Gift Giving

The Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) used to accept gifts and used to give something in return.” [Sahih Bukhari]

Gift giving increases love and affection among people. For this the gift does not have to be given on a particular occasion or of a particular standard. Whatever is given to promote harmony between Muslims, seeking with this Allah’s Pleasure, will be a source of happiness on the Day of Judgement. The more we love Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) the more we will love His creation and desire to give people good things, good sentiments and good advice.

If we give presents to each other because it is the Sunnah of Allah’s Beloved Messenger and because following his Sunnah will make Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) pleased with us, then this gift giving is praiseworthy. On the other hand, if we give gifts in order to receive something in return, then this type of gift giving will bring us no lasting good. When we give presents in order to show off what we can afford to give, this arrogance invites Allah’s wrath and punishment.

Some other corrupt practices associated with gift giving are: belittling others’ gifts and opening presents in the middle of a gathering of people. When we expose everybody’s gifts to a crowd we risk embarrassing those who had a smaller budget. Some people end up having spent more than they could afford to in order not to be publicly humiliated. All in all we take a practice of love and sincerity and turn it into an ugly competition, creating hardships for our brothers and sisters in Islam.