Burden Some Bad Company
BOOKS written by eminent Islamic scholars are replete with sayings that indicate an aversion to people who are referred to as being thaqeel, which means burdensome. They are a people whose company is unbearable. Imam Ahmad said they are the people committing acts of innovation. Some have said they are the foolish ones in society, and others have stated they are people with coarse personalities, or that they are people of lifeless and colorless character.?
“They are as blocks of wood propped up.” (Qur’an, 63:4)
“So what is wrong with these people that they fail to understand any word?” (Qur’an, 4:78)
Imam Ash-Shafi’ee said: “When a dull person comes to sit with me, I begin to feel that the earth beneath him is sinking from the heaviness of his company.”
Al-A’mash, upon seeing this kind of person, would recite: “Our Lord! Remove the torment from us, really we shall become believers!” (Qur’an, 44:12)
Allah, the Almighty, said: “And when you see those who engage in a false conversation about Our Verses (of the Qur ‘an) by mocking at them, stay away from them…” (Qur’an, 6:68)
People who are devoid of virtues, who have low aims, and who easily succumb to their desires are among the most unbearable of people to share company with.
“Then sit not with them, until they engage in a talk other than that; (but if you stayed with them) certainly in that case you would be like them.” (Qur’an 4: 140)
A poet said: “Your company upon me is heavy, heavy, heavy. You are in appearance a man yet an elephant in terms of bad company.”
Ibn al-Qayyim said: “If you are forced to converse with someone who is unbearable, lend him your body and deny him your spirit, and travel away with your soul. Lend him a deaf ear and a blind eye until Allah makes a way for you to depart from his company.”
“And obey not him whose heart We have made heedless of Our Remembrance, one who follows his own lusts and whose affair (deeds) has been lost.” (Qur’an 18: 28)
– Excerpts from Aaidh Bin Abdullah Al-Qarni’s book “Don’t Be Sad”