Friends stand by each other in joy and sorrow, give advice and help with daily tasks, but not every friendship is good for a person. In a piece published by Desh Rupantor, Muntasir Islam Muaz reminds readers that a friendship that brings joy in this world can turn into regret and enmity in the next.
His starting point is verse 67 of Surah Az-Zukhruf: "Friends on that Day will be enemies to one another, except the righteous." People form friendships for many reasons, the writer says: for wealth, for self-interest, and sometimes to help each other in sin and wrongdoing. If a relationship rests on disobedience to Allah, it will bring no good in the hereafter.
Those who encouraged each other to sin, helped each other break Allah's commands and made wrongdoing seem normal will blame one another when the consequences of their deeds appear, he writes. No one will be able to save anyone, and the relationship itself will become the cause of their misfortune.
The friendship of the God-fearing is the exception. People who love each other for Allah's sake, cooperate in good deeds and urge one another away from wrong build their bond on faith and taqwa rather than personal gain, and in the writer's words the good of such a friendship does not end when this life does.
So when choosing a friend, he argues, behaviour, popularity or worldly success are not enough; the question is whether the friend's company brings you closer to Allah. A true friend corrects you when you err, stands by you in hardship and encourages you to do good.
Photo: Unknown, Abbasid period / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Desh Rupantor
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