Why Does the WHO Make False Claims Regarding Proposals to Seize States’ Sovereignty?
By David Bell, Thi Thuy Van Dinh December 11, 2023 Government, Law, Public Health 15 minute read
The Director General (DG) of the World Health Organization (WHO) states:

No country will cede any sovereignty to WHO,

referring to the WHO’s new pandemic agreement and proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR), currently being negotiated. His statements are clear and unequivocal, and wholly inconsistent with the texts he is referring to.

A rational examination of the texts in question shows that:

The documents propose a transfer of decision-making power to the WHO regarding basic aspects of societal function, which countries undertake to enact.
The WHO DG will have sole authority to decide when and where they are applied.
The proposals are intended to be binding under international law.
Continued claims that sovereignty is not lost, echoed by politicians and media, therefore raise important questions concerning motivations, competence, and ethics.

The intent of the texts is a transfer of decision-making currently vested in Nations and individuals to the WHO, when its DG decides that there is a threat of a significant disease outbreak or other health emergency likely to cross multiple national borders. It is unusual for Nations to undertake to follow external entities regarding the basic rights and healthcare of their citizens, more so when this has major economic and geopolitical implications.

The question of whether sovereignty is indeed being transferred, and the legal status of such an agreement, is therefore of vital importance, particularly to the legislators of democratic States. They have an absolute duty to be sure of their ground. We systematically examine that ground here.

The Proposed IHR Amendments and Sovereignty in Health Decision-Making

Amending the 2005 IHR may be a straightforward way to quickly deploy and enforce “new normal” health control measures. The current text applies to virtually the entire global population, counting 196 States Parties including all 194 WHO Member States. Approval may or may not require a formal vote of the World Health Assembly (WHA), as the recent 2022 amendment was adopted through consensus. If the same approval mechanism is to be used in May 2024, many countries and the public may remain unaware of the broad scope of the new text and its implications to national and individual sovereignty.

The IHR are a set of recommendations under a treaty process that has force under international law. They seek to provide the WHO with some moral authority to coordinate and lead responses when an international health emergency, such as pandemic, occurs. Most are non-binding, and these contain very specific examples of measures that the WHO can recommend, including (Article 18):

require medical examinations;
review proof of vaccination or other prophylaxis;
require vaccination or other prophylaxis;
place suspect persons under public health observation;
implement quarantine or other health measures for suspect persons;
implement isolation and treatment where necessary of affected persons;
implement tracing of contacts of suspect or affected persons;
refuse entry of suspect and affected persons;
refuse entry of unaffected persons to affected areas; and
implement exit screening and/or restrictions on persons from affected areas.
These measures, when implemented together, are generally referred to since early 2020 as ‘lockdowns’ and ‘mandates.’ ‘Lockdown’ was previously a term reserved for people incarcerated as criminals, as it removes basic universally accepted human rights and such measures were considered by the WHO to be detrimental to public health. However, since 2020 it has become the default standard for public health authorities to manage epidemics, despite its contradictions to multiple stipulations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR):

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind including no arbitrary detention (Article 9).
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence (Article 12).
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state, and Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country (Article 13).
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers (Article 19).
Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association (Article 20).
The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government (Article 21).
Everyone has the right to work (Article 23).
Everyone has the right to education (Article 26).
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized (Article 28).
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein (Article 30).
These UDHR stipulations are the basis of the modern concept of individual sovereignty, and the relationship between authorities and their populations. Considered the highest codification of the rights and freedoms of individuals in the 20th century, they may soon be dismantled behind closed doors in a meeting room in Geneva.

The proposed amendments will change the “recommendations” of the current document to requirements through three mechanisms on

Removing the term ‘non-binding’ (Article 1),
Inserting the phrase that Member States will “undertake to follow WHO’s recommendations” and recognize WHO, not as an organization under the control of countries, but as the “coordinating authority” (New Article 13A).
States Parties recognize WHO as the guidance and coordinating authority of international public health response during public health Emergency of International Concern and undertake to follow WHO’s recommendations in their international public health response.

As Article 18 makes clear above, these include multiple actions directly restricting individual liberty. If transfer of decision-making power (sovereignty) is not intended here, then the current status of the IHR as ‘recommendations’ could remain and countries would not be undertaking to follow the WHO’s requirements.

States Parties undertake to enact what previously were merely recommendations, without delay, including requirements of WHO regarding non-State entities under their jurisdiction (Article 42):
Health measures taken pursuant to these Regulations, including the recommendations made under Articles 15 and 16, shall be initiated and completed without delay by all State Parties and applied in a transparent, equitable and non-discriminatory manner. State Parties shall also take measures to ensure Non-State Actors operating in their respective territories comply with such measures.

Articles 15 and 16 mentioned here allow the WHO to require a State to provide resources “health products, technologies, and know-how,” and to allow the WHO to deploy personnel into the country (i.e., have control over entry across national borders for those they choose). They also repeat the requirement for the country to require the implementation of medical countermeasures (e.g., testing, vaccines, quarantine) on their population where WHO demands it.

Of note, the proposed Article 1 amendment (removing ‘non-binding’) is actually redundant if New Article 13A and/or the changes in Article 42 remain. This can (and likely will) be removed from the final text, giving an appearance of compromise without changing the transfer of sovereignty.

All of the public health measures in Article 18, and additional ones such as limiting freedom of speech to reduce public exposure to alternative viewpoints (Annex 1, New 5 (e); “…counter misinformation and disinformation”) clash directly with the UDHR. Although freedom of speech is currently the exclusive purview of national authorities and its restriction is generally seen as negative and abusive, United Nations institutions, including the WHO, have been advocating for censoring unofficial views in order to protect what they call “information integrity.”

It seems outrageous from a human rights perspective that the amendments will enable the WHO to dictate countries to require individual medical examinations and vaccinations whenever it declares a pandemic. While the Nuremberg Code and Declaration of Helsinki refer specifically to human experimentation (e.g. clinical trials of vaccines) and the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights also to the provider-patient relationship, they can reasonably be extended to public health measures that impose restrictions or changes to human behavior, and specifically to any measures requiring injection, medication, or medical examination which involve a direct provider-person interaction.

If vaccines or drugs are still under trial or not fully tested, then the issue of being the subject of an experiment is also real. There is a clear intent to employ the CEPI ‘100 day’ vaccine program, which by definition cannot complete meaningful safety or efficacy trials within that time span.

Forced examination or medication, outside of a situation where the recipient is clearly not mentally competent to comply or reject when provided with information, is unethical. Requiring compliance in order to access what are considered basic human rights under the UDHR would constitute coercion. If this does not fit the WHO’s definition of infringement on individual sovereignty, and on national sovereignty, then the DG and his supporters need to publicly explain what definition they are using.

The Proposed WHO Pandemic Agreement as a Tool to Manage Transfer of Sovereignty

The proposed pandemic agreement will set humanity in a new era strangely organized around pandemics: pre-pandemic, pandemic, and inter-pandemic. A new governance structure under WHO auspices will oversee the IHR amendments and related initiatives. It will rely on new funding requirements, including the WHO’s ability to demand additional funding and materials from countries and to run a supply network to support its work in health emergencies (Article 12):

In the event of a pandemic, real-time access by WHO to a minimum of 20% (10% as a donation and 10% at affordable prices to WHO) of the production of safe, efficacious and effective pandemic-related products for distribution based on public health risks and needs, with the understanding that each Party that has manufacturing facilities that produce pandemic-related products in its jurisdiction shall take all necessary steps to facilitate the export of such pandemic-related products, in accordance with timetables to be agreed between WHO and manufacturers.

And Article 20 (1):

…provide support and assistance to other Parties, upon request, to facilitate the containment of spill-over at the source.

The entire structure will be financed by a new funding stream separate from current WHO funding – an additional requirement on taxpayers over current national commitments (Article 20 (2)). The funding will also include an endowment of voluntary contributions of “all relevant sectors that benefit from international work to strengthen pandemic preparation, preparedness and response” and donations from philanthropic organizations (Article 20 (2)b).

Currently, countries decide on foreign aid on the basis of national priorities, apart from limited funding that they have agreed to allocate to organizations such as WHO under existing obligations or treaties. The proposed agreement is remarkable not just in greatly increasing the amount countries must give as treaty requirements, but in setting up a parallel funding structure disconnected from other disease priorities (quite the opposite of previous ideas on integration in health financing). It also gives power to an external group, not directly accountable, to demand or acquire further resources whenever it deems necessary.

In a further encroachment into what is normally within the legal jurisdiction of Nation States, the agreement will require countries to establish (Article 15) “…, no-fault vaccine injury compensation mechanism(s),…”, consecrating effective immunity for pharmaceutical companies for harm to citizens resulting from use of products that the WHO recommends under an emergency use authorization, or indeed requires countries to mandate onto their citizens.

As is becoming increasingly acceptable for those in power, ratifying countries will agree to limit the right of their public to voice opposition to the WHO’s measures and claims regarding such an emergency (Article 18):

…and combat false, misleading, misinformation or disinformation, including through effective international collaboration and cooperation…

As we have seen during the Covid-19 response, the definition of misleading information can be dependent on political or commercial expediency, including factual information on vaccine efficacy and safety and orthodox immunology that could impair the sale of health commodities. This is why open democracies put such emphasis on defending free speech, even at the risk of sometimes being misleading. In signing on to this agreement, governments will be agreeing to abrogate that principle regarding their own citizens when instructed by the WHO.

The scope of this proposed agreement (and the IHR amendments) is broader than pandemics, greatly expanding the scope under which a transfer of decision-making powers can be demanded. Other environmental threats to health, such as changes in climate, can be declared emergencies at the DG’s discretion, if broad definitions of ‘One Health’ are adopted as recommended.

It is difficult to think of another international instrument where such powers over national resources are passed to an unelected external organization, and it is even more challenging to envision how this is seen as anything other than a loss of sovereignty. The only justification for this claim would appear to be if the draft agreement is to be signed on the basis of deceit – that there is no intention to treat it other than as an irrelevant piece of paper or something that should only apply to less powerful States (i.e. a colonialist tool).

Will the IHR Amendments and the Proposed Pandemic Agreement be Legally Binding?

Both texts are intended to be legally binding. The IHR already has such status, so the impact of the proposed changes on the need for new acceptance by countries are complicated national jurisdictional issues. There is a current mechanism for rejection of new amendments. However, unless a high number of countries will actively voice their oppositions and rejections, the adoption of the current published version dated February 2023 will likely lead to a future shadowed by the permanent risks of the WHO’s lockdown and lockstep dictates.

The proposed pandemic agreement is also clearly intended to be legally binding. WHO discusses this issue on the website of the International Negotiating Body (INB) that is working on the text. The same legally binding intent is specifically stated by the G20 Bali Leaders Declaration in 2022:

We support the work of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) that will draft and negotiate a legally binding instrument that should contain both legally binding and non-legally binding elements to strengthen pandemic PPR…,

repeated in the 2023 G20 New Delhi Leaders Declaration:

…an ambitious, legally binding WHO convention, agreement or other international instruments on pandemic PPR (WHO CA+) by May 2024,

and by the Council of the European Union:

A convention, agreement or other international instrument is legally binding under international Law. An agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response adopted under the World Health Organization (WHO) would enable countries around the globe to strengthen national, regional and global capacities and resilience to future pandemics.

The IHR already has standing under international law.

While seeking such status, WHO officials who previously described the proposed agreement as a ‘treaty” are now insisting neither instrument impacts sovereignty. The implication that it is States’ representatives at the WHA that will agree to the transfer, rather than the WHO, is a nuance irrelevant to its claims regarding their subsequent effect.

The WHO’s position raises a real question of whether its leadership is truly ignorant of what is proposed, or is actively seeking to mislead countries and the public in order to increase the probability of acceptance. The latest version dated 30 October 2023 requires 40 ratifications for the future agreement to enter into force, after a two-thirds vote in favor within the WHA. Opposition by a considerable number of countries will therefore be needed to derail this project. As it is backed by powerful governments and institutions, financial mechanisms including IMF and World Bank instruments and bilateral aids are likely to make opposition from lower-income countries difficult to sustain.

The Implications of Ignoring the Issue of Sovereignty

The relevant question regarding these two WHO instruments should really be not whether sovereignty is threatened, but why any sovereignty would be forfeited by democratic States to an organization that is (i) significantly privately funded and bound to obey the dictates of corporations and self-proclaimed philanthropists and (ii) jointly governed by Member States, half of which don’t even claim to be open representative democracies.

If it is indeed true that sovereignty is being knowingly forfeited by governments without the knowledge and consent of their peoples, and based on false claims from governments and the WHO, then the implications are extremely serious. It would imply that leaders were working directly against their peoples’ or national interest, and in support of external interests. Most countries have specific fundamental laws dealing with such practice. So, it is really important for those defending these projects to either explain their definitions of sovereignty and democratic process, or explicitly seek informed public consent.

The other question to be asked is why public health authorities and media are repeating the WHO’s assurances of the benign nature of the pandemic instruments. It asserts that claims of reduced sovereignty are ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation,’ which they assert elsewhere are major killers of humankind. While such claims are somewhat ludicrous and appear intended to denigrate dissenters, the WHO is clearly guilty of that which it claims is such a crime. If its leadership cannot demonstrate how its claims regarding these pandemic instruments are not deliberately misleading, its leadership would appear ethically compelled to resign.

The Need for Clarification

The WHO lists three major pandemics in the past century – influenza outbreaks in the late 1950s and 1960s, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The first two killed less than die each year today from tuberculosis, whilst the reported deaths from Covid-19 never reached the level of cancer or cardiovascular disease and remained almost irrelevant in low-income countries compared to endemic infectious diseases including tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDs.

No other non-influenza outbreak recorded by the WHO that fits the definition of a pandemic (e.g., rapid spread across international borders for a limited time of a pathogen not normally causing significant harm) has caused greater mortality in total than a few days of tuberculosis (about 4,000/day) or more life-years lost than a few days of malaria (about 1,500 children under 5 years old every day).

So, if it is indeed the case that our authorities and their supporters within the public health community consider that powers currently vested within national jurisdictions should be given over to external bodies on the basis of this level of recorded harm, it would be best to have a public conversation as to whether this is sufficient basis for abandoning democratic ideals in favor of a more fascist or otherwise authoritarian approach. We are, after all, talking about restricting basic human rights essential for a democracy to function.

Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Authors

David Bell
David Bell, Senior Scholar at Brownstone Institute, is a public health physician and biotech consultant in global health. He is a former medical officer and scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO), Programme Head for malaria and febrile diseases at the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) in Geneva, Switzerland, and Director of Global Health Technologies at Intellectual Ventures Global Good Fund in Bellevue, WA, USA.

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Thi Thuy Van Dinh
Dr. Thi Thuy Van Dinh (LLM, PhD) worked on international law in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Subsequently, she managed multilateral organization partnerships for Intellectual Ventures Global Good Fund and led environmental health technology development efforts for low-resource settings.

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https://brownstone.org/articles/why-does-the-who-make-false-claims-regarding-proposals-to-seize-states-sovereignty/

PERKONGSIAN 1 HARI 1 HADIS

Memburu Lailatul Qadar Sepuluh Malam Terakhir Ramadan

عَنْ عَائِشَةَ قَالَتْ كَانَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يُجَاوِرُ فِي الْعَشْرِ الْأَوَاخِرِ مِنْ رَمَضَانَ وَيَقُولُ تَحَرَّوْا لَيْلَةَ الْقَدْرِ فِي الْعَشْرِ الْأَوَاخِرِ مِنْ رَمَضَانَ

Daripada Aisyah Radliallahu 'anha berkata: Rasulullah SAW beriktikaf pada sepuluh hari terakhir dari bulan Ramadan dan bersabda: "Carilah Lailatul Qadar pada sepuluh malam yang akhir dari Ramadan". (Sahih Bukhari No: 1916) Dar Ibn Kathir.  Status: Hadis Sahih.

Pengajaran:

1.  Rasulullah SAW menyuruh beriktikaf pada 10 malam terakhir dari Ramadan untuk memburu lailatul Qadr.

2.  Bersungguh beramal pada 10 malam terakhir Ramadan untuk memperoleh lailatul Qadar yang ganjaran amalan pada malam tersebut lebih baik daripada 1000 bulan atau lebih baik daripada 83 tahun 4 bulan.

لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ (٣)

"malam kemuliaan  (lailatul Qadr) itu lebih baik daripada seribu bulan" (al-Qadr: 3).

3.  Sepatutnya kita tidak hanya memilih malam-malam tertentu untuk memburu lailatul Qadar kerana tidak ada satu tarikh yang tepat dan ia dirahsiakan untuk menjadi pendorong kepada kita mencarinya pada sepuluh malam terakhir Ramadhan.

4.  Bangunkan ahli keluarga kita untuk bersama merebut peluang bertemu lailatul Qadar.

5.  Perbanyakkan iktikaf, pelihara solat fardhu berjemaah di masjid, tingkatkan tilawah al-Quran, perbanyakkan doa dan permohonan ampun kepada Allah.

6.  Imam Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali Rahimahullah menyatakan: Sebahagian ulama mazhab Syafie menakalkan riwayat daripada Ibn ‘Abbas RA bahawa: “Menghidupkan malam Lailatul Qadar akan terhasil apabila seseorang mendirikan solat ‘Isya’ secara berjemaah dan berazam untuk melakukan solat Subuh secara berjemaah jua. Imam Malik merekodkan dalam al-Muwatta’ bahawa Imam Ibn al-Musayyib berkata: Sesiapa yang bertemu dengan Lailatul Qadar bermaksud (yang mendirikan solat) dalam berjemaah (pada malam tersebut), maka dia akan memperolehi kebaikan malam itu. Begitu jugalah yang dikatakan oleh Imam asy-Syafie rahimahullah dalam pendapat lamanya: Sesiapa yang mendirikan solat Isya’ dan Subuh pada malam Lailatul Qadar, maka dia akan memperoleh kebaikannya.” Lihat Lathaif al-Maarif (hal. 159).

7.  Marilah kita berazam bersungguh-sungguh untuk bertemu Lailatul Qadar. Bayangkan seolah-olah inilah Ramadan terakhir kita dan mungkin ini peluang terakhir untuk bertemu Lailatul Qadar pada tahun ini.

Negara Rahmah Ummah Sejahtera

#BangunkanJiwaTaqwa
#TeguhkanUkhuwahSebarkanRahmah
#BinaNegaraRahmah
#PertubuhanIKRAMMalaysiaNegeriJohor
#PalestinMerdeka

01hb April 2024
21hb Ramadan 1445H

Utk dapatkan 1 Hari 1 Hadis Pertubuhan Ikram Malaysia Negeri Johor, sila klik link di bawah :
telegram.me/hadisharian_ikram

☆Tadabbur Kalamullah 19 Ramadhan 1445H☆

لَیۡلَةُ ٱلۡقَدۡرِ خَیۡرࣱ مِّنۡ أَلۡفِ شَهۡرࣲ

"Malam Lailatul-Qadar lebih baik daripada seribu bulan" [Surah al-Qadr 3]

#Hari ini hari ke 19 umat Islam di Malaysia berpuasa. Malam ini masuklah malam ke 20. Ini bermakna kita bakal memasuki 10 malam terakhir Ramadhan. Malam yang dijanjikan dengan Lailatul Qadr iaitu malam yang lebih baik daripada 1000 bulan.

#Kita sangat dituntut untuk mencari malam al-Qadar dan bersungguh-sungguh dalam melakukan amalan ketaatan.

#Diriwayatkan daripada Sayidina Jabir bin Samurah r.a, bahawa Rasulullah saw bersabda:

الْتَمِسُوهَا فِي الْعَشْرِ الْأَوَاخِرِ وِتْرًا

"Carilah malam al-Qadar pada sepuluh malam terakhir pada malam yang ganjil" (HR Ahmad)

#Bahkan Nabi saw, sangat bersungguh-sungguh di 10 malam terakhir Ramadhan. Daripada Sayidatina Aisyah r.ha, beliau menceritakan:

كَانَ رَسُولُ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ إِذَا دَخَلَ العَشْرُ الأوَاخِرُ مِنْ رَمَضَانَ أَيْقَظَ أَهْلَهُ وَشَدَّ المِئْزَرَ وَأَحْيَا اللَّيْلَ

"Adapun Rasulullah saw apabila tiba 10 hari terakhir bulan Ramadhan, Baginda saw membangunkan ahli rumahnya, mengikat kainnya (menjauhi isteri-isterinya) serta menghidupkan malam tersebut" (HR Ibn Hibban)

#Terdapat riwayat lain yang menunjukkan akan kesungguhan Baginda saw sebagaimana diceritakan oleh
Sayidatina Aisyah r.ha:

كَانَ رَسُولُ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَجْتَهِدُ فِيْ العَشْرِ الأَوَاخِرِ ، مَا لَا يَجْتَهِدُ فِيْ غَيْرِهِ

"Adalah Rasulullah saw berusaha sedaya upaya pada malam sepuluh akhir Ramadhan melebihi usahanya daripada malam-malam yang lain" (HR Muslim)

#10 malam terakhir adalah malam-malam yang sangat kritikal, malam yang diharapkan satu daripadanya adalah Lailatul Qadar yang nilainya lebih baik daripada 1000 bulan.

#Maka untuk meraih kebaikan maksimum rancanglah ia dengan sebaik-baiknya. Kata orang, jika kita tidak merancang untuk berjaya bererti kita merancang untuk gagal.

#Antara amalan baik yang boleh dirancang untuk diisi pada malam-malam 10 terakhir ini:

1. Qiam, dengan mendirikan solat tarawih, solat witir, solat tahajud dan memperbanyakkan solat-solat sunat.

2. Iktikaf, dimasjid-masjid dan mana-mana rumah Allah.

3. Tilawah al-Quran, menggandakan bacaan al-Quran.

4. Berdakwah, mengajak kepada Islam, beriman kepada Allah dan melaksanakan suruhan serta menjauhi laranganNya.

5. Mengajak ahli keluarga bersama-sama menghidupkan 10 malam terakhir dengan amal ketaatan.

6. Taja iftar, Sekurang-kurangnya taja satu orang satu malam.

7. Membanyakkan doa keampunan dan doa-doa yang dihajati.

8. Membaca buku untuk menambah ilmu atau mendengar ceramah/tazkirah dan seumpamanya.

9. Bersedekah, walaupun dengan nilai yang kecil tapi istiqamah setiap malam.

10. Berzikir, selawat dan istighfar.

♡Ingat! Setiap apa yang kita rancang dan kita lakukan setiap malam pada 10 malam terakhir, satu daripadanya insyaaAllah akan berbetulan dengan malam istimewa itu. Maka untuk amalan kita pada malam itu: solat, tilawah, istighfar, doa, sedekah, dakwah dan lain-lain, ganjarannya lebih baik daripada beramal selama 1000 bulan! Aduhai, alangkah ruginya kalau ia terlepas♡

Ust naim
Klik link ini untuk    
http://bit.ly/tadabburkalamullah

Facebook:   
https://m.facebook.com/tadabburkalamullah

Ignorance, Stupidity, or Malice?
Rob Jenkins
A major topic of conversation at the recent Brownstone retreat was whether the people who locked us down and then mandated an experimental gene therapy, along with their supporters and enablers, were motivated primarily by stupidity or malice. I’d like to propose a third option: ignorance. In my view, all three played a part in the Covid debacle.

I believe—I choose to believe—that many of the people who are to some degree responsible for the devastation of the last four years—particularly the millions of Americans who allowed it to happen because they docilely went along—were simply ignorant. They accepted what they were told in March 2020 about the virulence and lethality of the virus. They fell for the fake videos of Chinese citizens keeling over in the streets. They watched in horror as what appeared to be freezer trucks sat parked outside New York hospitals. They assumed the government wouldn’t be sending military hospital ships to New York and Los Angeles if the disease wasn’t ravaging those cities. And they eagerly embraced the notion that, if we all just stayed home for two weeks, we could actually “flatten the curve.”

I confess: I fell into this category initially, for about those first two weeks. I’m blessed (or maybe cursed) with a natural skepticism and fortunate to have found, early on, alternative news sources that were reporting the truth—or at least trying to get at it. So I began to suspect, as “two weeks” stretched to infinity, that we were being had. But most Westerners have been conditioned to believe whatever the government and the media tell them, without questioning. Those people bought into the indefinite forced isolation and the social distancing and the Zoom school and the grocery delivery because they were ignorant. They didn’t really understand what was happening.

That includes, by the way, many in positions of authority and responsibility, like medical doctors and nurses, teachers and administrators, religious leaders, and local elected officials. Maybe even some elected officials at the national level. They swallowed the official narrative, too. I’m convinced most of these people honestly believed they were doing the right thing, saving lives, when in fact they were doing nothing of the sort because, as we now know, none of those “mitigation strategies” had any effect on the virus. But to be completely fair to them—and I think it’s important to be fair, however angry we might be at the consequences of their behavior—they were acting out of ignorance.

Of course, at some point, ignorance begins to bleed over into stupidity—perhaps at the point where people could have known better, and maybe even should have known better. Then their ignorance, which is a legitimate excuse for bad behavior, becomes willful. And willful ignorance is a form of stupidity, which is not an excuse, especially not for those we entrust with important decisions that affect all our lives.

The definition of stupidity proposed by UC Berkeley economist Carlo Cipolla in 1976 seems relevant in this context: “A stupid person is one who causes losses to another person or group while deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.” (You can find a nice summary of Cipolla’s theory here.) In other words, stupid people do stupid things for no reason. They harm other people, and they don’t even get anything out of it. They might even harm themselves in the process—“shooting themselves in the foot,” as we sometimes say, or “cutting off their nose to spite their face.” That is indeed the height of stupidity.

This definition certainly applies to many, many of the Covidians, including quite a few who (if we want to be generous) started out as merely ignorant. Over time, their perhaps understandable ignorance morphed into stupidity as they held on stubbornly to masking, distancing, and school closures despite literal mountains of evidence that none of those had any salutary effect. And most of them didn’t even benefit from their stubborn, stupid refusal to acknowledge reality. Yes, some did, and we’ll get to them in a moment. But most didn’t. In many cases, they embarrassed themselves, damaged their careers, lost businesses and personal relationships, and for what? So they could yell at the rest of us about masks? That’s pretty stupid.

Also instructive here is Cipolla’s Second Law of Stupidity: “The probability that a certain person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.” In other words, stupidity, as he defines it, is more or less evenly distributed throughout the population. It has nothing to do with intelligence, education, or income level. There are stupid doctors, lawyers, and college professors, just as there are stupid plumbers and ditch diggers. If anything, the former groups are somewhat more likely to contain stupid people. It all comes down to a person’s willingness to do things that make no sense, things that harm others—aka, stupid things—despite not getting anything out of it and perhaps even losing in the bargain.

And then there are the people who actually DO benefit from the harm they cause to others. They exhibit many of the same behaviors as the stupid people, except that they actually get something out of it—money, fame, power. Cipolla refers to these people—those who harm others for their own benefit—as “bandits.” Most of the best-known Covidians, the biggest names in media, government, “public health,” and the pharmaceuticals industry, fall into this category. They initiated, enforced, and supported policies that seemingly made no sense, and they came away smelling like roses. They became the toast of the media circuit, earned cushy sinecures, and expanded their bank accounts by millions.

The main difference between stupid people and bandits, according to Cipolla, is that the latter’s actions actually make sense, once you understand what they’re trying to accomplish. If a person knocks you down for no reason—well, that’s just stupid. But if they knock you down and then take your wallet, that makes sense. You understand why they knocked you down, even if you don’t like it any better. Moreover, you can to some degree adjust for the actions of “bandits”—for instance, by staying out of the bad part of town, where someone might knock you down and take your wallet. But if you’re at a mall in a nice suburb, and people are just knocking you down for no apparent reason, there’s no way to plan for that.

The problem with stupidity, says Cipolla, is two-fold. First, we consistently “underestimate the number of stupid people in circulation.” We assume the vast majority of people will act rationally under most circumstances, but—as we’ve seen plainly over the last four years—that turns out not to be true. Many behave irrationally much of the time, and it appears that a majority will do so in a time of crisis.

