Smart Sumerians
Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER…
The iron-clad secrecy that is planet Nibiru, also known as Planet X, is such that any matter-of-fact mention of it by career astronomers could entail dismissal at best or tactical riddance from the face of the Earth at worst!
Take the case of Robert Harrington, once Chief Astronomer of the US Naval Observatory. Harrington had been assigned charge of the search for Planet X, which quest he launched with colleague Thomas Van Flandern in 1979. In 1990, Harrington took his 8-inch telescope to Black Birch, New Zealand, which is said to be “one of the few viewing points on Earth optimal for sighting Planet X”. There, Harrington came up with a veritable deduction of the existence of Nibiru. On August 30 1990, Harrington invited Zechariah Sitchin, the most accomplished chronicler of the saga of the Anunnaki, to his office at the NASA complex and on camera (you can watch snippets of the interview on the Internet or purchase the full version on Amazon.com at $18) revealed the following to Sitchin:
That a planet at least 4 times the size of Earth was heading toward Earth;
That the planet had an atmosphere and it was habitable.
Harrington even drew a sketch of the planet’s orbit and much to Sitchin’s glee, the sketch was identical to the one Sitchin had postulated regarding Nibiru in his books dating back to his very first, The 12th Planet, which was published in 1976!
Harrington’s interview with Sitchin was not meant for public consumption yet, for Harrington intended to make public his findings in the fullness of time (Sitchin only availed the interview to the public in 2005). But NASA’s head honchos, when they heard about the interview, were indignant. The price came on January 23 1993, when Harrington died of “oesophageal cancer” after what was described as a “short but determined battle”. The illness was sudden and short-lived: his last medical check-up had given him the all-clear.
“It is extremely unlikely that a man would contract cancer and die within a matter of days, suffering the sudden impact of pain and debilitation characteristic of rapid onset cancer, while miraculously travelling on a physically demanding expedition and performing intensive astronomical operations,” one obituary lashed out.
Following the curious death of his colleague, Flandern developed cold feet: he decided his life was far more precious than a principled but perilous stand on the existence of Nibiru. He suddenly became tight-lipped in what was suspected as a self-imposed gag order. When he came out of his cocoon, it was in 1999 and he had, as expected, “sanitised” his position on our tenth major celestial body. This is what he told Meta Research Bulletin in September 1999:
"Three more trans-Neptunian objects confirm the presence of a second asteroid belt in the region beyond Neptune. This probably indicates that the hypothetical Planet X is now an asteroid rather than an intact planet."
Now, that was some U-turn, which was all the more amazing given that NASA itself had in the same year of Harrington’s death issued this statement: “Unexplained deviations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune point to a large outer Solar System body of 4 to 8 earth masses on a highly tilted orbit, beyond 7 billion miles (about 11 billion kilometres) from the Sun.”
DISCOVERIES ARE REDISCOVERIES
Throughout his long life, Zechariah Sitchin never tired of pointing modern astronomers and rocket scientists to the Sumerian tablets and cylinder seals, which were in plain display in the world’s leading museums. He kept saying that the day NASA and its ilk ceased regarding the Sumerian records as mere myths, they would make a giant leap forward in understanding both the origins of mankind and the saga of the Solar System. And because NASA was notorious for paying a stubborn, deaf ear to Sitchin, he always had the last laugh.
In 1977, NASA sent a unmanned aircraft named Voyager 2 towards Jupiter and other outer planets. In August 1989, Voyager 2 flew by Neptune and beamed back tantalising pictures of the beautiful planet, which pictures had people riveted to their television sets. In their running commentaries, astronomers said this was the first time mankind had gotten an intimate knowledge of the planet, which was “discovered” in 1846. Sitchin took very strong exception. In June 1989, two months before Voyager 2 entered the Neptune orbit, Sitchin had written articles for several US, European and South American periodicals. In them, he argued that Neptune was not first seen by mankind in 1846. “Neptune was known in antiquity,” Sitchin wrote, “and the discoveries that Voyager 2 will make will only confirm ancient knowledge.”
