The Importance of Friendship

The Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) said: "Whenever you see one of the gardens of Paradise open before you, benefit from it".
The people asked: "O Prophet of Allah! Where is the garden of paradise?"
The Holy Prophet (S.A.W.), replied: "I mean association with the believers and those who have faith in their Lord" (Biharul Anwar, Vol.XV, p.51)

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The Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) says: "A good friend is better than solitude, but solitude is better than mingling with bad people" (Biharul Anwar, Vol.XV, p.52)

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"The most lucky person is he who associates with noble-minded people" (Biharul Anwar, Vol.XV, p.51)

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"One always absorbs the ways of his friend" (Safinatul Bihar, Vol.I, p.168)

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The Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) defines a good friend in these words: "He is the one whose very sight makes you remember Allah, whose conversation increases your knowledge and whose deeds remind you of the world in the Hereafter" (Biharul Anwar, Vol.XV, p.51)

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Imam Ja'far Sadiq (A.S.) says: "My most beloved friend is he who points out my faults to me" (Wasa'ilush Shi'ah, Vol.II, p.205)

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"When a person finds his friend in trouble and can prevent him from it but does not do so he commits a breach of trust with him" (Biharul Anwar, Vol.XV, p.52)

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Imam Ja'far Sadiq (A.S.) says: "The enemy (Satan) overpowers a person whose heart does not give him good counsel and whose soul does not prevent him to commit sins and above all who also does not possess a pious friend" (Biharul Anwar, Vol.XV, p.51)

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The Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) says: "The wisest person is he who shuns the company of ignorant people" (Biharul Anwar, Vol.XV, p.52)

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Imam Ali (A.S.) says: "The company of bad people becomes the cause of low esteem of the good people" (Biharul Anwar, Vol.XV, p.52)

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"A bad companion is one who justifies the sins committed against Allah before the eyes of the people" (Biharul Anwar, Vol.XV, p.52)

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Imam Muhammad Baqir (A.S.) says: "Do not associate with a fool, a miser, a liar and a timid person, because a foolish friend, while thinking that he is doing you good, will cause you harm and a miserly friend will take from you but will not give you anything. In time of need, the timid friend will run away from you as well as from his own parents and a liar who tells too many lies says that which cannot be believed and it is not, therefore, possible to benefit from his ideas and thoughts"
(Biharul Anwar, Vol.XV, p.52)

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The Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) has called a bad friend 'a dead body' and he says: "Association with the dead makes the human heart die and 'the dead' are persons who have lost their faith and are ignorant of the Laws of religion" (Biharul Anwar, Vol.XV, p.52)

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Imam Ja'far Sadiq (A.S.) says: "Test your friends in respect of two qualities and in case they possess these two, associate with them otherwise shun their company: Offering obligatory prayers at their proper time and doing good to their brother-in-faith in weal as well as in woe" (Wasa'ilush Shi'ah, Vol.II, p.220)