Second, as Cipolla points out, the stupid people are if anything more dangerous than the bandits, mostly for the reasons cited above: There are a lot more of them, and it’s nearly impossible to account for them. You can have a perfectly good plan to address some emergency—like, say, a pandemic—and the stupid people will blow it up for no good reason. Sure, malicious bad actors will make off with the treasury, if they can, but that has always been the case. I mean, is anybody really surprised that Albert Bourla added millions to his net worth? Or that Anthony Fauci now has a cushy job teaching at Georgetown? Yes, it’s frustrating and disgusting. There’s no doubt they were among the main architects of this disaster, as well as its main beneficiaries. But none of that is, or was, completely unexpected. Bandits gonna bandit.

What has been most frustrating to me over the past couple of years has been the way that millions of otherwise normal people—including friends, relatives and colleagues, as well as store clerks, flight attendants, and random people on the streets—have behaved so stupidly. A surprising number continue to do so, embarrassing themselves by haranguing the rest of us about masks and “vaccines,” alienating everyone in sight, making life more difficult for themselves and others even though they gain nothing by it.

So yes, the four-year debacle that is our collective Covid response is attributable in part to ignorance and in part to malice. But worse than either of those, and far more damaging to society in the long term, has been the sheer stupidity—humanity’s capacity for which I will never again underestimate.

Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Author

Rob Jenkins is an associate professor of English at Georgia State University – Perimeter College and a Higher Education Fellow at Campus Reform. He is the author or co-author of six books, including Think Better, Write Better, Welcome to My Classroom, and The 9 Virtues of Exceptional Leaders. In addition to Brownstone and Campus Reform, he has written for Townhall, The Daily Wire, American Thinker, PJ Media, The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. The opinions expressed here are his own.

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https://brownstone.org/articles/ignorance-stupidity-or-malice/

Bisikan Ruh Ramadhan 1

Ramadhan adalah bulan teristimewa yang berbeza dari bulan-bulan yang lain. Ianya adalah :

1. Bulan diturunkan Al Quran dan kitab-kitab samawiyyah.

Allah ta’ala berfirman,

شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِي أُنْزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْآَنُ هُدًى لِلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَاتٍ مِنَ الْهُدَى وَالْفُرْقَانِ فَمَنْ
شَهِدَ مِنْكُمُ الشَّهْرَ فَلْيَصُمْهُ{البقرة: ١٨٥}

“(Beberapa hari yang ditentukan itu ialah) bulan Ramadhan, bulan yang di dalamnya diturunkan (permulaan) Al Quran sebagai petunjuk bagi manusia dan penjelasan-penjelasan mengenai petunjuk itu dan pembeza (antara yang hak dan yang bathil). Kerana itu, barangsiapa di antara kamu hadir (di negeri tempat tinggalnya) di bulan itu, maka hendaklah ia berpuasa pada bulan itu.”

(Al Baqarah: 185)
 

إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ (1) وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (2) لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ(3){القدر: ١-٣}

”Sesungguhnya Kami telah menurunkannya (Al Quran) pada lailatul qadar (malam kemuliaan). Dan tahukah kamu apakah malam kemuliaan itu? Malam kemuliaan itu lebih baik dari seribu bulan.”
(Al Qadr: 1-3).
 
Allah ta’ala juga berfirman,

إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةٍ مُبَارَكَةٍ إِنَّا كُنَّا
مُنْذِرِينَ {الدخان: ٣}

”Sesungguhnya Kami menurunkannya pada suatu malam yang diberkati dan sesungguhnya Kami-lah yang memberi peringatan.”
( Ad-Dukhan: 3)

 
2. Bulan untuk qiyamullail dengan solat tarawih dan tahajjud.

Nabi ﷺ bersabda,

من قام رمضان إيمانا واحتسابا غفر له ما تقدم من ذنبه
(رواه البخاري ومسلم). 

”Barangsiapa yang berdiri (menunaikan salat) di bulan Ramadan dengan iman dan mengharap (pahala), maka dosa-dosanya yang telah lalu akan diampuni”.

3. Bulan pengampunan dan penghapus dosa.

Nabi ﷺ bersabda,

من صام رمضان إيمانا واحتسابا غفر له ما تقدم من ذنبه (رواه البخاري ومسلم)

Barangsiapa yang berpuasa di bulan Ramadhan dengan penuh keimanan dan pengharapan, maka akan diampunkan dosanya yang telah lalu.”

(HR al-Bukhari dan Muslim)

4. Bulan pembebasan dari api neraka.

Nabi ﷺ bersabda,

(ولله عتقاء من النار وذلك في كل ليلة) رواه الترمذي وابن ماجه.

Dan bagi Allah membebaskan sejumlah orang dari neraka. Hal itu terjadi pada setiap malam.” (HR. Tirmizi dan Ibn Majah)

5. Bulan ihsan kasihan belas dan pemurah.

Nabi ﷺ bersabda,

عن ابن عباس رضي الله عنهما قال: كان النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أجود الناس وكان أجود ما يكون في رمضان حين يلقاه جبريل فيدارسه القرآن. (رواه البخاري ومسلم)

Nabi ‎ﷺ adalah orang yang paling dermawan. Dan Baginda lebih dermawan lagi di bulan Ramadhan saat Baginda bertemu Jibril. Jibril menemuinya setiap malam untuk mengajarkan Al Qur’an.

(HR. Bukhari,Muslim)

6. Bulan dibuka pintu-pintu syurga, ditutup pintu-pintu neraka dan dibelenggu para syaitan.

Nabi ﷺ bersabda,

إذا جاء رمضان فتحت أبواب الجنة، وغلقت أبواب النار، وصفدت الشياطين (رواه البخاري ومسلم)

Bila datang Ramadhan, dibuka pintu-pintu syurga, ditutup pintu-pintu neraka, dibelenggu para syaitan.

( HR Bukhari, Muslim)

7. Bulan doa-doa dimakbulkan oleh Allah ta’ala.

Dalam surah Al Baqarah selepa ayat kewajipan berpuasa, Allah ta’ala menyatakan tentang diriNya sebagai Pemakbul Doa dari para hambaNya.

وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ ‎
﴿البقرة: ١٨٦﴾‏

Dan apabila hamba-hambaKu bertanya kepadamu mengenai Aku maka (beritahu kepada mereka): sesungguhnya Aku (Allah) sentiasa hampir (kepada mereka); Aku perkenankan permohonan orang yang berdoa apabila ia berdoa kepadaKu. Maka hendaklah mereka menyahut seruanku (dengan mematuhi perintahKu), dan hendaklah mereka beriman kepadaKu supaya mereka menjadi baik serta betul. (186)

(Al Baqarah: 186)


Nabi ﷺ bersabda,

ثَلاَثَةٌ لاَ تُرَدُّ دَعْوَتُهُمُ الصَّائِمُ حَتَّى يُفْطِرَ وَالإِمَامُ الْعَادِلُ وَدَعْوَةُ
الْمَظْلُومِ

“Tiga orang yang do’anya tidak tertolak: orang yang berpuasa sampai ia berbuka, pemimpin yang adil, dan do’a orang yang dizalimi”.

(HR Tirmizi)


8. Bulan yang digandakan pahala amal ibadah dan kebaikan.

Nabi ﷺ bersabda,


فَإِذَا جَاءَ رَمَضَانُ فَاعْتَمِرِي ، فَإِنَّ عُمْرَةً
فِيهِ تَعْدِلُ حَجَّةً

Sekiranya telah tiba bulan Ramadhan, maka hendaklah kamu mengerjakan umrah. Ini kerana umrah pada bulan tersebut menyamai pahalanya seperti mengerjakan haji.

(HR al-Bukhari)

9. Bulan berlakunya lailatul qadar iaitu malam yang paling mulia.

Allah ta’ala berfirman,

إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ (1) وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (2) لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ(3)

”Sesungguhnya Kami telah menurunkannya (Al Quran) pada lailatul qadar (malam kemuliaan). Dan tahukah kamu apakah malam kemuliaan itu? Malam kemuliaan itu lebih baik dari seribu bulan.”
(Al Qadr: 1-3).
 
Allah ta’ala juga berfirman,

إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةٍ مُبَارَكَةٍ إِنَّا كُنَّا مُنْذِرِينَ
 
”Sesungguhnya Kami menurunkannya pada suatu malam yang diberkati dan sesungguhnya Kami-lah yang memberi peringatan.”

( Ad-Dukhan: 3)

Justeru, ambillah dan rebutlah ruang dan peluang yang Allah ta’ala telah berikan padamu dengan hadirnya Ramadhan tahun ini. Kerana engkau tidak pasti lagi dapat menemuinya pada tahun hadapan.



ABi

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 171: ‘Horrific’ eyewitness accounts continue to emerge from Israel’s siege on Gaza’s hospitals
Leila WarahMarch 25, 2024
Injured Palestinians, including children, are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir El-Balah for treatment following the Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, on March 23, 2024. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)
Injured Palestinians, including children, are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir El-Balah for treatment following the Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, on March 23, 2024. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)
Casualties

32,333 + killed* and at least 74,694 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
435+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
594 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.***
*Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.

** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the PA’s Ministry of Health on March 17, this is the latest figure.

*** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”

Key Developments

UNRWA: Israel says no more UNRWA food convoys to north Gaza.
UNRWA chief: Israeli decision to deny all UNRWA food convoys to northern Gaza is “obstruct[ing] lifesaving assistance during a man-made famine.”
Doctors Without Borders “deeply concerned” after medical staff arrested at al-Shifa Hospital amid “heavy air strikes by Israeli forces and fierce fighting” nearby.
Tanks crushed bodies, ambulances at al-Shifa Hospital, reports AP News, citing witnesses.
Footage emerges of Israeli soldiers assaulting Palestinian boy
Casualties in Israeli attack on aid distributors at Kuwaiti roundabout in Gaza City, reports Al Jazeera.
Israeli forces raid Al Aqsa mosque during nightly prayers, assault and expel worshipers, reports Al Jazeera journalist.
WHO Chief: Israel must reverse decision on blocking north Gaza aid.
Israeli war cabinet minister threatens to quit if bill exempting ultra-Orthodox Jews from conscription passes
UNRWA: U.S. funding cut will ‘compromise access to food’ in Gaza.
UN special rapporteurs decry underreporting of sexual violence against Palestinians.
Israel blocks access to Jerusalem for West Bank Christians on Palm Sunday, reports Wafa.
PRCS says it has lost radio contact with staff at al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis.
Euro-Med: Israel’s attacks on academics in line with Gaza ‘genocide’
WAFA correspondent killed along with son Israeli airstrike on Gaza
MAP report: Doctor says conditions inside European Gaza Hospital ‘unimaginable’
Gaza: Three Hospitals under military siege

The Israeli military has imposed ongoing sieges on at least three medical facilities in the besieged enclave, terrorizing, injuring, and killing thousands of civilians in the process.

Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza has entered its seventh day under siege, and the civilians able to flee are reporting ruthless massacres in and around the medical complex.

A teenage Palestinian boy, Farouk Mohammed Hamd, told Al Jazeera he witnessed Israeli soldiers executing a group of eight people, including his father and brother, inside al-Shifa Hospital.

He said he and the others were stripped of their clothing and moved several times inside the al-Shifa Hospital building in central Gaza over the course of hours before being taken to the top floor of the facility.

“They left us for about three hours, then said, ‘You are safe. You can go south.”

“We stood up, but then they opened fire. We all laid down on the floor again. Then, the snipers entertained themselves by shooting us one after the other.”

Hamad said his father told him before being killed to run away if he could, and he managed to run, but not before seeing the unresponsive bodies of the executed group.

On Sunday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said its staff have reported “heavy air strikes by Israeli forces and fierce fighting” in the vicinity of al-Shifa hospital, “endangering patients, medical staff and people trapped inside with very few supplies.”

Jameel al-Ayoubi, one of the thousands of Palestinians sheltering at the hospital, saw Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers drive over at least four bodies in the hospital courtyard, AP News reports. Ambulances were also crushed, he says.

Kareem Ayman Hathat, who lived in a five-story building about 100 meters (328 feet) from the hospital, told AP he hid in his kitchen for days waiting as explosions shook the building.

“From time to time, the tank would fire a shell,” he said. “It was to terrorise us.”

MSF added that Israeli forces have carried out a mass-arrest campaign of medical staff and other people and that the organization is “deeply concerned” for the safety of those detained.

Meanwhile, another two hospitals in Khan Younis have been under Israeli military siege for the last 24 hours: al-Amal and Nasser hospitals, reports Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud from Gaza.

“Military vehicles, tanks and attack drones are encircling these two facilities. They’re also blocking the entrance with piles of sand, preventing medical staff, patients and injured people inside from leaving safely and constantly failing to provide a safe corridor for people and evacuees trapped inside the hospital,” Mahmoud said.

Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) gave their latest update on the situation in al Amal hospital on Sunday afternoon, saying Israeli tanks and armored vehicles have completely surrounded all entrances to the hospital and control any movement in and out.

Israeli forces attacked the hospital earlier on Sunday, surrounding it with tanks and forcing nearly everyone inside, from patients to displaced Palestinians sheltering there, to evacuate.

“What we’re getting confirmed from al-Amal Hospital is that not only has it been under constant bombing and tank shells, but loudspeakers are ordering people inside the hospital to come out only with their underwear on. And that has been confirmed by multiple sources and witnesses on the ground, those who managed to flee the harrowing situation,” Mahmoud added.

On Sunday evening, the PRCS announced that they lost radio contact with their staff at the hospital.

While all displaced Palestinians and patients who could move independently were evacuated towards the al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis, hospital staff remain, along with nine patients and their ten companions and a displaced family with children who have disabilities. PCRS says all of them need to be safely evacuated.

PRCS added that staff member Amir Abu Aisha and a wounded individual who was being treated at the hospital after being shot in the head by the Israeli military were both killed, and their bodies need to be removed.

In a statement, Hamas said the Israeli military is systematically targeting hospitals across Gaza with the goal of displacing all Palestinians from their lands, showing Israel wants to continue its “war of extermination” against Palestinians and forcibly displace them from their land “by destroying all means of life in the Gaza Strip, especially hospitals,” reported Al Jazeera.

Underreporting of sexual violence against Palestinians

Witnesses at al-Shifa hospital have reported that “Palestinian women have been subjected to rape, torture, and execution by Israeli forces.”

Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said in a post on X that it is “abhorrent” that reports of rape by Israeli forces keep coming out without any consequences.

“Rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide! It must stop!”

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, similarly said, “I lost count of how many renowned journalists interviewed me on the alleged mistreatment of/sexual abuse against Palestinian women by Israeli forces, and never published any article on this.”

“What we can see on the ground is a systematic creation of a corrosive environment in which Israel, with its destruction of neighborhoods and hospitals, is making Gaza unliveable for the majority of Palestinians,” said Al Jazeera co-respondent, Tareq Abu Azzoum from Gaza while reporting on the besieged hospitals.

“Horrific scenes” at European Hospital

Meanwhile, at Gaza’s European Hospital near Khan Younis, one of the last functioning medical facilities, medical staff report “horrific scenes” at the hospital with patients “dying from infections with evidence of serious malnutrition,” reported Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).

Husam Basheer, an orthopedic surgeon working at the hospital, says he and his staff are “managing with the bare minimum of resources” at the medical facility due to Israeli restrictions on medical aid entering the besieged enclave.

“One day we wanted to do a plate and screw, which is a standard procedure for bone fixation, but we didn’t have the right equipment. Sometimes we’ve also lacked gauze which is a basic supply for surgery. We worked around the challenges we faced and managed in a different way, but the staff here are overwhelmed,” he said.

Similarly, Konstantina Ilia Karydi, an anesthetist, described the situation inside the medical facility as “unimaginable.”

“This hospital had an original capacity of just 200 beds. Now, it has expanded to 1,000 beds,” she said.

“There are around 22,000 displaced people sheltering in the corridors and in tents inside the hospital because people feel that it’s safer to be here than anywhere else.”

Israel bars UNRWA from northern Gaza

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced on Sunday that Israel has officially barred it from making aid deliveries in northern Gaza, where the threat of famine is highest.

“This is outrageous [and] makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man-made famine. These restrictions must be lifted,” the head of the UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, wrote in an X post.

Famine is likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July, according to the world’s hunger watchdog, Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC), said last week.

Lazzarini warned that Israel’s decision would speed up the coming of famine in the north of the Strip and said that “many more will die of hunger, dehydration.”

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), says Israel must “urgently reverse” its decision to block the entry of food convoys organized by UNRWA into northern Gaza, where humanitarian needs are most urgent.

“The levels of hunger are acute. All efforts to deliver food should not only be permitted but there should be an immediate acceleration of food deliveries,” Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.

Martin Griffiths, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator at the UN, says he repeatedly urged Israel to lift all its restrictions on aid to Gaza. Still, it has now done the exact opposite.

“UNRWA is the beating heart of the humanitarian response in Gaza,” Griffiths said on X , “The decision to block its food convoys to the north only pushes thousands closer to famine. It must be revoked.”

No other agency is able to provide lifesaving assistance in Gaza in the same way as UNRWA, Natalie Boucly, the deputy commissioner-general of the UN agency, has said on X.

Boucly added that attempts to “isolate” UNRWA will result in more people dying, “UNRWA is part of the UN and it was given a specific mandate by the General Assembly.”

In January, several countries cut funding to UNRWA following unverified Israeli allegations that less than a dozen employees participated in Hamas’s operation on October 7.

While some countries, including Canada and Sweden, have since reinstated their funding, several countries, including the US, have yet to follow suit, which will have severe implications for Palestinians in Gaza and the region.

Israel is using famine as a “weapon of war” in Gaza to put pressure on the Palestinian people to leave the besieged enclave, Adel Abdel Ghafar, an analyst at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera.
“In Gaza, the humanitarian community is racing against the clock to avert famine. As the backbone of the humanitarian response, any gap in funding to UNRWA will compromise access to food, shelter, primary health care & education at a time of deep trauma,” the organization’s chief, Lazzarini, wrote on X.

“Palestine Refugees are counting on the international community to step up support to meet their basic needs.”

Israel is using famine as a “weapon of war” in Gaza to put pressure on the Palestinian people to leave the besieged enclave, Adel Abdel Ghafar, an analyst at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera.

The “dream” of many far-right politicians in Israel is to make Gaza “uninhabitable” for Palestinians, with the goal of re-establishing settlements for the Israelis, Ghafar continued.

“The destruction of schools, hospitals, infrastructure [is making Gaza] almost unlivable and it will force the international community to take further refugees and thin out the population of Gaza,” he said.

“I think Israel wants to have a big chunk of the population leave and become refugees elsewhere.”

UN Resolution for ceasefire

On Monday, the UN Security Council is expected to vote on yet another resolution regarding Israel’s war on Gaza. Since October seven, only two of eight resolutions have been accepted, with both mainly dealing with humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave.

Guterres says the most recent UN Security Council resolution does not link a ceasefire in Gaza to the release of Israeli captives, reported Al Jazeera.

In the resolution, “a ceasefire is required together with, but not in a linkage with, the unconditional release of all hostages,” he said. “And we have also claimed the need for that release.”

Diplomats told the AFP news agency that the resolution had been worked on with the U.S. to avoid a veto, reported France 24. The U.S. has vetoed three resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“We expect, barring a last-minute twist, that the resolution will be adopted and that the US will not vote against it,” one diplomat told AFP.

Last Friday, the Security Council voted on a draft submitted by the U.S. that called for an “immediate” ceasefire linked to the release of captives. China and Russia vetoed the resolution, criticizing it for stopping short of explicitly demanding Israel halt its campaign.

No progress on negotiations.

Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas have continued negotiations mediated by Qatar with little progress.

Hamas’s political bureau official Basem Naim says a lot of “misinformation” has recently been circulated through the media regarding the ongoing truce talks in Doha, reported Al Jazeera.

Naim said the Israelis are focusing on only one aspect of the negotiations, the release of captives, and are unwilling to discuss Hamas’s three demands – a permanent end to the war, “total withdrawal” from Gaza, and the return of displaced people to their homes.

Hamas had proposed the release of some 100 Israeli captives in phases in exchange for a permanent end to the war, total withdrawal of Israeli troops, and the return of displaced people to their homes; however, according to Al Jazeera, Israel rejected the demand to end the war and withdraw troops from Gaza.

Al Jazeera added that Israeli negotiators said they would allow only 2,000 Palestinians to return to their homes each day, meaning it would take more than two years for all displaced Palestinians to leave Rafah.

Meanwhile, Israel wants all Israeli captives released immediately. Hamas has indicated it will only release women and children in the first phase.

As negotiations continue, Yossi Amrosi, an ex-senior official of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as admitting that the Israeli army does not have the means to return all captives currently held in Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said at the start of the war that it had taken 250 captives during its October 7 incursion into Israel.

According to the Qassam Brigades, 50 captives have been killed in Israeli air raids. Israeli intelligence officers say 30 captives have died in Gaza so far since they were taken to the enclave.

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-171-horrific-eyewitness-accounts-continue-to-emerge-from-israels-siege-on-gazas-hospitals/

☆Tadabbur Kalamullah 14 Ramadhan 1445H☆

قُمِ ٱلَّیۡلَ إِلَّا قَلِیلࣰا

"Bangunlah sembahyang Tahajjud pada waktu malam, selain dari sedikit masa (yang tak dapat tidak untuk berehat)" [Surah al-Muzzammil 2]

#Allah swt meminta hamba-hambaNya bangun beribadah pada waktu malam melibatkan sebahagian daripadanya, bukanlah sepanjang malam. Sebagai seorang mukmin maka sahutlah seruan Allah untuk bangun menghidupkan malam terutama di bulan Ramadhan yang mulia ini.

#Antara solat malam yang boleh ditunaikan ialah solat tahajud dan juga solat witir.

#Solat sunat Tahajjud, solat ini dilaksanakan, selepas bangun dari tidur dan sebelum masuk waktu subuh. (Lihat: al-Fiqh al-Manhaji)

#Diriwayatkan daripada Sayidina Abu Hurairah r.a, bahawa Nabi saw bersabda:

وَأَفْضَلُ الصَّلَاةِ بَعْدَ الْفَرِيضَةِ؛ صَلَاةُ اللَّيْلِ

"Sebaik-baik solat setelah solat fardhu ialah solat malam" (HR Muslim)

#Imam Ibnu Rajab berkata: "Waktu tahajud di malam hari adalah sebaik-baik waktu pelaksanaan solat sunat. Ketika itu hamba semakin dekat dengan Tuhannya. Waktu tersebut adalah saat dibukakannya pintu langit dan terkabulnya doa. Saat itu juga adalah waktu untuk mengemukakan pelbagai hajat kepada Allah swt" (Lihat: Lata’if al-Ma’arif)

#Selain solat tahajud, kita juga boleh tunaikan solat sunat witir.

#Daripada Sayidina Abu Ayyub r.a, katanya, Rasulullah saw bersabda:

الْوِتْرُ حَقٌّ عَلَى كُلِّ مُسْلِمٍ فَمَنْ أَحَبَّ أَنْ يُوتِرَ بِخَمْسٍ فَلْيَفْعَلْ وَمَنْ أَحَبَّ أَنْ يُوتِرَ بِثَلاَثٍ فَلْيَفْعَلْ وَمَنْ أَحَبَّ أَنْ يُوتِرَ بِوَاحِدَةٍ فَلْيَفْعَلْ

"Solat Witir ialah syariat yang dituntut atas setiap orang Islam. Sesiapa hendak melakukannya 5 rakaat lakukanlah, sesiapa yang hendak melakukannya 3 rakaat lakukanlah, dan sesiapa hendak melakukannya 1 rakaat sahaja lakukanlah" (HR Abu Daud)

#Pengarang kitab Fiqh al-Manhaji menyebutkan: "Sekurang-kurang sempurna solat Witir ialah tiga rakaat, iaitu melakukannya secara dua rakaat bersambung dan satu rakaat lagi berasingan. Sementara yang paling sempurna adalah melakukannya sebanyak sebelas rakaat dengan mengucap salam selepas setiap dua rakaat dan diakhiri dengan satu rakaat".

#Menurut mazhab Syafi‘i, kita disunatkan untuk solat sunat witir secara berjemaah di dalam bulan Ramadhan.

#Sabda Nabi saw:

مَنْ خَافَ أَنْ لاَ يَقُومَ مِنْ آخِرِ اللَّيْلِ فَلْيُوتِرْ أَوَّلَهُ وَمَنْ طَمِعَ أَنْ يَقُومَ آخِرَهُ فَلْيُوتِرْ آخِرَ اللَّيْلِ فَإِنَّ صَلاَةَ آخِرِ اللَّيْلِ مَشْهُودَةٌ وَذَلِكَ أَفْضَلُ

"Sesiapa yang takut tidak terbangun pada saat akhir malam, dia hendaklah mendirikan solat witir lebih awal, dan sesiapa yang bersungguh-sungguh untuk bangun pada akhir malam dia hendaklah mendirikan solat witir pada akhir malam. Sesungguhnya solat pada akhir malam disaksikan yakni dihadiri oleh malaikat dan itulah yang paling baik (afdhal)" (HR Muslim)

♡Selamat menghidupkan malam-malam Ramadhan dengan solat malam, solat tahajud, solat tasbih, solat taubat, solat hajat, solat witir dan solat sunat yang lain. Jom solat!!♡

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‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 170: Israel assaults al-Shifa, Nasser, and al-Amal hospitals in one day
Mustafa Abu SneinehMarch 23, 2024
Injured Palestinians, including children, are brought to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah for treatment following Israeli airstrikes, March 23, 2024. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)
Injured Palestinians, including children, are brought to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah for treatment following Israeli airstrikes, March 23, 2024. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)
Casualties

32,223 + killed* and at least 74,518 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
435+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
594 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.***
*Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.

** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the PA’s Ministry of Health on March 17, this is the latest figure.

*** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”

Key Developments

Israeli forces commit eight massacres in Gaza, kill at least 84 people and injure 106.
Israeli forces shell and bomb vicinity of al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, killing one volunteer with PRCS.
PRCS says Israeli tanks and forces are “besieging both al-Amal Hospital and al-Naser Hospital amidst very intense shelling and heavy gunfire.”
Wafa reports infected wounds of injured Palestinians inside al-Shifa due to lack of essential medical supplies.
Al-Jazeera Arabic reports Israeli tanks ran over evacuating people from al-Shifa Hospital, shows blurred footage of Palestinian with marks of tank wheel on lower body.
Jamila al-Hissi, survivor of storming of al-Shifa, tells Al-Jazeera Arabic that “Palestinian women have been subjected to rape, torture, and execution by Israeli forces.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres says “horror and starvation stalk the people of Gaza” in visit to Rafah crossing.
U.S. Secretary of State warns Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Rafah offensive would “further isolate” Israel in the region.
Netanyahu hopes to invade Rafah with “the support of the U.S., but if we have to – we will do it alone.”
Hamas says 34-year-old Israeli captive died in Gaza as “he did not escape the lack of food and medicine.”
Dozens of settlers storm al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem to mark Jewish holiday of Purim.
Israeli forces block Palestinian Christians in occupied West Bank from entering Jerusalem to participate in Palm Sunday.
Al-Amal Hospital in ‘extreme danger’ as Israel attacks

Gaza’s two major hospitals were under attack on Sunday morning as thousands of Palestinians in the coastal enclave have been living under bombardment for the past 170 days.

Overnight, Israeli forces committed eight massacres in various areas of the Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Health on Telegram, killing at least 84 people and injuring 106. Thousands remain under the rubble of bombed buildings.

Israeli forces shelled and bombed the vicinity of al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS). Amir Abu Aisha, a volunteer with the PRCS, was killed by Israeli gunfire inside al-Amal.

His last post on Instagram was a video of Israeli airstrikes near al-Amal.

PRCS said the medical team inside the facility are “in extreme danger…and are completely immobilized.”

“They are unable to bury the body of our colleague Amir Abu Aisha within the hospital’s backyard,” PRCS continued as Israeli forces razed and excavated the area.

Since October, Israeli bombardment killed at least 364 medical workers in the Gaza Strip, including doctors, nurses, and paramedics, and damaged dozens of clinics and ambulances.

On Sunday morning, PRCS also said that Israeli tanks and forces are “besieging both Al-Amal Hospital and Al-Naser Hospital amidst very intense shelling and heavy gunfire.”

