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The First Galactic War

Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER…


Since the Lyra constellation occupies such a special place in galactic history being the womb and  birthplace of the humanoid race, it is important that we get to know more about it.

Lyra comprises of nine stars or suns. As such, it stretches over a very vast expanse of space. It’s most famous star is Veg constellation a, also known as Alpha Lyrae. Vega (Arabic for “swooping eagle”)  is the brightest star in the Lyra (because it is the nearest to our Solar System, about 25 light years away) and the fifth brightest star in the night sky as seen from Earth.
    

Two of Lyra’s neighbouring constellations are the highly infamous Draco and the little known Hercules.
    

Lyra has been described as “the symbolic harp upon which the song of humanity is played” to denote its primacy as the genesis of the humanoid race. As such, it is often depicted as a lyre, a musical instrument with strings that was played in antiquity. In Wales, the Lyra constellation is known as King Arthur’s Harp  (a mythological great king) or King David’s Harp (the David of the Hebrew Bible).
    

For ages, Lyrans, lived in peace and harmony in their vast empire. But all along, Lucifer was simply biding his time. At some stage, he sprang into action, aware time was running out. He now desperately needed a natural energy source powered by the God-force to sustain his race of fallen angels. This energy source as we have long pointed out were humanoids themselves in the form of the low-vibration energy they would generate from externally induced negative mind states. For as long as there was harmony among the humanoids, there would be no emission of  low-vibration energy for Lucifer and his angels to tap into.  It was therefore time Lucifer created polarity amongst the humanoids and consequently the perennial tension that would constantly produce this negative energy.
    

First, Lucifer decided to relocate the physical Reptoids from his galaxy, M-51, to the Milky Way Galaxy, where Humanoids dwelt. The Reptoids set up base in a constellation that we call Draco, which is part of the broader Orion empire. Stewart Swerdlow, a former instrument of the Illuminati who regularly interacted with Reptoid beings whilst involved  in a top-secret “shadow government” project known as the Montauk Project (more about it at a later stage as an own series) has this to say about them in his highly enlightening  book titled Blue Blood True Blood:
    

“Mentally, the Reptilians  were programmed to conquer and absorb all of the races and species that they encountered. Those that could not be absorbed were to be destroyed. The Reptilians are programmed to believe that they are the superior physical form. Scientifically speaking, Reptilian DNA does not change very much over eons of time. It basically remains the same. For them, this is their proof that they are already perfect, without any need to adapt. Mammalian life, on the other hand, evolves and changes form constantly to survive. To the Reptilian mind, this denotes weakness and inferiority.
    

“Reptilians are also androgynous, meaning male and female in one body. This is comparable to all non-physical forms that have no gender … like God-Mind. For this reason, the Reptilians believe themselves to be more godlike because of their androgyny. Due to their ethnocentric values, they also consider it their right to control and conquer all of space and time.”
 
LUCIFER TARGETS RED-HAIRED AND BLONDE-HAIRED LYRAENS

We have already made mention of how the Lyrans looked like in general but we will just recap here for emphasis. The mainstream Lyraens lived either on cooler planets, the furthest from the Lyra suns, or in the cooler parts of the planets that were close to the suns. As such, they were light-skinned, like the Caucasians of our planet. However, they were not pinko-white like white Earthlings but were bluish white. Their main planet was also called the Blue Planet. Hence they were generally referred to as the Blue People. There were variations in skin tone because of differing geographical conditions throughout the Lyra constellation but the most influential Lyraens were the Blue People. The Blue People were the first humanoids to evolve in Lyra, from lions, the reasons they were also referred to as Felines.   The next strain of humanoids to evolve were from primates, or apes. Eventually, the ape humanoids (humans like us) and the lion humanoids blended their genetics and this new hybrid humanoid line became the ruling line of Lyra known as the House of Avyon.  The Lyraens therefore had mammalian primeval genetics.
    

The mainstream Lyraens had one additional, highly significant trait. This had to do with the colour of their eyes and the colour of their hair. Most had blue eyes and blonde hair (like a lion, the animal they evolved from.) A tiny minority, what you would call “gems” as they were so scarce, had red hair and green eyes. This was the most admired race. Says Stewart Swerdlow: “In Lyraen society, red-haired people were considered special with extrasensory powers that connected them to non-physical realms. They were especially desired for breeding purposes. Special permission to breed with a red-haired person was required because of the extra, or superhuman, abilities that came with the offspring. For this reason, red-haired people were kept separate from the rest, and even had their own subculture.”
    

