Companionship

#Suhbah #Journey #Deen #Dunya

It is mentioned that companionship with an intelligent person increases one’s religious and worldly life, whilst companionship with a foolish person is a decrease in one’s religious and worldly life and will be a source of regret at death as well as a loss in the next life.

Proofs for the importance of companionship from the Noble Quran:

1. “O believers! Fear Allah and be with the truthful (Sādiqīn).”[1]

Who are the Sādiqīn? They are the chosen servants of Allāh, whom He mentions in the following verses:

2. “Among Muslims are men who have made true the covenant they had made with Allah, then there are some of them who have fulfilled their vows and some who are still waiting and they have not changed in the least.”[2]

3. “And keep yourself familiar to those who call upon their Lord in the morning and evening seeking His pleasure and your eyes should not see others leaving them; would you like the adornment of the life of this world? And obey not him whose heart We have made neglectful of Our remembrance and who followed his own desire and whose affair exceeded the limit.”[3]

This verse is addressing the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in which he is being guided to teach his ummah and show them the way to conduct themselves.

4. “…and follow him who turned to Me repentantly, then to Me is your return…”[4]

5. “And on that day the wrongdoer will bite his hands saying 'O' would that I had taken a way with the Messenger. Ah 'Woe to me', would that anyhow I had not taken such a one for a friend. Undoubtedly, he led me astray from the admonition after it had come to me. And the devil (Satan) leaves man deserted.”[5]

6. “Warm friends shall be foes to one another on that day except the God-fearing.”[6]

Proofs for the importance of companionship from the noble sunnah:

1. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “The example of the pious companion and the evil companion is but like the one who carries perfume and the blacksmith. As for the carrier of perfume then he will either grant you some of his fragrance or you can buy it from him, or at the very least, you will find a beautiful fragrance emanating from where he is. As for the blacksmith, then he will either burn your clothes or you will find from him a putrid smell.[7]

2. Hanzala, may Allāh be pleased with him, reports: “I once met Abu Bakr Al Siddīq, may Allāh be pleased with him, and he said, "How are you O Hanzala?" I said, "Hanzala has become a munafiq." He said, "SubhanAllāh, what are you saying?" I said, "when we are with the Messenger of Allah he reminds us of paradise and the fire as though we are seeing them, and then when we leave from his presence we go back to our wives, our children and our properties and we forget most things." Abu Bakr said, "By Allāh I find the same of that which you find." So Abu Bakr and I went to the Messenger of Allāh until we came upon him and I said, "Hanzala has become a hypocrite, O Messenger of Allāh," and the Messenger of Allāh said, "And why is that?" I said, "O Messenger of Allāh when we are with you, you remind us of the fire and paradise and it is as though we are looking at them. When we leave you we go back to our wives and our belongings and we forget most of this." The Messenger of Allāh said, "By the One who has power over my soul, had you remained upon (the state) that which you found with me and in remembrance (of Allah), the angels would have shook your hands and they would have laid cushions in your paths and where you walk. But O Hanzala one step at a time. (And he said this three times)."[8]

3. On the authority of Abu Hurayrah, may Allāh be pleased with him, who said, “The Messenger of Allāh said: ‘A person is on the religion of his intimate friend so then let everyone of you look to whom he accompanies and is close with.’"[9]

4. On the authority of Abu Dharr, may Allāh be pleased with him, who said, “O Messenger of Allāh, a person loves a people but he is not able to do the actions like they do.”

He replied, ‘You, O Abu Dharr, are with the one whom you love.’ I said, ‘I surely love Allāh and His Messenger.’ He said, ‘Then surely you are with the one whom you love.’ Abu Dharr then repeated his sentence and the Prophet repeated what he had said.”[10]

5. On the authority of Umar ibn Al-Khattab, may Allāh be pleased with him, who said that the Messenger of Allāh said, “Surely from the slaves of Allāh are people, who are not prophets nor are they martyrs, but they are benignly envied by the prophets and martyrs on the day of judgement due to their station with Allāh.” The People said, “O Messenger of Allāh, tell us who they are.” He said, “They are a people that have loved each other by a spirit from Allāh, not due to kinship between them nor due to wealth that they exchange. By Allāh, surely their faces are full of light and they are upon pulpits of light. They will not fear when people fear and they will not grieve when people grieve. And then he recited the ayah, "Lo! No doubt, there is no fear nor any grief upon the friends of Allah.”[11] [12]

6. On the authority of Abdullah ibn Abbas, may Allāh be pleased with him and his father, it was said, “O Messenger of Allāh, who is the best of people to sit with? He said, ‘Whoever reminds (you) of Allāh when you see him, who increases your knowledge with his speech and who reminds you of the next life with his actions.’”[13]

