it delicious and so, mistaking the leaf for the promised grape, stayed there and ate there till he died.

Had the worm continued he would have found the grape, more tasty by far than the leaf.
This is our example. We have been promised the pleasures of Paradise. On the way we stopped in this world. Its pleasures have so astonished us that we have thought the world to be Paradise, the promised grape.

If we move along in this world, ignoring its pleasures and move on to Paradise, we would find it much more delightful. Let not the world’s inferior pleasures mesmerise you. Move on to the splendours of Paradise.