After the Lyraens had been evolving both physically and technologically for about 40 million years, the Reptoids (Reptilians with up to hundred percent Reptile genetics) decided to pounce. Since by this time the Lyraens had become space travellers, they knew of the presence of the Reptoids in the Milky Way Galaxy. The Lyraens were aware the Reptoids were a mighty military power in that they evolved much earlier than the Lyraens. Thus when the Reptoids encroached upon Lyra to flex their muscles, the Lyraens tried to appease them rather than brace to fight them. Exactly how did they do this? Stewart Swerdlow: “The red-haired people were coveted by the Reptilians, who as a species did not have much psychic ability. Often, when Reptilians came to a world for occupation, the Lyraens offered a group of red-haired people to appease them for a while. This practice eventually degenerated into sacrifices to appease the demons.”
    

At first, Lucifer did not press his Reptoids to launch an attack on the Lyraens and go for the jugular (He wanted a galactic war for the haul of negative energy that would generate interdimensionally).  Once again, he decided to bide his time. Aware that blonde haired and red-haired Lyraens were the most significant humanoid strains in Lyra, he targeted them both for incarnation and spiritual (demonic) possession. He took their genetics and mixed them with the collective energy of his fallen angels, who we today refer to as demons. This made it easy for demons from the Lower Fourth Dimension in the Astral realm to incarnate into this particular species of Lyraens. The Humanoids that were thus born were not fully mammalian: they were half mammalian, half Reptoid, what we call Reptilians. Because of this substantial component of Reptoid energy, Reptilians were also very much easy to possess by demons and therefore to influence. That’s why in satanic rituals in the Western world, all their high priestesses are blonde haired and blue eyed, as are the bulk of people picked as a sacrifice to the Devil. And in these rituals, when demons manifest, they do so in the form of a Reptoid being because a Reptoid is the predominant mode of physical expression by demons by virtue of energetic compatibility.

POLARITY DAWNS IN LYRA

Meanwhile, Lucifer’s strategy to infiltrate Lyra shrewdly and systematically both at the physical and spiritual level was proceeding apace. Because of this infiltration, polarity arose in Lyra. First, the pure-bred Felines were disgruntled that that they were ruled not by people of their genetic strain but by the Feline-Human hybrid. Second, another Lyraen race began to assert itself and it too sought hegemony and autonomy. This was the Vegan race. The Vegans were not Caucasians like the Lyraens proper. They were more like our East Indians, Native Americans, and the Australian aborigines. The friction between the Lyraens and the Vegans constituted another aspect of the polarity.
    

In the thick of these polemics, one planet in Lyra was chosen as a prototype integrative planet, a melting pot of all races in the Lyra Empire. This was the planet Apex. The spin was that it would bring about a synthesis that would promote peaceful co-existence.  The real Luciferian motive, however, was to aggravate the racial rifts (as is generally the case here on Earth) and precipitate conflicts leading to the destruction of the planet. Remember, Lucifer and his angels thrived on chaos. Lucifer’s strategy worked like a charm.
    

The planet Apex was inhabited by Lyraens, Vegans, and Reptilians. The Reptilians were mostly Serpentines, that is, those who had evolved from the snake species. With the passage of time, fault lines along racial lines emerged and each race sought dominance technologically, militarily, and industrially.  Says Lyssa Royal, who has a masterful knowledge of the developments in Lyra: “There was severe toxicity and severe radiation from atomic blasts. There was much pollution. The atmosphere began to deteriorate and plant life was shortly thereafter unable to produce enough oxygen to continue the cycle of carbon dioxide/oxygen which kept the ecosystem balanced. Many Apexians were dying from various diseases resulting from radiation or air pollution.”
    

Realising that the planet surface had been destroyed beyond rehabilitation and that it was no longer conducive to life, the Apexians decided to move underground and found a new subterranean world there. In the process, courtesy of Lyssa Royal, “They began learning to use alternate energy sources that could be used underground without any dependency on sunlight or oxygen from the surface. Thus they created a world that would be totally independent from the surface ecosystem.” In the process, they began to alter themselves genetically. “They deliberately manipulated their body type to suit their underground environment. They allowed themselves to become shorter in stature than they originally were so they could make better use of the cavern space. It was merely a conservation effort. Because they were not procreating physically, their reproductive organs atrophied. Their digestive tracts atrophied because they were no longer taking in solid nutrients. They had mutated to allow themselves to take in nutrients through the skin. Their eyes adapted to the environment through the pupil mutating to cover the entire eye. This allowed them to absorb certain frequencies of light beyond the visible spectrum. They had to do this in order to make optimal use of their underground environment.”
    