7. On the authority of Anas, may Allāh be pleased with him, who said that the Messenger of Allāh said, “Three things, whoever possesses them will find the sweetness of imān: Allāh and His Messenger are beloved to him more than anything else, he loves a person and only loves him for the sake of Allāh and he despises going back to kufr, after Allāh saved him from it, just as one of you despises being thrown in to the fire.” (translation of this hadith does not seem grammatically correct)[14]

8. (no mention of narrator) From the seven that Allāh will shade on the day that there is no shade except the shade of Allāh are two men who loved each other for the sake of Allāh, they gathered upon that and they dispersed on that.[15]

9. On the authority of Abu Sa’eed Al Khudri, may Allāh be pleased with him, from the Prophet who said, “Do not accompany anyone except a believer and not let anyone eat your food except a pious person (taqīy).”[16]

10. On the authority of Anas, may Allāh be pleased him, that once a bedouin arab said to the Prophet “When is the hour? The Messenger of Allāh replied, ‘What have you prepared for it?’ He said, ‘Love of Allāh and His Messenger.’ The Messenger of Allāh replied, ‘You are with the one whom you love.’”[17]

The sayings of the scholars regarding the importance of companionship:

1. Al-Imam Al-Sayyid Ahmad Al-Rifai, may Allāh be pleased with him, said, “The remembrance of Allāh becomes firm in the heart due to the blessing of companionship. As the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said that a person is on the religion of his intimate friend.”

He also says, "What is the benefit of knowledge without action? What is the benefit of action without ikhlās (sincerity)? Ikhlās is at the end of the path. Who will take you there? Who will enable you to act rightly? Who will treat you from the disease of showing off? Who will keep you safe on the straight path after ikhlās?

Allāh says: O people! Ask the people of remembrance (dhikr) if you know not.[18]

2. Shaykh Ali Al-Khawwās, may Allāh be pleased with him, said, “Do not traverse a path you are not aware of without a guide lest you fall in to its abysses. Because the spiritual guide helps the wayfarer travel to the shore of security, helps him to avoid mistakes and the dangers of the path, and that is because the spiritual guide has previously traversed this path. He also benefited from a spiritual guide and came to know the hidden and obscure elements on the journey. Through his experience, he is acquainted with factors unknown to others. So, he must remain in his company until he delivers him to the goal which he is after and then allows him to carry on with his journey and become a spiritual guide himself to guide others. (tense change mid quote)

And this is what Ibn Al-Banna said in his poem:

“And the people of this path are but wayfarers to the presence of The Real!

They journey so they needed in their pursuit a guide,

Who possesses insight when en route & resting,

Has traversed the path and returned to inform the people of what he attained.”

3. Shaykh Abu Madyan, may Allāh be pleased with him, says, “Whoever does not take his etiquettes from people of etiquette, he will corrupt those who follow him.”

4. Al-Imam Abu Hāmid al-Ghazali, may Allāh be pleased with him, says in Al-Ihya:

“A disciple requires a Shaykh whom he has to follow and imitate in order to be guided, through his example, to the right path. This is because the path of this religion is not always clear and Satan attempts to misguide people. So whoever does not have a Shaykh to guide him and lead him on this path, then satan will come and (try to) take him away from this path to other paths without a doubt.

Whoever journeys upon the paths of a dessert that is vast without a mount and without help, then he has put his life at risk and will end up destroying himself. Therefore, the one who is independent and isolated is like a tree that grows by itself then soon after dries up. If it grows further for a while and produces leaves it does reach the stage of bearing fruits. The stronghold of a disciple is his Shaykh so let him hold to him firmly.”

5. Al-Imam ibn 'Ata’illah Al-Sikandari, may Allāh be pleased with him, says:

“Whoever has determination to seek guidance and to traverse the path to Allāh, he should search for a Shaykh who is from the people of realisation who has traversed the path before, has abandoned his whims and is firm in this path of serving his Lord. If he finds him then let him follow his command and desist from what he prohibits.”

He also says, “Do not accompany someone whose state does not awaken you, nor his speech guide you, to Allāh.”

6. Al-Imam Abdul-Wahhāb Al-Sha'rani, may Allāh be pleased with him, says, “We have taken a covenant from the Messenger of Allāh that we will be consistent in two units of prayer after every wudhu, observing the condition that we will not talk to ourselves, in those two units, about anything of the world nor anything that is not established as part of the prayer.

A disciple who wants to achieve this action, requires a Shaykh who will take him through a journey to cut off from him these distracting thoughts, which distract from the communication of Allāh.”

7. Shaykh Muhammad Al-Hashimi, may Allah be pleased with him, says, "O my brother, traverse the path of spirituality to Allāh at the hands of a living shaykh who is a knower of Allāh, truthful, sincere in his advice and one who possesses sound knowledge, true taste, a high aspiration, and a good spiritual state.

He has traversed the path at the hands of spiritual guides and taken his adab from those who possess it. He is aware of (what lies on) the paths to protect you from the places of destruction and to guide you to collect your heart upon Allāh, to teach you to flee from anything besides Allāh (to Allah) and to be along your side on this path until you reach Him;

the one who will show you the vices of yourself and allow you to realise the blessings of Allāh upon you. If you know him then you will love him and if you love him, you will struggle regarding that which he directs you to and if you struggle then you will be guided upon this path and you will be chosen for the presence of Allāh.

Allah says, “Those who struggled for Our sake, We will guide them to Our paths.”[19]

Therefore, the companionship of a Shaykh and following him is wajib (necessary) and the root of it comes from His saying:

“And follow the path of the one who turns to Me repentantly.”[20]

And His saying: “O believers! Fear Allāh and be with the truthful (Sādiqīn).”[21]

8. Imam Fakhr Al-Deen Al-Razi, may Allāh be pleased with him, in his tafsir, Mafatīh al Ghayb, under the tafsir of the verse ‘Guide us on the straight path[22]’ in Surah Al-Fatiha, says:

“Allāh did not restrict Himself by saying this. Rather, He continued by saying, 'The path of those whom You have favoured' and this indicates that the disciple has no path to reaching Him or the stations of guidance or unveiling except if he follows a Shaykh who guides him to this path and helps him avoid mistakes and be misguided. This is because deficiency is the common element found in most of creation and the intellects are not able to distinguish truth from falsehood without going wrong. There must be somebody who is complete (in his spiritual state) followed by someone who is deficient, until his intellect becomes strong enough by the light of the complete intellect, and at that point he will reach the heights of happiness and perfection.”

9. Imam ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah, may Allāh be pleased with him, in his book Al Wābil al-Sayyib minal-Kalimi-t-tayyib says:

“If a slave wants to follow somebody then he should look at whether the person is from the people of remembrance or from the people of heedlessness? Is the person commanded by his whim or by the revelation? If he is commanded by his whim and he is from the people of heedlessness then his affair is scattered. So it is befitting that a person look at his Shaykh or the person he is going to take as an example and if he finds him as such then he should stay away from him. However, if he finds him to be someone who remembers Allāh, follows the sunnah, his affair is in order, and he is firm in his affair, then he should hold fast to him.”

10. Al-Imam Al-Hafiz Abdullah ibn Abi Jamrah Al-Azdi, may Allāh be pleased with him, in Bahjat-un-Nufoos, comments on the following hadith:

“A man came and sought the permission of the Prophet to go on jihad. The Prophet asked, ‘Are you parents alive?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ The Prophet said, ‘Then regarding them both make your struggle.”[23]

“In this hadith there is a proof that one should embark upon the journey to Allāh and struggle to progress. The sunnah shows that it should be at the hands of a knower of Allāh who will guide the seeker to what is best for him. We see that when this companion wanted to go out to jihad, he did not act upon his own opinion. Rather, he sought the counsel of someone more knowledgeable and aware than him, and he was guided to looking after his parents.

11. Al-Imam Abdul-Wahid ibn 'Āshir, may Allāh be pleased with him, in his famous poem al-Murshid al-Mu'een, says:

And he accompanies a shaykh who is aware of the pathways,

He protects him in his path from the destructions.

He reminds of Allāh when he is seen,

And he connects the slave to his Lord.

He reckons the souls for every breath,

And he inspects the thoughts with a perfect scale.

He preserves the obligation which is the capital,

And the supererogatory, the profit by which he advances.

And he does plentiful dhikr with clarity of heart,

And in all that he seeks the aid of his Lord.

He struggles against himself for the sake of the Lord of the Worlds,

And he embellishes himself with the stations of certainty.

He becomes, through that, a knower of Him,

Free! While others are removed from his heart.

He is loved by God and chosen by Him,

For the presence of the Holy, and brought near.

In his commentary on this poem called Al Nur Al Mubeen Ala Murshid al Mu'een, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Yusuf (known as Al-Kafi), may Allāh be pleased with him, says, “Surely from the results of accompanying a Shaykh is what occurs for the disciple of remembering Allāh due to what the Shaykh possesses of reverence, and what Allāh has put in him of splendour.”

We have a narration from Anas, may Allāh be pleased with him, which says: “The best of you are those by whom Allāh is mentioned when they are seen.”[24]

And from the fruits of accompanying a Shaykh is that he will allow the servant to reach his Lord by what he exposes for him of the blemishes of his self and the advice he gives of fleeing from others to Allāh. He doesn't see in himself or in the creation any benefit or harm and thus he does not lean towards the creation for help or protection. Rather he sees everything occurring and happening, all movements and stillness from Allah, and this is the meaning of reaching Allāh.

