 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, the name of Allah, Az-Zawajal, the most merciful, the one who's most particularly merciful, and most universally merciful. He says, when you say, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, the name of Allah, that name that encompasses all of his other names, Az-Zawajal, that name Allah signifies. It indicates the one who has Rahmah. It signifies the one who has Maghfirah, the one who's At-Tawab, the one who is Al-Adal, the one who is Just, the one who is Al-Hakeem, the Judicist and Wise. This name Allah, Az-Zawajal, signifies all of these attributes and names of him, Az-Zawajal. And then he wants us to remember that the encompassing qualities that he manifests on his creation is Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem, the universally merciful, the one who gave your existence and your life, and he gave you your wealth, and he gave you your health, and he gave you your children, he gave you your parents, he gave you your provisions, he gave you your food, he gave you your drink, he gave you all this. This is Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem, the one that's particularly merciful. Al-Muna'imbi Dadaqa'iqin Ni'am, the one who gave you those particular mercies, that he gave you particular strength in your sight. He gave you guidance, he gave you the Qur'an, he gave you Ramadan, he gave you a Masjid, he gave you these particular mercies that's not shared for everyone. That's Ar-Raheem. He gave you the Qur'an, he gave you the Sunnah of the Habib, he gave you the Shafa'a of the Prophet ﷺ on the Akhira. When Ra'a raised the Shafa'a, he gave you that, that's Ar-Raheem, the particularly merciful. He wants us to remember that he, Az-Zawajan, is a merciful being, and amongst his mercies is that he has not left us to our own devices, that he is the one who is in control of us, and that he is the one who decides what is morally good and what is morally wrong. He is the one who decides what the final moral imperative is that is revealed to humankind. The final command, the final set of commands and prohibitions, the final set of ethics, he is the one who decides what that is. He decides what is the Sunnah that one should follow from the beginning of their life to their death. He is the one who decides Az-Zawajan, so he sent his Prophet ﷺ, and that's amongst his perfect and particular mercies. And we are, we should be grateful for the fact that we're part of the Ummah of the Prophet ﷺ when Musa ﷺ wanted to be part of this Ummah. This is an Ummah that prophets wanted to be a part of that we should have shukr for that and never have ingratitude for the fact that Allah has made us part of this Ummah. Allah can take it away at any moment. There are people who have reached high stations, high stations in terms of their progress on the path to Allah and have left this faith that nobody should feel secured that they're going to die on this faith. But if you make shukr, Allah will continue to give you that faith until the day you die. And how can we justify this statement? Allah says, that if you give gratitude, I will increase you. If you make shukr for the fact that you have iman, when you see others that don't have iman, and you make dua for their iman, because when you make dua for another, the angels say, when you make dua that others receive iman, that others receive guidance, Allah will protect your iman. And if you are ungrateful, if you show ingratitude, you do not thank Him, Az-Zawajal, then my punishment is severe. And what punishment can be greater than losing your very affirmation that He is your Lord and being left to your own devices, knowing that, Allah is more merciful to me than myself. And you don't know what decisions you will make when you do not have guidance. And your decisions will not be merciful to yourself if you lose that faith. And so we make shukr for that faith. We make shukr for the fact that He sent His Habib Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. We make shukr that His Habib Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has given particular instructions that whether we like it or not, are merciful. That some enter Jannah out of their own, out of their own volition, because they're happy to enter Jannah. That they go through the actions because they love Allah Az-Zawajal's Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And they find comfort in their prayers. And some of us, we don't find comfort in our prayers. We don't give comfort in Sadaqah. We don't find comfort in fasting. We don't find comfort in Zakat. We don't find comfort in smiling at another. And perhaps we still do it because this is the command of Allah and perhaps we're afraid of a punishment. Maybe that's what brings us. That's what incentivizes us. That's what causes us to do good deeds. And then for those people, Allah will bring them to Jannah in chains. Regardless if you follow through with your covenant with Allah, the mere fact that you're a Muslim, you have made a covenant, you have made a promise with Allah that you will follow through with the sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. If you follow that mere covenant, follow through with it, fulfill your promise, you enter Jannah. Bahiz Rahma, not by your own deeds. It's Allah's mercy that enters you into Jannah. Nobody receives Jannah, not a single person, not a pious believer, not a Wali of Allah, not a prophet receives Jannah except through the mercy of Allah. And the Sahaba asked the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to inform them of this. He said, he said, even you, Ya Rasulullah, he says, even me, except for the fact that Allah unveiled me with his mercy. And amongst the mercies that he has sent, Azawajan is the fact that he has sent us a generous prophet. And that amongst the mercies he has sent is that the door to receiving his mercy is through generosity. The door to receiving the mercies of Ramadan particularly is through generosity. Imam At-Tirmidhi relates in a Shama'il. It's a short compendium of a hadith. Some 400-odd hadith. Traditions of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that describe either how he acted, how he looked, how it was his character, right? What did his belongings look like? In this collection of a hadith, Imam At-Tirmidhi includes that Ka'na Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was the most generous of people. And he was the most generous in Ramadan, especially when Jibril Alaihi Wasallam. Ramadan when Jibril Alaihi Wasallam would come to him, he was reminded of his proximity with Allah. During Ramadan, this is when he felt the most closeness to Allah Azawajan. That closeness to Allah Azawajan made him generous. And Jibril Alaihi Wasallam used to meet the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam every single night in Ramadan when he addressed to him Quran and he would review the Quran with him that this consistent engagement with the revelation of Allah, with the guidance of Allah, the consistent engagement with the angels made him more generous, particularly in Ramadan. And the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was more generous than the wind when it blows. And what does that mean? The wind when it brings that cool breeze, when you need that cool breeze and it's hot, the wind doesn't decide who it goes to. Left and right, it doesn't decide it's I'm going to avoid the person who is an ingrate, I'm going to avoid the person who doesn't pay the zakat, I'm going to avoid the person who doesn't stop at the stop signs, I'm going to avoid this person that doesn't pray. The wind comes and blows to everyone. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was unrestricted in his generosity and if we want to receive the divine mercies, the rahmat of Allah Azawajal and want to increase in our presence with Allah then we have to follow up with practice and generosity. And generosity does not mean giving away wealth, it does not mean giving away our time always. If you can't give away wealth, so be it. If you can't give away time, so be it. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said a pleasant face is Sadaqa and if you go a single day without Sadaqa this is an impediment on your path to Allah that the Shiuq, the masters of the spiritual path that guide you from how to become a person who is cognizant of Allah Azawajal in every single moment, a person, how do you become a person of taqwa amongst those conditions that you have to have Sadaqa every single day. There's not a single day that you do not have Sadaqa. That even if it's the smallest thing that you have to give up something that you love that you will not receive good. Allah says in the Quran, this is the first ayah of the fourth juzah of the Quran. You will not receive good until you give from what you love. Right? If you're not able to give away your time, your energy, a smile, your emotional energy, your physical energy, your intellectual energy, if you can't give away something every single day, you're not going to attain good. You're going to be prevented from reaching Allah. You're going to be prevented on this sirat, on this path to Allah. You might have full iman, alhamdulillah. We might have full iman, but we don't have perfect iman. Our iman might not decrease because we haven't given Sadaqa in a few days. Our iman might not have decreased because we haven't smiled at a person for some time. Our iman might not have decreased because we've been a source of comfort and solace for somebody else, but our iman might not have increased because of that fact as well. Perhaps it's not decreasing, but you're not on tariqa, you're not on ascension, you're not being raised any station with Allah, and then we might ask, where is Allah? And the question is, where are we on the sunnah of Allah? On the sunnah of His Habib, that the sunnah of Allah is to be generous and to be merciful. And where are we on the sunnah of the Habib, that where are we in our mercy? How have we become people of mercy? How have we given people the room to breathe? How often have we become people who when people see us, their hearts are constricted and they become anxious? The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, man naffasah an anadriwa man farraja