The sign of a true friend is that he is ready to sacrifice everything for his friend and beloved. Imagine a beloved and a friend who is not only a beloved and a friend but also is the Creator, the Master, and the Lord.
A famous story states that a young man was in the habit of wasting his father’s wealth on his friends all the time. He always had a gathering of flatterers and they wasted money day and night.
His father always told him, “They are flattering and selfish young men. They do not have real love for you. Do not destroy your wealth on them.” But the young man never accepted his father’s advice and responded, “They are my true friends.”
The father said, “How come you have gathered so many friends around while I have been able to find only one close friend? How come there is a large gathering of friends around you all of the time?”
A long time passed, and the young man did not accept his father’s advice. One day, the father said, “If you do not trust me then conduct a trial and test your friends, then you will know how many real friends you have.”
The son asked, “How may I test my friends?”
His father replied, “Go to every friend’s home, and tell them that your father has evicted you from his house and has taken away your access to the property. Ask them to provide you with some money so that you may arrange some source of livelihood.”
When he went to his friends’ homes and told them that his father had evicted him, one sent a message out through a servant that he was sick and regretted that he could not meet him at that time. Some excused saying that they had the money but had given it to someone else just that day.
The young man returned home empty handed and said to his father that what his father had been saying was proven true; no one helped him.
The Father said, “Let me show you my friend now.”
The father took his son to the wilderness, and outside the town he reached a house, and called out. There was a query from inside, “Who is this?”
The father announced his own name.
The voice from the house said, “Okay.”
Then there was silence without a response for half an hour.
The son said, “Your friend has proven to be like my friends.”
The father said, “Do not be impatient; you will know soon why he has taken so long to come out.”
A few minutes later, the father’s friend came out holding the hand of his wife. He had his scabbard fastened to his waist and had a sword in the other hand.
As he came out, he said, “Forgive me my friend, you came at midnight and I have been delayed since you knocked at the door. I assumed that your coming at midnight has some purpose in it. I thought, maybe you are in trouble and you have come to me for help. On this thought, I picked up my sword because that is what I would use to help you. Then I thought that although you are a billionaire, even billionaires can have financial problems and need any penny they can get. I had collected four to five hundred dollars penny by penny throughout my life and had buried them. I dug the ground and extracted that bag. I was further delayed on thinking that maybe your wife is not well and there may be some need to tend to her so I awoke my wife and brought her with me. All these three things are at your disposal. How can we be of help?”
He said to his son, “Such ones are the friends.”
This example bears a lesson in it: If a man’s friend can be like this, then how should a friend of God be?