Before Fat-he-Makkah (the conquest of Makkah Mukarramah), Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) had sent Hazrat Ali (radhiyallahu ‘anhu) to Yemen as his governor over the people of Yemen. During the period when Hazrat Ali (radhiyallahu ‘anhu) was in Yemen, a group of people in Yemen dug a pit in order to trap a lion.

Sometime thereafter, a lion fell into the pit and was trapped. After the lion was trapped, a few people came and stood around the pit, looking at the lion. However, the people around the pit began to push one another in order to see the lion. In this way, one of the men around the pit accidentally fell into the pit. As he fell in, in an attempt to save his life, he held onto the man next to him. However, this caused the second man to fall into the pit as well. As the second man fell, he held onto a third man, and he held onto a fourth man, and in this way, all four men fell into the pit.