One hundred years later, they decided to return to the surface in the hope that the atmosphere and environment had now healed. They were shocked at what they found. Lyssa Royal: “Observing the star field, they knew the planet had shifted its position in the cosmos. The stars were very different. The astronomers who had been plotting the heavens during the seclusion were astonished. They realised then what they had done.” How did this come about? “The Apexians did not realise that the planet's toxicity had set a chain reaction in motion. Severe radiation had begun breaking down the planetary energy field on a subatomic level. This created an electromagnetic warp in the time/space fabric surrounding the Apex planet. While they were underground, Apex actually shifted its position in the time/space continuum because of this dramatic subatomic energy breakdown.  Time and space is very much like Swiss Cheese. A planet in one location is connected through a series of multidimensional networks or passageways to other areas of the galaxy. When this warp began around their planet, the planet was moved through the fabric of time/space to another time/space continuum – which was a significant distance from their point of origin.”

The new cosmic location in which the planet Apex found itself was the Zeta Reticuli star system. The benevolent ranks of the Apexians decided to leave the planet altogether to found their own in the Zeta neighbourhood.  This race, which was of  Serpentine genetic stock, is what we Earthlings now call Ebens (see Zeta Series).  

THE REPTOID INVASION

Not very long after the planet Apex vanished from Lyra off to Zeta Reticuli, the Drakons, the Reptoids from the Draco star system, decided It was time they forcefully took over the entire Lyraen Empire, which was rich with highly fertile soils which made the Lyraens the most prolific agriculturalists in the galaxy and a host of natural resources. The planets they first wanted to annex were Bila, Tek, and Merck.
    

The Drakons, however, did not come with guns blazing. Their strategy was to use tact since the Lyraens were no pushovers at this stage: they too had developed sophisticated weaponry that was deemed to be on par with that Draco firepower. The situation was akin to the stalemate that prevailed between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, although it turned out the CIA had exaggerated the military might of the Soviet Union with a mercenary view to help create wealth for the Military Industrial Complex, who were periodically contracted by the US government to produce armaments that were a step or two ahead that of the Soviet Empire.
    

The Drakons pretended to be an empire that was in need of vital raw materials from Lyra and so approached the Lyraen authorities to propose a trade exchange.  But it seemed there was a misunderstanding (a cleverly orchestrated one) because when the trade delegation reported to the Draco authorities, they said the Lyraens were wary of the Drakons and were in fact preparing to wage war against the Draco empire. Thus alarmed, the Drakons decided to launch a decisive, preemptive blow. Shortly thereafter, the Drakon space fleets invaded Lyra, trained initially on the three most prestigious planets. In the event, Bila, Tek and Merck were completely destroyed and were reduced to space debris like the asteroids of our Solar System. The Lyraens were stunned but desperately fought back. It turned out, however, that the Drakons were militarily superior and the Lyraens were simply no match.     
    

Buoyed by their military prowess, the Drakons gave the Lyraens an ultimatum – either you vacate eleven other intact planets that we want the most and never come back again or you hold out foolhardily and face extinction. The overwhelming majority of the Lyraens decided to vacate. They were  given a grace period in which they were to evacuate into their giant space ships, which could be as huge as Gaborone, and head out into space to found new planetary homes. That way, the Lyraens ended up in other star systems such as Orion, Tau Ceti, Procyon, the Pleiades,   Sirius, and Andromeda.
    

The Drakon invasion of Lyra was the first inter-stellar armed conflict in the Milky Way Galaxy and is referred to as the First Galactic War.  

NEXT WEEK: HUMANOIDS FORM GALACTIC POLITICAL BLOC

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GONE FISHING

28th March 2023

In recent years, using personal devices in working environments has become so commonplace it now has its own acronym, BOYD (Bring Your Own Device).  But as employees skip between corporate tools and personal applications on their own devices, their actions introduce a number of possible risks that should be managed and mitigated with careful consideration.  Consider these examples:

Si-lwli, a small family-run business in Wales, is arguably as niche a company as you could find, producing talking toys used to promote the Welsh language. Their potential market is small, with only some 300,000 Welsh language speakers in the world and in reality the business is really more of a hobby for the husband-and-wife team, who both still have day jobs.  Yet, despite still managing to be successful in terms of sales, the business is now fighting for survival after recently falling prey to cybercriminals. Emails between Si-Iwli and their Chinese suppliers were intercepted by hackers who altered the banking details in the correspondence, causing Si-Iwli to hand over £18,000 (around P ¼ m) to the thieves. That might not sound much to a large enterprise, but to a small or medium business it can be devastating.

Another recent SMB hacking story which appeared in the Wall Street Journal concerned Innovative Higher Ed Consulting (IHED) Inc, a small New York start-up with a handful of employees. IHED didn’t even have a website, but fraudsters were able to run stolen credit card numbers through the company’s payment system and reverse the charges to the tune of $27,000, around the same loss faced by Si-Iwli.  As the WSJ put it, the hackers completely destroyed the company, forcing its owners to fold.

And in May 2019, the city of Baltimore’s computer system was hit by a ransomware attack, with hackers using a variant called RobinHood. The hack, which has lasted more than a month, paralysed the computer system for city employees, with the hackers demanding a payment in Bitcoin to give access back to the city.

Of course, hackers target governments or business giants  but small and medium businesses are certainly not immune. In fact, 67% of SMBs reported that they had experienced a cyber attack across a period of 12 months, according to a 2018 survey carried out by security research firm Ponemon Institute. Additionally, Verizon issued a report in May 2019 that small businesses accounted for 43% of its reported data breaches.  Once seen as less vulnerable than PCs, smartphone attacks are on the rise, with movements like the Dark Caracal spyware campaign underlining the allure of mobile devices to hackers. Last year, the US Federal Trade Commission released a statement calling for greater education on mobile security, coming at a time when around 42% of all Android devices are believed to not carry the latest security updates.

This is an era when employees increasingly use their smartphones for work-related purposes so is your business doing enough to protect against data breaches on their employees’ phones? The SME Cyber Crime Survey 2018 carried out for risk management specialists AON showed that more than 80% of small businesses did not view this as a threat yet if as shown, 67% of SMBs were said to have been victims of hacking, either the stats are wrong or business owners are underestimating their vulnerability.  A 2019 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests the latter, stating that the majority of global businesses are unprepared for cyber attacks.

Consider that a workstation no longer means a desk in an office: It can be a phone in the back of a taxi or Uber; a laptop in a coffee shop, or a tablet in an airport lounge.  Wherever the device is used, employees can potentially install applications that could be harmful to your business, even from something as seemingly insignificant as clicking on an accidental download or opening a link on a phishing email.  Out of the physical workplace, your employees’ activities might not have the same protections as they would on a company-monitored PC.

Yet many businesses not only encourage their employees to work remotely, but assume working from coffee shops, bookstores, and airports can boost employees’ productivity.  Unfortunately, many remote hot spots do not provide secure Wi-Fi so if your employee is accessing their work account on unsecured public Wi-Fi,  sensitive business data could be at risk. Furthermore, even if your employee uses a company smartphone or has access to company data through a personal mobile device, there is always a chance data could be in jeopardy with a lost or stolen device, even information as basic as clients’ addresses and phone numbers.

BOYDs are also at risk from malware designed to harm and infect the host system, transmittable to smartphones when downloading malicious third-party apps.  Then there is ransomware, a type of malware used by hackers to specifically take control of a system’s data, blocking access or threatening to release sensitive information unless a ransom is paid such as the one which affected Baltimore.  Ransomware attacks are on the increase,  predicted to occur every 14 seconds, potentially costing billions of dollars per year.

Lastly there is phishing – the cyber equivalent of the metaphorical fishing exercise –  whereby  cybercriminals attempt to obtain sensitive data –usernames, passwords, credit card details –usually through a phoney email designed to look legitimate which directs the user to a fraudulent website or requests the data be emailed back directly. Most of us like to think we could recognize a phishing email when we see it, but these emails have become more sophisticated and can come through other forms of communication such as messaging apps.

Bottom line is to be aware of the potential problems with BOYDs and if in doubt,  consult your IT security consultants.  You can’t put the own-device genie back in the bottle but you can make data protection one of your three wishes!

