the rotten ones, he too might become like his bad friends due to their negative influence.

Reflect for a moment: on one hand, we see the exemplary role of such fortunate parents, whilst on the other, there are some misguided individuals in our society who not only fail to encourage their children to have good company, but actively discourage them from doing so. Tragically, when such children fall into bad company and go astray, these parents are left full of regret, lamenting their actions.

In such cases, despite endless efforts, these children rarely return to the right path.

Stopping others from good company

Mawlana Ilyas Attar al-Qadiri writes in his book, Blessings of Sunna:

In Ahmedabad (India), a pious man encouraged a young person to seek Islamic knowledge in a short course. The young person was prepared to travel for this but his father stopped him, fearing it might disrupt his worldly education.

As a result, the young person missed an opportunity to be around righteous people, and instead fell into the clutches of bad friends, eventually becoming an alcoholic.

When the father realised his mistake, he approached the same pious man and pleaded for him to take his son for this course, hoping it would help him quit drinking. Despite repeated efforts, the young person had deteriorated to such an extent that he refused to undertake this journey.

Similarly, Mawlana Ilyas al-Qadiri narrates another incident shared by his elder sister. She explains how an Islamic sister once tearfully asked others to pray for her son. This Islamic sister cried: