 Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. Alhamdulillah, we thank Allah for allowing us to be here today on Jumu'ah, this blessed day, in this blessed month, in this blessed company. And I want to just share with you, as it seems perhaps even the last time that I was here, just some reflections of conversations that I have in our time apart and how I think about them and how they bring me back to stories or occurrences that happened in my life and with teachers and situations and how I think about them and relate them back to Allah that insha'Allah we find benefit in that because sometimes things happen in our lives and we don't understand what has taken place, we may lose some money and the first thing perhaps we think of is why did I deserve this, I'm trying to practice Islam to the best of my abilities, I'm a good Muslim, I try so hard, why did Allah punish me? Or perhaps something amazing happens to us and our reactions may bring us to a range of emotions however we never attempt to understand those emotions as they have occurred through the lens of Allah's names and attributes, why is this important for us to reflect upon? Because our reactions to situations tell us a lot about our knowledge and our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, how we respond to something will tell us about our relationship and knowledge of Allah, if our best friend or someone close to us does something, because we know them well that we can understand and we can read their actions in how they deal with us but unfortunately, speaking for myself here, we do not nearly have this know Allah nearly as much about him, so to speak, even though he says he is closer to us than our jugular vein, he is closer to us than our jugular vein and though he invites us to call upon him by his names as he says in the Qur'an, wa lillahi asma al-Husna fada'u hu biha, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to Allah belong the most beautiful names, but how can we call upon him by them? But how can we call upon his names if we do not know them and we don't understand them? Which brings us to the question of what is the purpose of Allah revealing to us 99 of his names and attributes? What I think about this, perhaps this is clear, but in order for us to know him and through knowing him we are able to worship him trusting his decree, we are able to worship him trusting his decree, we may never understand his wisdom and that's okay. However we trust him and that is what brings us solace amidst all of the chaos and all of the confusion and all that is occurring around us and as I think about this, I came across the saying of one of our scholars that says if one knows the commander well, then the commands are easy to follow. If we understand this or these situations that we find ourselves in, that they are not just random acts, that we talked about this the last time I was here when I gave the khutbah, these are not just random occurrences that are happening in our lives. Now one of the names that I want to talk about here in this context is Al Wahab, the constant bestower of gifts. And I was thinking about this khutbah and I was thinking about a saying in English that we have the gift of life and I was thinking of myself of how is my relationship with Allah first and foremost with this gift that he has bestowed upon me that he created me. Do I sit with that and reflect upon that? And what is the greatest gift that we've received from someone and how good did we feel that that person thought enough about us in that way to manifest the thoughts and the emotions to then facilitate a physical gift to us? How good did that make us feel? And how good should it make us feel that Allah SWT created us? Gave us this gift of life. And then gave us the gift of Islam, putting us in the ummah of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi wa sallam and all of the gifts that come with that. And then on the gift of Islam gave us the gift of iman to be here today. I have come across people at the college that I worked at and I invited them to Islam, to the khutbah, Muslims. Brother, I didn't come to the school to go to Juma'a. I have class. It's a gift of iman that we are sitting here right now. We have the gift of Islam but the gift of iman to activate it and to bring us here today from Allah SWT. So as I was saying, think of the last time that we've been given a gift and how did it feel? A feeling of joy, of love, of being special to the person from whom you received the gift and sometimes a bit of shame if you feel you didn't deserve it. But let's catch that thought for a moment. If we, and I have come into conversation with people, I don't deserve this or I feel guilty of it because we're dealing with the reality on this side of the equation. Not knowing or thinking again, having it that this is a gift from Allah SWT who wants to give this to you. So if we understand it through Al-Wahhab and not from the person not being veiled on this side of the bestower of the gift but rather seeing them as a facilitator of Allah SWT's generosity, then how do we, one, give shukr to that person to then give the ultimate gratitude to Allah SWT for that thing? And we can perhaps think that we are undeserving of that for what we know about ourselves but what Allah knows about us, he decreed that gift to you personally. And if you think about ni'mah, ni'mah is a'am, it's general, but al-Hiba, this gift is to you personally from the Lord of the worlds. And then how do we differentiate, I was reading today, the scholars, how are they differentiating between rizq and hiba is that rizq is something that Allah has ordained for us, yes, but he has connected with it that we have to strive for it and work for it, but al-Hiba has given to us as he sees fit, Allah to you directly, kind of gift is that, to walk around knowing that Allah SWT knows your needs, knows your wants and desires and will fulfill them if they are beneficial for you and protect you from them when they are not beneficial from you, al-Wahab. So as we said, this gift from Allah SWT, the root being hiba, a gift because Allah SWT is al-Wahab, and as we said, it's not that this