By nature man is a social being, in the sense that he cannot live alone, he needs to live within a community, within a society. That is why he needs people as people need him. He needs to have friends, he needs to have associates who would help him when he is in need and if you listen to the Sunnah of Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam regarding the companionship there’s a very beautiful Hadith and all the Hadiths of the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam are indeed beautiful because he tells us about himself, “I was given concise speech!” And that is why you need volumes to explain one word or two words of the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam because of the knowledge contained in these two words.

One of the Fiqhi rules is, “Do not do something that is harmful to others yet do not accept anything that is harmful for you.” And you can cascade this Fiqhi rule on all chapters of Fiqh, whether it’s about Impurity, about Transactions, about Marriage etc. So listen to this Hadith with your heart and not with your ears because it is coming from the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam who does not say except the truth and who does not teach us except what is beneficial for us not only in the Hereafter but also in this life.

The Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam says, “The likeness of a righteous companion is like the seller of musk, either he will give you a gift or you will buy something from him or you will acquire a pleasant fragrance from him and the likeness of an evil companion is like that of a man who works the bellows, either he will burn your garment or you will acquire an unpleasant odor from him!” Now you all know this Hadith right? We will just go briefly into it. The Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam told us about the good companion of having three possibilities while the evil companion has only two. So the first quality or choice that you can get out of a good companion is that he may give you. A person that sells perfumes may give you a gift or you may buy from him {no favors from him, you are paying for it} or the least you could get is the beautiful fragrance, beautiful smell; three things. If you want to look at a good companion; and this is essential because the benefit of tonight’s lecture is that I scrutinize, I audit my list of companions. Get your mobile phone and look into your contacts and start going through it, “Ok, good, evil, 50-50!” {It is never a half-half; he’s either good or evil} So this is what we would like to get as a result from today’s lecture. So let’s start!!

The Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam said, “A good companion either gives you,” and what is meant by ‘giving you’? Meaning that he will directly advice you; Advice me regarding what? OF good things! Of things that will benefit me in this life or will get me closer to Allah Azza wa Jall. So a good companion always, constantly advices you, “Akhi you have to do this, you shouldn’t do that!” He’s a good companion, he loves you, he doesn’t want you to go to hell; he doesn’t want to see that. So he tries his level best to prevent you from doing bad. If your best friend is going to drink a glass that contains poison, what will you do? Will you sit back and laugh? No! You will say, “Akhi, this is poison, I have seen poison in the glass.” If he says, “It is none of your business!

I want to drink this.” Will you say: ‘Well khallas if it’s none of my business then to hell with you’ would you do this? No. You will prevent him, you will stop him, if he fights you and he tells you, “No I will drink it.” What will you do? You will fight him back, even if you had to beat him up so that you prevent him from doing what is wrong, what would be harmful to him or killing him. Likewise the good companion would stop you from sinning, although you don’t like this, you don’t like people coming and advising you, “Akhi, this is Haram.” Even if he’s your best friend you will find it difficult to accept what he’s saying. You know the funny thing is your best friend, who is your best friend? ‘Muhammad, Abdullah, Ali?’ Who is my best friend? My wife! That is why Allah Azza wa Jall described the wife in the Qur’an as your closest friend {Sahibati} For some people, Subhan Allah the worst advice that comes to them is from their wives, if you do something and your wife tells you, “You shouldn’t have done that.”AllahuAkbar I start to grow horns and I become devilish. Why? Because this is human nature, men usually don’t like to take advice from someone they THINK is below them.

So the good companion would give you free of charge or you may buy from him, meaning he may not be as good to advice you directly but he is so good that you will learn from him by just being in his company, by just listening to him, without him coming to you directly. Like Imam Ahmad Ibn Hammbal, {may Allah have mercy on his soul} his companions used to say that whenever he had a Dars in a Masjid thousands of people used to attend, around 500 of them used to only scribe and write the Hadiths, so whatever he said from knowledge, they would write that down, they were students of knowledge. The rest of the people in the 1000 were not learning except from the way he behaved, the way he talked, the way he acted. So this is the second type, he is not advising you directly but you are learning from him through his character. Now how many friends do we have like this? A lot! I know a lot.

