{"_id":"6a8477bcc0ee8111b3f74b19","title":"{\"ops\":[{\"insert\":\"How should I balance seclusion, good companionship, and personal worship?\\n\"}]}","question":"{\"ops\":[{\"insert\":\"How should a person determine the proper balance between spending time with others and being alone? In particular, how much should good suhbah (companionship) be prioritized compared to personal worship and general time in seclusion?\\n\"}]}","answer":"{\"ops\":[{\"insert\":\"It depends on your spiritual state and needs. As a general rule, you need a healthy dose of both.\\n\\nHowever, when it comes to prioritizing one over the other, you should prioritize seclusion if you are a beginner in the spiritual journey who is easily led into sins of the tongue or heart by social interaction (including social media), if you are an advanced seeker striving for deeper focus in divine remembrance, or if you are seeking refuge when your surrounding environment breeds heedlessness. But if seclusion degenerates into laziness, self-righteousness, or spiritual exhaustion, you should immediately break your isolation.\\n\\nOn the other hand, good suhba (companionship) should take priority whenever there is a need to learn obligatory knowledge, earn a permissible living, fulfill familial and social duties, serve the community, or simply refresh your energy through wholesome socialization.\\n\\nRemember though that suhba loses its virtue when it cultivates group superiority, exclusivity, or cult-like behavior. If it tolerates hatred for outsiders, demands blind obedience, or isolates people from family and friends, it is no longer genuine suhba, regardless of how spiritual or religious the group appears to be.\\n\"}]}","tags":[{"_id":"668da0320b76658b4c2330a7","tag":"Worship: Tazkiyyah","count":95},{"_id":"668da02b0b76658b4c232ff9","tag":"Relationships: Friend","count":59}],"createdOn":"2026-08-18T15:18:20.984Z"}