Enki Probes The Heavens
Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER
How the celestial arc we call the Zodiac was figured out
Although Alalu was the first royal Sirian to set foot on Earth and even ruled the planet for the most part of 28,800 years, he did not at the end of the day make that much of a historic mark as he relatively quickly fell into disgrace and was forever tainted. It was Enki, his designated deputy, who eclipsed him and who is today “honoured”, albeit unwittingly, as the planet’s founder: this tribute is indeed borne out in the very word “Earth”, which is prefixed with his other name “Ea”. Of course his step-brother Enlil, the Bible’s main Jehovah, is religiously the more revered but that is simply because he extorted this preeminence by hook and crook. As we shall soon demonstrate, it is Enki who is to all intents and purposes the father of mankind from a material point of view.
Enki was a versatile scientist, acknowledged by the Anunnaki as Nibiru’s greatest intellect ever. It is not surprising, therefore, that when he arrived on Earth about 432,000 years ago, he did not merely restrict himself to the critical imperative of gold extraction: he also devoted himself to studying the planet’s flora and fauna, its geography and seasonality, and its firmament. It did not take him long to divide a day into 12 x 2 hours of 60 minutes each; a week into 7 days; a month into 30 days on average; and a year into 12 months amounting to roughly 360 days (The ancients used a 360-day calendar, which was reconciled with the natural solar year of 365.25 days every 6 years through adding a 30-day leap month). Why these particular reckonings, which were based on the numbers 6, 7, 12 and 30?
CORRELATING NIBIRUIAN AND EARTHLY MATHEMATICS
We did casually touch on this subject in an earlier piece, but it does bear repeating and further elucidation anyway. Whilst in modern-day mathematics we base our calculations on the Decimal System, or simply the number 10, Nibiru mathematics was based on the number 6. Nibiru’s Base 6 was owing to the fact that the Anunnaki, unlike Earthlings, were born with 12 digits – six fingers and six toes. Earthlings are born with a total of 10 digits – five fingers and five toes. On very rare occasions, some people come into the world with 12 digits, as happened with a late maternal cousin of mine, and are immediately operated upon to remove the extra ones. These incidences bear out the fact that humans indeed do carry Anunnaki genes.
Enki divided the day into 12 double hours of 60 minutes each. The number 12 primarily derived from the composition of the Solar System’s principal celestial bodies – the Sun; the Moon; Mercury; Venus; Earth; Mars; Jupiter; Saturn; Uranus; Neptune; Pluto (NASA in 2006 demoted Pluto to a minor planet without obtaining permission from Lord Enki!), and Nibiru. The number 60 represented ultimate authority in Anunnaki lore, as it stood for Anu, the ruler of Nibiru and the greater Sirian-Orion empire. Mathematically, it was the lowest common multiple of 10 and 6 and so best reconciled Earth’s and Nibiru’s natural mathematical base numbers. It is in this light that Sumerian mathematics, the Sumerians being the world’s best known civilisation of old, was sexagesimal, that is, based on the number 60.
As he observed the heavens, Enki noticed that the Moon was seen only once in about 28 days. Ideally, he should have divided a year into 13 lunar months totaling 364 days. Instead, Enki divided a month into basically 30 days of four ill-fitting weeks constituting 7 days each. Why did he do this? Well, Enki intended a closer correlation between Earthly phenomena and that of Nibiru. On Nibiru, a year was equivalent to 3600 Earth years; a month was equivalent to 360 Earth years; a week was equivalent to 36 Earth years; and a Nibiru day was equivalent to 30 Earth days.
It was to relate a Nibiru day with an Earth month that Enki allotted 30 days to an Earthly month (A 12-month-year also matched the 12-man Pantheon of Anunnaki “Gods”). As for a 7-day week, this, as we have already seen, principally had to do with the fact that Enki and his Heroes toiled for six “days” whilst setting up Eridu, their first settlement on Earth, and rested on the seventh “day”.
The number 7 ultimately came to denote Earth, being the 7th planet from Pluto’s direction. It explains why 7 and its derivative numbers like 17 and 70 bear such Biblical significance, witness Jesus’ impassioned appeal to “forgive 70 times 7 times”. (The Bible is fraught with numerology and other mystical symbolism whose meaning, significance, implication, and ramifications are best understood only by the Illuminati and dedicated researchers.)
MAPPING THE GREAT YEAR
What names did Enki give to each of the 12 months of our year? This is a brain teaser as history shows that the names appear to change from age to age and even between the great metropolises of Sumerian and Babylonian times. Nor are we any wiser as to exactly what names Enki gave to each of the 7 days of the week. The names we use today are of Roman origin and were assigned sometime between the Ist and 3rd centuries.
They all derive from celestial bodies as follows: Sunday (from the Sun); Monday (from the Moon); Tuesday (“Day of Mars” in Latin); Wednesday (“Day of Mercury” in Latin); Thursday (“Day of Jupiter” in Latin); Friday (“Day of Venus” in Latin); and Saturday (from Saturn).
The Romans chose these 7 celestial bodies because at the time, they were the only ones known of the Solar System: the Sumerian civilisation, which was aware of all the 12 principal members of the Solar System including Nibiru, had long disappeared along with the bulk of its scholarly as well as astronomical knowledge.
After living on Earth for seven straight shars, or over 25,200 years, Enki concretised a celestial study he had been patiently making all along – that roughly every 2160 years, there was a different band of stars – a constellation – in Earth’s evening skies.
Indeed, at the beginning of the eighth shar, Enki noted that the constellation that he observed during his first 2160 years on Earth reappeared. In other words, the cycle had begun all over again. The constellations were of course not uniform in their duration: some lasted slightly longer or shorter than others.
Enki, therefore, took the average duration, 2160 years, as the base mathematical figure, especially that it was divisible by both 6 and 60. Altogether, he counted 12 varying constellations. Why did the evening sky’s starry backdrop alter every 2160 years?
As the Earth revolves around the Sun, the Sun is at the same time revolving around the centre of the Milky Way galaxy and therefore is carrying the Earth and other planets with it. What this entails is that the Earth, once it has completed one year around the Sun, does not return to the same exact spot it was the previous year, for it is actually moving from one constellation to another, or from one zodiac house to another in a celestial arc.
The Earth, Enki calculated, spent an average of 2160 years, also called an age, in each house, which was equivalent to 30 degrees of the celestial arc – the great circular path it made in its motion in space. Because 30 degrees amounted to 2160 years, then one degree amounted to 72 years.
To completely traverse all the 12 houses, the Earth spent an average total of 25,920 years, or one complete revolution of 360 degrees. Thus the Earth, in its journey through the zodiac houses, returned to the same exact spot in space only once in 25,920 years. Enki called this duration the Great Year or the Grand Circle. In our day, we call it the precession of the equinoxes.
NAMING THE CONSTELLATIONS
Having ascertained the Great Year, it was now time for Enki to allocate names to each of the 12 Houses of the Zodiac. What would be the basis for their naming? Enki decided the cue would be the most apparent shape each constellation made in the evening sky.
For instance, he recalled that in his first 2160 years on Earth, the evening sky’s starry background resembled that of a lion. So he called this constellation URGULA, or Leo as we call it today. By the same token, he thought Cancer’s pattern resembled a Crab; Taurus looked a lot like a bull; Pisces’ was like two fishes; and so forth and so on.
The 12 constellations were observable mainly in the skies over the part of the Earth that lies between latitudes 30 degrees north and 30 degrees south. Enki called this celestial band the Way of Anu, after his step father.
The northern skies, that is those seen north of the 30th parallel, he called the Way of Enlil to accord with Enlil’s base in the EDIN, whereas the southern skies, those seen south of the 30th parallel, he named the Way of Enki as indeed he himself was now to be based in the Abzu, today’s southern Africa, to oversee gold mining activities. It was Enki who marked the lines of latitude as well as the meridian lines.
Conventional history, of course, will throw up such names as Amerigo Vespucci and, in relation to pointing mankind to the zodiac phenomenon, Hipparchus, but that is a red herring – a device meant to conceal the fact that there were technologically advanced peoples on Earth who figured these out long before mankind emerged.
By most calculations, the last Great Year, the one still in progress, began in 23820 BC with the constellation Aquarius. We are now in the Age of Pisces, which began in 60 BC. In the next 90 years or thereabouts, Pisces will be bidding farewell to us to again give way to the Age of Aquarius: the conclusion of the Great Year is upon us.
That is speaking mathematically. In actuality, we may as well be in the age of Aquarius already as signs abound that there is a great deal of water symbolism in happenings around us – the ice bucket water challenge, capsizing ferries on seas as people from the Third World attempt to emigrate to Europe to escape wars and economic hardships at home, and repeated incidences of airliners plunging and disappearing into the sea.
History shows that when a new constellation had relatively recently been ushered in, its symbol came into vogue in human affairs. I will provide just one example in this connection. In the first three centuries of the Age of Pieces, the fish motif was practically all around.
This phenomenon is nowhere better illustrated than in the New Testament, where Jesus is said to have formed the core of his apostolic band from fishermen; multiplied a couple of fishes to feed the multitudes listening to his countryside sermons; alluded to prophet Jonah spending three days in the belly of a fish; and himself fed on a boiled fish post-resurrection.
In point of fact (which fact most Christians do not know), in the first three centuries, the Christian symbol was not the cross: it was fish! In his book The End of Days, the legendary Zechariah Sitchin shows a picture of a mosaic floor of an ancient Christian church date to the 3rd century AD. In the centre of the floor is a depiction of two fishes – the zodiacal sign of Pisces.
You will also note that the ceremonial headdress worn by the Pope and other Catholic bishops – called a mitre – is in the shape of a fish. The Jesus story is steeped in fish symbolism as the Bible lays bare.
