The Ant and The Grasshopper

One cold, frosty day in the middle of winter a colony of ants was busy drying out some, grains of corn, which had grown damp during the wet autumn weather.

A grasshopper half dead with cold and hunger, came up to one of the ants. “Please give me a grail or two from your store of corn to save my life,” he said faintly.

“We worked day and night to get this corn in. Why should I give it to you?” asked the ant crossly. “Whatever were you doing all last summer when you should have been gathering your food?”

Oh I didn’t have time for things like that, said the grasshopper. “I was far too busy singing to carry corn about.”

The ant laughed I unkindly. “In that case you can sing all winter as far as I am concerned,” he said. And without another word he turned back to his work.

Islam teaches us that we should help the less fortunate. But it also teaches us that we must work hard and not rely on the kindness of others for our daily needs.