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“I Propose to Diana Tonight”

28th March 2023

About five days before Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed landed in Paris, General Atiku, a certain Edward Williams was taking a walk in a woods in the Welsh town of Mountain Ash. Williams, then 73, was a psychic of some renown. He had in the past foretold assassination attempts on US President Ronald Reagan, which occurred on March 30, 1981, and Pope John Paul II, which came to pass on May 13, 1981.

As he trudged the woods, Williams  had a sudden premonition that pointed to Diana’s imminent fate as per Christopher Andersen’s book The Day Diana Died. “When the vision struck me, it was as if everything around me was obscured and replaced by shadowy figures,” Williams was later to reminisce. “In the middle was the face of Princess Diana. Her expression was sad and full of pathos. She was wearing what looked like a floral dress with a short dark cardigan. But it was vague. I went cold with fear and knew it was a sign that she was in danger.”

Williams hastily beat a retreat to his home, which he shared with his wife Mary, and related to her his presentiment, trembling like an aspen leaf as he did so. “I have never seen him so upset,” Mary recounted. “He felt he was given a sign and when he came back from his walk he was deeply shaken.”

The following day, Williams frantically sauntered into a police station to inform the police of his premonition. The officer who attended to him would have dismissed him as no more than a crackpot but he treated him seriously in view of the accuracy of his past predictions. He  took a statement and immediately passed it on to the Special Branch Investigative  Unit.

The report read as follows:

“On 27 August, at 14:12 hrs, a man by the name of Edward Williams came to Mountain Ash police station. He said he was a psychic and predicted that Princess Diana was going to die. In previous years, he has predicted that the Pope and Ronald Reagan were going to be the victims of assassination attempts. On both occasions he was proved to be correct. Mr Williams appeared to be quite normal.”

Williams, General, was spot-on as usual: four days later, the princess was no more.

Meanwhile, General,  even as Dodi and Diana were making their way to the Fayed-owned Ritz Hotel in central Paris, British newspapers were awash with headlines that suggested Diana was kind of deranged. Writes Andrew Morton in Diana in Pursuit of Love: “In The Independent Diana was described as ‘a woman with fundamentally nothing to say about anything’. She was ‘suffering from a form of arrested development’. ‘Isn’t it time she started using her head?’ asked The Mail on Sunday. The Sunday Mirror printed a special supplement entitled ‘A Story of Love’; The News of the World claimed that William had demanded that Diana should split from Dodi: ‘William can’t help it, he just doesn’t like the man.’ William was reportedly ‘horrified’ and ‘doesn’t think Mr Fayed is good for his mother’ – or was that just the press projecting their own prejudices? The upmarket Sunday Times newspaper, which had first serialised my biography of the princess, now put her in the psychiatrist’s chair for daring to be wooed by a Muslim. The pop-psychologist Oliver James put Diana ‘On the Couch’, asking why she was so ‘depressed’ and desperate for love. Other tabloids piled in with dire prognostications – about Prince Philip’s hostility to the relationship, Diana’s prospect of exile, and the social ostracism she would face if she married Dodi.”

DIANA AND DODI AT THE RITZ

Before Diana and Dodi departed the Villa Windsor sometime after 16 hrs, General, one of Dodi’s bodyguards Trevor Rees-Jones furtively asked Diana as to what the programme for the evening was. This Trevor did out of sheer desperation as Dodi had ceased and desisted from telling members of his security detail, let alone anyone else for that matter, what his onward destination was for fear that that piece of information would be passed on to the paparazzi. Diana kindly obliged Trevor though her response was terse and scarcely revealing. “Well, eventually we will be going out to a restaurant”, that was all Diana said. Without advance knowledge of exactly what restaurant that was, Trevor and his colleagues’ hands were tied: they could not do a recce on it as was standard practice for the security team of a VIP principal.  Dodi certainly, General, was being recklessly by throwing such caution to the winds.

At about 16:30, Diana and Dodi drew up at the Ritz Hotel, where they were received by acting hotel manager Claude Roulet.  The front entrance of the hotel was already crawling with paparazzi, as a result of which the couple took the precaution of using the rear entrance, where hopefully they would make their entry unperturbed and unmolested. The first thing they did when they were ensconced in the now $10,000 a night Imperial Suite was to spend some time on their mobiles and set about touching base with friends, relations, and associates.  Diana called at least two people, her clairvoyant friend Rita Rogers and her favourite journalist Richard Kay of The Daily Mail.

