 I remind myself and all of us to have taqwa of Allah SWT, for taqwa is indeed the life of our hearts and the provision for the hereafter. All you who believe have taqwa of Allah and speak the most telling true words. Allah will perfect your works and forgive your sins. And those who obey Allah SWT and his messenger have won a mighty, undying triumph. Dear brothers, dear sisters, we live in a world where truth is no longer objective. Your truth is not just relative, but truth can be constructed. We can construct anything we want and label it as truth. Imagine yourself as a parent, as a mother, as a grandfather, as a grandmother, holding your child that was killed or died because of any reason, be it bombardment, be it lack of water, be it lack of food, be it lack of care, and thanking Allah SWT and praising God and saying, from you we come and to you we will return. And praising God so much at that moment. These are not my words. These are the words of many people around the world active on social media. They're not Muslims. But upon seeing these videos, they were inspired. I shall quote one of them. The question is, do you think you can do that? One mother said, I don't think my face is strong enough that I can thank and praise God at the moment when I'm holding my child, my dead child. So I said, she's saying, how is the face of those people so strong? And that what inspired many people to read the Qur'an, to look for the Qur'an and to read it. Actually, as a mother, as a parent, I'm still quoting her. That what inspired her to read the Qur'an. And she says, to be holding your child or her child, the Palestinian mother in her arms and thanking God, I don't know if I can do this, she says. She continued to say, this is incredible how the Palestinians have inspired the world is incredible. She said, I need to read this book and see what is it that these people, the Muslims, believe in, to be that steadfast in their faith and in their religion. Today's Khutbah is we feel ashamed to be standing here and talking about it, because we are not in a position to teach people. The Palestinians are teaching us, they're teaching us through their patience, they're teaching us through their iman, they're teaching us through their tawakul. And the Khutbah today is about tawakul. How can we reach that state of tawakul, that we're seeing it in action? It's not theoretical, it's not in the books, we're seeing it in practice. Many have passed away, but their character have kept them alive. Others are alive, but their character, oh well, Allah SWT told us about tawakul in the Quran. The Quran is filled with ayat about tawakul. And our ulama wrote books, and many ulama wrote about tawakul. But whenever they write about tawakul, they don't write about tawakul on its own. They always put a word beside it. If you open the books of Imam Nawawi, you will see Babul Yaqini wa tawakul. All other chapters are one word, the chapter on patience, the chapter on istiqama, the chapter on tawheed, the chapter on sabr, the chapter on soyaam, the chapter except for this chapter. It's Babul Yaqini wa tawakul, the chapter on Yaqin, certitude, and tawakul. Why? They go hand in hand. Tawakul is a concomitant of Yaqin. You cannot have tawakul without having Yaqin. How do you build Yaqin? Because the origin of everything, the fundamental, the foundations of everything is tawheed. Imam Ghazali in the Ihiya, he wrote a book on at tawheedu wa tawakul. Not tawakul on its own. Tawakul is a fruit of tawheed, it's a fruit of iman. Allah SWT says in the Qur'an, in Surat Al-Anfal, innama al-mu'min, describing the believers, and listing two of the characteristics of believers. He says, innama al-mu'minuna al-Lazina, izazukirallahu wajilat qulubhu. True believers are but those who, number one, when Allah is mentioned, just mentioned, their hearts flutter, their hearts quake with fear and awe and hayba of Allah SWT, wa izatuliyat alayhim aayatuhu zadatuhum imana. And when His verses are recited to them, they increase them in faith and iman. Wa a'la rabbihem yatawakulun. That's a third characteristic. And on their Lord alone, they rely. Not on anyone else. Allah SWT says, wa man yatawakkal a'la allahi fahawa hasbuh. Whoever has tawakul, reliance on God, on Allah SWT, he, Allah SWT, is enough for him. Because those people who reach the state of tawakul on God, they become, they realize that in the qadha and qadr, there are mysteries. The mystery of the divine decree do not affect them anymore. Whether it's bitter, it does not affect them. Whether it's sweet, it does not affect them. It is all from Allah SWT. Those people la khawfun aalayhim wa lahum yahzanun. There is no fear upon them. Neither do they grieve. There is no fear, i.e. over the future. No do they grieve about the past. Allah SWT says, wa a'la allahi fahawakkal il mu'minun. Wa tawakkal a'la al-hayyi, allazi la yamut. Put your trust in Allah. The living, al-lazi la yamut, usually the principle in usul, that al-lazi is a tool for ta'alil, for rational, to provide the rational. Why should we put our trust on the living? Because he does not die. You put your hope in Allah SWT. When you start hoping and you put your hopes in other people, or other things, or other means, without putting our hope in the creator of the world, ta'akkal an yaqeen, ta'akkal an yaqeen, they go hand in hand. They are inseparable. And those who have ta'akkal, they realize that God, Allah SWT, is al-la kulli shay'in wakil. So we start from tawheed. The foundation is tawheed, but tawheed has level. The first level is knowledge. We know that Allah SWT is one. That's the mental state. We have conviction intellectually, mentally. The second stage to allow this faith, this iman, this conviction is to take a journey toward the heart and settle in the heart, and