an muslimin, karbatan min kurabid dunya. Farraja Allahu anhu, karbatan min kurabid yomen qiyama. That any person who gives a believer naffasah, gives them some room to breathe when they have a difficulty in this world, whether it is in their emotional needs, spiritual needs, whether it is in their mental needs, whether it's in their monetary needs, whether it's in their physical needs, whatever it may be, a single person who removes some sort of discomfort, gives them some room to breathe naffasah, like when they feel constricted and as if you can't breathe. You feel claustrophobic because there's so much going on. The person who removes a difficulty from a believer in this world, any sort of difficulty, Allah did not specify even what type of difficulty. He said, in this world, if you relieve someone of a difficulty, farraja Allahu anhu, naffasah Allahu anhu, karbata min kurabid yomen akhirah. Allah will relieve you of the difficulty of the hereafter. The difficulties when the prophets are raised, they'll say nafsih nafsih. When Isa A.S. is raised, he is going to have some sort of anxiety. On that day, Allah will remove that and save you and give you relief and suffice you from the anxiety of that day. And so when the opportunity comes up, when you see somebody in bala, when you see somebody in difficulty, when we see somebody in difficulty, there's two options. We can either ignore it and say somebody else will take care of it, it's not my job, or I don't know this person well enough, or maybe you feel awkward to offer your help because you're shy, or maybe whatever it may be that prevents you. That's one option that you can avoid the opportunity. And the other option is when the opportunity comes in whatever manner you can help a person. In any affair, any affair of the dunya, so long as you're helping them with something permissible. If you're helping them with something impermissible, then you also share in the sin. But if you're helping them with something permissible in this dunya, Allah will give you relief and give you room to breathe in the akhirah, where it matters more. That every single pain and discomfort and anxiety, whatever someone goes through in this world, even if it's the prick of the thorn, the Prophet SAW said, even if it's the prick of the thorn, that discomfort will remove discomfort from that person afflicted with that pain in the akhirah. But if you've not been afflicted with pain, not yet, if you've not been afflicted with some sort of discomfort, or your discomfort is not as grand as somebody else's, then what is removing your and relieving you of your difficulties in the akhirah? What is your option? Your option is to help with someone else. Your option is to give someone else the room to breathe, to give somebody else solace and relief. And so when those opportunities come, we should be people who jump at the opportunity to help another person. Not just because we want relief in the akhirah, because this is what perfect iman is. The Prophet SAW said, None of you truly believe. Your iman is not complete. The literal wording is none of you believe, but we know that this means truly believe. You have not reached perfected faith. Until you love for your brother or sister what you love for yourself and iman. And no, we Rahimullah Ta'ala comments on this, that the akhirah, the brother here does not just mean your brother in your faith. It means your brother in humanity. If you see your brother or sister in humanity in any sort of suffering, that we look at, we see day in and day out. The afflictions that have afflicted the Muslims in here, locally and abroad, domestically and internationally. The people who are suffering in Syria and Turkey from the earthquake. The thousands of people. And we turn on the news and we turn off the news and nothing affects our heart. And we don't feel that pain when we see those children who have lost their mothers and fathers or those mothers who have lost their husbands become widowed or those husbands who have lost their families and lost everything that they have worked for. If we do not feel pain when we see that another person is under some sort of distress locally, whatever sort of distress they may be in. If we do not feel that pain, there's something wrong with our iman. And that iman, as one of our sheikhs said yesterday, that iman is either asleep or it's dead. And alhamdulillah, I'm sure our iman is not dead. We still believe in Allah, but it needs to be reawakened then. It needs to be reawakened. And when these opportunities come to help a person in their difficulty, this is the moment that you can complete your iman. And alhamdulillah, we live in a community where we are not afflicted by too many afflictions. There are people who have real afflictions in this community, in this masjid, the surrounding masjid here in the Bay Area, in the United States, it is true. And we don't want to disqualify or deem their difficulties insignificant. But there are bigger difficulties. And every one of us should take the opportunity that when we see a believer that has difficulty, or even a non-believer that has some difficulty, that we