The brothers that I know personally, Ma Sha Allah; I will give an example: I was on a trip with a group of Da’ees, a trip meaning we were in a conference, don’t think that ‘Oh Sheikh goes for a TRIP! No! Not THAT kind. I was in a conference so I was invited with a group of Da’ees. And one of us Ma Sha Allah, he was so keen on joining the first row and making the first Takbeer in the Salah that he made me ashamed. We all pray in the Masjid Alhamdulliah , we never miss a Salah but this brother was so particular, he would say, “I would never ever let one prayer come except I will be in the first row behind the Imam, this is something I cannot compromise on!” And I started thinking about myself, Subhan Allah, I preach people and I tell people but I am not as keen as he is.

Ya Akhi I am the one who is telling people to try and come early and attend the prayer in the first row, from the first Takbeer behind the Imam and Wallahi I am not doing it! Wallahi shame on me! Since that day I am trying my level best to be behind the Imam in the first row and not miss one Takbeer. Why? Because Allah Azza wa Jall guided me through this man whom I Bought The Musk from, he didn’t give me, I bought it. He never told me, “Sheikh Assim why are you in the second row, in the tenth row, why do you come late for the first Rakah?” No, he didn’t say that but I learnt from him. So this is the second choice of a companion or the least you can get from a good companion is ‘A Good Fragrance, A Good Smell.’

Now how can my companion give me a good smell and a good fragrance; I am not learning from him and he’s not teaching me but when someone asks about me, “Do you know brother Assim, he proposed my sister or my daughter, what do you know about him?” The good companion would say, “Wallahi he’s a good friend of Sheikh so and so.” “Oh, he’s the friend of the Sheikh? Khallas then he’s good!” This is a good fragrance. If I want to evaluate you, I will look into your contact list and if I find girls names and I ask, “Abdallah what is this?” And he says, “They are all my colleagues,” Really, all business contacts haan? Khallas I wash off my hands off him! So this brother is not good anymore. By the people you hang around with I can judge you.

Some people might say, “You don’t have the right to judge me, I might have bad friends but I am good inside and I will fix them one day.” This is, with all due respect, nonsense! If you have a box of rotten apples and you bring the freshest apple in the world and you put it in this box, what will happen? The whole box, Ma Sha Allah will become fresh? No, definitely the good apple will naturally rot, this is but natural.

So this is what a good companion does to you. A lot of you here were brought by a good companion to listen to this lecture. A brother told you, “Ya Akhi there is this old Sheikh from Saudi, he’s Wahabi, he’s a fundamentalist and he cracks a joke every now and then. Instead of sitting at home lets go and listen to him.” You might have said, “Yeah, let’s go!” Now this companion of yours is a good companion because a good companion takes you to places that will draw you closer to Allah Azza wa Jall, a good companion would go with you in a beneficial visit not necessarily a circle of knowledge. He might say, “Let’s go and meet our brother so and so because he’s ill, let’s take some reward by visiting him, let’s go to a book fair and buy some useful books, I need a book of Tafseer, I need a book of this or that, a book of physics,” {some book that will provide you with knowledge.} A good companion tells you, “Akhi, next week on the weekend let’s go and make Umrah, what about performing Hajj this year?” Now this is a good friend who is drawing you closer to Allah Azza wa Jall. The least you could benefit from a good companion, if he did not deter you from evil, he does, if you want to smoke he will say, “Akhi smoking is Haram, you know I don’t like smoking, quit it!” So you don’t smoke. If you look at a beautiful woman passing by he would say, “Lower your gaze, it is Haram, Allah is watching, it’s not the right thing to do.” So he would deter you from Haram.

