INNER DIMENSIONS OF ISLAMIC WORSHIP

Significance of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting

Habib Siddiqui

According to Imam al-Ghazali (may Allah be pleased with him), one of the greatest scholars of Islam (11th century CE), there are three grades of Fasting: ordinary, special and extra-special.
   Ordinary Fasting involves abstaining from food, drink and sexual satisfaction. It is the Fast of ordinary Muslims. (This is the Fasting of ordinary Muslims.)
   Special Fasting involves keeping one’s ears, eyes, tongue, hands and feet-and all other organs-free from committing sin. (This is the Fasting of Mu’mins, or pious Muslims.)
   Extra-special Fasting involves Fasting of the heart from unworthy concerns and worldly thoughts, in total disregard of everything but Allah. - [Ihya Ulumuddin of Imam al-Ghazali, tr., From Inner Dimensions of Islamic Worship by Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali by Muhtar Holland] The Fasting of the Prophets, the true devotees, the righteous and the intimates of Allah belong to this grade. It consists in utmost dedication to Allah.
   The etiquette of Fasting consists of six things:
   "First, one should guard all his members from impropriety, and not restrict abstinence to stomachs and genitals [alone], but keep his eyes from anything that distracts him from Allah.
   Second, one should guard his tongue from idle talk, slander, and lying.
   Third, one should guard his ears from anything that should not be said or heard.
   Fourth, one should guard his hands and feet and all his limbs from impropriety.
   Fifth, when breaking the Fast one should not eat anything unlawful or doubtful, nor eat too much of that which is completely lawful.
   Sixth, one’s mind should be suspended between fear and hope, since he does not know whether his Fast is accepted or not." [Bahr al-Fava’id]
   These six conditions, as explained below by Imam al-Ghazali (may Allah have mercy on him), must be accomplished for extra-special Fasting.
   1. See Not What Displeases God
   This involves having a chaste regard that restrains the self from viewing anything that is blameworthy or reprehensible, or that distracts the heart and diverts it from the remembrance of Allah. Muhammad, on him be peace, said: "The furtive glance is one of the poisoned arrows of Satan, on him be Allah’s curse. Whoever forsakes it for fear of Allah will find the sweetness of faith within his heart."
   Jabir, a Companion (sahaba), relates from Anas (may Allah be pleased with both of them) that God’s Messenger Muhammad, on him be peace, said: 'Five things break a man’s Fast: lying, backbiting, gossiping, perjury and a lustful gaze.’
   2. Speak Not...
   This involves guarding one’s tongue from idle chatter, lying, gossiping, obscenity, rudeness, arguing and controversy; making it observe silence and occupying it with remembrance (zikr) of Allah, and with recitation of Qur’an. This is the Fasting of the tongue.
   Sufyan (may Allah have mercy on him), one of the early Followers (tabi’in), said: 'Backbiting annuls the Fast.’
   Layth quotes Mujahid (may Allah have mercy on both of them) as saying: 'Two habits annul Fasting: backbiting and telling lies.’
   The Prophet, on him be peace, said: 'Fasting is a shield; so when one of you is Fasting he should not use foul or foolish talk. If someone attacks him or insults him, let him say: "I am Fasting, I am Fasting!"’
   This essence of fasting is captured appositely by one of the great poets of Islam, Mowlana Jami (may Allah have mercy on him), who wrote:
   Do not arouse your temper by Fasting: Nothing is better than patience and gentleness.
   When a Fast becomes the cause of trouble, Better to break it than to keep it. - [Baharistan]
   3. Hear Not...
   This involves closing one’s ears to everything reprehensible; for everything unlawful to utter is likewise unlawful to listen to. That is why Allah equated the eavesdropper with the profiteer, in His words: 'Listeners to falsehood, consumers of illicit gain.’ [Qur’an 5:42]
   Allah also said: 'Why do their rabbis and priests not forbid them to utter sin and consume unlawful profit?’ [Qur’an 5:63] Silence in the face of backbiting is, therefore, unlawful.
   That is why the Prophet Muhammad, on him be peace, said: 'The backbiter and his listener are co-partners in sin.
   4. Do Not...
   This involves keeping all other limbs and organs away from committing sin: the hands and feet from reprehensible deeds, and the stomach from questionable food at the time for breaking Fast. It is (absolutely) meaningless to Fast-to abstain from lawful (halal) food - only to break one’s Fast on what is unlawful (haram). A man who Fasts like this may be compared to one who builds a castle but demolishes a city.
   The object of Fasting is to bring moderation. The Prophet, on him be peace, said: 'How many of those who Fast get nothing from it but hunger and thirst!’ This has been taken to mean those who break their Fast on unlawful food. Some say it refers to those who abstain from lawful food, but break their Fast on human flesh through backbiting, which is unlawful. Others consider it an allusion to those who do not guard their organs from sin.
   5. Avoid Overeating
   This involves not over indulging in lawful food at the time of breaking Fast, to the point of stuffing one’s belly. There is nothing more abhorrent to Allah than a belly that is stuffed full with lawful food. Of what use is the Fast ... if at the time of breaking it one not only makes up for all one has missed during the daytime, but perhaps also indulges in a variety of extra foods? It is well known that the object of Fasting is to experience hunger and to restrain desire, in order to reinforce the soul in piety.
   The spirit and intent of Fasting is to weaken the forces which are Satan’s means of leading us back to evil. It is, therefore, essential to cut down one’s food intake to what one would consume on a normal night, when not Fasting. Truly, no benefit is derived from the Fast if one consumes as much as one would usually take during the day and night combined. Moreover, one of the properties consists in taking little sleep during the daytime, so that one feels the hunger and thirst and becomes conscious of the weakening of one’s powers, with the consequent purification of the heart.
   One should let a certain degree of weakness to carry over into the night so that it is easier to perform the night Prayers (tahajjud) and to recite the praises (awrad) [of Allah]. It may then be that Satan will not hover around one’s heart, and that one will behold the Kingdom of Heaven. The Night of Destiny represents the night on which something of this Kingdom is revealed. This is what is meant by the words of God, Exalted is He: 'We surely revealed it on the Night of Power.’ [al-Qadr, 97:1]
   Anyone who puts a bag of food between his heart and his breast becomes blind to this revelation. Nor is keeping the stomach empty sufficient to remove the veil, unless one also empties the mind of everything but Allah. That is the entire matter, and the starting point of it all is cutting down on food.
   6. Look to God With Fear and Hope
   After the Fast has been broken, the heart should swing like a pendulum between fear and hope, for one does not know if one’s Fast will be accepted. This is how one should be at the end of any act of worship one performs.
   It is related of al-Hasan ibn Abil Hasan al-Basri (may Allah have mercy on him), one of the early Followers (tabi’in), that he once passed by a group of people who were laughing merrily. He said: 'Allah has made the month of Ramadan a racecourse, on which His creatures compete in His worship. Some have come in first and won, while others have lagged behind and lost. It is absolutely amazing to find anybody laughing and playing about on the day when success attends the victors, and failure the wasters. By God, if the veil were lifted off, the doer of good would surely be preoccupied with his good works and the evildoer with his evil deeds.’
   Of al-Ahnaf ibn Qays (may Allah have mercy on him) it is reported that he was once told: 'You are an aged elder; Fasting would enfeeble you.’ But he replied: 'By this I am making ready for a long journey, Obedience to Allah is easier to endure than His punishment.’
   Such are the inwardly significant meanings of Fasting.
   (Adapted from Ihya’ of Imam al-Ghazali, tr., From Inner Dimensions of Islamic Worship by Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali by Muhtar Holland.)