Sitchin averred that Voyager 2 was going to show that “Neptune is blue-green, watery, and has patches the colour of swamp-like vegetation”. Indeed, when Voyager 2’s pictures were relayed in August, they perfectly dovetailed with Sitchin’s prediction: Neptune was indeed blue-green; was made in great part of water; and did have patches whose colouration looked like swamp-like vegetation! Why was Sitchin so doubly sure of what he said? “It is all there in the Sumerian tablets of 6,000 years ago,” he said with a huge smile on what was ordinarily a mirthless face. And this was not the first or last time that Sitchin had been proved correct courtesy of the Sumerians of old.
In January 1986, the spacecraft Voyager 2 flew by the planet Uranus. It found that the planet was greenish blue – or bright greenish – in colour. That was exactly the way the Sumerians, without telescopes, had described it. The Sumerians called the planet Uranus MASHSIG, which means “bright greenish”. This characteristic Sitchin had already recorded in The Twelfth Planet – ten years before Voyager 2 photographed Uranus! What did this all mean? “It meant,” said Sitchin, “that in 1986, modern science did not discover what had been unknown; rather, it rediscovered and caught up with ancient knowledge. It was therefore because of that 1986 corroboration of my 1976 writings and thus of the veracity of the Sumerian texts that I felt confident enough to predict on the eve of the Voyager 2 encounter with Neptune what it would discover.”
In the Sumerian texts, Uranus was also described as KAKKAB SHANAMMA, meaning “Planet Which Is The Double” of Neptune. In other words, the Sumerians saw Uranus as basically the twin, in terms of features and characteristics, of Neptune. Has modern science confirmed that? Very much so. Writes Sitchin: “Uranus is indeed a look-alike of Neptune in size, colour, and watery content: both planets are encircled by rings and orbited by a multitude of moons … Both have an unusually extreme inclination relative to the planets’ axes of rotation – 58 degrees on Uranus, 50 degrees on Neptune … Neptune’s temperatures are similar to those of Uranus, which is more than a billion miles (1.6 billion kilometres) closer to the Sun.” The two planets also have almost the same day-lengths: sixteen hours for Uranus and seventeen hours for Neptune.
“Planet which is of the double,” said the Sumerians of Uranus in relation to Neptune. “… size and other characteristics that make Uranus a near twin of Neptune”, announced NASA scientists. The two statements were exactly the same but were made 6,000 years apart even though the second one was touted as a “discovery”. “In the case of these two planets, it seems that modern science has only caught up with ancient knowledge,” reiterated Sitchin. Sadly, our big-brained rocket scientists would never bring themselves to admit that the people of 6,000 years ago had a headstart over them in this kind of knowledge. But just who were the Sumerians, the people who had such seamless knowledge of the cosmos that modern science is only beginning to grasp?
THE “GODS” CALLED DINGIR
GENESIS 10:10: And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar. GENESIS 11:2: And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there …
Shinar (Sinar in Hebrew) is the Old Testament term for Sumer. Sumer is the English corruption of “Shumer”. Shumer is an Akkadian term, Akkadian being the parent language of Hebrew, the language of the Jewish people. Shumer means “Land of the Bright Ones”; “Land of the Shining Ones”; “Land of the Pure Ones“; “Land of the Guardians”; or “Land of the Watchers”. In other words, Sumer was the land of light-skinned, phosphorescent beings – “Lords of Brightness” – who watched over and safeguarded … well, who?
The Sumerians did not call their land Shumer. They called it KIENGIR, which means “Land of the Lords of the Blazing Rockets”. The Sumerians referred to themselves as UGSAGGIGGA, meaning "The Black-Headed People". This way, they distinguished themselves from people they called the DINGIR, or the “Righteous Ones Of The Rockets”. These DINGIR were very light-skinned, almost albino-like; blue-eyed in the main; and predominantly blonde-haired. The Sumerians regarded and actually deferred to these people as their “gods”. They revered and worshipped the DINGIR. Why?
According to the Sumerian records – on clay tablets and cylinder seals that are awash in the world’s leading museums – the DINGIR were the first inhabitants of Sumer, predating the Sumerians by several hundred-thousands of years. These DINGIR were acknowledged by Sumerians and other Earthlings before them as the creators of mankind: the DINGIR themselves were said to have come from another planet, the twelfth member of the Solar System called Nibiru, hence the Sumerians’ reference to Nibiru as “The Planet of the Gods”(In truth; this was their secondary place of origin. Their real origin was the Orion and Sirius star systems.) The DINGIR seemed immortal: they never died.