PRCS said that one of the displaced Palestinians at al-Amal was “injured in the head,” while Israeli drones are ordering that all people inside the hospital “leave it naked.”

“Smoke bombs are being launched at the hospital to force the staff, wounded, and displaced individuals to leave it,” the PRCS wrote on in a post on X.

“Israeli vehicles [are] surrounding Al-Amal Hospital and are now bulldozing the area in front and around it and closing the hospital gates with barriers,” the post added.

Israeli atrocities in al-Shifa, say eyewitnesses

In northern Gaza, al-Shifa Hospital has been under Israeli assault for a week.

Israeli forces continued to besiege, shell, and bomb al-Shifa Hospital and its vicinity for the seventh day in a row, saying that Hamas senior leaders had used the facility, a claim which the movement denies.

Israeli forces killed Palestinian civilians and officials while storming al-Shifa, including Faiq al-Mabhouh, an officer in the Gaza Police force who was responsible for the successful deliveries of food, rice, and flour to thousands of inhabitants of northern Gaza.

Hamas accused Israel of attempting to spread chaos and civilian disorder by killing officials who coordinate with clans, the UN, and international groups to prevent a famine in the north Gaza.

On Saturday afternoon, at least five people were killed by Israel and several injured in the al-Shifa medical complex, while Palestinians and medical staff have been living with little food and water. Wafa news agency reported that the wounds of some injured Palestinians inside Al-Shifa got infected and inflamed amid the lack of essential medical supplies.

Al-Jazeera Arabic reported that Israeli tanks ran over Palestinians who were ordered to evacuate the hospital. Al-Jazeera released blurred footage of a person’s dead body with marks of a tank wheel on his lower body.

Jamila al-Hissi, a Palestinian woman who survived the Israeli storming of al-Shifa, told Al-Jazeera Arabic that “Palestinian women have been subjected to rape, torture, and execution by Israeli forces.”

“This is what we witnessed. They raped women. They kidnapped women. they executed women, pulled bodies from under the rubble, and unleashed their dogs to eat them. Is there anything worse?” Al-Hissi told Al-Jazeera in a phone call.

She left with her daughter, who was bleeding, and evacuated a building belonging to the UN Development Program (UNDP), which was set on fire by Israeli forces, who also burned and destroyed several buildings surrounding al-Shifa in the past days.

It is unclear how many people remain inside al-Shifa, but prior to Israel’s second storming of the hospital since November, there were 7,000 patients and injured people receiving treatment administered by hundreds of medical staff.

Al-Shifa is one of Gaza’s oldest medical facilities, built on top of a British barracks in 1946.

The complex includes several buildings for surgery, internal disease, obstetrics and gynecology, a nursery for premature babies, an emergency department, intensive care units, a radiology department, and a blood bank. Some of these buildings have been damaged, burned by Israel, or have ceased operating fully due to the lack of fuel to generate electricity.

The complex is built on 45,000 square meters of land west of Gaza City. Prior to October of last year, al-Shifa employed 1,500 medical staff, including 500 doctors and 760 nurses.

Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, said on Sunday that “Horror & starvation stalk the people of Gaza.”

“Any further onslaught will make everything worse. Worse for Palestinian civilians, for the hostages, for all people of the region,” he added.

Guterres visited Egypt on Saturday to inspect the Rafah land crossing, and al-Arish General Hospital in northern Sinai to check on injured Palestinians receiving treatment.

Israeli forces bomb Rafah, Khan Younis, and Deir al-Balah

Wafa reported that Israeli forces bombed a house in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip overnight, killing at least eight people in the al-Hakar area. Meanwhile, in Rafah, Palestinian rescue teams recovered the bodies of eight Palestinians under the rubble of a bombed house belonging to the Farwana family in the Jneina neighborhood.

In Khan Younis, Israeli forces heavily bombed areas in the southeastern part of the city, besieging the Nasser and al-Amal hospitals. In Rafah, they bombed a house near the Rabaa School, killing at least two people, Wafa reported.

The Israeli government has vowed to invade Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are currently displaced and live in shelters. During his visit to Israel on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned that an offensive on Rafah would “further isolate” Israel in the region, according to Reuters.

Blinken, who met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that “a major military ground operation in Rafah is not the way to do it,” although the U.S. shares Israel’s goal to “defeat Hamas.”

“It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security and standing,” Blinken said during a press briefing after the meeting.

Netanyahu, however, appeared to be undeterred in invading Rafah, stating in a video statement that he told Blinken, “I hope we will do it with the support of the U.S., but if we have to — we will do it alone.”

Meanwhile, fighting is still ongoing between Israeli forces and Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip. On Saturday, Hamas said that a 34-year-old Israeli captive died in Gaza.

“Although he survived the army’s attack, he did not escape the lack of food and medicine,” the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades wrote in a video message.

In another video, Hamas fighters fired al-Yaseen 105mm anti-tank shells on Israeli military vehicles in the vicinity of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

Israel had been blocking sufficient food and medical supplies from entering Gaza, although some of them were funded or sponsored by ally countries such as the UK.

The Foreign Secretary, Lord David Cameron, accused Israel last week of delaying U.K. aid to Gaza, which was stopped at the crossing point for three weeks.

Israeli settlers storm al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Pruim

Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem on Sunday morning to mark the Jewish holiday of Purim, which ends on Monday.

Israeli forces emptied the al-Aqsa compound of Palestinian worshippers on Saturday evening in preparation for the settlers’ tour, Wafa reported. Israeli forces barred Palestinians from staying overnight in al-Aqsa’s al-Qibli mosque after Ramadan’s tarawih prayers ended, which were attended by 45,000 people.

During Ramadan, it is worshippers often stay in mosques overnight to pray after tarawih. In 2021, Israeli forces raided the al-Qibli mosque, firing bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas canisters at worshipers who were performing night prayers and reciting the Quran.

Israeli settlers’ storming of al-Aqsa further escalated tensions in the city, according to Wafa, as Israeli forces prevented Palestinians from entering the site on Sunday morning.

Wafa said that two settlers were dressed up as Jewish temple priests. Settlers have long stated their wish to rebuild the third Jewish temple in the middle of the al-Aqsa compound atop the Dome of the Rock.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces blocked Palestinian Christians in the occupied West Bank from entering Jerusalem to take part in the commemoration of Palm Sunday, the anniversary of Jesus’s entry into the city. Those who participated in the ceremony in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher were Palestinians from Jerusalem or from inside Israel.

Israeli forces arrested 16 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank overnight, from the towns of Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Tulkarem, and also Jerusalem. Since October, 7,755 Palestinians have been detained by Israel. This figure, released by the Ministry of Detainees’ and Ex-Destainees’ Affairs, does not include Palestinians who were released later or those arrested from the Gaza Strip.

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-170-israel-assaults-al-shifa-nasser-and-al-amal-hospitals-in-one-day/

☆Tadabbur Kalamullah 13 Ramadhan 1445H☆

یَـٰۤأَیُّهَا ٱلَّذِینَ ءَامَنُوا۟ كُتِبَ عَلَیۡكُمُ ٱلصِّیَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى ٱلَّذِینَ مِن قَبۡلِكُمۡ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ

"Wahai orang-orang yang beriman! Kamu diwajibkan berpuasa sebagaimana diwajibkan atas orang-orang yang dahulu daripada kamu, supaya kamu bertaqwa"  [Surah al-Baqarah 183]

#Dah 13 hari kita berpuasa dalam suasana panas yang agak terik membahang. Puasa penuh cabaran dan tahap kehausan semakin tinggi. Ada tempat yang cuaca agak sejuk, dingin dan mendung. Puasa sama tapi pahala berbeza disebab tahap bebanan yang ditanggung.

#Ketahuilah bahawa setiap orang yang beribadah tidak sama nilainya di sisi Allah, walaupun mungkin sama pada jenis dan bilangannya. Seseorang  yang bersolat tarawih bersama para jemaah yang ramai tidaklah semestinya setiap mereka mendapat ganjaran pahala yang sama. Ini kerana di antara mereka sudah pasti ada perbezaan pada kadar khusyuk, ikhlas dan kesusahan yang dialami dalam menunaikan ibadah itu.

#Imam ‘Izzuddin Abdissalam dalam kitab Qawa’id al-Ahkam membahaskan isu ini. Beliau menjelaskan perbezaan pahala dua amalan yang serupa itu bukanlah perbezaan pahala amalan itu sendiri, sebaliknya tambahan pahala itu diperolehi disebabkan kesusahan yang ditanggung. Contohnya, seseorang yang mandi wajib pada musim sejuk dan seorang yang mandi wajib pada musim panas. Dari segi mandi, keduanya mendapat pahala yang sama disebabkan sifat mandi itu dari sudut syarat, rukun dan sunnahnya itu sama. Namun yang mandi pada musim sejuk mendapat pahala lebih disebabkan beban yang lebih berat yang terpaksa ditanggung. Bukannya perbezaan pahala itu pada mandi tersebut, tetapi kepada beban sampingan yang terpaksa ditanggung.

#Begitulah juga mengenai mereka yang pergi ke masjid, menunaikan haji, berdakwah, berjihad dan seumpamanya. Pahala diberikan bukan kerana perbezaan tujuan, tetapi kerana bebanan tahap bebanan dan kesabaran yang terpaksa ditempuh.

#Demikianlah ibadah puasa, walaupun dari segi puasa, tujuannya sama. Syarat, rukun dan sunnahnya yang dilaksanakan itu sama. Namun, pahala berbeza bukan disebabkan perbezaan pahala puasa, tetapi perbezaan bebanan yang ditanggung oleh seseorang yang melaksanakan tanggungjawab tersebut. Orang yang berpuasa dalam suasana cuaca yang panas membahang tidak sama ganjaran pahala dengan orang yang berpuasa dalam suasana sejuk. Begitu juga mereka yang berpuasa dalam suasana bekerja berat dalam suasana panas terik. Puasa dalam keadaan ornag disekeliling tidak berpuasa dan dinegara yang agak mencabar untuk berpuasa dan seumpamanya.

#Maka, kita hendaklah tahu bahawa setiap kesusahan yang ditanggung oleh pengamal ibadah itu, ada hitungan pahala di sisi Allah swt yang lebih dan berbeza dengan orang lain.

♡Tunaikanlah setiap kewajipan yang diperintahkan dengan penuh kesabaran dan ketabahan. Yakinilah bahawa ganjaran pahala itu diberi oleh Allah mengikut kadar kesusahan, kepayahan dan cabaran yang dilalui disepanjang ibadah itu dilaksanakan. Selamat berpuasa di musim panas saat ini. Bertabahlah!!♡

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Inside the anti-Syria lobby’s Capitol Hill push for more starvation sanctions
Hekmat AboukhaterMarch 20, 2024

A week from the 13th anniversary of the US-backed Syrian dirty war, the American Coalition for Syria held its annual day of advocacy in Washington DC. I went undercover into meetings with Senate policy advisors and witnessed the lobby’s cynical campaign to starve Syria into submission.

On the morning of March 7, as the US Capitol teemed with lobbyists securing earmarks ahead of appropriations week and activists decrying the Gaza genocide, one special interest group on the Hill stood out. In the corridors of the Rayburn building, a group of roughly 50 people prepared for a busy day of advocating for sanctions to be levied against their homeland.

They were the Anti-Syria lobby — and had I infiltrated their influence campaign.

Throughout the day, I watched as this group pushed US officials to accept their policy of starvation sanctions while cynically ignoring famished Palestinians in Gaza.

Among the lobbyists was Raed Saleh, the head of the Syrian White Helmets, who were to propagandize for regime change from behind humanitarian cover.

I attended a total of seven meetings with policy teams representing Senators Sherrod Brown, Maggie Hassan, Ben Cardin, Mark Kelly, Chris Van Hollen, John Fetterman, and Rick Scott. Throughout these sessions, I witnessed the anti-Syria Lobby attempt to bully and manipulate US officials into accepting their policy of starvation while cynically throwing starving Palestinians in Gaza under the bus.

At one moment, Raed Saleh, head of the Syrian White Helmets, which was founded by British intelligence, and funded by NATO states, painted Israeli air strikes against Syria in a positive light.

During a separate meeting, Wa’el Alzayat of the pro-Zionist Muslim outreach Emgage even demanded Senator Chris Van Hollen’s office support the approval of aid for Al Qaeda-linked militias in Syria.

“Stop freaking out about the stuff going to terrorists,” he insisted, adding that “the Brits are doing it, the Turks are doing it, [and] the Qataris are doing it.”

Purporting to be a voice for all Syrians, the anti-Syria lobby is spearheaded by the American Coalition for Syria (ACS), an umbrella organization representing opposition groups such as the Syrian American Council (SAC), the Syrian Forum, and a handful of others located in the US and Turkey.

Emgage, meanwhile, has been credited with getting the diaspora vote out for then-candidate Joe Biden in November 2020. The group has since fallen under criticism for acting as a de facto extension of the Biden White House and Democratic Party within the Muslim community. Emgage board member Farooq Mitha formally went to work for the Biden Pentagon in March 2021. On March 7, Alzayat aimed to weaponize Emgage’s influence against Democratic Senators who seemed uncomfortable with an escalating sanctions policy.

“I need a good story for my voters,” he explained to Senator Van Hollen’s team.

Throughout their sanctions campaign on the Hill, Alzayat and his cohorts operated like a miniature version of their Israel lobby allies, supplying roughly 50 volunteers with folders outlining talking points and the biographies of congressional representatives. The bios included a comprehensive list of the Senator or Representative’s recorded stance on Syria, such as their votes on the extension of the AUMF, the US military withdrawal from Syria, and previous sanctions packages targeting the country.



The handouts also laid out the lobby’s key legislative requests, which largely focused on securing development aid for militia-controlled territory in Syria — including that held by Al Qaeda’s local ally in the country — and ensuring passage of the ‘Assad Regime Anti Normalization Bill,’ which seeks to extend and expand sanctions targeting Damascus.

The Anti-Syria Lobby’s resemblance to their Israeli counterparts was no mistake. As Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott’s chief of staff reassured us, “the Israelis want you guys in charge.”


