Choose Your Friends Wisely

Bismillah

 وَيَوْمَ يَعَضُّ ٱلظَّالِمُ عَلَىٰ يَدَيْهِ يَقُولُ يَٰلَيْتَنِى ٱتَّخَذْتُ مَعَ ٱلرَّسُولِ سَبِيلًا ‎﴿٢٧﴾‏ يَٰوَيْلَتَىٰ لَيْتَنِى لَمْ أَتَّخِذْ فُلَانًا خَلِيلًا ‎﴿٢٨﴾‏ لَّقَدْ أَضَلَّنِى عَنِ ٱلذِّكْرِ بَعْدَ إِذْ جَآءَنِى ۗ وَكَانَ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ لِلْإِنسَٰنِ خَذُولًا ‎﴿٢٩﴾‏ وَقَالَ ٱلرَّسُولُ يَٰرَبِّ إِنَّ قَوْمِى ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ هَٰذَا ٱلْقُرْءَانَ مَهْجُورًا ‎﴿٣٠﴾‏ 

And the Day the wrongdoer will bite on his hands [in regret] he will say, "Oh, I wish I had taken with the Messenger a way. (27) Oh, woe to me! I wish I had not taken that one as a friend. (28) He led me away from the remembrance after it had come to me. And ever is Satan, to man, a deserter." (29) And the Messenger has said, "O my Lord, indeed my people have taken this Qur'an as [a thing] abandoned." (30) (Surah al Furqan 25:27-30)

On the Day of Judgment, the disbelievers will say in regret, "O, I wish I had taken the path with the Messenger." "I wish I had not taken that one as a friend."

You may have that kind of friends -- the friends that make you do the things that the Messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam would never do; the friends that make you talk the way the Messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam would never approve of. 

When you hang out with bad friends, you become bad people and you will not be able to blame your friends in the Day of Judgment. 

Those friends are useless. You won't even remember their names on that Day -- eventhough you check their FB everyday, message them everyday, have fun together, and you care about them in this life. On that Day, because you didn't care about the Messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam, in this life, your friends are just going to be "so-and-so" ("fulan"). 

We have to make a really good assessment of who our friends are and what kind of lifestyle they are leading us down. What this means, we have to make a solid effort to  find the company of people that make us more respectable, make our manners better, make our speech better, make us more courteous, and make us patient. 

If you have elders in your family, spend more time with them. You will learn patience. If you have an ego or pride problem, spend a lot of time with your parents. It can humble you down and build your character because parents will put you down if you deserve it.

There is a reason Allah told us to be patient with our parents. There is no specific ayah to be patient with everybody else. Why? Because parents can say things that can test our patience. Allah knows that. That's why He told you to do it. It builds your character.

May Allah help us choose our friends and grant us righteous companions. Aameen.