Valuable Neighbors

From that which has been narrated as coming from ʿAlī, may Allāh be pleased with him:

“[Choose] a neighbor [jār] before a house [dār] and a buddy [rafīq] before a street [ṭarīq].”

They blame me, since I sold a house [of mine] quite cheaply,
Not knowing there’s a neighbor there who bothers [me].

So I told them, “Cut out the blaming, for it is [known],
It’s by their neighbors, the price of houses goes high or low.”

See: Al-Ādāb Al-Sharʿiyyah by Ibn Mufliḥ, vol. 2, p. 15.

Translated by Mikail ibn Mahboob Ariff

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