Syrian Civil War map|Syrian Civil War map (November 24, 2023) via Wikimedia Commons. Edited by author
More Starvation Sanctions

Ever since the US included Syria on its inaugural State Sponsor of Terrorism (SST) list over Damascus’ support for the Palestinian resistance in 1979, Washington has gradually ratcheted up its financial war on the Syrian people. When decades of covert hybrid war erupted into an all-out proxy battle for the country’s territory—and survival—in 2011, the Anti-Syria Lobby officially began to take shape in Washington.


Syria is the unrivaled champion of the SST having never been delisted since the list’s inception in 1979.
In 2019, as Syria’s government emerged victorious from a multi-year battle with foreign-backed militias, Washington decided that while Damascus may have won the war, it would not win the peace. That January, New York Rep. Eliot Engel, a recipient of $1.8 million in AIPAC donations, introduced a sanctions package known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act. Trump signed the bill as part of the National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2020.


The US has a 45-year long tradition of sanctioning and isolating Syria economically in response to the country’s support of Palestinian resistance
The bill was unprecedented in both the way that it sanctioned broad sectors of the Syrian economy rather than only specific individuals, and in its deployment of so-called “secondary sanctions.” Secondary sanctions are imposed on parties that do business with a sanctioned entity even if those exchanges occur outside of the sanctioning entity’s jurisdiction.

Syria’s economy has been in free fall ever since the Caesar sanctions came into effect. Today, over 12 million Syrians representing more than half of the total population face food insecurity — a 51% increase from 2019. Meanwhile, 90 percent of the population lives under the poverty line. In 2019, the US dollar exchanged for 500 Syrian Pounds. Today, that number is more like 14,100— figures that represent a 2,720 percent devaluation.


The Syrian currency has devalued by 35,150% since the initial exchange rate of 40 SYP to 1 USD early 2011
Though H.R. 3202 appears to be focused on addressing UN aid divergence, and sanctioning previously unsanctioned entities like Asma Al Assad’s Syria Trust for Development and the Syrian Red Crescent, the real agenda of the bill is found deep within its 22-page text.

With the Caesar Sanctions set to expire by the end of 2024, H.R. 3202 seeks to quietly extend the aggressive financial measures until 2032.


The new bill’s main aim, which received very little attention, is the extension of the Caesar Act for 8 more years.
Having passed the House with overwhelming enthusiasm, H.R. 3202’s sister bill in the Senate can only pass with Democratic support. It was introduced by Israeli lobby-funded Republican Idaho Sen. James Risch last September and has since been co-sponsored by arch-neoconservative Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Because S. 2935 can only pass with Democratic sponsorship, the Anti-Syria Lobby chose Sen. Ben Cardin, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and sponsor of the anti-Russia Magnitsky Act, as a crucial target for influence.

After meeting with Sherrod Brown’s office, Cardin’s Research and Legislative Assistant, Christopher Barr, hosted us in the Senator’s office. There, Raed Saleh of the White Helmets complained to Barr that USAID had slashed funding for his organization from $12 million to $3 million in recent years.

Next, it was time to discuss the true purpose of our visit: the passage of S. 2935.

Barr appeared uneasy from the outset and even expressed displeasure about the bill, complaining, “What passed the House was kind of a lot… the list of targets is vast.”

“Syria has already been so heavily sanctioned,” he added.

In response, Ghanem revealed a critical piece of information about the forces driving the dirty war on Syria, explaining that the impetus to expand and extend Caesar did not come from the Anti-Syria Lobby itself, but someone on Capitol Hill. Ghanem explained that the Hill source actually contacted the American Coalition for Syria to alert them to the fact that Caesar was set to expire, lamenting the fact that its sunset would amount to a loss of “US leverage over the Syrian regime.”

This line echoed the disturbing language of officials representing both the Biden and Trump administration alike. In 2019, neoconservative operative Dana Stroul declared that thanks to Caesar, Washington “holds a card on preventing reconstruction aid and technical expertise from going back,” to Syria. She lauded the fact that the U.S. could weaponize that “leverage” to keep Syria in “rubble.” Two years later, she would take up post as Deputy Secretary of Defense for the Middle East under Biden.


Similarly, during an event at the neoconservative think tank, WINEP, the following year, the Special Envoy for Syria under Trump, Joel Rayburn, boasted that Caesar “lowers the bar” for evidence-based sanctions and allows for the broad targeting of any and all reconstruction projects in Syria.


“We don’t have to prove, for example, that a company that’s going in to do a reconstruction project in the Damascus region is dealing directly with the Assad regime,” Rayburn explained.

“We don’t have to have the evidence to prove that link,” he continued. “We just have to have the evidence that proves that a company or an individual is investing in […] the construction sector, the engineering sector, most of the aviation sector, the finance sector, energy sector, and so on.”

These public confessions did not stop the Anti-Syria Lobby from lying to the faces of congressional staffers throughout their March 7 campaign. During a meeting with Sen. Mark Kelly’s office, Ghanem falsely stated that the Caesar Sanctions were “targeted,” “not sectoral,” and “not [an] embargo, nothing punishing to civilians.”

Yet Alena Douhan, the UN Special Rapporteur on Sanctions who visited Syria to document the effects of Washington’s unilateral sanctions regime on Syria, disagrees. In her 19-page report she clearly states that the sanctions are both illegal and inhumane in the way they affect the average Syrian.

Stabilization for me but not for thee

The second legislative ask came in the form of a well rehearsed speech by Ghanem, Zayat, and others, outlining what US tax dollars do and don’t fund in Syria. US aid packages are typically divided into two categories: “humanitarian funding” earmarked for goods such as food, water, and basic medical supplies or “stabilization” funding designed to secure a country as it transitions out of a period of turmoil. Unlike humanitarian assistance, stabilization funding may be used to support major investment and infrastructure projects such as roads, schools, healthcare facilities, and government services.

The US is the primary funder of humanitarian aid in both North East (NE) and NW Syria. However, while the US spends abundantly on stabilization needs in NE Syria, it spends $0 on the NW. That is because while Washington has long dreamed of establishing a secessionist Kurdish state in Syria’s Northeast, it neglected to send stabilization funds to the Northwest in order to avoid providing direct support to HTS, the Al Qaeda offshoot that governs the territory. The Anti-Syria Lobby was in Washington to change that.

Leading the push for US funds to Al Qaeda-affiliated elements in Northwest Syria was Wa’el Alzayat, a Syrian expat who proudly served in Iraq’s Green Zone under George Bush’s State Department and more recently published a shocking Washington Post oped begging US officials not to “lift sanctions to help Syria earthquake victims.” In the office of Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Alzayat voiced his frustration with US hesitation in the Northwest.

“Stop freaking out about the stuff going to terrorists,” he demanded, adding that “the Brits are doing it, the Turks are doing it, the Qataris are doing it.”




We’re missing out on a golden opportunity here to stabilize the region and leverage it for a political settlement,” he pleaded. In other words, Alzayat was openly lobbying US officials to strengthen Al Qaeda’s position in Syria in order to leverage the terrorist group against the country’s government.

Alzayat then weaponized his six-figure salary as head of Emgage to bully Van Hollen’s office into bowing before the anti-Syria Lobby, falsely claiming that his AIPAC-linked organization was “behind” the “Uncommitted” vote campaigns that damaged Biden’s primary performance in Michigan and Minnesota.




Towards the end of the meeting, the regime change lobbyist cynically invoked Israel’s slaughter of 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza to make the case for Al Qaeda in Syria one last time.

He argued that although “his community” is up in arms about the Biden administration’s funding and arming of the Gaza genocide, they would gladly flock back to the Democratic Party if the US funded roads and schools in Al Qaeda-controlled Idlib.

“I need a good story for my voters,” Alzayat explained, noting the Muslim community’s disapproval of the Biden Administration’s policy in Gaza and Yemen.

“You’re upset about all these disappointments,” he continued, play-acting a scenario in which he convinced a Muslim constituent to vote for Biden, again. “Guess what? They’re pumping 50 million into the school sector in the North [of Syria]!”




Overtures Towards Israel

The Israel-Palestine crisis loomed large throughout the ACS lobbying trip. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s secretary happened to be a hijabi Muslim woman sporting a pendant outlining the map of Palestine around her neck. As she greeted us, Farouk Belal, the head of the Syrian American Council, grumbled to Ghanem and me: “I hope she’s not with the resistance.”

When I asked him to clarify what he meant as we exited the office, he explained that people aligned with the Palestinian cause in Washington “don’t like us.”

Meanwhile, in Sen. Cardin’s office, Raed Salah of the White Helmets painted Israeli strikes on Syria which have crippled Syrian infrastructure, regularly damaged the country’s International civilian airports, and killed hundreds of Syrian Soldiers and civilians alike in a positive light:

“The situation in Syria is very complicated. Every day we hear of Israeli strikes on the dens, or the bases of the IRGC and its militias. Even we as Syrians did not know the extent to which the Iranians were entrenched in the country…”




For Saleh, the Israeli strikes do nothing but highlight the presence of the Syrian government-invited Iranian military presence in Syria.

Later that day, Ghanem attempted to capitalize on Sen. Fetterman’s fanatical pro-Israel antics by describing recent developments in Syria to a 20-something staffer. Referring to the Syrian government’s successful campaign to retake southern territory, he explained that the South is “where they lob missiles on Israel, by the way.” The aide dutifully transcribed this seemingly random piece of information in her notepad. Towards the end of the meeting, Fetterman was discussed as a potential Democratic sponsor of S. 2935 in the Senate.

In Senator Rick Scott’s office, a Cuban American Government Relations Associate for ACS, Alberto Hernandez, accidentally said the quiet part out loud. When Senator Scott’s ultra-Zionist National Security Advisor, Paul Bonicelli, asked if our group had connected with our “counterparts” in the Israeli lobby so that they could “vet” our proposals — revealing that Scott has apparently outsourced his brain to Zionists — Hernandez remarked: “Formally? No. Informally.”

He then turned to the rest of the ACS team in the meeting room and said: “You didn’t hear me say that.”

That admission prompted Bonicelli to suggest that ACS directly coordinate with groups such as the Aramaic Church in Israel, which has supported regime change efforts in Damascus despite overwhelming Christian support of the government within Syria itself.

As the meeting wound to a close, Bonicelli informed us that he agreed with ACS on the necessity to oppose Iran and Russia.

“If Obama had done the right thing in 2012, we wouldn’t be here,” he lamented, adding: “the Israelis want you guys in charge.”


At one point during the meeting in Rick Scott’s Office, Alberto Hernandez, and Sarah Salas, a Cuban American legislative aide, expressed full agreement with US use of unilateral sanctions as means to “push” governments that “we don’t like.”
Starving Syrians Without A Mandate

Though several ACS volunteers shared painful personal encounters with the Syrian government throughout the day, many were simply too far removed from Syria to truly represent the voice of Syrian people, especially the 12 million plus civilians currently living in Syrian government-controlled territory.

One 24-year-old woman who did not speak Arabic and has not been to Syria since 2003 described the Syrian Army’s 2016 liberation of Aleppo from Al Qaeda-linked militants as “the fall of Aleppo.”

Other Syrians like myself experienced the terror of the West’s proxy war in Syria firsthand. In 2012, my aunt and cousins watched in horror as the Turkish-backed Liwa’ Al Tawhid, an umbrella group of takfiri jihadist militias, arrived on their street in the Seryan El Jdideh neighborhood of Aleppo. The militants proceeded to execute a local pick-up truck driver and steal his vehicle, leaving his bleeding corpse on the street. Shahba, where my family lived up until 2015, was located just a stone’s throw away from these sectarian death squads during our final months there.

The Syrian dirty war was bloody and gruesome, yet the picture that ACS paints is entirely one-sided. Unfortunately, while organizations like ACS have flocked to the Beltway swamp throughout the last 13 years, there are no Syrians present in Washington DC to counter them. While these groups claim to speak on behalf of the Syrian people, those of us who have lived and still live in areas controlled by Syrian government — regardless of our political affiliations—are rendered voiceless in the very center of power where our perspective should matter most. Even Syria’s embassy has been shuttered since 2014, while Syrian diplomats at the UN in New York are heavily monitored and restricted from traveling beyond the NYC metro area.

As I witnessed on Capitol Hill, there are few obstacles to the anti-Syria lobby’s ruthless push to prevent the majority of Syrians from emerging from the ruins of war.

https://thegrayzone.com/2024/03/20/anti-syria-lobbys-capitol-hill-sanctions/

PERKONGSIAN 1 HARI 1 HADIS

Sahur Waktu Mustajab Berdoa

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ يَنْزِلُ رَبُّنَا تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى كُلَّ لَيْلَةٍ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ الدُّنْيَا حِينَ يَبْقَى ثُلُثُ اللَّيْلِ الْآخِرُ يَقُولُ مَنْ يَدْعُونِي فَأَسْتَجِيبَ لَهُ مَنْ يَسْأَلُنِي فَأُعْطِيَهُ مَنْ يَسْتَغْفِرُنِي فَأَغْفِرَ لَهُ

Daripada Abu Hurairah RA, Sesungguhnya Rasulullah SAW bersabda: “Allah Tabaraka wa Ta’ala turun ke langit dunia pada setiap akhir sepertiga malam lalu berfirman, “Siapa sahaja yang berdoa kepada-Ku, maka Aku tunaikan untuknya. Sesiapa sahaja yang meminta kepada-Ku, Aku berikan kepadanya. Sesiapa sahaja yang memohon ampun kepada-Ku, Aku ampunkannya.” (HR Bukhari No: 1094) Dar Ibn Kathir. Status: Hadis Sahih

Pengajaran:

1.  Sepertiga akhir malam adalah waktu istimewa untuk ahli ibadah (sekitar jam 3 pagi hingga sebelum subuh).

2.  Waktu akhir sepertiga malam (waktu sahur) merupakan waktu mustajab doa (doa diperkenan).

3.  Waktu akhir sepertiga malam (waktu sahur) waktu Allah mengampunkan dosa kepada yang memohon keampunan.

وَبِالْأَسْحَارِ هُمْ يَسْتَغْفِرُون

Ketika waktu sahur (akhir-akhir malam), mereka berdoa memohon keampunan”  (Surah Az Zariyat ayat: 18)

4.  Rugilah mereka yang bangun di penghujung malam hanya untuk makan sahur atau ke bilik air semata-mata.

Rebutlah peluang waktu istimewa ini dengan solat sunat seperti tahajud  dan  berdoa serta memohon  keampunan daripada dosa.

