Islam Guidance

Good Friendship

Good Friendship:
Good friendship is not the matter which comes to you automatically. Rather, it comes through habituating the self and controlling its pleasures. That is because good friendship sometimes forces you to sacrifice your desires and appetites for your friend and to prefer him to yourself. For this reason, Abti Abd Allah, peace be on him, said:” Adjust yourself to good friendship to him whom you make friends with.”
As there are many methods to make good friendship, and as the person does not know which one is the best, al- Sâdiq, peace be on him, teaches us how to make good friendship with our friends. He said:” Make your manners good, prevent your tongue (from saying obscene words), suppress your anger, decrease your nonsense, plant your forgiveness, and be generous.”[1]
Moreover, he wants us to make good friendship as permanent slogan with our friends. He said:” Shi’a (followers) of the family of Mohammed, whoever does not control himself during his anger and does not treat his friend kindly is not one of us.”[2] There are many traditions like this.
When we make friends with someone and when we part from him for a certain time, al- Sâdiq, peace be on him, makes it incumbent on us to look for him to know his conditions. So, he said to al- Mufaddal b. ‘Amr when he came BACK from his travel: “Who accompanied you?” “A man of my brothers,” said al- Mufaddal” “What has he done,” asked al- Sadiq. “I have not known his place since I arrived,” said al- Mufaddal. “Do you not know that whoever accompanies a believer for forty steps, Allah will ask him about the believer on the Day of Judgment.”[3]
Notes: _______________________________________
1 al- Was’ ‘il, 8/42/2.
2 Ibid, 8/ 402/3.
3 Ibid, 8/403/8.
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Taken From : Imam Al-Sadiq By Shaykh Mohammed al-Husayn al-Muzaffar , Translator : Jasim al-Rasheed

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