By Nanauzir
The Prophet ﷺ (peace be upon him) was reportedly asked: “Which of our companions are best?” He replied: “One whose appearance reminds you of God, and whose speech increases you in knowledge, and whose actions remind you of the hereafter.
There are so many hadith we can relate to on how important for us to choose our companions or friends. Since I was small, my mother always advise me to make friends with good people. Why is that so?
According to my mom, friends will always be our point to compare with, such as what they wear, what pencil they use and how their parents treat them. So she would tell me about this over and over again, throughout my primary school, secondary school even up until now.
We may have amazing friends whom we share with, yet we have not developed spiritually with them. True they will be the best people we turn to when we have problems, but do they remind us to refer back to the one who create us? Do they remind us this is only test from the Creator to make us stronger?
My mom always remind me of this hadith: ” If we make friend with perfume sellers, they would probably give perfume or the smell will stick to our clothes a bit if not much, but what about if we make friends with blacksmith? What would we get from them?”
Now that I am a lot older and hopefully a little wiser, I learnt that friends are not only people you associate with but they also reflect of who you are. In university days, I always receive complaints from my friends where their group mates are not doing their part when it comes to assignments. This is a bit sad , just because you know your friends can complete the task does not mean you can leave the job alone to that person.
If I were in their shoes, I will leave them immediately. I don’t waste my time with people who don’t make me a better person. People who constantly do bad things to people and complain about their lives are just toxic for me. Frankly speaking, I am just like a sponge, can easily absorb people’s vibes, if you are toxic I can’t breathe around you.
Again, I remember when I attended Suhaib Webb’s talk about friendship, he said, “Good friends who prioritize their relationship with Allah will help us on the spiritual path. It is easier to pray and to do our everyday acts of worship because we have company to help us”. Even when we face difficulties, ultimately they will remind us of Allah. This is what friends are supposed to do, not those who always find excuses in whatever we do.
No one is perfect, we are flawed, this is the reason why we need company who always wanted to improve themselves as well as who help you along the process to be good each day. Before I leave, I just want to remind my friends, we are now in the peak periods where we have to work on our assignments. Please do our part if that is a group assignment. Be good to people, Insya Allah, the reward will be given by Allah to you, equal or more than you ever expected.
Photo taken from Kalahari.