They did age all right, though imperceptibly slowly, but they just could not die: no one remembered a death of any one of them though history did record their death but only by violence. The DINGIR were by far physically bigger than ordinary mankind. They were at least a third taller and averaged about 12 feet (archaeologists have unearthed skeletons of ancient people measuring up to 15 feet in height). The DINGIR were capable of extraordinary, actually miraculous feats in the eyes of ordinary mankind. They possessed things that could perform wonders – produce light, kill people en masse, fly like a bird in the sky, etc. The things that flew like a bird (and in which the DINGIR rode) the Sumerians depicted, in their pictographic inscriptions, like a modern-day rocket! No wonder they referred to these wondrous beings as Lords of the Blazing Rockets.
The Sumerians lived with and under their gods – physical, flesh-and-blood gods, not imaginary, faith-based ones. They served and worshipped these gods, particularly the preeminent ones (called Patron Gods or Goddesses), in their residences. The residences of the gods were called ziggurats, the pyramid-like temples of those days. The gods lived in these temples, where the Sumerians came to worship them, pay homage, tender gifts, and make animal and human sacrifices to them. In turn, the gods pledged to watch over and safeguard their “people” – pronounce blessings over their lives and land and (naturally, not supernaturally) help them defeat or ward off their enemies in war through the use of sophisticated weaponry, which Sumerians deemed magical or miraculous. But when the people seriously transgressed, the gods punished them accordingly, such as abandoning them to be taken into slavery or captivity by their enemies (as when Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar was allowed to take the Jews into captivity by their god Yahweh in 587 BC).
HEAVEN WAS PHYSICAL
The DINGIR were believed to have come from “Heaven”. The commonplace term for the DINGIR was Anunnaki, meaning “Those Who From Heaven To Earth Came” as per popular interpretation though there is another, much more spot-on meaning we shall go into at a later stage. The Bible refers to the DINGIR as the Elohim, the Nephilim, or the Anakim. The Anunnaki, folks, were the creators of mankind. (Even the Bible, when it is read objectively – especially in its Hebrew original and not in doctored, vested-interest English translations that almost render it fictitious – clearly demonstrate so.)
We did mention at one stage that to the ancients, Heaven was not a spiritual realm of existence where the First Source dwells, the way it is understood in modern-day religion. To the ancients, Heaven was the home of the Mother Goddess primarily. The Mother Goddess, again, was not a spiritual being: she was the Queen of Orion, the most powerful sovereign in the Peshmeten, the 9th Sector of the Shagari stars (that is, the Orion star system together with its subject worlds in neighbouring star systems). Orion was actually Ori-An, with Ori simply meaning “Holy” or “Master Race” and “An” meaning “Heaven”. An was also a title of the Orion Queen. Thus Orion was the abode of the Holy Goddess.
In due course, when the Sirius star system became the companion empire to Orion as opposed to a subsidiary empire, which it was before (a subject we shall explore at an appropriate time), and was now ruled by Kings instead of Queens, the Kings of Sirius also adopted the same title An, or Anu. Consequently, Sirius also came to be known as Heaven, with its King being referred to as the Supreme God. In Sumerian times, the Orion Queen was actually only minimally directly adored: it was the Siriun King, Anu, who was worshipped either directly or through proxies – his offspring who were now directly ruling Earth. The Orion Queen was not completely discarded: she too was venerated but through her offspring too. Just who these were we will dwell upon very soon.
Anu was also by extension the King of planet Nibiru. Although he was based in the Sirius star system, he did spend a great deal of time on Nibiru. Much of the political dynamics Zechariah Sitchin relates in his books in connection with Nibiru actually took place in Sirius, something he was aware of but deliberately swept under the rug or of which he was simply ignorant.
On the rare occasions that Anu came to Earth on a state visit, he came not directly from Sirius but via Nibiru. As such, the ancients referred to Nibiru as “The Lord”, amongst other names. This denoted, first and foremost, that Nibiru was the seat of the god Anu. Secondly, it exalted Nibiru as the most prominent planet of the Solar System. In the event, Nibiru too became known as Heaven, which simply meant the abode of the god Anu.
NEXT WEEK: HOW THE SOLAR SYSTEM WAS FORMED
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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!
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“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
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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.