Scions of a Reptoid Goddess
Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER…
Mankind is actually womankind and has Reptilian origins!
The world we live in, and even the cosmos itself, seems to be a domain in which men hold sway. It is taken as an article of faith that men rule the world. Even when we allude to supernatural beings, whether these be God, the First Source, or Lucifer, the so-called Devil, we use the pronoun “He”, never mind that as pure spirit-souls they are genderless. Our womenfolk are already resigned from the day they are born. “This is a man’s world”, every woman will gripe. Of the Old Testament gods, the Anunnaki, the most influential were male – Enki, Enlil (Jehovah), Nannar-Sin (Allah), Marduk, Utu-Shamash. Even the title of this column is male-chauvinistic, something Batsho Dambe-Groth correctly chided as blatantly “sexist” when I ran into her one day.
Yet the paradox of the matter is that our planet Earth was not founded by a race of male beings as most of the ancient records, including the famous Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets and cylinder seals, seem to suggest. It was founded by a race of females. Yes, the emissaries or scouts who did much of the leg work were males but the sovereigns were females. The overall monarch was a goddess, not a god. Just who this was we will unpack in due course but first let us demonstrate why we men are actually inferior to women, why we must acknowledge that we are secondary and females are pre-eminent.
MEN ARE ALTERED FEMALES!
As humans, we reproduce by sexual copulation. A male produces a male gamete called a spermatozoon and a female produces a female gamete known as an ovum or egg. It is the fusion of the spermatozoon with the ovum that produces an embryo. But there is a lot about the ovum and spermatozoon, and indeed the embryo, that we either take for granted as a people or do not bother about at all and leave entirely to biologists.
The ovum is the largest cell in the female body. The spermatozoon is the smallest cell in the male body. On that score, it is advantage women.
The ovum is 14,500 times larger than the spermatozoon. What does this say about the embryo? It means the embryo is 14,500 parts female to 1 part male. In other words, the embryo is by far more female than male. Equality does not at all factor into the equation here. A woman dominates the embryo 14,500 times. On that score therefore, it is advantage women again. But there is more.
Did you know that for the first six weeks of its life an embryo is female? We all start as females folks: it is only at the beginning of the seventh week that sexual differentiation begins, when males are clearly defined as males. For the first six weeks of our lives in the womb, Assam Makwinja, Thato Ramakgoba, Henry Kwabena Segopa, Rakim Daewood, and myself were girls even if we proudly celebrate masculinity! Says Dr Alfred Hoet, a distinguished endocrinologist: “During the first few weeks of development, the embryo remains sexually undifferentiated, though it is oriented towards femaleness … Left to its own devices, an embryo will always become a female.”
Did you hear that folks? The natural orientation of an embryo, the natural internal directive of life of all human embryos, is female. In the event that the embryo becomes male, it is the result of a kind of “intervention”. What is this intervention? It is testosterone, the principal male sex hormone. It is testosterone that transforms what began as a female into a male. In this respect again, it is advantage women.
Everybody who has done basic biology knows about the X and Y chromosomes. The X chromosome is carried by females, and the Y chromosome is carried by males only. On average, the X chromosome has 3700 genes, whilst the Y chromosome has 15 genes. In other words, there are at least 250 female genes for every male gene. So when an X chromosome unites with a Y chromosome in fertilisation, the resulting embryo is 250 parts female to 1 part male. Genetically therefore, we men are 250 times more female than we are male! Again, it’s advantage women.
Scientists say a Y chromosome is actually a deformed X chromosome. Men are innately deformed beings genetically. It is a woman who is a proper human being. Doctors says whereas cells need an X chromosome to continue to exist, they do not need a Y chromosome at all; they can do without it. But without the X chromosome, a cell will wither and die. What does that mean folks? It means the Y chromosome is not essential to an individual’s survival, whereas an X chromosome is. It means life on Earth needs an X chromosome but it does not need a Y chromosome. Even without the Y chromosome, it would be business as usual. That indeed bears out, for females have two X chromosomes whereas males have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. It is males who need an X chromosome to exist; females do not need a Y chromosome because they have no use for it. Once again, advantage women.
