ISLAMIC LIFE
Islamic Lifestyle
19 Jul 2009
YOUR FRIEND- PERFUME SELLER OR BLACKSMITH
My respected brothers and elders, Assalamoalaykumu.w.w.
I would like to talk to you today about the importance of good friendships in Islam.
This is more important than many of us realise and I will tell you a hadeeth to prove this.
Rasulullah (SAW) said “The example of a good companion and a bad companion is like the example of a seller of perfume and a blacksmith. The perfume seller will either give you some, or you will buy some from him or you will enjoy the nice smell from him. As for the blacksmith, he will either burn your clothes or you will catch a bad smell from him.”
This hadeeth is trying to tell us that if we stay with good people and have good friends they will teach us good, we will see them doing good things and you will also want to copy them or they will stop you from doing bad things. You will feel embarrassed to do bad things if they are with you.
On the other hand a bad friend will do the opposite. He will not care if you do things that are bad for you and you will feel the devil within you rearing it’s ugly head when he is with you. You will all of a sudden gain courage to do evil, break laws, commit sin and be un Islamic.
Hadhrat Ali ibn Abi Talib (RA) says that when two people are good friends and one of them dies. The good person says to Allah, “O Allah he told me to do good and stopped me from doing bad things. Oh Allah don’t let him go on the wrong path and show him the good you have shown me and be happy with him like you are happy with me.”
But when one of two bad friends die, he says “O Allah, he was the one who made me do all the bad things so show him the bad things you have shown me and be angry with him like you are angry with me.”
This is why it is important that we all choose our friends carefully. If they are doing bad we should stop them and encourage them to do good. I would like to finish with a hadeeth we have learnt in Madrasah that reinforces my message:
The Prophet SAW said, Al mar u ma a man ahhaba. Man will be with whom he loves. This means if we love good people Allah will gather us with them on the day of judgement and if we love bad people, we will be with them.
I pray that Allah saves from bad friendships and makes us all a good friend to others.