Chapter V: Duties Towards Companions and Friends
There are some conditions of these benefits which we shall describe now. The man with whom companionship is to be kept should have five qualities in him-intellect, good conduct, not to be a sinner, not to be an innovator, not to be a worldly addicted man.
(1) Intellect: It is the root of wealth and there is no good in the company of the fools and the illiterate. Hazrat Ali said in poem:
VoI-II Love and Brotherhood 99
Keep no company with the fools.
Break friendship with the fools.
When a wise friend keeps up patience, Illiterate friend becomes then impatient A wise friend known in danger, Illiterate friend leaves him in disaster
An illiterate leaves him in disaster . Though he wants to do benefit, he will do you harm, as he is ignorant. For this reason, a certain wise man said :
You will remain safe.
If a wise man becomes your enemy If a fool loves your
the batter may fall in danger.
How many insane there are, who kriownly to commit murder.
Imam Sufyan Saori said: It is sin to look at the face of a fool.
A wise man is he who understands all hjs actions and a fool is he who has got no sense of right and wrong and who does not understand it even it is dictated by othe/s.
(2) Good conduct:. A friend should have good conduct as many wise men take things as they are in their normal mood, but when they get angry, sexual passion, miserliness and cowardice gain supremacy, and he conduct, himself according to his whims and acts contrary to his wisdom. There is no good in having friends like him.
(3) Religions nature: A friend should have religious nature to give benefit. There is no good in keeping company with a sinner. He who fears God cannot be engaged in great sins., but if a man does not fear God, you can't fcesafe from his harms and can't trust in his words. He changes according to the change of ' necessity. God says : Don't follow one whose heart I have made forgetful from Nfy remembrance and who follows his passions.
God say : Let hint rlpt turn to one who does not believe it and follows his passion !God says : Turn away from one who turns away from My remembrance .and intends nothing but this world's life Gc*J says : Follow rfc^jwth of one who turns to Me, You will understand from this that it is lawful to turn away from tne great sins.
100 The Book of Wordly Usages Vol-H