Evolutional biologists say the Y chromosome is a mutation of the X chromosome. In other words, the X chromosome came first; the Y chromosome came later. The same evolutional biologists say the Y chromosome began to appear on Earth about 130 million years ago. If, as is reckoned, life on Earth began 4.1 billion years ago, then for the first 4.08 billion years or thereabouts, there were no Y chromosomes on Earth. There was no male life on the planet for the first 4 billion years: only female life.
One piece of physical evidence in grown adults that we men are fundamentally female is that we have nipples. We don’t need nipples because we don’t suckle babies. So why do we have them when they serve no purpose? They are there simply as testimony to the fact that we were on course to be girls until testosterone intervened and threw us off course at 7 weeks of age in our mothers’ womb.
Another piece of glaring evidence that we began as girls are those dangly bits down under and our vaunted prick. Most people are not aware that those precious balls began as ovaries and that imperious Dick began as a clit. That is the long and short of it. Ultimately, every single man on Earth is an altered female.
An expert puts the argument in context thus: “A seed that will naturally become a rose is a rose seed. A seed that will naturally become a sunflower is a sunflower seed. If the seed of a rose is bathed in chemicals that cause the seed to yield another kind of flower, that new flower is an altered rose. If the seed of a sunflower is bathed in chemicals that cause the seed to yield another kind of flower, there is no question that the new flower is an altered sunflower. An embryo that will naturally become a female is therefore a female embryo. Therefore, if a female embryo is bathed in chemicals (testosterone) that cause it to yield another kind of human being, that new human being is an altered female.” How true!
OF VIRGIN BIRTH AND THE OJIBWE CASE
If for the first 4.08 billion years there were no male life forms on our planet, then how was reproduction possible? Well, this was achieved by what is known as virgin birth Jesus style! You may be surprised to learn that a virgin birth is not only possible but is demonstrable. There is even a scientific word for it – parthenogenesis. This is a form of reproduction where an ovum develops into fully functional offspring without being fertilised by a male sperm cell.
About 100 years ago, the famous biologist Jacques Loeb said: “The male is not necessary for reproduction. A simple physio-chemical agent in the female is enough to bring it about." True, parthenogenesis has been observed in the animal kingdom. It was first documented in 1845 by the Swiss naturalist Charles Bonnet. Bonnet noted that female aphids (small sap-sucking insects) laid eggs which developed to full adulthood without mating with a male. Parthenogenesis has since been observed in a range of insects (e.g. ants and honeybees), reptiles such as komodo dragons, monitor lizards, and snakes, as well as sharks. In June 2012, an 11-year-old reticulated python produced six babies without mating with a male snake at Louis Zoo in Kentucky in the US.
Parthenogenesis does not naturally occur in mammals but it can be induced, that is, artificially engendered. For instance, in 1936, Gregory Goodwin Pincus successfully induced parthenogenesis in a rabbit. In April 2004, scientists at the Tokyo University of Agriculture created a mouse using pathogenesis. Monkeys have also been produced using the same process. The snag with mammals arising from artificial parthenogenesis is that they either do not live to a ripe age or develop certain abnormalities that seriously handicap them in one way or the other.
What about humans? As we have underscored above, the female was the first physical species. For eons, females reproduced their kind by parthenogenesis. Males came later when the “gods” decided not only to vary the species but to wrest universal sovereignty from the “goddess”. As the American botanist, paleontologist, and sociologist Lester Frank Ward (1841-1913) aptly put it, “Women are the race itself – the strong primary sex – and men the biological afterthought.”
Parthenogenesis is not actively operative in human females but remains latent, meaning it could occur if intently and painstakingly stimulated. In 1933, Dr Walter Timme, a famed endoctrinologist, delivered a lecture to the New York Academy of Medicine titled “Immaculate Conception – A Scientific Possibility" in which he persuasively argued that a virgin birth was physiologically possible. This was because the parovarium (a group of tiny, tube-like structures often found near the ovary or oviduct) in some cases did produce male reproductive cells capable of fertililising the eggs in the same body, causing them to develop without the participation of male gametes. The parovarium have been known to appear in young girls aged 8 to 16 with intact hymens, that is, who have never had sex.