not be on the surface, just superficial. Take roots in the heart. Control the heart completely. It can no longer be taken out. It has infiltrated and penetrated the heart and controlled the heart. That's the essence of tawheed, la ilaha illallah. So empty your heart from everything, except Allah SWT. In your heart there is nothing but Allah. Imam Ghazali says this is a statement of love, because if in your heart there is only one thing, there is no room for other things. Your spouse will never like it if you love another woman or another spouse. They want your heart to be fully for them. When the statement of tawheed goes from the mental level to the heart level and takes root and takes settles in the heart, it becomes transformative. Your conscience now is gone from a mode of knowing to a mode of experiencing, to a mode of living. There's no longer something to think about. It's who you are. And Allah is Waqeel upon everything. Waqeel, Allah is a trustee. Allah is a protector. That God is the trustee and the protector of all things. Whatever may come from him is his decree. So their response, our response, there's always manners and etiquettes in our response, is to be, to realize the decree and to be in the proper and the correct relationship with that decree. There's a tranquility in the heart toward the decree of God. Regardless of the outcome, our duty in every moment is to respond in the most appropriate manner toward anything that happens to us or around us. Every aspect for our deen is built upon Yaqeen. Yaqeen and tawakkol, they go hand in hand. Tawheed and tawakkol, they go hand in hand. Everything is more precious than that. But is tawheed enough, is Yaqeen enough? Because the world that we live in is a manifestation of God's names, God's beautiful names. He is Rahman, He is Raheem, He is Aziz, He is Hakim, He is Waqeel, He is Muntaqim, He is Jabbar. Everything in the world is an application of Allah's names. Allah's names, Allah is in control of the world. So what else do we need besides tawheed, is to be aware of all the names of Allah swt. And today we shall focus only on two things, two or three things. To the extent our tawheed is perfected, our trust in God will be perfected. We build our tawheed first. We move it from a mental activity to an experience, we live it. Everything starts with knowledge, but then knowledge is not enough. You have to act upon knowledge and deeply put your tawheed deeply in your heart. We build our tawheed, we act upon it. And this will generate a state of tawakkol in our heart. This can be perfected when we realize that God is merciful and God is wise. If we couple tawheed and yakeen with full conviction of God's mercy that Allah is Rahim, that Allah swt is Hakim, that Allah swt takes care of things and is merciful toward His servants. And His mercy first comes in forgiving their sins and elevating their ranks, because we don't look at our life just from the moment we are born until the moment we die. We had a life before we were born, while we were in the embryo or in the womb of our mothers. And even before we were born in our mothers, we were in aalamu l-arwaah, in the world of souls and spirits. And after we die, we go into the barzakh and then we have resurrection. So we look at our life, the various stages of life that we go in, not just from the moment we are born until the moment we die. And having full conviction of the mercy of Allah swt will generate within us, will generate within us, will engender in our hearts a trust in the creator of those effects. Tawheed gives us the means to realize and identify that Allah swt is the creator of everything, is the creator of the causes, is the creator of the effects, and is the creator of the tarteeb and the order and the association between the causes and the effects. Once we realize that Allah is the muassir, God la nafi'a illallah, only God can benefit, only God can harm. God is the creator of causes and effects, God is the creator of everything. We're dealing directly with Allah swt, there is no intermediaries in anything, there is no intermediaries. So Tawheed gives us this identification and this knowledge and believing in the mercy of Allah swt creates and engenders in our hearts the trust in the creator of those causes and effects. And the state of Tawakul will not be fully obtained without having trust in the Waqeel, in the Waqeel, the trustee over all this universe, over all this cosmos, the protector of everything. And a tranquility of the heart is generated that things are going to work out, things are going to work out. God is going to manage the world. Many people today don't give God even the benefit of the doubt. Many people today, if you notice the human condition, when do we start losing the trust in God, in Allah swt? And even doubting Allah swt, why are you doing this to me? Because when we see the world and it's so overwhelming, the experience that we experience, and that leads some of us, many non-Muslims, and maybe some Muslims, to say, this is not going to work out, they start thinking this is not going to work out, or they might think that God doesn't know what he's doing. If I were God, I would do this, this makes more sense, this would have made more sense, this would be more just, because we don't see the full picture. In conclusion, my brothers and sisters, nothing is more precious than reaching that state. Because when you see it, you're humbled. And you realize that we are way behind, we have a lot to do, we have a lot to learn. There's nothing more precious than investing in our Imam, our Tawheed, our Yaqeen, our conviction of the names of Allah swt, his mercy, and his wisdom. And how, once we have this, it will manifest in our life in the most beautiful ways. I'll call you as I'll call you astaghfirullah.