Youssra Kamel Kandil – Companionship

			Elizabeth metallicities
		

			First of all, I'd like to thank you for having me here tonight. And I'd like to thank you all for
coming out to this very blessed and excited to launch Safina society. Now, I personally think was
very wise to name the societies of Keenum, which means ship by the way. And the reason why I believe
it is wise is because I truly believe, as the Prophet peace be upon twice, that we're here in this
life on a journey. And hopefully, we're all trying to reach the same destination.
		

			In general life, when we decide to go on a journey, we don't just wake up in the morning and say,
Okay, I'm heading off to the Bahamas, right, you have to get ready, you have to get equipped. So if
you were to take your ship, and to head off on a journey, you have to prepare your luggage, your
equipments, your fuel, your compasses, or maps and whatnot. But most important for you to be able to
sail that ship, you need to have a crew and you need to have people with you in order to survive, in
order for that ship to keep on going. entire humanity is based on what on socializing. Allah
subhanaw taala created us as social creatures, we can survive on our own. And if we look at the
		

			roster, and Allah subhanaw taala, addresses us, he always thinks of us as an owner, he speaks about
the Unity or the togetherness. And across different areas, he speaks about people, most of the time,
it's in groups of people be they good as an as Hobbit path, the companions of the cave, or being a
bad as an us habit feed the companions of the elephant bottom line, you have to have people around,
you know what's more important than just having people, you have to choose the crew or companions on
your journey that share with you you're saying vision to reach that same destination, or what's
going to happen, someone's going to start steering to the east, and another person steering to the
		

			west, and you're trying to hit a chord. And eventually what you're going to find is your ship and
yourself going this way, that way, turning around, or maybe even sick. And in all reality, we don't
have the kind of time to waste. We don't know when our journey is going to end, we can turn around
in circles. I don't know what my journey is going to end neither to you. So you have to choose that
group. Now, and it has to be through the chase, you're saying budgeting. And if we stop for a minute
and think about our individual journeys today, look at our journeys that were taking our ships and
the crew were the companions that we have chosen to be with us on this journey. If we come to think
		

			about it, really, most of our friends or companions became our friends because our roads intersected
together, not that we chose. For example, we went to class together. So we ended up being friends,
or we commute together so we became friends or our parents as we were growing up were best friends.
So we grow up as best friends as well. Or even our kids, our best friends in school. So we have
playdates and we become what good friends right? Now if I were to tell you as we're here tonight,
inshallah about to start this new endeavor, this new journey here in Safina. And I was to tell you,
you have to choose a crew, you have to choose the Companions, they're going to be sharing your same
		

			vision of pleasing Allah subhanaw taala. And getting to that final destination, there has to be
certain characteristics that you have to find that that frame, right? And the first thing probably
if I ask you to choose your friend, what would you say to someone, I'm comfortable with someone I
can be myself. And as a member shutter I said, the dearest of my brother's to my soul hurts my heart
are those wounds that I'm with is a primal level. So you need somebody you could just come back to
be yourself. And you know,
		

			and in our daily life, we do tend to wear masks. And I don't mean in the sense of being hypocrites
or lying. But we do have troubles. We have turbulence in our life. But the minute we have left our
house door and we see our neighbor, what's the first thing you do? You put a smile on your face and
you say good morning, how are you? That right there is a nice and it kind of wears us out. If you
need someone you could go back to take that mask off, be yourself and you know they're not going to
judge you. Now, the second most important thing I would ask you, what would you choose in that
credit?
		

			You're going to say well, it's someone I'm going to be you know, sharing things from my life with.
So somebody that's you know, for maybe to ask for advice or so on. They have to be trustworthy,
right? So someone uncomfortable with someone that's trustworthy. But if we think about it, is that
sufficient for that person to support you to reach you to help you reach that goal destination?
		

			Absolutely not.
		

			Because the most important and again, I say the most important tourist tourism is that your friend
or your companion has to be righteous. Because that friend is not righteous, that friend is corrupt,
or that friend isn't loving a loving person who's lawful, basically living for the sake of living,
he doesn't know why he's living, he's just wakes up, a soldier comes back, that person could be the
cause of you losing your duty and your after, even if that person wants to do yes, even if that
person wants you to, even if they wish the best for you and for your life, just for the fact that
they don't have the concept of why they're here what they're doing, they could be the cause if you
		

			lose your journey and your effort.
		