The least he could, even if you don’t want all of this, if you are not present and someone says, “Ya Akhi this friend of yours is short, he’s fat, he’s ugly, he’s stingy, he has a bad character, he does this and that.” Your good companion would not stay silent, he would interrupt that guy and say, “He is my friend, fear Allah, this is backbiting, this is not permissible.” He would defend you; he would protect you even when you are not present. This is what I would call a good companion. He loves you not because of your wealth, not because of your Wasita {we have a problem in Saudi with Wasita: it is not what you know, it is who you know and it is killing the Arab world because it is destroying everything. You don’t follow no rules, no regulations; it’s only important who you know, some influential guy!}

A good companion is not your friend because you take him places, he loves you for the sake of Allah, because you draw him and he draws you closer to Allah Azza wa Jall and I pray that all our companions would be like this.

They say ‘A friend is need is a friend indeed.’ So your friend is the one whom you need when you are want him to be there. This is actually true because when I am happy or when I am sad, I always call my friend and say, “Wallahi Akhi this something good happened to me or Wallahi Akhi this bad thing happened and I need your condolences and I need your sympathy or I need your encouragement.” So a good friend is the one that I always call whenever I have something good or bad to say. That is why even in hell {what do people look for: good companions; even in hell} Allah Azza wa Jall tells us in Surat Shua’ra: ‘now we have no intercessors nor a close friend to help us.’ This is what the people of hell are complaining about, “We don’t have any intercessors and we don’t have any close friend.” Meaning that even in hell we would like someone to help us and those who are close friends can help us we don’t have them in hell.

The Prophet salla Allahu alahi wa sallam tells us that On The Day Of Judgment all humans would be standing in an open plaza and the sun would draw closer to us until it is as close as a mile from us {whether a mile is 1.6kms or the mile which women use to put their mascara on their eyelashes, it’s called a Meel as well} And people would sweat, they would be standing in that horrific place and time, a horrible day and they are naked, no clothes and they are barefooted, no shoes and they are uncircumcised. Mother Ayesha asks the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, “Women and men, they are all naked?” And the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam tells her, “Ya Ayesha, the people would be so terrified, they wouldn’t have time to look left and right.” It is like when a beautiful woman passes by and there’s this 18 wheeler coming to run you over, nobody would say, “Ma Sha Allah!”

 

You cannot see anything except this 18 wheeler is inevitably going to hit you and likewise On the Day Of Judgment you would be terrified. Allah Azza wa Jall tells us: Friends on that day will become enemies. Those friends that you have on your contact list will become your enemies on the Day of Judgment, one to another except the pious, except Al Muttaqoon, those whose bond was for the sake of Allah.

I have friends, good friends, if Allah admits me to enter Jannah, they would not be my enemies, they would be my closest friends because we strived on good things and we strived to attain Allah’s pleasure. So definitely we will not be enemies. But those others will be enemies. Who are they? They are the people or the ones who use the bellows {someone who works with fire, who blows in the coals so that the fire becomes fierce and alive; a blacksmith} if you go to such a place, how do you think your clothes would turn out? They are going to smell bad, that is if you don’t get any sparks from the furnace that would burn your clothes. So the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam is telling us 2 things: either he will burn your clothes or you will find a bad odor. There’s no third thing. So there’s no benefit from an evil companion, no benefit at all. He will burn your clothes, meaning you are going to be sinful because of him on The Day Of Judgment! Well if you say, “I have bad companions, I have evil friends but I don’t take anything negative from them.” Akhi the least bad thing that could happen to you is: your reputation will be tarnished. Imagine a decent woman, wearing full Niqab, wearing gloves and she hangs out with a prostitute. How would the prostitute look? Definitely, unlike her! And this woman says, “We are just friends, we are relatives.” And they go out shopping, hanging around. How would people perceive this situation, a decent woman in her Hijab and Niqab with this bad woman? What will they say? They will say, “Birds of same feather flock together!” People would think they are alike and would do the same things! Imagine I have a best friend who is a pop star and I say, “Yeah he’s my friend but I go to the Masjid and he goes to the theater and concerts so it’s alright!” Is it agreeable that a Sheikh is friends with Justin Beiber? Can anyone accept or is it possible? It cannot be. So people stick with good people and likewise bad people stick with bad people.