help that person because it's a chance to complete our iman. We help that person so that it is a chance for us to relieve ourselves of a difficulty on the Yaman Akhira, on the Yaman Qiyama, on the final day. Iqounu qawli hadha was taqfir allaha li walakum al-lisa'ir al-muslimeen. Yaqoun is taqfiru, innahu hu wa l-ghafoor al-raheem. Bismillah wa al-hamdulillah wa salatu was-salamu ala Rasulillah wa ala alihi wa s-sahbihi wa ma wa ala Everything that we've mentioned in the last few minutes can really be summarized in the concept of ether, preferring the other over yourself. Allah has put you on this earth with a particular job. And that's to represent godly, goodly characteristics, prophetic characteristics. And that's your job on the earth. This is istikhlaaf. I am creating, I am making a representative on the earth. Qalu ataja alu fiham. The angels then reply to Allah, are you going to create somebody who causes corruption, bloodshed, difficulties for others? What does Allah reply? He knows who insan is. Insan is not insignificant. Insan is a being that is mankind, humans, are beings that are capable of a lot. And Allah says إني أعلم مالا تعلمون. I know something that you don't. Allah knew that there are people on this earth that despite the difficulties they're in and despite the lack of energy that they have, they will expend their energy on another. And Allah knew that there are people on this earth that despite the enormity of their sins they will not be, they will not be, they won't feel that their sins are so grand that they can't take the opportunity for a good deed. That perhaps you might say I'm a person who sins too much and if I do a small deed like smile at a person, if I do a small deed like give some charity, if I do a small deed like help an elderly put on their shoes that why would Allah want, what does Allah want from me? I'm already too far. Allah knew that there will be people in this ummah and in this earth, Muslim or non-Muslim, that there will be people on this earth that despite their many deficiencies this will not discourage them from taking the opportunity to please Allah and His Messenger SAW to become more human. And many people want to become, many people want to become some great spiritual saint, many people want to become some Wali of Allah but first they don't want to be insan, they don't want to be a human first. Before you reach any great spiritual station first you need to become an insan, first you need to have human, good human conduct and qualities to another. And so we ask Allah, He makes the people who are more perfect in our insania, in our humanity. We ask Allah, He gives us kamal in our insania. He makes us the best representative of Allah on this earth. We ask Allah, He makes us people who are generous with our time and generous with our wealth. We ask Allah, He makes us generous with the energy that we have. We ask Allah He makes us generous in the smiles that we give. We ask Allah that He makes us generous so that we receive His generosity. We ask Allah we be people who give others room to breath so we have room to breath on the Day of Judgement. We ask Allah that we be people who remove afflictions from others where Allah removes the greatest afflictions from us. We ask Allah Azza wa Jad that He makes us more Muhammad and He makes us more like the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He makes us people who have prophetic characteristics that when people see us, they see the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam acting out in us. We ask Allah that when we act that the people see that this is a Muslim, this is who the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was and this is what I want to be. We ask Allah that our actions and our words be hidaya for others. We ask Allah that our actions and our words are da'wa to others. We ask Allah Azza wa Jad that we don't find solace in the happiness of others but we find solace in the pleasure in His pleasure. That He is our only source of peace and salam. So we say, Allahumma anta salam. We ask Allah to have mercy on our teachers, particularly our first teachers, our parents. So we say, Oh Allah have mercy on them as they had mercy on us when we were young. And we ask Allah Azza wa Jad that we recognize that Allah and His angels send their prayers and peace upon His beloved sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. When He says, Ya ayyuhal ladheen aamun asallu alayhi wa sallim butasneeman. We ask you to do the same. Sayyem Allahumma sallim ala Sayyidina Muhammad. Wa ala ala Sayyidina Muhammad. Wa ala ashabi Sayyidina Muhammad. Wa ala azwaji Sayyidina Muhammad. Wa ala atba'i Sayyidina Muhammad. Wa ala ahbab Sayyidina Muhammad. Wa ala ummat Sayyidina Muhammad. Wa barik wa sallim ala sallim ala alayhi. Inna Allahi aamun bila adli wa il'ihsani wa ita'idin qurba. Wa yinha'a anil fahshayi wal munkiri wal baghi. Ya'idhukum la'allakum tathakkarun. Uthkur Allah ya'thkurkum. Remember Allah and He'll remember you. Call upon Him and He'll answer you. Wa ladhikur Allahi akibur. And the remembrance of Allah is greater. Wa Allah ya'alumma tathna'un. Wa aqeem as-salah.