Jadikan ibadat Ramadan kali ini menyuburkan amalan kita bagi membangunkan jiwa taqwa.

Negara Rahmah Ummah Sejahtera

#BangunkanJiwaTaqwa
#TeguhkanUkhuwahSebarkanRahmah
#BinaNegaraRahmah
#PertubuhanIKRAMMalaysiaNegeriJohor
#PalestinMerdeka

20hb Mac 2024
09hb Ramadan 1445H

Utk dapatkan 1 Hari 1 Hadis Pertubuhan Ikram Malaysia Negeri Johor, sila klik link di bawah :
telegram.me/hadisharian_ikram

5 Beautiful Dua for You This Ramadan


We thank Allah s.w.t for reuniting us again with Ramadan after a long year of highs and lows. A meeting that the believers desperately need to nourish their faith by receiving the forgiveness of past sins and striving to achieve a higher place in the sight of Allah s.w.t. In a hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah r.a:

‏إِذَا دَخَلَ شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ فُتِّحَتْ أَبْوَابُ السَّمَاءِ وَغُلِّقَتْ أَبْوَابُ جَهَنَّمَ وَسُلْسِلَتِ الشَّيَاطِين

“When the month of Ramadan enters, the gates of Heaven are opened, and the gates of Hell are closed and the devils are chained.”

(Sahih Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

In this very month, Allah s.w.t sends down His Mercy that is manifested into His forgiveness, multiplied rewards, acceptance and other blessings to His servants. Fortunate it is for those who strive hard to avoid falling into sins, continuously seek repentance and increase his/her worship. It is, however, a waste if we let this reunion pass by us like any other month.

Read: The Spiritual Significance of Ramadan

To be able to observe various deeds, one needs to supplicate to Allah s.w.t. for aid and acceptance. Thus, prayers serve as reminders as we seek to connect with the Divine.

Here are some supplications that we regularly recite in the month of Ramadan. The translations are provided to guide us to understand, internalise and immerse ourselves in the spiritual experience of this sacred month.

1. Ramadan Dua for the Day and Night

There are no specific supplications to be read on the day of Ramadan. However, it does not mean there is no emphasis on supplication. We are encouraged to increase our ibadah (worship) to Allah, and “Supplication is worship” (At-Tirmizi)

One of the many supplications that we can recite daily during the day and night throughout Ramadan is:

أَشهَدُ أَن لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ الله، أَستَغفِرُ الله، نَسأَلُكَ الجَنَّةَ ونَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ النَّار

Ashhadu an la ilaha illAllah, astaghfirullah, nas-alukal-jannata wa na'uzu bika minan-nar

"I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah, I seek forgiveness from Allah, we ask you (O Allah) for Paradise and we seek refuge with you from the Hellfire."



Our scholars have encouraged us to read the above supplication based on the following Hadith:

فاستكثروا فيه من أربع خصال, خصلتين ترضون بهما ربكم ، وخصلتين لا غنى بكم عنهما: فأما الخصلتان اللتان ترضون بهما ربكم: فشهادة أن لا إله إلا الله ، وتستغفرونه ، وأما اللتان لا غنى بكم عنهما : فتسألون الله الجنة ، وتعوذون به من النار

"And increase in this month (Ramadan) four matters; two of which shall be to please your Lord, while the other two shall be those of which you cannot make do without.

As for the two matters which shall be to please your Lord, are that you should recite the testament of faith Lā ilāha illa Allāh and to seek His forgiveness.

And as for the other two matters without which you cannot make do, you should be asking Allāh for paradise and seek refuge with Him from the fire of Jahannam."

(Hadith narrated by Ibn Khuzaimah)

2. Dua When Breaking Fast in Ramadan

اللَّهُمَّ لَكَ صُمتُ وَعَلَى رِزقِكَ أَفطَرتُ

Allahumma laka sumtu wa 'ala rizqika aftartu

"O Allah, I have fasted for Your sake and broken the fast upon Your provisions."

ذَهَبَ الظَّمأُ، وابْتَلَّتِ العُرُوقُ، وَثَبَتَ الأَجْرُ إِنْ شاءَ اللَّهُ تَعالى

Zahabaz-zam-u, wa-btallatil-ʿurūqu, wathabatal-ajru in shā'a Allāhu taʿālā

"The thirst is gone, the veins are moistened, and the reward has been earned if Allah wills."

(Sunan Abi Dawud)



The fasting person will find two kinds of happiness. The first is at the time of breaking the fast; the other is at the time of meeting with his/her Lord. One should be conscious of Allah's presence and that He has promised to send down blessings for the ones observing His fast. We shouldn't be too excited with the feasts lest we forget The One providing these provisions. Be mindful and make heartfelt prayers, for the Prophet s.a.w. mentioned:

إِنَّ لِلصَّائِمِ عِنْدَ فِطْرِهِ لَدَعْوَةً مَا تُرَدُّ

“Indeed the prayer of the fasting person during his break is not rejected.”

(Sunan Ibn Majah)

3. Supplication After Terawih Prayers in Ramadan

بِسمِ اللهِ الرَّحمَنِ الرَّحِيْم. الحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ العَالَمِيْن، وَالصَّلاَةُ وَالسَّلاَمُ عَلَى أَشْرَفِ الأَنْبِيَاءِ وَالمُرْسَلِيْن سَيِّدِنَا وَمَوْلاَنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِيْن

اَللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْناَ بِالْإِيْمَانِ كَامِلِيْنْ، وَلِلْفَرَآئِضِ مُؤَدِّيْنَ، وَلِلصَّلَاةِ حَافِظِيْنَ، وَلِلزَّكَاةِ فَاعِلِيْنَ، وَلِمَا عِنْدَكَ طَالِبِيْنَ، وَلِعَفْوِكَ رَاجِيْنَ، وَبِالْهُدَى مُتَمَسِّكِيْن، وَعَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضِيْنَ، وَفِي الدُّنْيَا زَاهِدِيْنَ، وَفِي الْأَخِرَةِ رَاغِبِيْنَ، وَبِالْقَضَاءِ رَاضِيْنَ، وَبِالنَّعْمَاءِ شَاكِرِيْنَ، وَعَلَى الْبَلاءِ صَابِرِيْنَ، وَتَحْتَ لِوَاءِ سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ سَائِرِيْنَ، وَإِلَى الْحَوْضِ وَارِدِيْنَ، وَفِي الْجَنَّةِ دَاخِلِيْنَ، وَمِنَ النَّارِ نَاجِيْنَ، وَعَلَى سَرِيْرَةِ الْكَرَامَةِ قَاعِدِيْنَ، وَبِحُوْرِ عيْنٍ مُتَزَوِّجِيْنَ، وَمِنْ سُنْدُسٍ وَاِسْتَبْرَقٍ وَدِيْبَاجٍ مُتَلَبِّسِيْنَ، وَمِنْ طَعَامِ الْجَنَّةِ آكِلِيْنَ، وَمِنْ لَبَنٍ وَعَسَلٍ مُصَفًّى شَارِبِيْنَ، بِأَكْوَابٍ وَأَبَارِيْقَ وَكَأْسٍ مِنْ مَعِيْنٍ، مَعَ الَّذِيْنَ أَنعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنَ النَّبِيِّين والصِّدِّيقِينَ والشُّهَدَاءِ والصَّالِحِين، وحَسُنَ أُولَئِكَ رَفِيقًا، ذَلِكَ الْفَضْلُ مِنَ اللهِ وَكَفَى بِاللهِ عَلِيْمًا، وَالحَمدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ العَالَمِينَ

___________

Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Raheem. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alameen, was-salatu was-salamu 'ala ashrafil-anbiya-i wal-mursaleen, sayyidina wa mawlana Muhammadin wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een.

Allahummaj-'alna bil-imani kamilin, wa lil-fara-idhi mu-addin, wa lis-salati hafizhin, wa liz-zakati fa'ilin, wa lima 'indaka talibin, wa li'afwika rajin, wa bil-huda mutamassikin, wa 'anil-laghwi mu'ridin, wa fi'd-dunya zahidin, wa fil-akhirati raghibin, wa bil-qada-i radhin, wa bin-na'ma'i shakirin, wa 'ala al-bala-i sabirin, wa tahta liwa-i sayyidina Muhammadin sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallama yawmal qiyamati sa-irin, wa ilal-hawdhi waridin, wa fil-jannati dakhalin, wa minan-nari najin, wa 'alas-sariratil-karamati qa'idin, wa bihurin 'aynin mutazawwijin, wa min sundusin wa-istabraqin wa diybajin mutalabbisin, wa min ta'amil-jannati akilin, wa min labanin wa 'asalin musaffan sharibin, bi-akwabin wa abariqa wa ka'-sin min ma'in, ma'al-lazina an'amta 'alayhim minan-nabiyyina was-siddiqina wash-shuhada-i was-saliheen, wa hasuna ula-iqa rafiqa, zalikal-fadhlu minAllahi wa kafa bi-llahi 'aleeman, wal-hamdu lillahi Rabbil 'alameen.

___________

In the name of Allah, The Most Compassionate, The Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the Worlds. Prayers and salutations be upon the noblest of all the prophets, our leader, Muhammad, and upon his entire family and companions.

O Allah make us from those who have complete faith, perform all obligations, guard their prayers, give zakat, seek that which is due from You, hope for Your forgiveness, hold on firmly to guidance, turn away from futile acts, show no excessive interest for worldly pleasures, devote for the hereafter, are pleased with the divine decree, are grateful for Your blessings, are patient during trials, would walk under the flag of our leader (sayyidina) Muhammad s.a.w. on the Day of Judgement, would arrive to the Prophet’s well (in the hereafter), would enter the Paradise, would be saved from the hellfire, would sit on the honoured mattresses (of paradise), would be married to the companions of Paradise, would be adorned with garments (of paradise) from Silk and Brocade, would eat from the food of Paradise, would drink from the milk and pure honey in the cups and goblets from the fountain of clear water, in the company of those You bestow blessings upon them from amongst the Prophets, the righteous, the martyrs and the pious and what a great company do they make. Such is Allah’s favour, and it is sufficient that Allah is All-Knowing. Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the Worlds.

___________

Read: How to Perform Solat Terawih: Step-by-Step Guide



4. Supplication After Witr Prayers in Ramadan

After ending the Witr prayer, the Prophet s.a.w. would recite three times:

سُبْحَانَ الْمَلِكِ الْقُدُّوسِ

"Glory be to the Sovereign, the Most Holy"

(Sunan An-Nasa'i)

Afterwards, we may also pray the following dua which is usually read in mosques after praying together in congregation. Ponder upon the meaning of this long and beautiful dua:

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم. الحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ العَالَمِيْن، وَالصَّلاَةُ وَالسَّلاَمُ عَلَى أَشْرَفِ الأَنْبِيَاءِ وَالمُرْسَلِيْن سَيِّدِنَا وَمَوْلاَنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحبِهِ أَجمَعِين. إِلَهَنَا قَد تَعَرَّضَ لَكَ فِي هَذِهِ اللَّيلَةِ المُتَعَرِّضُون، وَقَصَدَكَ القَاصِدُون، وَرَغِبَ في جُودِكَ وَمَعرُوفِكَ الطَّالِبُون، وَلَكَ فِي هَذِهِ اللَّيلَةِ وَكُلِّ لَيلَةٍ مِن لَيَالِي شَهرِ رَمَضَان نَفَحَاتٍ وَجَوَائِزَ وَمَوَاهِبَ وَعَطَايَا تَجُودُ بِهَا عَلَى مَنْ تَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِك، فَاجْعَلْنَا اللَّهُمَّ مِمَّنْ سَبَقَتْ لَهُ مِنْكَ العِنَايَة، هَا نَحْنُ نَدْعُوكَ كَمَا أَمَرْتَنَا، فَاستَجِبْ مِنَّا كَمَا وَعَدْتَنَا، إِنَّكَ لاَ تُخْلِفُ المِيْعَاد، يَا أَرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِين. اللَّهُمَّ يَا فَارِقَ الفُرقَانِ وَمُنزِلَ القُرآنِ بِالحِكمَةِ وَالبَيَان

3x بَارِكِ اللَّهُمَّ لَنَا فِي شَهْرِ رَمَضَان

وَأَعِدْهُ اللَّهُمَّ عَلَينَا سِنِيناً بَعْدَ سِنِين وَأَعوَامًا بَعدَ أَعوَامٍ عَلَى مَا تُحِبُّهُ وتَرْضَاهُ يَا أَرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِين. اللَّهُمّ إِنَّ لَكَ فِي هَذِهِ اللَّيلَةِ وَكُلُّ لَيلَةٍ مِن لَيَالِي شَهْرِ رَمَضَان عُتَقَاءَ مِنَ النَّار، فَاجْعَلْنَا اللَّهُمَّ مِنْ عُتَقَائِكَ مِنَ النَّار

3x اللَّهُمَّ أَجِرْنَا مِنَ النَّارِ سَالِمِين

وَأَدْخِلْنَا الجَنَّةَ آمِنِين، وَأَلحِقنَا باِلصَّالِحِين، ومَتِّعنَا بِالنَّظَرِ إِلَى وَجهِكَ الكَرِيم، يَا رَبَّ العَالَمِين

3x اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ عَفُوٌّ تُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ فَاعْفُ عَنِّا

اللَّهُمَّ تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا صَلاتَنَا وَصِيَامَنَا وَقِيَامَنَا وَرُكُوعَنَا وَسُجُودَنَا وَتَخَشُّعَنَا وَتَضَرُّعَنَا وَتَعَبُّدَنَا وَتَمِّم تَقْصِيْرَنَا يَا الله يَا أَرحَمَ الرَّاحِمِين. وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى الِهِ وَصَحبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَالحَمدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ العَالَمِينَ

___________

Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Raheem. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alamin. Was-salatu was-salamu 'ala ashrafil 'anbiya-i wal-mursalin, sayyidina wa mawlana Muhammadin wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een.