A persuasive demonstration that a virgin birth in humans is feasible is the documented case of the Ojibwe. The Ojibwe are a North American Red Indian race who are found both in the US and in Canada. Red Indians are probably the race I admire the most in the whole wide world. That is because they are bearers of very valuable ancient knowledge that has helped me understand the world much better than I would otherwise have (for instance, the teachings, revelations, and insights of Robert Morning Sky, a Native American of Hopi and Apache stock, are a golden nugget). It is one, if not the major, reason the Illuminati have deliberately ostracised them and once upon a time desired to have them disappear from the face of the Earth (In the 60s/70s Cowboy movies, for example, Red Indians were always cast as bow-and-arrow wielding villains who had to be exterminated by horse-mounted, rifle-bearing Westerners).
In 1971, my friend Den Poitras, who like Robert Morning Sky is an outspoken male feminist, reviewed a book about the Ojibwe that documented their traditional practices long before Westerners invaded and appropriated the Northern American land mass from them. This is what Poitras says about the subject of the book: “One story (in the book) was that wise-women of the tribe looked for certain young maidens that possessed grace, intelligence, and compassion. Sometimes a candidate for conceiving and giving birth this way wouldn't show up for a generation or two. Nevertheless, these wise-women kept an eagle-eye open for her. When found, men were not allowed to court her. When she reached the age of fertility, her first period, she was instructed to fast for several days and, if willing, was required to dance around a fire in a sacred women's lodge built far away from the village. This ceremony occurred while she was ovulating. Ideally, a state of bliss or ecstasy was reached during which, according to hidden wise-women knowledge, it would be possible for her to conceive and give birth in the ‘old way’ (virgin birth). They also knew that a child born this way would be blessed with gifts of healing, clairvoyance or leadership. The Great Spirit would give to the child whatever tools the tribe might be in need of.”
Clearly then, a virgin birth in humans, in the manner Jesus is said to have arisen, is not outlandish: it is possible and has happened, at least in ages past.
WE ARE FROM ORION
If life on Earth began 4.1 billion years ago, how was it incepted and who incepted it? The Sumerian records, which preceded the Genesis record by more than 1000 years, relate that life on Earth originated from outer space, when a stray, life-bearing giant planet from the Sirius star system collided with another planet called Tiamat, the original Earth, when both planets were in their formative stages.
The Theory of Panspermia seems to concur with the Sumerian records. It says “seeds of life” came to Earth on the backs of meteorites that crashed into our world billions of years ago. These seeds of life were not Y-chromosome-based: they were X-chromosome-based because as we have demonstrated above, the Y chromosome is a recent arrival, having debuted only 130 million years ago.
Why did X-chromosome life have to precede by Y-chromosome life? It is because female life forms can reproduce on their own, whereas male life forms cannot.
Now, these X-chromosome life seeds did not come from without: they had “star ancestors”, that is, cosmic ancestors. Whether the seeds of life came to Earth by accident or by design, their ancestors were obviously X-chromosome based. But we know life on Earth was purposefully seeded by intelligent beings because nothing happens by accident in the universe; everything has a purpose even if we may not understand that purpose.
If the intelligent beings, our star ancestors, who sowed the seeds of life wanted X-chromosome life to flourish first on our planet, then they themselves must have been X-chromosome based. They must have been female. Cosmic history indeed does bear that out. Contrary to what the Sumerian chronicles suggest, life on Earth was seeded not by male extraterrestrials but female extraterrestrials. And for these female extraterrestrials to have that kind of clout, they must have had overriding power and authority in the greater scheme of cosmic geopolitics.
Who were these powerful race of extraterrestrial females who spawned life on Earth?
Well, we know who they are because their history is documented in the cosmic archives. They were the Ari-ans, meaning “The Divine of Heaven”, Heaven in this case standing simply for the star system in which they dwelt. In its anglicised form, Ari-an becomes … Orion!
Our star ancestors were the ruling race of females from the Orion star system. And not only that: they were Reptilians!
NEXT WEEK: WHY MANKIND HAS WORSHIPPED REPTILES
Columns
GONE FISHING
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!
Columns
“I Propose to Diana Tonightâ€
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
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 restaurantâ€, 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. Â 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. Â 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.â€
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 boxâ€.
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
Columns
RAMADAN – The Blessed Month of Fasting
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!’â€
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.