The benefit of the Shaykh for the disciple is to bring forth his blemishes, his faults, as well as what prevents him and cuts him off from Allāh. He enables him to see that and he provides for him the remedy. This is not carried out except by a sincere and truthful disciple, who hands over the control of his self to his Shaykh and adheres to his guidance, nor hides anything from him. If he hides anything from his Shaykh then he will not benefit from his company at all.”

(Mentioned in al-Nur al-Mubeen ‘ala al-Murshid al-Mu'een.)

13. Al-Imam Ahmad Al-Zarruq, may Allāh be pleased with him, says, “Taking knowledge and action from the Shuyūkh is the best way rather than taking it from other than them. Allāh says, “Nay there are signs in the breasts of those who have been given knowledge.”[25]

Therefore there needs to be Shuyūkh, especially because the Sahaba took from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and he took from Jibrīl, upon him be peace, and he followed his guidance to be a slave prophet.

The followers took from the companions of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, so for every follower there was someone they took from; Ibn Sirin, Ibn Al-Musayyab & A'raj took from Abu Hurayrah. Tawūs, Wahb ibn Munabih & Mujahid took from ibn Abbas and other than him, may Allāh be pleased with them all.

As for knowledge and action, then taking it is clear as has been mentioned. As for benefiting from the aspiration and the inner state of others then Anas, may Allāh be pleased with him, indicated this when he said: 'The dust had not settled (from our hands) after burying the Messenger of Allāh and we had denied our hearts.'[26]

It becomes clear that seeing a noble personality has benefit for those around him in their hearts. This is due to that person being firm in a (spiritual) station; inevitably that transfers to those around him. For this reason, we have been commanded in many ahadith and in the Qur’an to accompany the pious and to avoid the company of the transgressors.”

Conclusion:

It is only natural for a person to take on the characteristics of those whom he accompanies, and how quick a person is to follow the direction of the one whom he accompanies and for the traits and characteristics of one companion to be transferred over to the another. (The preceding sentence could be phrased better.)

Diseases are transferred through viruses and infections; similarly characteristics transferring from one person to another can be infectious. It could so happen that somebody of good characteristic and morals has an effect on many people around him and similarly it could be that somebody of evil characteristics can affect those around him as we see in our everyday lives. Hence, we must strive to be in the company of those who are good, pious, and guide to Allah. This is encompassed in the saying: 'Whoever treats people and does not wrong them, speaks to them and does not lie to them and promises them and does not break his promise then he is the one whose virtue is complete, is upright and it is necessary to take him as a brother.”

Glossary

Adab good manners

Dhikr remembrance (of Allāh)

Hadith narrations relating to sayings, actions or states of the Prophet, peace and

blessings be upon him. pl. ahadith

Ikhlās sincerity

Imān faith

Kufr disbelief

Munafiq hypocrite

Sādiqīn truthful servants of Allāh

SubhanAllāh a statement of exclamation, meaning ‘glory be to Allāh’

Sunnah actions, words and states of the Messenger of Allāh, peace and blessings be upon

him

Tafsir Qur’anic exegesis

Taqīy pious person

Wajib necessary

[1] Qur’an (Al-Tawbah: 119)

[2] Qur’an (Al-Ahzab: 23)

[3] Qur’an (Al-Kahf: 28)

[4] Qur’an (Al- Luqman: 15)

[5] Quran (Al-Furqan: 27-29)

[6] Qur’an (Az-Zukhruf: 67)

[7] Al-Bukhari & Muslim

[8] Muslim in his Sahih (#2750)

[9] Abu Dawud in his Sunan (#4883)

[10] Abu Dawud in his Sunan (#5126)

[11] Qur’an (Al-Yunus: 62)

[12] Narrated by Abu Dawud, ibn Hibban, Imam Ahmad and Hākim in his mustadrak who said it is sound and Imam Dhahabi agreed with him

[13] Abu Ya’ala in Majma’ Al-Zawa’id (it is sound) (insert number)

[14] Al-Bukhari in His Sahih, Muslim in his Sahih (insert number)

[15] Al-Bukhari in his Sahih, Muslim in his Sahih (insert number)

[16] Narrated by Imam Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud and ibn Hibban in his Sahih

[17] Narrated by Al-Bukhari in his Sahih, Muslim in his Sahih (insert number)

[18] Qur’an (An-Nahl: 43)

[19] Qur’an (Al-Ankaboot: 69)

[20] Qur’an (Al-Luqman: 15)

[21] Qur’an (At-Tawbah: 119)

[22] Qur’an (Al-Fatihah: 5)

[23] Al-Bukhari

[24] Narrated by Abu Ya'ala with a slightly different wording, Ibn al Mubarak in his Zuhd and Imam Tabarani

[25] Qur’an (Al-Ankaboot: 49).

[26] Mentioned by ibn Majah