Friend or Foe?

Have you ever thought of the term ‘friendship’ and what exactly it denotes? Have you ever taken a look at the people that surround you on a daily basis and asked yourself are these my friends?

I have, and guess what? They weren’t my friends. Till this day I’m not really sure what they were but they existed and they were good people. But I want to make one thing clear; good people do not always equate to good friends like were lead on to believe and the beauty in life lies in knowing which hands to shake, and which hands to hold.

There was a time in my life where I was very well known and had a lot of friends; fortunately that time is no longer. When I pass by people on the street and they greet me with, ‘’omg you’ve been MIA where were you’’ that is the greatest compliment I could ever be given. The truth is that I’ve witnessed a lot of things and I never understood the whole concept of being friends for the sake of Allah, because the ones that I did have couldn’t be trusted or weren’t really a friend to me when it mattered most. I overlooked flaws and mistakes times and times again but came to a conclusion that we were friends, yes, but not for the sake of Allah.

I longed for a friend that I would come to and depart from for the sake of Allah. By Allah I had no relationship like this, solely built on the sake of Allah, because every friendship would lead us to eventually rarely bringing up Allah. I would make a friend and we would begin only involved in khayr together and spreading khayr together but we would eventually get into the comfort zone, which I call the dunya over deen zone. We would no longer study and review with each other, rather we would only laugh and enjoy with each other. And all of those friendships had something in common; they eventually ended.

I learned what being friends for the sake of Allah was from a sister in Kitchener. In which between her and me was only Allah. We met in the way of Allah and departed in the way of Allah. We studied together and cried together. It was beautiful and I loved every bit of her. Due to Allah testing her I wasn’t able to see her for about 5 months, then finally one day I seen her randomly and jumped on her, almost immediately she began sobbing and at first I didn’t notice it but then it became very noticeable as it was loud now. So I asked her, ’’why are you crying?’’ and her reply is what will stick with me forever, she said, ‘’because I think of how we met and how we used to study together and it makes me sad in a happy way and I miss those days.’’ She then excused herself and went off in a corner to cry by herself. Right before then I had no idea what being friends for the sake of Allah was but she taught me a lesson I will value forever.

Your true friend is he who reminds you of Allah 24 hours of the day. Your true friend is he who rejoices upon seeing you due to your mutual love of Allah. Your true friend is he who you sat with in circles of knowledge and benefitted with. Your true friend is he who doesn’t allow you to slip up and is there for you like training wheels on a bicycle. Your true friend is he who worries about your akhira the same way he worries about his own. Your true friend is the student of knowledge. May Allah enable us to be such friends.

We ask Allah to make us of the righteous ones and give us companions that will take us away from His Wrath and lead us to His Pleasure and Paradise.