Pick your friends carefully as they reflect on you, this week's sermon tells worshippers.
"Friendship is a fine human relation and a strong social bond," says the sermon, "People are naturally inclined to seek friendship out of a desire for intimacy and coexistence."
The Quran emphasised the status of friendship, putting it alongside a blood relationship, and noted that it was tested at "times of adversity".
The Prophet Mohammed once said: "A man is upon the religion of his friend, so let one of you look at whom he makes his friend."
He illustrated the influence friends have on each other in another hadith: "The similitude of good company and that of bad company is that of the owner of musk and of the one blowing the bellows.
"The owner of musk would either offer you some free of charge, or you would buy it from him, or you smell its pleasant fragrance; and as for the one who blows the bellows (i.e., the blacksmith), he either burns your clothes or you smell a repugnant smell."
A poet once said: "Ask not about the person but about who he accompanies. For everyone emulates whom he associates with."
Addressing his son, the wise Luqman said, "O my son, use your wisdom when selecting people you sit with. So if you find some who remember Allah, then join them.
"If you are knowledgeable, then your knowledge will benefit you, and if you are ignorant, they will teach you.
"What's more, Allah may bestow His mercy upon them and you will be among them.
"But if you find people who do not remember Allah, then do not sit with them. [In their presence] even if you are knowledgeable, your knowledge will be of no avail.
"And if you are ignorant, they will add to your incapacity. Allah may inflict punishment on them and you will be among them."
hdajani@thenational.ae
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Funchal via Lisbon, with a connecting flight with Air Portugal. Economy class returns cost from Dh3,845 return including taxes.
The trip
The WalkMe app can be downloaded from the usual sources. If you don’t fancy doing the trip yourself, then Explore offers an eight-day levada trails tour from Dh3,050, not including flights.
The hotel
There isn’t another hotel anywhere in Madeira that matches the history and luxury of the Belmond Reid's Palace in Funchal. Doubles from Dh1,400 per night including taxes.
MATCH INFO
CAF Champions League semi-finals first-leg fixtures
Tuesday:
Primeiro Agosto (ANG) v Esperance (TUN) (8pm UAE)
Al Ahly (EGY) v Entente Setif (ALG) (11PM)
Second legs:
October 23
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
MATCH INFO
New Zealand 176-8 (20 ovs)
England 155 (19.5 ovs)
New Zealand win by 21 runs
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo hybrid
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 390bhp
Torque: 400Nm
Price: Dh340,000 ($92,579
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The specs
Engine: 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 380hp at 5,800rpm
Torque: 530Nm at 1,300-4,500rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Price: From Dh299,000 ($81,415)
On sale: Now
