[ergyuu]

Recently, I was speaking to a friend. He mentioned due to being in company of wrong people and fear of standing out as different. Many people fall in the trap of sinning. I gave some thought to this.

One example came to mind. Sometimes when we go out with a friend for a lunch or dinner. You pick the tab for your friend because your friend says that he will pay you back and never does. This occurs a number of times. You start to realize that your friend could potentially be taking advantage of you. This upsets you. The next time this friend calls you out for lunch or dinner, you would politely refuse. You realize that the friendship has been adversely affected.

Although this is not the best example and it’s also true that you would be upset at your friend more so for his character than the fact that you picked his portion of the tab and paid X amount of dollars. Although it’s a meager amount, money is powerful so much so that a decade of friendship could be ruined. How many times have we heard that a long standing friendship has been broken due to money related issues? This is why someone wise said when you lend money to someone close, think of it as gone.

So why do friendships break due to financial reasons? It’s simple because we give value to money. Although money is finite, we realize its tangible value. We know what harm could happen due to lack of it. And due to off-repeated message from media, society, social gatherings etc which is that the only measure of success of one’s life is amount of wealth he/she has accumulated.

Why do we continue to have friends that take us away from Allah (swt) and his deen? We know that we have friends that due to their company we miss our prayers, engage in useless conversations, go places that where the pious don’t go, backbite, talk of profanity (in essence get influenced to do wrong actions) etc. The answer is simple. Although faith has an infinite life, we don’t value our faith (eeman). Our hearts are dead to the point that we don’t have an innate feeling of protecting or treasuring it.

The Companions of Prophet (saw) were people who lived in this world. They worked and had families. Not to mention, but some of them were very rich successful businessmen. However their lives are a testimony that they valued their faith to be of utmost priority so much so that anything can be compromised to attain it. They would sacrifice any friendship to attain that friendship that would not only last a lifetime but go beyond one’s grave (afterlife). And that is the friendship with Allah (swt). This is why Umar (rad) said Loneliness is better than a bad companion.

P.S. Generosity is part of Islam. So be generous when you are with friends.

(If you have benefited from this article, I ask you to sincerely raise your hands and pray for me and send it to others)

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[bestworkother]

Good Read.... Jazakallah

A good friend takes you to the masjid a bad friend takes you to opposite direction

I once had many friends in my jahil (ignorant) days and when you turn to the right path you will soon see who your true friends