Tell Me Who Your Friend Is
🎧 Listen to this chapter (2 min)
Welcome. Seven hundred years ago, in the city of Alexandria, lived a scholar whose short sayings are still memorised today. His name was Ibn Ata Allah.
In this little book, he does something unusual. He takes a poem by an older master, Abu Madyan, a great teacher of North Africa, and explains it, line by line. The poem is about one thing. The company you keep.
He opens with the words of the Prophet ﷺ. A person follows the way of his close friend. So let each of you look carefully at whom you befriend.
So, my brother, he says, once you know this, do not take as a close friend anyone except the one whose state lifts you up, and whose words lead you to Allah.
We usually choose friends for comfort, or fun, or usefulness. Ibn Ata Allah asks a different question. When you leave this person's company, are you closer to Allah, or further away?
Because companionship is not neutral. It is slowly shaping you, every day, whether you notice it or not.
So let us listen to what the poem teaches, about choosing well, and about how to sit with those we have chosen.
.jpg)
