Mufti Menk – The Gift of True Friends

			As salam o alaikum, my brothers and sisters, if you have good friends, thank Allah, thank Allah,
there is a shortage on earth of good sincere friends who drive you closer to Allah or who keep
reminding you of Allah and yet they are your friends, they are genuine, they try to understand you
they correct you in a good way and they allow you to correct them in a good way to there are very
few who are fair and balanced. There are very few who understand what is justice. So if you have
good friends, thank Allah, one of the biggest gifts that you could have is an obviously here we're
going beyond Eman and so on, you know, belief and so on. One of the biggest favors of Allah is when
		

			you have a good circle of friends. So thank Allah, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him had
brilliant friends, when and they had him as a friend. They were fortunate they were the ones who
were fortunate, in fact, look at Abu Bakr, Siddiq Ravi Allahu anhu, one of the closest friends of
the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Do you know what they were similar age a few years
difference. And here they were, when he presented the prophet who then Islam and so on, immediately,
the friends the closest circle, none of them rejected the message because they knew he was truthful.
Subhanallah how fortunate they were to have had beautiful friendships. Aside, equal I mean, the
		

			trustworthy, the honest one, the upright person, that's my friend. Is your friend upright. Is your
friend honest? Does your friend have good habits? Do you together remind each other of Allah
subhanho wa taala? Do you remind each other of goodness of your duties unto your maker? Do you
remind each other that one day you're gonna have to go back to your maker? Are you kind to the poor?
Are you kind to your family members, your parents, your spouse, whoever else? It may be your
children, your brethren, your siblings? Are you a good person? And do you encourage your friends to
be good? If you move together in goodness, you definitely have achieved a lot gifted by Allah. And
		

			if you're moving together in something bad, unacceptable or evil, you have a lot to correct. And
that's where this remainder comes in. My brothers, my sisters, let's polish up our friendships. If
need be, you may want to change some of your friends. May Allah make it easy for all of us. We pray
that we are not changed by others for the wrong reasons. But yes, I need to become a better friend
as Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh