Human relations is a recurring subject in islam. Hardly can a chapter of the Glorious Qur’an ends without Allah pointing to benefits in man relationship with fellow man!
In many verses of the Quran too, God praises the man that establishes a good relationship with his kith and kin, while in some other verses, He dispraises the man who does not care for his neighbour and whose relationship with fellow human being is that of cat and mouse!
For example, those who set poor relationship with the orphan and who do not urge one another on the feeding of the poor are greatly denounced in Quran 89vs 16and 17, as follows :
“But you treat nor the orphan with kindness and generosity.And you urge not one another on the feeding of the poor”
Human dealings with another beings are therefore feted and greatly encouraged in islam! The reason for this is because man is a social animal that needs the company of others to survive, to live well and be nourised! Prophet Muhammad (salla-llahu alehi wasalam) in his own oeuvre, has encouraged and rated high a human being who mixes with other and who is patient with their foibles, over another man who abandons men and lives by himself!He said on this:
“A man that mixes with people and who is patient with them is better than another man who does not mix with people and who is not patient with them”
It is on the basis of the above that Allah decrees that we establish good and harmonious relationship with our neighbour as good relationship with one’s neighbour leads to good relationship in the society while societal good leds to a nation’s good!
In the same vein, many ills or societal discords continue to rear their ugly heads as a result of the bad relationships which exist among the people in the society.Are they being that there are mechanisms that promote peoples’ relationships and which settle disputes among them, as in the day of yores, while wise and just people would be constistuted as an arbitration panel, that would adjudicate among people, many ills in our society, like gangsterism, banditry and others would have been eradicated or drastically reduced-since the society will have time and focus to deal decisively with the dregs of the society who had besieged our cities and towns with impunity!
Here are some ways Islam prescribed to establish good relationship among the people;
. Dealing with others with true and avoidance of lying
. Purposeful counselling of the youth by the Elders to live a purposeful life.
. Donation of food items or feeding of the poor
. Visiting a neighbour in the hospital when sicks
. Donation of education materials to the society
. Establishment of scholarship scheme by the well to do in the community for the less-privelege education
Benefits Of Righteous Friends
The friends you socialize with here in this life , will determine your altitude and the height you will attain here and in the here after! If they are friends of knowledge, righteousness and godliness, be sure that, in some years to come as their friends, knowledge, righteousness and godliness will find you too, even if in smaller quantities to that of your friends. In the same vein, if they are lovers of material wealth, immorality and debauchery, know that what your lovers love will be your lots, soonest, even , if you cannot measure up to them in their agglomeration of these objects!
This is the reason, you must remember to befriend a pious, righteous,patient and beneficial human being. For in the season of happiness, he will teach how to conserve, preserve and multiply the source of your happiness and when the eventualities of life rear their ugly heads, he will teach you how to be patient and the need to see the light while darkness looms and hope, when there is hopelessness
In fact, being in the midst of good friends to the scholars of Islam, is a remedy to a bordered and ailed soul, a profit in this life and a good deed that will receive heavy rewards in the hereafter.
Conversely, the association of bad friends in this life is a sickness; a deed that will disposes those in it to an equally heavy punishment here and in the life to come_have you not seen what bad friends, frivolous peer groups and corrupted associations have caused this nation!
It has turned her leaders to the like of a dog that cannot bark when danger looms while it has conditioned her children to wasteful lots who have spent their today in frivolities and are not sure of tommorow! Bad company, to say the obvious, has derailed the elders from the right paths to fruition while it has predisposed the younger generation to perdition.
While elders elsewhere are setting paces in all human endeavours and serving as Pathfinders in success to the upcoming young people, ours are wallowing in messy politicking without thinking and while the youths in other climes are aping the beneficial footsteps of their fathers, ours are fighting to be the replicas of their fathers in debauchery!
Know my beloved brethren, that friends ,most times, go to where their friends go; if they are of good conducts, their friends will be and if otherwise, their friends will be as they are, like the friendship that existed between prophet Sulaiman ( Alehi Salam) and Ashif Ibn Bari’aya on one hands, and that of Firhaon and ‘Aaman, on the others!
And as for the associates, they associate with their types while men, in their kinds, are like birds in their forms; doves with the doves; eagles with the eagles and chickens with the chickens. All of them move with their types only! You cannot see the dove in the midst of the eagle or the eagle with the chicken! And men ,as in birds too, copy the behaviour of their associates as they ape the practices of the one that they associate with!
For that, it is instructive to a believer to run faster away from a bad associate as he runs away quickly, from a female lion! For a bad associate is fast in spreading his bad manner to his friends! Be wary, oh you beloved brethren from the company of caustic and callous friends! Indeed, the company of caustic and callous friends is fast also, in turning a well- mannered and sensitive soul to a bitter and insensitive one!
For this, Allah in the glorious Quran Has informed us of the lots of associating with bad friends in the hereafter, He says:
” Friends on that Day will be enemies to one another except the pious!” Qur’an 43 vs 67
It is only the pious association that will positively better the lots of who are in it while bad association will make those in it sure candidates of the Hellfire!
The prophet of God,Muhammad in addition (saw) has said :
“Human being is always at the behest(behavior) of his friend, so let each of you check the friend he befriends !”.
He also said:
“The example of a good friend and a bad one is like the one who is a friend to a perfume seller and a friend to a Goldsmith; the one who is a friend to a perfume seller if he does not benefit anything will enjoy the good scent of his friend’s goods while the friend to a goldsmith will have his clothes burn and scents badly, if at all, he is not generally affected by the choice of his associate!”
O you whose friends are of bad character reflect the words of a preacher:
“Of a friend’s behaviour; ask not, but look at his friend’s outlook
*For every friend imitates the behavior of his friend”
One more thing, a bad company is a disgrace in this life and a Hellfire in the hereafter! So endeavor to ditch the bad company you are keeping and associate with the righteous one for you to enjoy a grace here in this life and a paradise ,in the life which is coming!