			And that's why I have to ask you tonight, before you choose your companions, you have to follow the
golden rule in our religion. And that is when you befriend somebody, they have to be better than.
And when I say better, I don't mean someone who has a bigger house, or a nicer car, or fancier
clothes, or a better jumping up, I mean, someone at a better spiritual level than you are someone
who would hold out their hand to you and pull you up with them while you can out to someone else who
wants to better themselves, and pull that off with you. So before the link would change, and we
support each other. So if one day you wake up, and you're sharing your journey is about to hit a
		

			store, you know, for a fact that every single person who chose with you on that crew is going to do
their best to go sailing through the storm, one making sure you're still on board with their
sharing, you're safe, efficient. Or if you wake up one day, and you can't do anything, you just
can't steal or steal anymore, you know, they're going to hold your hand and they're going to keep on
going, they're not going to leave that behind. And there's a very famous Arabic saying, for those of
us who speak Arabic, it says what Assad had said, meaning a friend drags you with them. And it's
either to one of two ways, it's either to the good, or to the batch. Or as we said, a person who's
		

			on a laptop. So they don't urge you to do good, either to stop you from doing that. And that's not
what we're looking for.
		

			And I'd like to share with you a personal story from my life here that falls into this whole dynamic
of the impact of your companions, and how they can affect you specifically, your relation with Allah
subhanaw taala. Now, I graduated from Islamic High School, and I came out thinking to myself, I'm
going to change the world, I'm going to do so much good, I'm going to you know, have so much
impacted everybody. And I decided to do art. And you know what art is sometimes suited to have been
gotta survive that. But I ended up taking a class, I had 20 friends with me. And out of the 20
Friends, I was maybe one out of two or three people who actually prayed. And I'll just stick to the
		

			example of prayer. Of course, there's just one out of so many other things that are important in our
religion, but I'll just show you the impact of companionship, what it did to the prayer over a
period of five years of that kind of companionship. So initially, I will be going making sure I'm
there on prayer time, I have my preferred sadness, my number from sadness, you know, everything, and
then you will be going to pray and have the 15 or 20 friends waiting outside for you. So okay, let's
start off the nonconference evidence. Okay, come on, hurry up, we're waiting for you. Okay, you're
gonna confirm, so there's two. And then eventually, by the past the time the top five years have
		

			passed, I eventually started going down, down, down until I was barely making my prayer from time
and spiritual life. There was that way.
		

			But that's not the catastrophe of my story. The catastrophe, the real catastrophe was, I was looking
at myself and saying, okay, none of my friends are praying. I was praying. I'm the ship of this
group. I'm doing great. I'm going straight to heaven. What are you talking about? Do you see where
the toilet is? I was comparing myself to the wrong group of people. For my opera Hunter, that during
my first two years of my career, I ran into an old friend of mine from an Islamic school. And she
told me, you know, there's this new lecture speaker was come out, he wasn't very well known back
then. But he's very famous guy in our national auto drama said, you know, why don't you come and
		

			start listening to the lectures. And I was like, What's to lose? So I went, and I started listening
to the lectures, and Subhanallah, I was impressed by the amount of good these people did the support
and how they work together. And I started to really get affected by the lectures, and I listen to
lectures and think to myself, I have to change. This is not working out.
		

			But my biggest issue, I was always coming back to my same old friends, my friends who were not
sharing my same vision that I was sharing that I had now. So I'll come back saying tonight after
Esha, you know, I'm gonna go through it or we're Ramadan. And then I get a phone call, or we're
gonna go grab some coffee. Come on, come with us. And I think to myself, you know, I still want to
see my friends. You can always make up the prayer later. And I will give it and I will go. And of
course, I come back. I was too tired to pray. Subhanallah it was like a struggle for me. It was I
was trying so hard, but I was really lost. But it's certainly I had that intention to change and I
		

			believe when you
		

			Everybody wants to change Allah subhanaw taala always been so wait for you. So identify, read into
that same friend of mine. And she was there, you know, they're starting this new international
school with Islamic advocates. And I, you know, we connected you to them. So bottom line, they gave
me an offer. I loved it and I accepted. Firstly, I'm working there before suppose two minutes or so
I didn't know what was happening. Everybody was getting up, go to the bathroom coming back, go to
the bathroom coming back, which I realized theaters they were getting ready before Sullivan 10 or 15
minutes for some of them didn't.
		

			And the instant that Dan said Allahu Akbar, every single person from the head of our school to the
office, boy, even those who are at conferences with people coming offering us curriculums. Everybody
who's on the prayer net, thinks that you know what, if they want our business, you're gonna have to
wait inside to pray. today. I don't know who's sick, let's go visit them after you know, spirit
together. You know, we're counting on Days and Thursdays? Why don't we make it a habit that we go
out together and have a store. It's so fun. And I really realized that I was in trouble. And it was
a wake up call for me. Subhan Allah. And I came up with one lesson that I always keep in front of
		

			me. And that is, when you compare yourself to people in a spiritual and religious matter. Don't say,
oh, you know what? They're not praying. And I know, you say, I pray that there are people out there
who are seeking knowledge, who people who are giving knowledge, people who are devoting their entire
life to better this world and serve their communities. What am I prepared to them, I need to work on
myself and be better.
		