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Will Dick Cheney reveal what he did on 9/11?

Pepe Escobar

It’s September 11 all over again - eight years on. The George W Bush administration is out. The "global war on terror" is still on, renamed "overseas contingency operations" by the Barack Obama administration. Obama’s "new strategy" - a war escalation - is in play in AfPak. Osama bin Laden may be dead or not. "Al-Qaeda" remains a catch-all ghost entity. September 11 - the neo-cons’ "new Pearl Harbour" - remains the darkest jigsaw puzzle of the young 21st century.
   It’s useless to expect US corporate media and the ruling elites’ political operatives to call for a true, in-depth investigation into the attacks on the US on September 11, 2001. Whitewash has been the norm. But even establishment highlight Dr Zbig "Grand Chessboard" Brzezinski, a former national security advisor, has admitted to the US Senate that the post-9/11 "war on terror" is a "mythical historical narrative".
   The following questions, some multi-part - and most totally ignored by the 9/11 Commission - are just the tip of the immense 9/11 iceberg. A hat tip goes to the indefatigable work of 911truth.org; whatreallyhappened.com; architects and engineers for 9/11 truth; the Italian documentary Zero: an investigation into 9/11; and Asia Times Online readers’ e-mails.
   None of these questions has been convincingly answered - according to the official narrative. It’s up to US civil society to keep up the pressure. Eight years after the fact, one fundamental conclusion is imperative. The official narrative edifice of 9/11 is simply not acceptable.
   