Rita, General,  was alarmed that Diana had proceeded to venture to Paris notwithstanding the warning she had given Dodi and herself in relation to what she had seen of him  in the crystal ball when the couple had consulted her. When quizzed as to what the hell she indeed was doing in Paris at that juncture, Diana replied that she and Dodi had simply come to do some shopping, which though partially true was not the material reason they were there. “But Diana, remember what I told Dodi,” Rita said somewhat reprovingly. Diana a bit apprehensively replied, “Yes I remember. I will be careful. I promise.” Well,  she did not live up to her promise as we shall soon unpack General.

As for Richard Kay, Diana made known to him that, “I have decided I am going to radically change my life. I am going to complete my obligations to charities and to the anti-personnel land mines cause, but in November I want to completely withdraw from formal public life.”

Once she was done with her round of calls, Diana went down to the hair saloon by the hotel swimming pool to have her hair washed and blow-dried ahead of the scheduled evening dinner.

THE “TELL ME YES” RING IS DELIVERED

Since the main object of their Paris trip was to pick up the “Tell Me Yes” engagement ring  Dodi had ordered in Monte Carlo a week earlier, Dodi decided to check on Repossi Jewellery, which was right within the Ritz prencincts, known as the Place Vendome.  It could have taken less than a minute for Dodi to get to the store on foot but he decided to use a car to outsmart the paparazzi invasion. He was driven there by Trevor Rees-Jones, with Alexander Kez Wingfield and Claude Roulet following on foot, though he entered the shop alone.

The Repossi store had closed for the holiday season but Alberto Repossi, accompanied by his wife and brother-in-law,  had decided to travel all the way from his home in Monaco  and momentarily open it for the sake of the potentially highly lucrative  Dodi transaction.  Alberto, however, disappointed Dodi as the ring he had chosen was not the one  he produced. The one he showed Dodi was pricier and perhaps more exquisite but Dodi  was adamant that he wanted the exact one he had ordered as that was what Diana herself had picked. It was a ploy  on the part of Repossi to make a real killing on the sale, his excuse to that effect being that Diana deserved a ring tha was well worthy of her social pedigree.  With Dodi having expressed disaffection, Repossi rendered his apologies and assured Dodi he would make the right ring available shortly, whereupon Dodi repaired back to the hotel to await its delivery. But Dodi  did insist nonetheless that the pricier ring be delivered too in case it appealed to Diana anyway.

Repossi delivered the two rings an hour later. They were collected by Roulet. On inspecting them, Dodi chose the very one he had seen in Monte Carlo, apparently at the insistence of Diana.  There is a possibility that Diana, who was very much aware of her public image and was not comfortable with ostentatious displays of wealth, may have deliberately shown an interest in a less expensive engagement ring. It  may have been a purely romantic as opposed to a prestigious  choice for her.

The value of the ring, which was found on a wardrobe shelf in Dodi’s apartment after the crash,  has been estimated to be between $20,000 and $250,000 as Repossi has always refused to be drawn into revealing how much Dodi paid for it. The sum, which enjoyed a 25 percent discount, was in truth paid for not by Dodi himself but by his father as was the usual practice.

Dodi was also shown Repossi’s sketches for a bracelet, a watch, and earrings which he proposed to create if Diana approved of them.

DIANA AND DODI GUSH OVER IMMINENT NUPTIALS

At about 7 pm,  Dodi and Diana left the Ritz and headed for Dodi’s apartment at a place known as the Arc de Trompe. They went there to properly tog themselves out for the scheduled evening dinner. They spent two hours at the luxurious apartment. As usual, the ubiquitous paparazzi were patiently waiting for them there.

As they lingered in the apartment, Dodi beckoned over to his butler Rene Delorm  and showed him  the engagement ring. “Dodi came into my kitchen,” Delorm relates. “He looked into the hallway to check that Diana couldn’t hear and reached into his pocket and pulled out the box … He said, ‘Rene, I’m going to propose to the princess tonight. Make sure that we have champagne on ice when we come back from dinner’.” Rene described the ring as “a spectacular diamond encrusted ring, a massive emerald surrounded by a cluster of diamonds, set on a yellow and white gold band sitting in a small light-grey velvet box”.

Just before 9 pm, Dodi called the brother of his step-father, Hassan Yassen, who also was staying at the Ritz  that night, and told him that he hoped to get married to Diana by the end of the year.