And now look at the impact of an evil companion. If I ask you who was it that made a guy a drug addict? Wasn’t there someone who gave him the drugs to try first? Look at someone who smokes? Who was the first one who gave him a cigarette and said, “Give it a try, its good, be a man c’mon!” and he was like, “I need to be a man of course!!” And look at him now? Who was the first one to encourage a sister to take the veil off, “C’mon you are beautiful, you go shopping and everywhere with this veil, take it off, show off your beauty, you have to give zakat of this beauty” {this is in Arabia, the evil women say to the beautiful women:

You have to give zakat, you have to show and share this blessing of Allah Azza wa Jall!} Who was it the first every time: It was your evil companion! And now you go back in history, the evil things you have done in your past and Allah Azza wa Jall knows about it and may Allah forgive all our previous and coming sins. If you look into it you will always find a picture in your mind as to who encouraged you to do all the evil things you did. Who was the first one to travel with you to a foreign country on a vacation for RECREATION? Who was the first one to take you to a night club, to a bar? Who was the first one to give a cigarette or drugs? Who was the first one who gave you a DVD or a USB with bad movies in them? A kid comes home with this small USB and sits on the laptop and the parents are thinking that their kid is so studious and always doing homework on his laptop. If only they knew! So who was it the first to introduce you to this: it’s your evil companion; it is the Shaitan!

Our souls, by nature are weak, we are so vulnerable. Someone might say, “No Sheikh, I am strong, I do pushups a 100 times.” Yes physically you might be strong. One small virus can give a sore throat and a running nose to even the strongest man. This small virus may cause him to have fever and he may get bed ridden. My 23 year old son-in-law got a mosquito bite last week and he had to be hospitalized for a whole week, he was infected with dengue. Look at one small mosquito that caused this strong, young man to fall sick. Man is weak, our souls are weaker. And we change in a very rapid manner. We have a saying in Arabic which roughly translates as: Your companion always pulls you. If the friend is good, he will pull you towards goodness and if he is evil, he will always pull you towards evil. And this is logical. How many times has it happened that when someone yawns in the Salah and the whole row picks up? It often happens and within minutes the whole Masjid is yawning; and it all started because of one single person yawning! Not only that, if you are in a room and someone starts to laugh hysterically, what will you do? I just said the word laugh and everybody is smiling, I didn’t even laugh! People by nature are affected by the surroundings. If someone is depressed and comes into the house or to the office, his face is like so sad as if he’s about to die! What will happen to you? You also will feel blue; you will feel sad and depressed too. If you plant a beautiful and fresh rose sapling next to a rotten weed, what will happen to it? Of course the rose sapling will die! If you have a fresh source of water, a pond for example, and there is a rotten animal corpse near its shore. What will happen to the pond? The corpse is not in the water, it’s next to it; even the taste and smell of water will change.

So how about our personalities, how about our souls? Our soul is easily affected by the surroundings and that is why the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam said, “Man will be on the path of his close friends, therefore pay attention to who you make friends with?” ‘Pay Attention’ this is extremely important. Now if you look at the friends of the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam; who were they? Subhan Allah; the closest one is Abu Bakr {may Allah be pleased with him} and look at his level in paradise: very close; so the closest in this life are the closest in the Hereafter. Allah Azza wa Jall ordered His messenger salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam {who is the least to change} in Surat Al Kahaf {that we all try and read every Friday} “And keep yourself patiently with those who call on their Lord morning and afternoon, seeking His Face.” This is addressed to the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam; what do they want, those who remember Allah a lot? Do they want money, do they want fame? NO!! They are doing this for the sake of Allah.

“And let not your eyes overlook them, desiring the pomp and glitter of the life of this world and obey not him whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance, one who follows his own lusts and desires, ones whose affairs {deeds} have been lost.” This instruction is to whom? To the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam! Now check your contact list, and you will find all of these ‘Don’ts’ apply to your friends.

When was this Ayah revealed? Some of the scholars say that this was revealed as Sad Ibn Abi Waqqas, one of the ten heaven bound companions {may Allah be pleased with him} was among 6 or 7 of the poor companions.

