What Are the Ill-Effects of Bad Company?
Q: What is bad company and what the are the adverse effects of bad company?
There are two types of bad company.
There are two types of bad company and bad influence.
One in where you keep company of people who do bad things.
Right? Bad people.
People like gangsters, hooligans, drug addicts, hobos.
People involved in immorality.
People who gamble, drink alcohol and commit adultery.
They causes ruckuses and trouble others.
So this is one type of bad company.
And it has many ill effects.
Because some sins are exoteric sins and some are esoteric sins.
There are esoteric insects that are [born when] esoteric sins are committed.
They crawl all over your body and eventually manage to enter your bloodstream.
Then you become habitual of those sins.
So this type of bad company is also very dangerous.
By keeping bad company, without meaning to, one becomes habitual of sins that he hasn't even committed.
Right?
For example, if somebody has filth on their clothes and you sit beside them,
you were not the one to get your clothes dirty, but by sitting right next to that person, the filth got on your clothes too.
So one type of bad company is the outer company you keep, due to which you become involved in bad deeds exoterically.
Right?
For example, to drink alcohol is forbidden.
But if you keep company of people who are heavy drinkers,
and you sit with them every day
then one day, you too will want to drink alcohol.
And then you will drink alcohol. These are effects of the company you keep.
And the other type of company is esoteric company.
What happens in [bad] esoteric company?
You sit with people whose inner beings are filled with the presence of Satan.
They have Khabees Jinns in them.
Or they are people that are under God's wrath.
The Koran has instructed the Devout Believers not to keep company of the hypocrites.
Lest the fire in their chests reach your chest, too.
Now, if you are sitting in the company of people that God is cross with, then they are under God's wrath - and along with the, you, too, will come under God's wrath.
Therefore you should be careful about who you spend your time with.
For example, just compare the people of Mehdi Foundation International with the people of Anjuman Sarfaroshan-e-Islam.
Now why does anyone join Mehdi Foundation International? It is because they believe His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi is Imam Mehdi.
MFI has its own ideology and its ideology [comes from] His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi.
We have not concocted these [principals]. These are the teachings of HDE Gohar Shahi.
However, despite this, if you have friends who consider this ideology to be bad
who consider these principals to be wrong,
then such friendships will destroy your faith.
Or if you sit in the company of people who don't believe in the saints.
Or they don't respect Prophet Mohammad -
- people whose tenet is that Prophet Mohammad is just like their elder brother [and nothing else].
If you keep company of such people, you too will come under the wrath of God.
So there are two aspects to bad company:
exoteric badness and esoteric badness.
You can save yourself from bad exoteric company because you can see such people's actions [and recognise them].
However, people who keep beards and offer Salat, and they are carrying out all the 'Islamic' acts [that are expected of them],
but their hearts are filled with grudges and enmity for Prophet Mohammad and the saints of God -
- you don't consider it bad to sit in such a person's company.
You think, 'This is a religious person'.
This is where your faith is destroyed.
According to a Prophetic Tradition, 'Every human being follows the religion of his friend.'
So if you start to spend time with somebody who has the wrong tenets -
- someone who is blasphemous to Prophet Mohammad and the saints -
- or someone who is a blasphemous to His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi -
- then just by keeping their company, you shall lose your faith.
There are terrible consequences of keeping bad company.
And bad company is of two types.
One involves people who sin outwardly; in their company, you will also commit [the same] sins.
And the other involves people whose hearts are filled with enmity for Prophet Mohammad and the saints of God.
The enmity and hypocrisy in their hearts will destroy the faith in your heart.
Therefore if you keep anyone's company, keep the company of those who also follow your religion.
[People who love HDE Gohar Shahi] as much as you do; who respect HDE Gohar Shahi.
Sit among people who love HDE Gohar Shahi; keep the company of people who love God and Prophet Mohammad.
And [they should be people] who along with believing in God and Prophet Mohammad, also respect HDE Gohar Shahi.
That is company [you want to keep].
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