ASSIGNING ZODIACAL AGES
Just as the members of the Anunnaki pantheon of the 12 did have celestial counterparts – planets which symbolised them – they also had zodiacal counterparts – constellations that symbolised them. However, the symbolism was not particular to one person in every epoch: it differed according to Anunnaki political dynamics. As such, if Leo, for example, represented Enki in one Great Year, in the next year it might represent Utu-Shamash.
When Enki first came to Earth, he did so in the age of Leo – URGULA in Sumerian, meaning “Lion”. The lion is a sign of royalty. Initially therefore, Leo was dedicated to Enki as the God of Africa.
In future epochs, Leo was associated with Utu-Shamash, Enlil-Jehovah’s grandson to coincide with his status as a Sun God since the lion also symbolised the Sun, with its mane representing the Sun’s corona.
In yet another epoch, Leo was the zodiacal emblem of Inanna-Ishtar, Shamash’s twin sister. This we glean from ancient depictions of Leo, which variously show Inanna riding a lion, holding the lion by its tail, or keeping a lion on a leash, all triumphant gestures.
It all allegorised her theft of the ME’s (tiny objects encoded with formulas for all aspects of science and civilization) from Enki at one time, after which she briefly wielded a command of general knowledge that rivalled Enki’s.
Cancer (DUB, meaning “Pincers”) was associated with Ninurta, Enlil-Jehovah’s firstborn son who was a formidable warrior, particularly in view of his vanquishment of Kumarbi, the “evil Zu”. Gemini (MASHTABA, “The Twins”) obviously commemorated the twins Inanna and Shamash, who the Egyptian zodiac indeed depicted as male and female. Taurus (GUANNA, “The Heavenly Bull”) was primarily the symbol of Enlil, who was indeed known as the Bull of Heaven.
But the fact that the Taurian bull was depicted with the symbol of the planet Saturn on its back could also point to Ninurta, Enlil’s firstborn son whose celestial symbol was Saturn. Ishkur-Adad is yet another candidate as not only did he set up residence in the Taurus mountain range that stretched all the way from Turkey to Iraq but he too did adopt the bull as his secondary symbol as a prospective Enlil.
Aries (KUMAL, “Field Dweller”) would have been dedicated to Marduk, who took Abel under his wing to teach him shepherding, or his youngest brother Dumuzi, whose expertise in animal husbandry in today’s Sudan was lauded.
The last age of Aries (2160-0) was plainly dedicated to Marduk. Pisces (SIMMAH, “Fishes”) was Enki’s fundamental symbol as attested by his other name Ea, which means “He Who Lives in Water”. Enki in fact had a fishpond at his dwelling at Eridu. But in some epochs, Pisces could have been dedicated to Ereshkigal, Enki’s granddaughter who was a prolific breeder of fish in today’s Great Lakes region of Africa as a spouse of Nergal, Enki’s son.
Whereas Aquarius (GU, “Lord of the Waters”) could have been Enki’s emblem in some epochs, the argument is persuasive that it largely applied to Ninagal, his fourth son with Damkina. For Ninagal’s epithet was “Lord of the Great Waters” – the seas.
This was because he was the Anunnaki’s maestro maritime navigator, who was in charge of transporting ores by sea from the Abzu, southern Africa, to the Edin in Sumeria. Capricorn (SUHURMASH, “Goat-Fish”) is clearly Enki’s symbol. Enki’s principal emblem was that of fish but he was something of a goat too.
In ancient times, a goat represented reproductive power (it has the biggest balls of any animal in proportion to its body and produces the hugest amount of semen in a single ejaculation). We know that Enki was a serial philanderer who planted children all over the place.
Moreover, Enki was dubbed the Devil by Enlil-Jehovah for imparting privilleged knowledge to Adam and Eve. Enki therefore has since been the scapegoat for all the evil that wracks the world. His Capricorn symbolism was most likely intended as a resounding protest at this most glaring injustice.
Sagittarius (PABIL, “Defender”) is presented as an archer, a hunter. It could have represented Ninurta, who was the god of hunting. But in some epochs, it may have represented Enki, the only one of the Anunnaki pantheon who was a full-blooded Aryan (a being from Orion).
The Orion constellation is also known as the hunter. Scorpio (GIRTAB, “which claws and cuts”) no doubt was the zodiacal counterpart of Utu-Shamash for it was he who was in charge of both the pre-flood and post-diluvial Anunnaki spaceports in Sippar and in the Sinai peninsula respectively. Indeed, the syllable GIR connotes rockets. In any case, the Anunnaki rank and file who guarded the spaceports were called “scorpion men” as they were always primed to “sting” trespassers.
The most probable candidate for Libra (ZIBAANNA, “Heavenly Fate”), represented by scales, is again Utu-Shamash, who was the Anunnaki god of justice. His cult city Sippar in fact housed the Anunnaki supreme court. Finally, Virgo (ABSIN, “Her father was Sin”) clearly was emblematic of Inanna, whose father indeed was Nanna-Sin, Enlil-Jehovah’s second born son and the Allah of Islam. Virgo is depicted as a beautiful maiden, which Inanna once actually was.
NEXT WEEK: THE RIDDLE OF OUR COMING INTO BEING
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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 Tonight”
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
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.