   Fifty questions
   1) How come dead or not dead Osama bin Laden has not been formally indicted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as responsible for 9/11? Is it because the US government - as acknowledged by the FBI itself - has not produced a single conclusive piece of evidence?
   2) How could all the alleged 19 razor-blade box cutter-equipped Muslim perpetrators have been identified in less than 72 hours - without even a crime scene investigation?
   3) How come none of the 19’s names appeared on the passenger lists released the same day by both United Airlines and American Airlines?
   4) How come eight names on the "original" FBI list happened to be found alive and living in different countries?
   5) Why would pious jihadi Mohammed Atta leave a how-to-fly video manual, a uniform and his last will inside his bag knowing he was on a suicide mission?
   6) Why did Mohammed Atta study flight simulation at Opa Locka, a hub of no less than six US Navy training bases?
   7) How could Mohammed Atta’s passport have been magically found buried among the Word Trade Centre (WTC)’s debris when not a single flight recorder was found?
   8) Who is in the possession of the "disappeared" eight indestructible black boxes on those four flights?
   9) Considering multiple international red alerts about a possible terrorist attack inside the US - including former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice’s infamous August 6, 2001, memo - how come four hijacked planes deviating from their computerized flight paths and disappearing from radar are allowed to fly around US airspace for more than an hour and a half - not to mention disabling all the elaborate Pentagon’s defence systems in the process?
   10) Why the secretary of the US Air Force James Roche did not try to intercept both planes hitting the WTC (only seven minutes away from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey) as well as the Pentagon (only 10 minutes away from McGuire)? Roche had no less than 75 minutes to respond to the plane hitting the Pentagon.
   11) Why did George W Bush continue to recite "My Pet Goat" in his Florida school and was not instantly absconded by the secret service?
   12) How could Bush have seen the first plane crashing on WTC live - as he admitted? Did he have previous knowledge - or is he psychic?
   13) Bush said that he and Andrew Card initially thought the first hit on the WTC was an accident with a small plane. How is that possible when the FAA as well as NORAD already knew this was about a hijacked plane?
   14) What are the odds of transponders in four different planes be turned off almost simultaneously, in the same geographical area, very close to the nation’s seat of power in Washington, and no one scrambles to contact the Pentagon or the media?
   15) Could defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld explain why initial media reports said that there were no fighter jets available at Andrews Air Force Base and then change the reports that there were, but not on high alert?
   16) Why was the DC Air National Guard in Washington AWOL on 9/11?
   17) Why did combat jet fighters of the 305th Air Wing, McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey not intercept the second hijacked plane hitting the WTC, when they could have done it within seven minutes?
   18) Why did none of the combat jet fighters of the 459th Aircraft Squadron at Andrews Air Force Base intercept the plane that hit the Pentagon, only 16 kilometres away? And since we’re at it, why the Pentagon did not release the full video of the hit?
   19) A number of very experienced airline pilots - including US ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a former fighter jet pilot - revealed that, well, only crack pilots could have performed such complex manoeuvres on the hijacked jets, while others insisted they could only have been accomplished by remote control. Is it remotely believable that the hijackers were up to the task?
   20) How come a substantial number of witnesses did swear seeing and hearing multiple explosions in both towers of the WTC?
   21) How come a substantial number of reputed architects and engineers are adamant that the official narrative simply does not explain the largest structural collapse in recorded history (the Twin Towers) as well as the collapse of WTC building 7, which was not even hit by a jet?
   22) According to Frank de Martini, WTC’s construction manager, "We designed the building to resist the impact of one or more jetliners." The second plane nearly missed tower 1; most of the fuel burned in an explosion outside the tower. Yet this tower collapsed first, long before tower 2 that was "perforated" by the first hit. Jet fuel burned up fast - and by far did not reach the 2000-degree heat necessary to hurt the six tubular steel columns in the centre of the tower - designed specifically to keep the towers from collapsing even if hit by a Boeing 707. A Boeing 707 used to carry more fuel than the Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 that actually hit the towers.
   23) Why did Mayor Rudolph Giuliani instantly authorized the shipment of WTC rubble to China and India for recycling?
   24) Why was metallic debris found no less than 13 kilometres from the crash site of the plane that went down in Pennsylvania? Was the plane in fact shot down - under vice president Dick Cheney’s orders?
   25) The Pipelineistan question. What did US ambassador Wendy Chamberlain talk about over the phone on October 10, 2001, with the oil minister of Pakistan? Was it to tell him that the 1990s-planned Unocal gas pipeline project, TAP (Turkmenistan/Afghanistan/ Pakistan), abandoned because of Taliban demands on transit fees, was now back in business? (Two months later, an agreement to build the pipeline was signed between the leaders of the three countries).