Sad was not very poor but he was not very rich as well and in his company he had Abdullah Ibn Mas’ud, a shepherd, Sohaib Ar Roomi all the slaves and poor companions of the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam. There was a meeting of the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam with the dignitaries and leaders of the Pagans tribes. When they saw the poor companions along with the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, they demanded them to be taken out of the place. They said, “Take these slaves and poor people out so that we can have the meeting, we can’t be around people of low status!” And the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam felt: let me measure the pros and cons, these are my companions and I know that they love me and they love Islam and nothing will happen to them. But if I manage to guide these Pagans to Islam their tribes will follow suit as well. So Allah told him: Do not, even if you think that the pros and cons of listening to the Pagans and getting the poor companions out are far greater, stick with those who remember Allah Azza wa Jall in the morning and evening for His sake and don’t overlook them.

A lot of the times this is what happens in schools; who did you choose as your friends when you were in middle or high school? ‘The handsome guy, the strongest one or the funniest guy’ When you were in university who was the friend that you wanted to hang out with? A muttawa? No, you loved to hang out with the one who had the fanciest car, the guy who was most popular with girls, the guy with a crazy sense of humor {jokes only from the belt down, nothing from the belt up; who listens to decent jokes?!} So who do you want to be associated with? See this the way of forcing yourself to be hanging on around good people. Now look at Abu Bakr {may Allah be pleased with him} because of his goodness 6 of the 10 heaven bound companions embraced Islam at his {Abu Bakr} hands.

Imagine every good deed they did in their lives is in Abu Bakr’s scale on The Day Of Judgment and that is why some scholars say: whenever you want to teach Qur’an to your 5 or 6 year old or to teach him how to pray, make sure that you are the one who teaches him how to recite Surat Al Fatiha. Why? Because from the minute he memorizes and recites the Fatiha until he dies, every time the reward goes in your scale of good deeds. So don’t let this great reward be for the school teacher, you teach your kids these acts of worship yourself. Whenever Umar bin Khattab {may Allah be pleased with him} used to see Abu Bakr and Bilal, he used to say, “Abu Bakr is our master, he’s our superior who freed our superior! {Bilal Ibn Abi Rabah, the Abasynian slave}” Look at Umar bin khattab, the original Arab who talks about an Abasynian slave to be a sayed {master}. And who did Abu Bakr free among the slaves? When you start to count, you will not end because Abu Bakr devoted all of his wealth for freeing slaves and for supporting the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam.

Now look at Abu Jahl at the other hand: Abu Jahl was the one who prevented the uncle {Abu Talib} of the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam from accepting Islam on his dying bed. At the time of Abu Talib’s death, the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam came to him and said, “Say la ilaha illa Allah Oh my uncle, I will intercede for you on The Day Of Judgment with it.” And Abu Jahl was standing next to him on the other side of the bed and he said, “Abu Talib do you want to neglect the religion of your father Abdul Muttalib and your grandfather?” And Abu Talib was so confused at the end, Allah Azza wa Jall willed it and he chose to die as a Mushrik; because of Abu Jahl. Ya Akhi how many people will come to you and give you the good Nasihah of saying la ilaha illa Allah when you are dying and how many evil companions would say, “Yesterday I saw a movie, you are going to die if you don’t watch it!” Ya Akhi he is DYING now!! Subhan Allah; I am shocked by how people’s lives end. Isn’t it stupid for a Muslim country: when you visit someone who is on his dying bed in a hospital and you find this big TV screen with beautiful women dancing and singing and this is the last thing he sees before he parts this world! Please put some recitation of the Qur’an or la ilaha illa Allah instead look at what they put for the people who are in desperate need for treatment. Instead of asking for forgiveness from Allah and asking to cure him, this patient will have movies to choose from to pass his time.

The Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam tells us about the value of good companionship: Allah sends the angels and they roam the earth and they come to the gatherings where His name is being mentioned and they tell Allah Azza wa Jall, “We have seen your servants in this particular place and they were making Your Zikr.” So Allah Azza wa jall tells them, “I make you my witness that I have forgiven them.” So one angel says, “O Allah, there was this individual in that gathering who did not come for the lecture, he came because he wanted to meet a friend or he needed a loan or he wanted a job or he needed a recommendation, he didn’t come for the lecture, he didn’t come for the Zikr.” What does Allah Azza wa Jall, The Most Merciful, The Most Forgiving, {Wallahi if you know Allah you will love Him, Wallahi if you see what Allah does to you, you have no other choice but to love Him, to worship Him, to do whatever pleases Him, because you know He is the One who will take you to Paradise. This is a transition of life, our countdown has begun} what does Allah Azza wa Jall say? Allah Subhanu wa ta’aala says, “They were all in the gathering and none of them will be excluded from My forgiveness.” As long as they are all in the gathering, regardless of their intention, none of them will be excluded from His forgiveness. So even the one who came for a loan or for a recommendation, Allah would forgive his sins as well. So the good companionship is extremely essential. Who are the people that you care about the most? ‘It is your wife and your children.

’ Allah says, “O you who believe protect your families and yourselves from the fire of hell and the fuel of this hellfire is stones and people!” So you should protect your wife and you should scrutinize who she goes out with and also do this with your children. Some might say, “I would like to give my children the freedom of choice.” This is good but if you know that he made the wrong decision, what would you do? You definitely have to correct him otherwise if you say, “No let him live with the consequences and he will learn from that,” then this is not the right thing to do. When our children are young it is easy for us to guide them but when they grow older it becomes difficult because they have their own choices now. That is why it is essential for us to provide for our children a safe heaven, a good Islamic environment.

So if I take my son from a very early age to Tahfeez Al Qur’an for 5 or 6 days a week for 2 to 3 hours and also to play football at a good place where there is a good Islamic environment and the instructors are always there watching their back. There will be a bad apple here or there but eventually they will affect that bad guy in a good way and they will correct him. And if our sons and daughters grow in such an environment they can select good friends because they have a good environment. But if our kids grow in an environment that you and I know how corrupt it is then it’s not good. Who is your son’s best friend; his mobile phone? Yes it is true sometimes. My children spend more time with their blackberry than with me. But I believe our kid’s best friend is the television because they spend so much time in front of it and it’s a one way communication. When your kids see something on Spacetoon or MBC3 or Cartoon Network or any of these corrupt cartoon stations and try to act like them do you say, “ No don’t do this, don’t do these Haram antics like those cartoon characters!” They won’t listen to you because they just take in like a sponge and imitates the same and this is the worst way of companionship because TV sets, internet, mobiles these are sources of evil if abused and the majority uses them for evil purposes {may Allah Azza wa jall have mercy on us all} So you, as a parent have to take care of your child and try to give him a good environment. Some parents bring their children to the righteous people like the Imaams and good teachers and say, “Take my child and here’s money, give him a good environment.” And if you ask him, “Why are you doing this Akhi?” He says, “Because I lost my first child, he’s all the time out of the house, he smokes, he does bad things, he comes back home very late in the night. Therefore I don’t want to lose my second child.

Take this money and give him a good environment.” You don’t need money! There are places where you can safely take your children and give them good companionship. So in a nut shell: scrutinize your contact list and see who is a good companion and who is an evil one and delete the evil ones. Don’t think that In Sha Allah you will be able to change them. I remember this incident about this Da’ee, he’s an Imaam and he told me that, “When I was in my teens I used to hang around with a close group of friends, we were like 6 or 7, and we used to stay from Asr until close to 9 or 10pm and we used to play cards, no gambling but just killing time {as if the poor time did a crime and it needs to be exceuted} Whenever Maghrib prayer was due I used to stop and I used to say, “Let us go and pray Maghrib in the Masjid.” Did his companions say, “Yallah Bismillah?” Of course not; they would say, “Masha Allah, Tabarak Allah, grand Mufti make dua’a for us!” And this friend of mine says, “I used to look down in shame and used to go pray and come back. And when I came back and they would still be playing and they hadn’t prayed and they would sarcastically say, “So did you see the angels, did Allah forgive you?

