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Friends may be that you had not seen for an entire year or year and a half. Friends may be that even passed away in this time of isolation, but you had this opportunity to really take a step back and to reassess in a time where people were moved from the public space to the private space, you reassess how much the public influence got to you and in what ways and how much you're able to generate or what you've been missing out on,

in your private spaces. And some how allow when we talk about friends, often, at least in my experience, the recent years, discussions about friends, usually are when you're talking to young people, talking to teenagers about friends, you're talking to kids about friends, the importance of good friends, avoiding bad friends, but one of the things that fascinates me is that when you look through the books of Tesquia, the books of spirituality, this is not an age discussion.

This is not an age-specific discussion, it's not a discussion that applies to one group of people, because the only thing that changes with age are the dynamics of friendships, but the idea of friendship is still very much there.

Where do we find that the Prophet Salallahu Alaihi Wasallam, who you can often derive by the way that he addressed the people, who he was speaking to, no, nor do we find the Prophet Salallahu Alaihi Wasallam,

that verily a person is on the religion of their friends, so one of you pay very close attention to who they take as a friend.

And by the way, if a person is on the religion of their friends, what then of their spouses? The idea of influence, and someone that you're going to spend a lot of time with, and unfortunately for many people they marry for reasons outside of these things,

and the deen fit in the character and everything else. If what makes you a pleasing person on the side of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is deen and holok, religion and character, and those are the two most fundamental things you look for in a spouse, that is because ultimately you want someone who's also going to rub off on you in regards to their religion and in regards to their character.

So a Khalil is someone who's a very close friend, and the ulama talk about this in multiple ways. They say the best relationship, the best relationship, is the one that's initiated fitha at Allah, is the one that's initiated in the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and it may be in fact that two people who have absolutely nothing else in common come together on the basis of their love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and they're passionate for the deen,

and that is the means by which not only they enter into jannah but by which they are envied by the prophets on the day of judgment, because the prophets lie to them said that those who love each other for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on the day of judgment have these minabir, of nur, these pulpits of light.

Everyone admires these pulpits of light, they're in the shade of Allah's throne. Why? Because friendship is precious, and it was initiated only upon their love for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, they came together on the basis of that love of Allah, they parted from one another on the basis of that love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The best friendship, it is the friendship that we find, Musa alaihi s-salam, speaking to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, asking Allah for Haroon alaihi s-salam. Haroon was already his brother, but he asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to appoint him to share the task with him.

I'll strengthen my resolve, we'll strengthen each other's resolve, because sometimes when you have a righteous companion, when you have a righteous friend, and your own resolve starts to wither, maybe you're not even recognizing it, that person pushes you and pushes you and pushes you.

So we'll remember you frequently together, we'll pray to you frequently together, we'll carry this amana, this trust of religion together, O Allah, this da'wa together.

So that is the most ideal relationship, and it's the beauty of the relationship of the Sahaba. What puts an Abu Bakr and an Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with them in the same room together?

What puts Umar and Bilal, may Allah be pleased with them in the same room together to become the best of friends? What puts these people in the same room together?

Except for the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and that pursuit of Allah's pleasure.

And so the best relationship is the one that's initiated for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and nourished with the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the sake of Allah.

The worst relationship is the one that's initiated in evil, right? And a bad relationship, and this is something that's very important, as Imam Al-Hazallahi Raghimullah points out, something that started in evil rarely can be rectified to good.

Started a relationship for the wrong reasons, it leads you to the disobedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that's rarely going to get better, right?

Those are the relationships that you just have to move on from. Then there's something very insightful that he says.

Most relationships that we have are either relationships that we didn't really choose, they're relationships of convenience or circumstance, so for example, you know, friends, close friends, someone at the same age, at some point, went to school with this person, we were here, we were there, communities came together, so they're relationships that were kind of forced upon us in a way, right?

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