Questions on Devils
Columns
Benson C Sail
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER
This time we address questions on the world of Lucifer
WHEN LUCIFER REBELLED, WHY DIDN’T GOD JUST DESTROY HIM? LOOK AT THE CHAOS HE HAS CAUSED AND PERSIST IN CAUSING.
Lucifer was not created by First Source: he was fashioned by the Paal Taal, the beings God created first. These are known as Creator Gods. Even as highly errant and fallible humans, we do not destroy our kids when they offend against us, do we? We’re all children of the Paal Taal, including the Devil and his demonic host, and since the Paal Taal themselves were created from the essence of God, we all have God’s energetic DNA.
Note that all Lucifer wanted was to exercise his free will, which is God’s desire for us all. The problem was that Lucifer decided to go this way with self-seeking motives, and anything that you do with a primarily self-centred bent is ungodly and is therefore at cross-purposes with God’s perfect will for his creation.
WILL LUCIFER EVER REPENT OF HIS WAYWARD WAYS AND THEREFORE BE RECONCILED WITH GOD?
In theory, he would never do so because first, he is overly consumed with a sense of pride. His ego is such that the idea of retracing his way back to First Source with cap in hand to seek forgiveness is simply inconceivable. Second, he fancies himself as perfect in wisdom and when you have such a mindset, you believe in the efficacy of whatever you set out to do.
But consider that God’s will for each one of us is to nurture us so that in the fullness of time we become like him – our own God with our own cosmic domain. And with God, nothing is impossible. So if God indeed ultimately has to have his way, then even the likes of Lucifer must one day see the error of their ways, make amends, and become forces of good. Bear in mind that ultimately good must triumph over evil and not the reverse.
HOW DOES LUCIFER LOOK LIKE? HE’S INVARIABLY DEPICTED AS BLACK OR DARKISH RED IN COLOUR.
I have never met him and has no wish to meet him. What I gather is that Lucifer has the capacity to appear in any form he chooses like and to be in several places at once. We all have this same capacity but as highly manipulated beings in this trap system we call the universe, we’re unable to express this capacity. According to ex-Satanists, one version of Lucifer has him looking just like we do but very huge, flawlessly beautiful, and albino-white. That is how he ordinarily looks like.
But he alters his appearance depending on the setting and the purpose of his showing. ERICA MUKISA is a Ugandan evangelist who was an agent of Satan for seven years. She has written a two-part volume titled Erica, Seven Years in Hell, published just this year. This is how she describes Lucifer in her first meeting with him. “In front of me was a big throne shaped like a pyramid and a very tall man in a black cape which was fastened at the neck and underneath he wore a red gown which flowed down to his feet.
His skin was pale white … He had horns on his head and his teeth looked like dog teeth. He had a moustache which looked more like cat whiskers and his fingernails looked like the claws of an eagle. They were very dark. His eyes were scary and a very strange evil power emanated from them, drawing me towards them. It was like someone could disappear in them. Between the horns on his head he was bald but behind the horns he had very long hair flowing down to his back. He had a tail which looked like that of a lion.”
WHERE EXACTLY IS LUCIFER BASED HERE ON EARTH?
He presides over a subterranean world under the seabed which he introduces as “Hell” to initiates. It is at once physical and metaphysical, with walls that can draw away from you as you approach them, as if they are sentient things. Like our surface world, Lucifer’s world is multifaceted. In some places, it is more sophisticated than even our most exotic places on the surface of Earth. In some areas, the environment is so oppressive as to be unbearable.
This is the Hell proper. Let us once again listen to Erica Mukisa: “Hell has industries where the latest entertainment, luxury, fashion and technology trends are being invented and exported into the world in order to distract mankind from following after Christ. The names of these companies and factories manufacture every name brand you’ve ever heard of and some you have never heard of. I saw a company which manufactures vehicles with the same logo as Mercedes Benz.
I saw different offices representing some of the media houses like CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, Hollywood film companies. I saw Walt Disney. I saw food manufacturing companies. I saw huge cities, with huge arcades and casinos, similar to the ones you see in Las Vegas Nevada. Many (not all) of the CEOs of these major international conglomerates are in bed with Satan. They’ve sold their souls through freemasonry and other religions and belief systems other than that of Christ. Satan gives them no rest.
This is why CEOs often sleep only two or three hours and wake up to go back to work. Satan is a cruel slave driver and a hard taskmaster. Do these companies which make billions of dollars every year really need to make more billions this year than last year? Is it really about the money? It’s not about the money. It’s about souls. Big industry is about enslavement.” As for the darker section of Hell, Erica has this to say: “There were also strange sounds like the constant banging and hammering of metals and doors in a workshop because everyone there is busy. There is no rest there. Nobody is idle.
This constant banging gave me continuous headaches. I was always sickly. No amount of pain killers could kill the pain. I was in continuous torment every day I served the Devil … We were always being beat up. Our heads were banged with metal sticks. Being bashed up against the wall was normal. Evil spirits would abuse us sexually. Even our male co-workers were abused sexually by either male or female spirits. We could see these spirits because we were also in the spiritual world. These spirits could change form and would sometimes appear as snakes or headless humans and sexually abuse us … There was a high mountain with very sharp stones they called a ‘rolling mountain’.
It is a mountain of torture. It is a spiritual mountain. When you set out to climb this mountain you find yourself at the top instantly. Then from the top you are pushed down to roll on the sharp stones that cut through the flesh. It feels like it takes forever to finally roll to the bottom as you scream in pain. There was also a field that had bushes which had thorns that would tear your flesh. Only people who were at a very high level of sorcery would pass through that field.
The main purpose of rolling down the mountain and passing through the field of thorns was to increase demon possession. As you scream in pain, more demons enter into you. As a result, the more demons one had, the more powerful they would become. The soil in hell is very hard and can only be compared to the soil in a desert wilderness. Even the evil spirits hate that place, which is why they resist as much when they are being cast out.”
HOW DO DEMONS LOOK LIKE?
Again, I have never encountered a demon and have no desire to. But like the Devil, demons too can shape-shift: they can appear like humans and very agreeably looking. At other times, they can look like the demons they really are. Erica Mukisa describes one such demon thus: “A very tall being that looked like the stem of a tree with rough skin like the bark of a tree. But instead of roots the tree had carved feet facing in opposite directions.”
In Rebecca Brown’s book titled He Came To Set The Captives Free, Elaine, who was a former high priestess of Lucifer, describes one manifestation of a demon in the following words: “He was in a physical form. He was huge, about 8 feet tall. He had a body much like a man, yet different. He was all black … He had fiery red eyes, huge hands, and his armour was really his skin. It was made up of thick, black, hard scales, something like a tortoise shell. Each scale was about six inches square.”
Another demon manifested differently to Elaine. “I saw what appeared like an incredibly handsome young man. He had coal-black hair and piercing black eyes that radiated intelligence … He then walked straight into me. But in the instant before he entered, he changed from the human form to the demon he really was – hideous. He was naked, his face had changed from beauty to hideous cruelty. The beautiful coal-black locks of hair had become dull brown and were coarse and sparse and stubby like pig bristles.
His eyes were incredibly dark and evil, his mouth open to show sharp dirty yellow fangs. He had very long arms, his hands had stubby fingers tipped with long sharply pointed nails. He uttered a horrible hideous loud laugh of triumph as he stepped directly into my body. I screamed out, first at the sight of him, then at the pain of his entrance.”
ARE PEOPLE WHO ENTER INTO LUCIFER’S SERVICE ALWAYS AWARE OF WHAT THEY ARE GETTING INTO?
Yes they are. But they are not given the full picture; only part. Much of the horror of signing up is made known to them after they have signed up. For example, most are shell-shocked when at some stage they are asked to kill a very close relation, such as a child, parent, sibling, or spouse. Erica Mukisa was ordered to sacrifice her younger brother, the soul she adored the most. She failed though as the little boy was very spiritual and so operated at a vibrational frequency dark forces could not reach.
She was severely punished by Lucifer for this failure though and was forced to kill an infant stranger to recompense for it. Gideon Mulenga, a former Satanist now a church minister, was ordered to kill his father. But such was his love for the man he decided instead to kill his step-mother, who was in the habit of treating him hostilely.
WHY DO CONVENTIONAL DOCTORS FAIL TO CURE PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD A DEMONIC SPELL CAST UPON THEM?
When a witch/wizard/sorcerer casts a spell on, or bewitches somebody, the agent that effects the spell is a demon. Now, demons do not attack a particular part of the body directly: they attack an underlying part of the body which is not physical. For instance, if the witch is targeting your heart, the demon will attack the heart chakra and the pain will be felt in the physical heart. Chakras are etheric wheels of light that make our bodies function in the physical world.
No one knows exactly how many they are but there are seven principal ones, with the rest being sub-chakras. If any of your chakras is attacked, there’s nothing a doctor can do to cure you. In ancient times, demon-induced illnesses were cured by seasoned or veteran traditional healers. These healers of old used herbs which when taken or applied vibrated to the frequency of the chakra that spun beneath the affected part of the physical body. In other words, the healing was effected metaphysically, with the appropriate herb being of a frequency that corresponded with that of the chakra. Sadly, most of today’s herbalists are fake and rely on dark forces to inspire them to perform healing feats. And any healing that involves a demon cannot last because as Jesus said, Satan cannot cast out Satan.
HOW CAN ONE AVOID BEING A PROPERTY OF THE DEVIL?
There are actually two ways demons affect an individual. First, there’s outright possession. This is whereby you have demons dwelling inside you. These demons will from time to time cause you to do strange and even horrible things from time to time. One is occupied by demons if he or she willingly invited them (by performing certain Satanic rituals) or they were passed onto them at birth because of a contract their parent entered into with forces of darkness. Second, there’s what is called demonic attachment.
In this case, demons do not dwell in you but they hover about you. When this happens, hardly anything will go right in your life. To avoid both demonic possession and attachment, avoid or desist from the following – consulting witch doctors or fortune tellers; tattooing or piercing your body with some fancy rings; wearing “exotic” hair pieces; mixing regularly with people who serve forces of darkness; wearing clothing with symbols or images you do not understand; sleeping with women you do not know very well; watching porn movies or extreme horror movies; wearing ornaments whose origins you do not understand (such as a wedding band, for example); listening to music by Illuminati-affiliated musicians; and buying food items from suppliers you know very little about.
HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY AGENTS OF THE DEVIL?
By the way they dress; the kind of speech they utter; the kind of people they mix with; the hand gestures they make; their courtyard crests; the paraphernalia around them; and the symbols their attire is emblazoned with. Examples of the agents of the Devil include the Rothschilds; Benjamin Netanyau; British royalty; the Pope; practically every evangelist you watch on TV; witch doctors; all mega Western film actors, music artistes, and politicians. A tell-tale hand signal flashed by agents of the Devil, also known as the Illuminati, include 666; the El Diablo Devil’s Horns sign; the pyramid sign (Jay-Z’s favourite), to mention only a few.
WHICH FAMOUS AFRICAN MUSIC ARTISTES WOULD YOU IDENTIFY AS AVID SERVANTS OF THE DEVIL?
Almost all of them. Erica Mukisa furnishes one such clue in her book in the following words: “We were trained on how to trap people through the stage performances. My trainer in this was a popular South African musician by the name of Brenda Fassie. She has since died but was alive when she started training me. I have never been to South Africa but we always met in Hell.
She trained me on how to do dance exotically and how to dress seductively.” Now you will understand why Brenda’s death smacked of so much mystery. It was either she refused to make further human sacrifices to Lucifer (particularly her cherished son) or her number was up as per the terms of the contract she had signed with the Devil.
DO YOU KNOW OF ANY CELEBRITIES WHO SACRIFICED FAMILY MEMBERS/CLOSE FRIENDS TO THE DEVIL?
God, I know of plenty! But I will provide you only a partial list, with the sacrifice victim in brackets: Kanye West (his mother Donda); Lil Wayne (his step-father Reginald "Rabbit" McDonald,); Jay-Z (his nephew Colleek D. Luckie); Damon Dash (his famous girlfriend Aaliyah); Venus and Serena Williams (their sister Yetunde); Queen Latifah (her brother Lancelot); Mike Tyson (his 4-year-old daughter Lacelot); John Travolta ( his 16-year-old son Jet); Dr Dre (his protégé Nate Dog); Eminem (his friend Proof); 50 Cent (his friend Jam Master Jay); P Diddy (his protégé Big Smalls); Jennifer Hudson ( her mother, brother, and nephew). Note that to the ordinary man, some of these deaths may appear as perfectly natural or accidental when in truth they are occultic hits. Illuminati murders are typically very subtle.
IF PEOPLE WHO SAVE LUCIFER ARE HAVING A BLAST 24/7, THEN IT MUST BE WORTHWHILE SERVING HIM, ISN’T IT BEN? JUST LOOK AT JAY-Z, RIHANNA, AKON, AND THE LIKE. LET’S FACE IT BEN, IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, JOIN ‘EM!
I wish you knew what you are talking about. Refer to Erica Mukisa’s testimony above just to glean an idea as to what it entails to serve the Devil. True, when you sell your soul to the Devil, he’ll likely give you wealth, women, power, influence, etc. Sadly, you will NEVER enjoy your possessions. When you are serving the Devil, you work like a slave – day and night. You do not rest at all. Erica says throughout the seven years she served Satan, she did not sleep for a “single minute”.
She was not allowed to eat conventional food like every other human does; instead, she fed on charcoal, ash, soil, and chalk, like a snake. Drinking water was forbidden: her water was human blood. Vicious beatings, by demons or Satan himself, were the order of the day. One pastor testified that fellow pastors who signed up with the Devil so their churches would grow and therefore bring them a surfeit of wealth had to fulfil a whole host of conditions, one of which was not to sleep with their wives but with a mermaid – a half snake, half human. It explains why the wives of “prosperity gospel” pastors are inwardly miserable and why divorce is so common in their case. Just ask the world-famous Pastor Chris and you will understand what I’m talking about.
NEXT WEEK: QUESTIONS ON THE WORLD WE INHABIT
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 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.