Ya Sheikh ask Allah for our forgiveness!” He continued, “They did this twice or thrice and the fourth time I stopped, not going to them but I stopped praying!!” He, this Imaam stopped praying!! I couldn’t believe my ears. This is what is known as peer pressure and the peer pressure is the most dangerous thing in life. You do stuff so that you don’t feel out of place, you want to blend in and a sister takes off her Hijab because she doesn’t want to be perceived as a freak, she wants to be like everyone else. The brother may compromise his religion, he would not pray so that his friends would think he’s cool as well but if he chooses to pray his friends might say he’s a retard and so backward from the stone age. So you have to be careful about selecting your friends because this affects your heart.

Anas Ibn Malik’s {may Allah be pleased with him} mother Umm Sulaim was a very wise woman. When her son Anas was 10 years old Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam came to Madinah, a stranger, she doesn’t know him but she believes in Islam and believes in the messenger of Allah. Umm Sulaim brought her son to the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam and said, “He’s my son, a young learned boy, take him, he will serve you without pay and he will do whatever you want him to do.” And who among us now would do this? Who amongst us can send his own flesh and blood to such a noble cause? It is difficult but what was the result? Look at what happened to Anas? Subhan Allah for 10 years he accompanied the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam; what knowledge he gained? She could have just asked the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam to supplicate for her son, it would have been enough. A few years later she said, “O Prophet of Allah, please pray for your servant Anas.

” Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam raised his hands and prayed: O Allah, prolong his life, increase his wealth and make his offspring a lot and forgive his sins.” Anas says, “Look at me now, I am 100 years old, every farm in Madinah produces once a year whereas my farms produce twice a year and I have buried over a 100 of my own offspring {children and grandchildren} and I am hoping that Allah Azza wa Jall answers the fourth supplication of the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam for me when he said that, ‘May Allah forgive Anas.’” Isn’t this the wisest woman on earth who sends her child to such a noble place? So this is the value of companionship. Anas Ibn Malik {may Allah be pleased with him} said that, “We were with the Prophet salla Allahu alahi wa sallam and a man came and said, ‘O Prophet of Allah when is The Day Of Judgment? {Who doesn’t want to know when The Day Of Judgment is? Why do we care about it so much? People spend so much time thinking about it: when will it take place, is so and so the sign of the approaching of The Day Of Judgment? When you tell them, “Your day of judgment is when you die. So don’t care about this life.

” They would say, “No, no I would like to know when Dajjal is going to come!” Why, do you want to pick him up from the airport? They would always be worried about the Dajjal. Ya Akhi, recite the beginning of Surat Al Kahaf and the end of Surat Al Kahaf and Alhamdullilah you will not be trialed by his tribulation or his Fitnah. So the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam said to that man who asked him about The Day Of Judgment, “What have you prepared for that day?” I can answer you but it is better that I would give you another thing to think about. So if you are asking about the Hour and you want to know the time if I tell it is going to occur next year or 10 years or 100 years from now, this will now benefit you, what would benefit you is: What did you prepare for it. If someone comes and tells you that tomorrow is the Day of Judgment, what will you do? Will you say, “I have to watch the last episode of ‘Friends’!” Of course not; you will start praying, you will start paying off your loans; you will ask people’s forgiveness whom you had wronged because you know it is over. But when you know it is not tomorrow then you will be more relaxed and start doing your usual things Subhan Allah! The Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam said, “What did you do in preparation for the Day Of Judgment?” And the man said, “Nothing!” Now what did we prepare for The Day Of Judgment? A BIG NOTHING; “I prayed Sunnat Al Maghrib.” Masha Allah!

And how many Fajr did you skip? “Oh don’t even count!” So the man said, “Nothing, I did not prepare anything except I love Allah and I love the Prophet salla Allahu alahi wa sallam!” And the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam said, “You will be with those who love on The Day Of Judgment!” Anas said, “By Allah, all the companions were not happier by anything more than what they had just heard.” And Anas says, “And by Allah I love Allah Azza wa Jall and I love the Prophet salla Allahu alahi wa sallam and I love Abu Bakr and I love Omar and I pray to Allah that he makes me be with them.” And I also pray that Allah makes all of us, you and I be with them on The Day Of Judgment. Aameen!

 

The quotations from the Qur’an and Hadiths in this lecture are not the exact words but a rough translation from the original ones.

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