Good Companionship

Good companionship – صحبة الأخيار

The people around you have a strong influence on you.

1- The Qur’an states:
وَكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّٰدِقِينَ
“And be WITH the truthful.” [9:119].
[This verse does NOT say: ‘BE TRUTHFUL’, it says: ‘Be WITH the Truthful…’. Being with them makes you like them.]

2- Similarly, the inhabitants of Hell (may Allah not make us among them) will blame their misguidance on their friends and they will say:
‏يَوَيْلَتَىٰ لَيْتَنِى لَمْ أَتَّخِذْ فُلَانًا خَلِيلًۭا ‎
“Woe to me! I wish I had not taken so and so as a friend.” [25:28].

3- The Prophet said:
مَثَلُ الْجَلِيسِ الصَّالِحِ وَالْجَلِيسِ السَّوْءِ كَمَثَلِ صَاحِبِ الْمِسْكِ، وَكِيرِ الْحَدَّادِ، لاَ يَعْدَمُكَ مِنْ صَاحِبِ الْمِسْكِ إِمَّا تَشْتَرِيهِ، أَوْ تَجِدُ رِيحَهُ، وَكِيرُ الْحَدَّادِ يُحْرِقُ بَدَنَكَ أَوْ ثَوْبَكَ أَوْ تَجِدُ مِنْهُ رِيحًا خَبِيثَةً
“The example of a good companion (who sits with you) in comparison with a bad one, is like that of the musk seller and the blacksmith’s bellows (or furnace); from the first you would either buy musk or enjoy its good smell while the bellows would either burn your clothes or your house, or you get a bad nasty smell thereof.”
[“Sahih Bukhari”, 2101].
https://sunnah.com/bukhari:2101

4- Imam Ibn Hibban said:
فكما أن صحبة الأخيار تورث الخير، كذلك صحبة الأشرار تورث الشر
“Just as friendship with good people begets goodness, so does befriending evil people beget evil.”
[“Rawdah al-Uqala”, 109].

5- ‘Uday bin Zayd, the 6th century poet said:
إِذَا كُنْتَ فِي قَوْمٍ فَصَاحِبْ خَيَارَهُمْ
وَلَا تَصْحَبِ الأَرْدَى فَتَرْدَى مَعَ الرَّدِي
عَنِ المَرءِ لاَ تَسْأَلْ وَسَلْ عَنْ قَرِينِهِ
فَكُلّ قَرِينٍ بالمُقَارِنِ يَقْتَدِي
“When you are among some people,
then accompany the best ones among them,
do not accompany the corrupt ones,
because you will get corrupted with the corrupted.
When you ask about a person,
don’t ask about him, but ask about his friends;
friends tend to imitate each other.”