Later that same evening, both Dodi and Diana would talk to Mohamed Al Fayed, Dodi’s dad, and make known to him their pre-nuptial intentions. “They called me and said we’re coming back  (to London) on Sunday (August 31) and on Monday (September 1) they are

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RAMADAN – The Blessed Month of Fasting

28th March 2023

Ramadan is the fasting month for Muslims, where over one billion Muslims throughout the world fast from dawn to sunset, and pray additional prayers at night. It is a time for inner reflection, devotion to Allah, and self-control. It is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. As you read this Muslims the world over have already begun fasting as the month of Ramadan has commenced (depending on the sighting of the new moon).

‘The month of Ramadan is that in which the Qur’an was revealed as guidance for people, in it are clear signs of guidance and Criterion, therefore whoever of you who witnesses this month, it is obligatory on him to fast it. But whoever is ill or traveling let him fast the same number of other days, God desires ease for you and not hardship, and He desires that you complete the ordained period and glorify God for His guidance to you, that you may be grateful”. Holy Qur’an  (2 : 185)

Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars upon which the structure of Islam is built. The other four are: the declaration of one’s belief in Allah’s oneness and in the message of Muhammad (PBUH); regular attendance to prayer; payment of zakaat (obligatory charity); and the pilgrimage to Mecca.

As explained in an earlier article, fasting includes total abstinence from eating, drinking, smoking, refraining from obscenity, avoiding getting into arguments and including abstaining from marital relations, from sunrise to sunset. While fasting may appear to some as difficult Muslims see it as an opportunity to get closer to their Lord, a chance to develop spiritually and at the same time the act of fasting builds character, discipline and self-restraint.

Just as our cars require servicing at regular intervals, so do Muslims consider Ramadan as a month in which the body and spirit undergoes as it were a ‘full service’. This ‘service’ includes heightened spiritual awareness both the mental and physical aspects and also the body undergoing a process of detoxification and some of the organs get to ‘rest’ through fasting.

Because of the intensive devotional activity fasting, Ramadan has a particularly high importance, derived from its very personal nature as an act of worship but there is nothing to stop anyone from privately violating Allah’s commandment of fasting if one chooses to do so by claiming to be fasting yet eating on the sly. This means that although fasting is obligatory, its observance is purely voluntary. If a person claims to be a Muslim, he is expected to fast in Ramadan.

 

The reward Allah gives for proper fasting is very generous. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) quotes Allah as saying: “All actions done by a human being are his own except fasting, which belongs to Me and I will reward it accordingly.” We are also told by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that the reward for proper fasting is admittance into heaven.

Fasting earns great reward when it is done in a ‘proper’ manner. This is because every Muslim is required to make his worship perfect. For example perfection of fasting can be achieved through restraint of one’s feelings and emotions. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that when fasting, a person should not allow himself to be drawn into a quarrel or a slanging match. He teaches us: “On a day of fasting, let no one of you indulge in any obscenity, or enter into a slanging match. Should someone abuse or fight him, let him respond by saying: ‘I am fasting!’”

This high standard of self-restraint fits in well with fasting, which is considered as an act of self-discipline. Islam requires us to couple patience with voluntary abstention from indulgence in our physical desires. The purpose of fasting helps man to attain a high degree of sublimity, discipline and self-restraint. In other words, this standard CAN BE achieved by every Muslim who knows the purpose of fasting and strives to fulfill it.

Fasting has another special aspect. It makes all people share in the feelings of hunger and thirst. In normal circumstances, people with decent income may go from one year’s end to another without experiencing the pangs of hunger which a poor person may feel every day of his life. Such an experience helps to draw the rich one’s conscience nearer to needs of the poor. A Muslim is encouraged to be more charitable and learns to give generously for a good cause.

Fasting also has a universal or communal aspect to it. As Muslims throughout the world share in this blessed act of worship, their sense of unity is enhanced by the fact that every Muslim individual joins willingly in the fulfillment of this divine commandment. This is a unity of action and purpose, since they all fast in order to be better human beings. As a person restrains himself from the things he desires most, in the hope that he will earn Allah’s pleasure, self-discipline and sacrifice become part of his nature.

The month of Ramadan can aptly be described as a “season of worship.” Fasting is the main aspect of worship in this month, because people are more attentive to their prayers, read the Qur’an more frequently and also strive to improve on their inner and outer character. Thus, their devotion is more complete and they feel much happier in Ramadan because they feel themselves to be closer to their Creator.

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