Humans are weak by nature. The people around him mainly control and manage his mentality and emotions. That is why caution in choosing companions and friends is basically a precaution to preserve and increase faith. Rasulullah (SM) said: “You shall not associate with anyone except a believer and none shall eat of your food except a person of trust.”
In another hadith, Abu Hurairah (R) said that the Messenger of Allah said:”The religion of a friend is the religion of man; so if one of you befriends someone, he should consider it.”
In family, society, and workplace we usually cannot verify. We have to deal with everyone, good and bad. But we must be careful when it comes to friendship and companionship. Friendship with any person who indulges in shirk, bid’at, kufr and wickedness should be carefully avoided. Staying together and chatting with such people should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Because in this one’s faith is damaged and the poison of sin enters the heart of the believer. It is also the duty of a believer who is himself involved in sin not to have friendship with other sinners. This will save him from indulging in other sins and it will be easier for him to repent of his own sins.
Apart from avoiding the company and friendship of sinners, it is very important to develop friendship and companionship with righteous people. In this case, the following points should be noted:
(a) Companionship is of four levels:
(1) Companionship of Allah,
(2) Companionship of Rasulullah (SM),
(3) Companionship of the Companions and
(4) Companionship of righteous people.
(b) Allah Almighty says: ‘He is with you wherever you are (Hadith: 4), ‘Allah is with the believers’ (Anfal: 19), ‘Allah is with the Muttaqis (Baqarah: 194, Tawba: 36, 123),’ Allah is with those who practice piety and those who do good’ (Nahl: 28), ‘Allah is with those who are patient’ (Baqarah: 153, Anfal: 46). The Messenger of Allah said: “Ihsaan (beauty, perfection or sincerity) is that you worship Allah as if you see Him; for even if you do not see Him, He sees you. Teaching This companionship of Allah Almighty is always the depth of feeling, the depth of nearness to Allah .
Allah’s Command – Prohibition This faith is deepened through observance and constant zika. Thus the believer reaches the pinnacle of Ihsan or beauty, perfection, and sincerity.
(c) Our only way to gain the companionship of Rasulullah(SM) is to study his hadiths, seerats and shamails, discuss them, spend as much time as possible in reciting durood-salam upon him and strive to know and follow his sunnah in every aspect of life. We need to study and discuss the biographies of the Sahih Sahabahs in order to gain the companionship of the Sahabahs.
(d) The above three types of companionship are simple on the one hand; Because a believer can get this companionship by buying and reading books such as Ibadat-Bandegi, Yiks, Dua Quran, Tafseer, Hadith, Sirat, Companions etc. without the help of any human being. Besides, such companionship is hard to come by; Because human frailty makes it difficult and tiring to do all these prayers alone. Usually the believer loses interest shortly. Loving good people for Allah and spending some time in their company makes all the above types of companionship easy and deep.
(e) It is the duty of every believer to create an environment of faith around him. Meeting each other with love and friendship for the sake of Allah, spending some time together, discussing religion or spending some time in remembrance of Allah is very necessary for a believer. It invigorates faith, turns the mind to the Hereafter, creates the desire to seek forgiveness for sins, and increases knowledge. For this reason, the Hadith Sharif has given special encouragement to such witnessing companionship and Majlis.
Abu Darda (R)and other Companions, the Messenger of Allah said:On the Day of Resurrection some people will be raised do those whose faces will be radiant and they will stand on the pulpit of Manimukta (light). People will envy them (prophets and martyrs will also envy them) because of their proximity to Allah Almighty and their status, but they are neither prophets nor martyrs (nor Siddiq). Then a Bedouin knelt down and said, O Messenger of Allah, reveal to us their details so that we may know them. He said: They are people of different clans and different countries, they love each other only for the sake of Allah the Great (in the dignity of Allah the Great) (blood, descent or worldly ties do not unite them), they come together for the remembrance of Allah, the remembrance of Allah. That is why they choose the holy-beautiful words like the palm-eater chooses good dates. “.
Dear readers, it is the responsibility of each one of us to create such an environment of faith within our own limits to preserve faith and piety and attain the glory of Allah. First of all it is necessary to create such an environment within one’s family. Husband and wife, parents and children need to spend some time reading and discussing Quran-Hadith, reading Islamic books, watching programs or bringing a virtuous scholar to the house and spending some family time in religious discussions. It will increase family love, harmony and happiness besides increasing faith, piety and belayat.
In the second stage, try to have such majlis with some good people of your area daily or at least weekly. Select the mates of the Majlis by looking only at the state of piety without looking at party, opinion or social status. In the third stage try to spend some time weekly, monthly or irregularly in the company of some good scholars near or far. Strive to ensure the participation of family members at all levels of fellowship and majlis. We will see a detailed discussion about the Majlis of Zikr in the last chapter of this book, God willing.