gift only comes once or twice, but he constantly gives, he constantly gives, and Allah SWT says in himself in the interest of time, I'll read the English here, or do they have the depositories of mercy of your Lord, the Exalted, the Most High, al-Aziz al-Wahab. So Alhamdulillah, as we think about this and we think about gifts, and as I mentioned, these gifts of how things are even taken from us, but replaced with something more beautiful, it made me think about something today as I was preparing this khutbah, it brought me back to my time in Damascus. One day I was in the downtown area, and I was preparing to go see one of my teachers, Rahim Allahu Ta'ala, and I met a young group of boys, they were maybe no more than eight, nine years old, and they were smoking a cigarette. And I came to them and I said, can I smoke with you? And they handed me the cigarette, and I took the cigarette, and I put it on the ground and I stepped on it. And I said, smoking is not good for you. And I walked away with all of my piety. But something didn't feel right in my heart in the way that they looked at me when I did that to them. So as I was going to the house of my teacher, I asked, when I arrived there, I asked him, and I said, this is what happened. And he said, it's good what you did, however, if you would maybe keep some sweets or something in your pocket, so when something like this happens you have something to offer them. So think about how Allah deals with us, that if he is to remove something from us, he's not going to remove it and leave us in that state. He will remove it and give us something better from Al-Wahab, the gift. So as we connect these interactions in our life, that's what I'm talking about here, this experiential relationship with Allah, how can we understand Al-Wahab in our day-to-day life. By the way, Sayyidina Muhammad, may the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon him, says in the Hadith, and he says, O you who believe, may the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon him, may the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon him, So as I was just mentioning here, this idea of the difference between a gift and risk, and as we said that the risk is something which is written for us. In the course of our efforts we earn a certain amount of wealth or something. This is the risk from Allah SWT, but Hibah on the other hand is just that it's a gift, not conditioned upon our efforts. So hearing from someone we love that we felt that we missed, a gift from Allah SWT. When without planning we are able to go to Umrah, gift from Allah SWT. Allah brings someone into our life that improves our state, gift from Allah SWT. So now if we begin to think about this relationship as I said with Allah SWT as seeing all of these things as gifts, what does Allah say about his increase of gifts? That if you show gratitude to me, then I will increase you. But if we do not see these things as gifts and we do not give gratitude to them, then we lose an opportunity for increase from Allah SWT. So Alhamdulillah, may Allah SWT bless us to be these recipients because as I said, this greatest gift, obviously to be created, but out of the six billion people in the world he chose us to be of the Ummah of Sayyidina Muhammad SAW, that in itself is a gift that we cannot thank him enough for. And if we really reflect on the personal blessings from Allah SWT in our lives then we can't feel anything but special to Allah SWT. If you really stop for a moment, if someone sent you a gift as I said, or someone sent you a card, or someone sent you a nice text, or someone sent you something that reminded you of their love for you, but think about the gift after gift after gift personalized to you, then we cannot think of anything except for being special to Allah SWT and may Allah increase that Ameen. Because every little gift and every huge blessing is from Al Wahhab and he wanted to give it to us specifically. So as we said here, if we want to be the companion of Al Wahhab, then remember and we acknowledge his gifts, even if they seem to be minute, which they are not because they are from Allah SWT and we thank him, reminded from Surah Ibrahim, If you increase and show me gratitude for what I have given you, I will increase you. Ya Allah, we ask you for that increase. And I thought about this as we are getting close to the month of Ramadan and what is the gift of Ramadan as a whole. And then with inside of that, if we talked about the gifts inside of Ramadan and then the gifts inside of Layat Al Qadr and, and, and, and. So may Allah SWT allow us to be the people that are people of gratitude and may Allah SWT make us people who are conscious of his gifts to us because the more that we are able to increase our love for Allah SWT, we will recognize how blessed we are. And that we should use his gifts in a way that is pleasing to him SWT because no one likes their gifts to be cheapened. We should prevent ourselves from using our gifts or what he dislikes. And that finally, that we should be a gift giver ourselves to take on this attribute as our Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, has said, He said, Give gifts to one another and you will love one another. Give gifts to one another and you will love one another. May Allah SWT allow us to implement what we have heard. May Allah SWT bless us on this blessed month in this blessed place with these blessed people. Allahumma rahma al-mu'minina wal-mu'minat al-muslimina wal-muslimat al-ahya'i minhum wal-amwati ya Rahma al-Rahmeen. Allahumma kun ma'la walatukun aleina abadan ya Rabbil Alameen. Allahumma fta'aleina fathan qareebun mubeenaan wasyaan ya Rabbil Alameen. Fathan yiliqu bi rahmatika ya Rahma al-Rahmeen. Allahumma rahmla fawq al-Ard wa tahtu al-Ard. Waw yawman aqoon bayni yadeik ya Rabbil Alameen. Allahumu ridna al-Adeenik raddan jameen ya Rabbil Alameen. Wa balighna Ramadan ya Kareem. Wa salli allahu ma ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala ala alayhi wa sahbihi sallam. Subhanahu rabbika rabi al-azit ya Amiya Seyfoon wa salam al-mursaleen. Wa alhamdulillahi rabbil al-Alamin. Aqeem al-salat. Yerhamani yerhamankum Allah.