   26) What is former Unocal lobbyist and former Bush pet Afghan Zalmay Khalilzad up to in Afghanistan?
   27) How come former Pakistani foreign minister Niaz Niak said in mid-July 2001 that the US had already decided to strike against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban by October? The topic was discussed secretly at the July Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italy, according to Pakistani diplomats.
   28) How come US ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine told FBI agent John O’Neill in July 2001 to stop investigating al-Qaeda’s financial operations - with O’Neill instantly moved to a security job at the WTC, where he died on 9/11?
   29) Considering the very intimate relationship between the Taliban and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the ISI and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is Bin Laden alive, dead or still a valuable asset of the ISI, the CIA or both?
   30) Was Bin Laden admitted at the American hospital in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on July 4, 2001, after flying from Quetta, Pakistan, and staying for treatment until July 11?
   31) Did the Bin Laden group build the caves of Tora Bora in close cooperation with the CIA during the 1980s’ anti-Soviet jihad?
   32) How come General Tommy Franks knew for sure that Bin Laden was hiding in Tora Bora in late November 2001?
   33) Why did president Bill Clinton abort a hit on Bin Laden in October 1999? Why did then-Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf abort a covert ops in the same date? And why did Musharraf do the same thing again in August 2001?
   34) Why did George W Bush dissolve the Bin Laden Task Force nine months before 9/11?
   35) How come the (fake) Bin Laden home video - in which he "confesses" to being the perpetrator of 9/11 - released by the US on December 13, 2001, was found only two weeks after it was produced (on November 9); was it really found in Jalalabad (considering Northern Alliance and US troops had not even arrived there at the time); by whom; and how come the Pentagon was forced to release a new translation after the first (botched) one?
   36) Why was ISI chief Lieutenant General Mahmud Ahmad abruptly "retired" on October 8, 2001, the day the US started bombing Afghanistan?
   37) What was Ahmad up to in Washington exactly on the week of 9/11 (he arrived on September 4)? On the morning of 9/11, Ahmad was having breakfast on Capitol Hill with Bob Graham and Porter Goss, both later part of the 9/11 Commission, which simply refused to investigate two of its members. Ahmad had breakfast with Richard Armitage of the State Department on September 12 and 13 (when Pakistan negotiated its "cooperation" with the "war on terror") and met all the CIA and Pentagon top brass. On September 13, Musharraf announced he would send Ahmad to Afghanistan to demand to the Taliban the extradition of Bin Laden.
   38) Who inside the ISI transferred US$100,000 to Mohammed Atta in the summer of 2001 - under orders of Ahmad himself, as Indian intelligence insists? Was it really ISI asset Omar Sheikh, Bin Laden’s information technology specialist who later organized the slaying of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi? So was the ISI directly linked to 9/11?
   39) Did the FBI investigate the two shady characters who met Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi in Harry’s Bar at the Helmsley Hotel in New York City on September 8, 2001?
   40) What did director of Asian affairs at the State Department Christina Rocca and the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef discuss in their meeting in Islamabad in August 2001?
   41) Did Washington know in advance that an "al-Qaeda" connection would kill Afghan nationalist commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, aka "The Lion of the Panjshir", only two days before 9/11? Massoud was fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda - helped by Russia and Iran. According to the Northern Alliance, Massoud was killed by an ISI-Taliban-al Qaeda axis. If still alive, he would never have allowed the US to rig a loya jirga (grand council) in Afghanistan and install a puppet, former CIA asset Hamid Karzai, as leader of the country.
   42) Why did it take no less than four months before the name of Ramzi Binalshibh surfaced in the 9/11 context, considering the Yemeni was a roommate of Mohammed Atta in his apartment cell in Hamburg?p
   43) Is pathetic shoe-bomber Richard Reid an ISI asset?
   44) Did then-Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence tell the CIA in 2001 that 25 terrorist pilots had been training for suicide missions?
   45) When did the head of German intelligence, August Hanning, tell the CIA that terrorists were "planning to hijack commercial aircraft?"
   46) When did Egyptian President Mubarak tell the CIA about an attack on the US with an "airplane stuffed with explosives?"
   47) When did Israel’s Mossad director Efraim Halevy tell the CIA about a possible attack on the US by "200 terrorists?"
   48) Were the Taliban aware of the warning by a Bush administration official as early as February 2001 - "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs?"
   49) Has Northrop-Grumman used Global Hawk technology - which allows to remotely control unmanned planes - in the war in Afghanistan since October 2001? Did it install Global Hawk in a commercial plane? Is Global Hawk available at all for commercial planes?
   50) Would Cheney stand up and volunteer the detailed timeline of what he was really up to during the whole day on 9/11?
   Sources: Internet

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