Ramadan day 14 - who are your close friends?

You will be on the religion of your closest companions:

Abu Musa reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Verily, the parable of good and bad company is that of a seller of musk and a blacksmith. The seller of musk will give you perfume, you will buy some, or you will notice a pleasant smell. As for the blacksmith, he will burn your clothes, or you will notice a bad smell.”

Sahih Bukhari 5534

You have to be selective in life with who you hang out with. You can’t just throw yourself or your children into any group without knowing who they are hanging out with. Even in Islamic schools, there is no guarantee that just by having them there, everything will be fine. I have heard myself back in my college days in the early 2000s, that Islamic schools had to deal with teenage pregnancy cases.

The beauty of Islam is we have an organic way of filtering out the type of people we should be hanging out with. Men are required to attend the Masjid, and as you attend regularly, you will meet people there, get to know them, and then families can get to know one another. Of course you can still get mixed with bad influences, but generally this method will lead to positive friendships that are based on common religious values and not based on what animes you watch.