			So Subhanallah, you see the effect of companionship, it's very important, who are the people who are
around because you do get affected? Whether you try it or not to resist it, you're gonna get
affected. It's just, it's a fact. And I'd like to flashback to now to the time of the Prophet
Muhammad Sallallahu SLM, and share with you two quick stories. The first one is a person who had
some good, and he really wanted to change, but due to his bad companionship, he lost his dunya and
is given his effort or is your actor. And his name is often that if you have you might know of that
you might have a very good friend who he thought was trustworthy, and who he was what comfortable,
		

			like we will think about a freshman are comfortable with so they're good friends. And he was his
friend, the head of disbelievers objective. Now, we just had last weekend, we went on a trading trip
out of Mecca, and all that was left behind. And he had a good inside his heart. So he started going
and listening to the Prophet Muhammad salatu salam, and he started getting really infected. And he
liked the idea of Islam. So one day he came and he said, Tomorrow I'm going to go to the Prophet
peace be upon them. And you know, and say I'm here with is that there's no God except Allah and that
he's the messenger. Tomorrow, I'm going to go embrace this. Imagine tomorrow, because he's going to
		

			be saved from hellfire. For his dad love that for Thursday night to return to his best friend of
		

			his best friend where you can find what he thought was amazing. He wrote, yeah, I will tell you
tomorrow I'm going to go to the profit and racist firm.
		

			What do you think the response was? A journalist, stereotype, etc. Talking to you would be haram
forbidden until you go a step further and spit in the face of the prophets.
		

			You either choose my companionship, or Islam
		

			up or went the next day and you tried to follow the advice of his friends but he couldn't.
		

			And he became one of the worst enemies of the Prophet Muhammad Salah is an accurate describes
advice, and he died as a disbeliever in the back of it.
		

			That's what the bathroom can do to you without you realizing that they bought just for the fact
they're not sharing with you the same vision as you are.
		

			Now the other story of a young wealthy man from correction and his name is Sally I should
		

			know I actually had a very good friend, the best of friends a friend, we would all wish to have
American photography, it was kind of hard to face with them. So I'm going to the photographer is
decided to migrate to Medina. And they were willing to approach the Gators
		

			and who heard of us are all gonna have a child and he got married. He was like if he goes I actually
all the spouse and supports the Prophet what kind of a role model will he be for the other use of
garage. So he took his cannon and he flew out to them. And it's not all the yellow sky dash turned
by your mother to put over herself to stand in the sun and never go in the shade. Never to drink
mermaid until you come back to our children. Don't listen to him. He's going to turn you away from
the religion.
		

			I got to talk to the geologist my mother. Ahmed tried his best, but I actually decided to go back
and instantly arrive to Mecca. Abuja tied him up and he unlocked one
		

			Now your stay for a while. And you started to give up on the idea of embracing this plan until the
Muslims won the battle the better. And the I was revealed on the struggle on a laptop not only
Rahmatullah in the law after the Virginia I can no longer say oh my servants who have transgressed
against their souls, despair note from the Mercy of Allah for Allah forgiven all sins, for his oft
forgiving, Most Merciful.
		

			The minutes all my read this I am, he thought I was offering my edge, he quickly wrote the message
on a paper, a white paper, I'm sorry, and sent it to the secret messenger, tiny niche. And I
actually received the message. And the instance he read it,
		

			and his heart awakens. And when he goes back, I forgot I'm sorry, I forgot to mention earlier that
when I actually decided to go back all the hating his cattle and told him take my cattle life back
on it, so that you may remember me come back. So when I actually are on booktown, what did he find?
Our camera was still there. And he decided to do what that night, he decided to speak to Medina. And
when he got there, his good friend was waiting for the moment in the hot tub with open hearts, and
he embraced the slime and dinosaurs.
		

			So if you look around you and see who your companions are, you can know where you're going, and what
you're up to.
		

			And tonight Inshallah, if we're looking around as much Allah we're about to start this journey, as I
say, and we want to hold the chocolate up, like I see your faces, I got a lot of my sister's here,
called the three characteristics are fulfilled, mashallah they're comfortable with, they're
trustworthy, and in addition to that they're righteous. So why don't we just add a little Nadir or
intention to this companionship, and maybe for the sake of philosophy, how to add, meaning what's
the hope of a network companionship for the sake of Allah. But why?
		

