Suhaib Webb – Lesson Nine Friends & Companions
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of friendships and relationships in Islam, including companionship and the ability to be around people who are worshippers of Allah Subhan evolution. They also mention the importance of understanding and embracing one's friend's values, especially when it comes to non-M-think people. The speaker emphasizes the need to be around people who do not challenge their values and principles.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome back to
our first,
series on those things that we need to
understand as fundamental practices to helping us bring
life, and imen, and taqwa to our hearts.
And we're reading from the end of a
poem that we're going to read again
on theology
by a sheikh Ahmad Adardir, who wrote actually
the text I explained in the essentials of
Islamic faith.
And the next quality that he's going to
talk about is companionship.
When I first embraced
Al Islam,
Sheikh Abdulrahman al Balsir Rahim who died just
a few months ago of COVID 19. Keep
him and your family in,
your duas.
He said to me, if you show me
your friends, I can show you who you
are.
SubhanAllah.
And I recently heard from a podcast on
leadership that your 5 friends will tell you
why you are or are not
succeeding in who you want to be in
life.
The prophet
he says very beautifully in a famous narration
which is authentic,
The man or the woman
is on the religion of his or her
friend.
So the sheikh now he gets into
friends, because friends and the people whose company
we keep
are triggers to the kind of behavior
that we want to achieve. You know, there's
a great
statement that says, if you want to be,
you know, a professor, hang around professors. If
you want to be a body builder, hang
around body builders. If I want Jannah,
then let me be around the people of
Jannah. And the prophet
the Sahaba asked him,
which one of our gatherings is the best?
And he said,
you know, those gatherings
where
the person's speech
increases your knowledge of Allah. Subhanu wa ta'ala.
Like like the best people to hang out
with. Right? Those people who
his or her speech increases your knowledge of
Allah, and their actions remind you of the
hereafter.
So
say the sheikh, he says,
He mentions 2 important qualities of people whose
company we should keep. Number 1, that they
are
worshipers of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala says in the Quran after 'audubilayimashaitanarajim
You know, resiliently
stay with those people who call on their
Lord all the time, morning and evening. We
know this verse in Surat Al Kahf
was sent to the prophet
in regards to Bilal and Salman al Farisi
and Suhay Baroomi.
3, quote unquote, non Arabs,
right, outside of the Arab community of the
Prophet, and who were known for being poor.
And in fact, after this verse was revealed,
the prophet said, 'alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah,
who commanded me to be with the poor.'
Why? Because these were people of
They call on the Lord on their Lord
morning evening means all the time. They're constantly
in the state of remembrance,
in the state of of, alhamdulillah,
du'a.
And Allahu
he says in the Quran,
voodoo, you alone we worship not I worship.
Because as human beings we're weak.
I'm a weak person. That's why the prophet
he forbid
for people who could not to live alone.
Because
we're weak, but when we're around others, if
those others are good, we're going to try
to rise up
to the standards that they and we have
set. So Allah says, 'Iyakana
buduwayyakanaastang.'
You alone, we worship not you alone, 'a'
budu, I worship.'
So the first quality of a friend is
that that person should be engrossed in Ibadah.
Of course, we'll talk about non Muslims in
a second.
The second quality, the Sheikh he says what
The second quality is they should have knowledge.
Seek refuge in being around the ignorant.
And here,
knowledge doesn't just mean here. It means also
in their character,
how they carry themselves. Sayna Imam Ahmed used
to say, I would rather be with a
righteous sinner than a fake saint, more or
less the meaning.
So what those
who are devout
to Allah,
those people who have knowledge.
That takes us now to a misunderstanding
that we find in the Quran as it
is translated, not the Quran itself where Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says
All believers do not take the Jews and
Christians as
Unfortunately,
some people translate
it as friends. But if you speak Arabic,
there is a difference between
and Friends and Disbelievers.
Friends, excuse me, and allies.
Friends and allies.
Here, 'Aulia' does not mean friends.
'Aulia'
means to take them as your allies
in war against the Muslimi.'
As the prophet,
right, we don't seek the help of polytheists
in these kind of situations.
So this verse is not talking about the
normal kind of friendships that we have with
people.
People as Sheikh Mohammed 'Ali Sayyas, he mentioned
to us in explaining this verse who was
the former in his tafsir, actually he studied,
he had passed away,
the former dean of the College of Sharia.
And Al Azhar in his book Tashir Ayat
Al Hakim,
said this is not talking about Ma'asharah.
Right? Like, the normal kind of friendships and
relationships we have with people. How are we
gonna make dawah and spread the light of
Islam if we're not nice to people, if
we're not friendly to people? And we know
the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa'alehi wasallam,
when he sent Mu'adhim Mujabal to Yemen he
said,
be good. Those people are Christian.
Be nice to them. Treat them well. So,
this idea that
means
is a mistake. But even with non Muslims,
we need to be around people who do
not challenge our foundational ideas and beliefs and
principles,
who are not, triggering us into unhealthy evil
behavior.
We ask Allah ta'ala ba'afiyyah. So this quality,
the sheikh, he says,
Sabeel anakisina
la'udama.
Friendship and the type of company that we
keep. Imam Al Khortubi in his tafsir in
Surat Al Kahf says that friends are so
important that sometimes it's even better to be
with a dog
than humans who aren't loyal and good people.