			Because Allah subhanho wa Taala rewards immensely for this kind of relationship. Why? Because this
kind of relationship, the righteous relationship, or the companionship for the sake of Allah is what
protects our society. It's what protected ideation hellfire. Now I want to share with you a couple
of ideas about the reward of the companionship, let's say the philosopher Notodden. The Prophet
Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam says, On the Day of Judgment, whenever flights, and the banana is the
plural of the word member, which is the place where the app goes on, stands up on Friday, which is
football, whenever of lights will be bought and set up around the throne loss panels on and
		

			everybody will be standing from the judgments. And then there will come a group of people, their
garments made of lions, their faces full of blacks, and they will go up and stand on this forever of
like, above everybody else. And they're not messengers, neither are they marchers, the messengers,
the monitors would wish to be in their place. So the companions were like, were they comfort of
Allah describe them to us. He said, there are people who had no money dealings in between them.
Basically, I don't want anything from you. You don't want anything for me. There's no business going
on between us. So they continue to ask him who are they will prefer alone. He said there are people
		

			who love each other for the sake of Allah in this life. So he gathered them around his throne on the
negative light on the Day of Judgment. Can you imagine Subhanallah the reward and that came to the
Prophet Muhammad's Eliza Levin told him, oh prophet of Allah. I love certain people, but I can't
catch up with them. In other words, I love you will profit of football, but I don't have sufficient
amounts of good deeds to be with you in the hereafter.
		

			The Prophet replied, saying, a man is resurrected with whom kill us and Mother we have children.
		

			Who do we love? Who are our companions. The Companions weren't happier with any hardship more than
this heading, because they genuinely love the Prophet Mohammed Salah Salah for the sake of Allah, so
they knew they would even reach out and year after the Prophet Muhammad saw us and it says on the
Day of Judgment, Allah comes and calls on the people wherever those who love each other for my sake,
for today, I will treat them with my shade when there is no other shade over their mind. So if we
right now take this attention, this linear, ALLAH SubhanA wa Anton is going to come on the day of
judgment or you and you and you, every each one of you has a specific name and tell you come Let me
		

			shake you with my sheet. And who shall be talking about Allah subhana time
		

			the Prophet says there are two people will love each other for the sake of Allah. unless Allah
Subhana Allah loves the one who loves his brother more. What is this beautiful religion or religion
that raises your ranks and elevates you in heaven because of love? And something that you enjoy? You
usually enjoy good companionship don't you? Enjoy hanging out with your friends Subhanallah and
that's what kind of reward you could get for it. Prophet Muhammad salah.
		

			Something says,
		

			There is a tough person who takes a brother or a sister, of course for the sake of Allah, unless the
last panel with either raises him or her with that action in heaven, like no other act of worship
could raise them. And between those two levels in heaven is as between the heavens and
		

			do you see the reward. This is the kind of particular friendship or companionship that can protect
you. This is the kind of, you know, companionship being unique. And if you find it hard for yourself
to wake up professional, if you find it hard to keep on wearing your pajamas or to change yourself
and better yourself, it's because you don't have that kind of righteous friend around that kind of
companionship, their room, and we're in a better place did you find this other than you together in
Safina Institute and our bullets brother Shani was saying the other day, we go into all these
different conventions in different states. We make friendships with friends, we do all this good
		

			with these workshops. But when we come back to our local messages, we feel this emptiness we feel
this loneliness, we miss these friends. We need to start building that kind of companionship here
together to educate ourselves together. And Allah subhanaw taala says, what's the next second malady
they don't have a will of others you will have shame you redo the washroom what I traveled to
America and country to the other parent and donate at the end of the verse. And keep yourself
patient by being with those who go on their board in the morning and in the evening, desiring this
goodwill in his face, and let not your arm your eyes pass beyond the design department at this
		

			point. Don't watch out for that. If you find that groove, which we have here tonight, don't Twitch
Stick to them. That's the only way you can survive. And Sharla. Since I'm going to be teaching the
moms our I have to focus on the sisters just for one minutes. Now I'm a mother of three myself and I
understand how hard it is getting up caught, you know all the chores between cooking and cleaning
and laundry and the kids and the homework, and the never ending list that we have to understand
something and that is a loss of how dotata assigned to us the very important tool, and that is to
raise our kids, our kids in sha Allah are going to be the leaders for open tomorrow. And as we make
		

			time to go grab a cup of coffee with a friend or go to go shopping, we have to make the time to come
here to educate ourselves, first of all, to pass the knowledge down to our kids because we're going
to be accountable for that. And secondly, to always remind ourselves for the purpose of our
existence. We are here on their journey we have to support each other.
		

			And I don't have to remind us for the rest of mankind. Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu said that he
himself needed that support from the beginning of Revelation, finding the support from his wife for
the German philosopher autonomy please with her to his companions, who helped him spread religion it
is time to reach us today.
		

			On the Day of Judgment, nobody wants on their own, whether it to be held or to heaven. People always
describes it as people coming together in groups. And he says, What's your Kundalini that's our
gender disorder. And those who fear the Lord will come together groups are companions.
		

			Who are you going to come with inshallah Solomonic.