Ilahana qad ta'arrada laka fi hazihil-laylatil-muta'arridun, wa qasadakal-qasidun, wa raghiba fi judika wa ma'rufikat-talibun, wa laka fi hazihil-laylati wa kulli laylatin min layali shahri Ramadan, nafahatin wa jawa-iza wa mawahiba wa 'ataya tajudu biha 'ala man tasha-u min 'ibadik, faj'alna-Allahumma min man sabaqat lahu minkal 'inayah, ha nahnu nad'uka kama amartana, fa-stajib minna kama wa'adtana, innaka la tukhliful mi'ad, ya Arhamar-Rahimin. Allahumma ya Fariqal-furqan wa Munzilal-qur-an, bil-hikmati wal-bayan.

Barikillahumma lana fi shahri Ramadan (3x)

Wa a'idhu-llahuma 'alayna sininan ba'da sinin, wa a'waman ba'da a'wam 'ala ma tuhibbuhu wa tardahu, ya Arhamar-Rahimin. Allahumma innaka fi hazihil-laylati, wa kullu laylatin min layali shahri Ramadan, 'utuqa-a minan-nar, faj'alnAllahumma min 'utuqa-ika minan-nar

Allahumma ajirna minan-nar salimeen (3x)

Wa-adkhilnal-jannata amineen, wa-alhiqna bissaliheen, wa-mati'na binnazari ila wajhikal-kareem, ya Rabbal-‘alameen

Allahumma innaka 'afuwwun tuhibbul-'afwa fa'fu ‘anna (3x)

Allahumma taqabbal minna salatana, wa siyamana, wa qiyamana, wa ruku'ana, wa sujudana, wa takhashu'ana, wa tadharru'ana, wa ta'abbudana, wa tammim taqseerana, ya Allah ya Arhamar-Rahimeen. Wa sallAllahu 'ala sayyidina Muhammadin wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam, walhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alamin.

___________

In the name of Allah the Most Gracious and Most Merciful. Praise be to the Lord of all the worlds, prayers and salutations be upon the noblest of all the prophets, our leader (sayyiduna) Muhammad, and upon his entire family and companions. O our Lord, the seekers have presented before You in this very night, intending to reach You, desiring for Your bounties and grace. And You bestow in this night just as any other nights in the month of Ramadan, Your hidden bounties, provisions, presents and gifts upon whoever from Your servants as You please. Therefore, make us amongst those You mentioned to receive Your providence. And here we are praying to You as how You have commanded us. So accept our prayers as how You have promised us, for indeed You never break Your promise. O Most Merciful. O Allah, O Divider of truth from falsehood, and Bestower of the Quran with wisdom and clarity,

O Allah bless us in the month of Ramadan 3x

Unite us again with Ramadan year after year in a way that You love and pleases You O Most Merciful. O Allah you free in this night just as on any other nights in the month of Ramadan Your servants from the hellfire

O Allah save us from the hellfire 3x

Enter us into Paradise safely, enjoin us with the company of the pious, grant us to look upon Your Honourable Grace, O Lord of the worlds

O Allah, You are indeed Forgiving and love to forgive, so forgive us 3x

O Allah, accept our Solat, our fast, our night worships (Qiyam), our bow (Ruku’), our prostrations, our submission, our invocation, our devotion and complete our shortcomings, O Allah, O Most Merciful. And prayers and salutations be upon our leader (sayyiduna) Muhammad and upon his family and companions, and praise be to Allah the Lord of all the worlds

___________

Read: How To Pray Tahajjud and Perform Qiyamullail

5. Supplication in Seeking Laylatul Qadr (Night of Power) in Ramadan



In a hadith, the Prophet s.a.w encouraged his wife Aisyah r.a. to read the following supplication if one were to meet Laylatul Qadr, the night that is better than a thousand months:

اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ عَفُوٌّ تُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ فَاعْفُ عَنِّي

Allahumma innaKa 'Afuwwun, tuhibbul 'afwa, fa'fu 'anni

"O Allah, You are indeed Forgiving and love to forgive, so forgive me."

(Sunan At-Tirmizi)

Although scholars have opinions regarding the exact date of the night of Laylatul Qadr such as it is in the last ten nights, the exact time, by the wisdom of Allah s.w.t remains to be His secret. Hence, it is encouraged for every believer to recite the above supplication repeatedly every night on the nights of Ramadan.

Read: 4 Beautiful Significance of Laylatul Qadr

Beyond reciting this supplication upon seeking the Night of Qadr, Muslims also make it a practice to recite this dua from the beginning of Ramadan regularly. Generally, mosques in Singapore recite this supplication after the daily congregational prayers.

In addition to the list of dua provided above, it is also a common practice for our mosques in Singapore to recite the following:

يَا تَوَّاب تُب عَلَينَا * وَارحَمنَا وَانظُر إِلَينَا

قَد كَفَانِي عِلمُ رَبِّي * مِن سُؤَالِي وَاختِيَارِي

فَدُعَائِي وَابتِهَالِي * شَاهِدٌ لِي بِافتِقَارِي

أَنَا عَبدٌ صَارَ فَاخرِي * ضِمنَ فَقرِي وَاضطِرَارِي

Yaa Tawwab tubb 'alayna * War-hamna wa-nzur ilaina
Qad kafani 'ilmu Rabbi * min su-ali wa-khtiyari
Fa-du'a'i wa-btihali * Shahidun li biftiqaria
Ana 'abdun saara fakhiri * Dhimna faqri wa-dhtirari
"O Most Receiving Of Repentance, accept our repentance – And bestow Your mercy upon us and turn to us
The Knowledge of my Lord suffices me – From asking and deciding
For my prayer and invocation – Is a witness to my state of destitute
I am a servant and my pride lies – In my state of need and desperation.”

As we increase our supplications to Allah s.w.t, it is important for us to observe the etiquettes of supplication. We start by seeking forgiveness first before anything else (repentance) to invoke upon Allah s.w.t. with humility, demonstrating deprivation and an utter sense of in-need. Allah s.w.t. mentions in the Quran:

وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ

"When My servants ask you (O Prophet) about Me: (tell them that) I am truly near. I respond to one’s prayer when they call upon Me. So let them respond ˹with obedience˺ to Me and believe in Me, perhaps they will be guided (to the right path)"

(Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:186)

Some scholars have opined that since this verse is placed between verses about Ramadan and the laws of fasting, it indicates the merits of supplication in the blessed month of Ramadan.

May this list of supplications benefit you and your loved ones. As we seek to attain the spiritual gems in this blessed month, we pray that Allah s.w.t helps us to clean our hearts and make us sincere in our worship. Indeed, He is closer to us than anything or anyone else.

May Allah s.w.t. accept our acts of worship in this blessed month of Ramadan. May Allah s.w.t. allow us to be better Muslims and servants who serve Him through our service to humanity.


https://muslim.sg/articles/5-beautiful-dua-for-you-this-ramadan

https://telegra.ph/5-Beautiful-Dua-for-You-This-Ramadan-03-11

How To Perform Solat Terawih - Step by Step Guide
Terawih is a beautiful and rewarding prayer that is only offered during the month of Ramadan. By learning how to pray Terawih, you strengthen your connection with Allah and contribute to the spirit of unity and devotion in the community. Don't miss this opportunity to gain blessings and make the most of Ramadan.

Muslim.Sg is a one-stop online media platform that aims to inspire and empower millennial Muslims with powerful and engaging Islamic religious content.

2024-03-08 • 14 min read

How To Pray Terawih - Step-by-Step Guide

How to Pray Taraweeh step by step for Muslim

Praise be to Allah.

One of the acts of worship that we all look forward to during Ramadan is the terawih prayer. The Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. said:

مَنْ قَامَ رَمَضَانَ إِيْمَانًا وَاحْتِسَابًا غُفِرَ لَهُ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِهِ

“Whoever stands (in worship) in Ramadan out of faith and hope for the rewards (from Allah), his past sins will be forgiven.”

(Sahih Al-Bukhārī & Muslim)

The terawih prayer will begin right after the congregational Isyak prayer. Dedicated spaces for Muslimah will also be made available at most mosques.

Read: 5 Things You Need to Know About Terawih Prayer.

Want to refresh your memory on how to perform the terawih prayer? Here is a step-by-step guide that you can follow!

1. Establish the intention to perform terawih

how to taraweeh at home

Recite the intention for terawih prayer:

أُصَلِّي سُنَّةَ التَراوِيحِ رَكعَتَينِ لِلَّهِ تَعَالَى

Usolli sunnata-taraawiihi rak'ataini lillah ta'ala

I intend to pray the Sunnah prayer of terawih two raka'at for Allah ta'ala

If you pray in a congregation, the intentions for terawih prayer are as follows. The one who is leading the prayer as an Imam would recite:

أُصَلِّي سُنَّةَ التَراوِيحِ رَكعَتَينِ إِمَامًا لِلَّهِ تَعَالَى

Usolli sunnata-taraawiihi rak'ataini imaamam lillah ta'ala

I intend to pray the Sunnah prayer of terawih as the Imam two raka'at for Allah ta'ala

The Makmum (follower) will recite this intention:

أُصَلِّي سُنَّةَ التَراوِيحِ رَكعَتَينِ مَأمُومًا لِلَّهِ تَعَالَى

Usolli sunnata-taraawiihi rak'ataini makmumam lillah ta'ala

I intend to pray the Sunnah prayer of terawih as the Makmum two raka'at for Allah ta'ala

The following illustrations will guide us in praying Jema’ah (in a congregation) at home:

Guidelines for congregational prayer for Muslims at home

Read: Guidelines for praying in a congregation.

2. Say the Takbiratul Ihram

how to taraweeh at home

Takbiratul Ihram is the act of entering the state of prayer. It is done by raising your hands such that your thumbs are on the same level as your earlobes and your palms are on the same level as your shoulder.

Say ‘Allahu Akbar’ while keeping your intention in mind.

3. Place your right hand over your left hand and recite Dua Iftitah

Stand in prayer (for the able men and women). Upon giving the Takbir, lower your hands gently over your chest and put your right hand over your left.

Recite the Dua Iftitah (opening dua) quietly only for the first raka’at:

اللهُ أَكْبَرُ كَبِيرًا وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ كَثِيْرًا وَسُبْحَانَ اللهِ بُكْرَةً وَأَصِيْلًا .وَجَّهْتُ وَجْهِيَ لِلَّذِيْ فَطَرَالسَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ حَنِيْفًا مُسْلِمًا وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِيْنَ . إِنَّ صَلَاتِيْ وَنُسُكِيْ وَمَحْيَايَ وَمَمَاتِيْ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِيْنَ لاَ شَرِيْكَ لَهُ وَبِذَلِكَ أُمِرْتُ وَأنَا مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِيْنَ

______

Allāhu Akbar Kabirā,
Walhamdulillāhi Kathīrā
Wa Subhānallāhi Bukratan Wa aṣīlā
Wajjahtu Wajhiya lillazi Fatras-Samāwāti wal-Ardh
Hanīfan Musliman Wa-mā ana minal-musyrikīn
Inna ṣalātī, wa-nusukī wa-mahyaya, wamamātī Lillāhi Rabbil-'ālamīn
Lā syarīka laHu wa bizālika umirtu wa ana minal muslimīn

______

Allah the Almighty, the Greatest
All praises be upon Him
Allah The Most Exalted, day and night
I stand before The One Who created the skies and the lands
I sincerely submit to Allah and I am certainly not among those who associate Allah with other beings
Indeed my Solat, my good deeds, my life and my death are all for Allah The Lord of all the worlds
He has no partner nor parallel whatsoever, and I have been ordered as such, and I am from those who embrace Islam (submits).

how to taraweeh at home

4. Recite Surah Al-Fatihah and another Surah from the Quran

Once the Dua Iftitah is read, recite the Ta’awwudz (seeking Allah's refuge from the devil) quietly:

أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ

A'uzu biLlāhi minash-shaytānir-rajim

I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Shaytan

And then read Surah Al-Fatihah:

بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ. الحَمدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ العالَمينَ
الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ. مالِكِ يَومِ الدّينِ
إِيّاكَ نَعبُدُ وَإِيّاكَ نَستَعينُ
اهدِنَا الصِّراطَ المُستَقيمَ
صِراطَ الَّذِينَ أَنعَمتَ عَلَيهِم غَيرِ المَغضُوبِ عَلَيهِم وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ

______

Bismillāhir-Raḥmānir-Raḥīm
Alḥamdulillāhi Rabbil-ʿālamīn
Ar-Raḥmānir-Raḥīm
Māliki yawmid-dīn
iyyāKa naʿbudu wa-iyyāKa nastaʿīn
Ihdināṣ-ṣirāṭal-mustaqīm
ṣirāṭallazīna anʿamta ʿalayhim ghayril-maghḍūbi ʿalayhim wa-lāḍḍāllīn

______

In the name of God The Most Compassionate and Merciful
Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds
The Compassionate, The Merciful. Ruler on the Day of Reckoning
You alone do we worship, and You alone do we ask for help
Guide us along the straight path
the path of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace
not those You are displeased with, or those who are astray
Amiin

Upon completing the recitation of Surah Al-Fatihah, you may read any memorised surah of your preference. For the second raka’at, it is encouraged to choose a verse that does not precede the first in the order of the Quran.

For example, you can read Surah Al-’Asr in the first raka’at and read Surah Al-Ikhlas in the second.

Here is a list of recommended surahs from page 34 of Contemporary Irsyad Series - Ramadan edition (English) by Office of the Mufti:

Recommended surah in terawih prayer

While there is no harm in reading the same surah again for the next raka’at, this Ramadan could be an opportunity to learn other beautiful surah and further increase our appreciation of the Quran, especially since there are so many benefits of reciting the Quran.

You may also opt to read from the Mushaf (physical copy of Quran), maybe a pocket Quran or Quran app.

5. Bend forward for Ruku’

Recite the Takbiratul Intiqal (Allahu Akbar) during the transition from standing to bending for Ruku’, while raising your hands just as previously explained in Takbiratul Ihram. Lower your hands gently to your knees as you move towards the Ruku’ position.

Say three times,

سُبحَانَ رَبِّيَ العَظِيمِ وَبِحَمْدِهِ

Subhanna Rabbiyal-’azim wa bihamdiHi

Glory be to Allah, the Mighty, and praise be to He

how to pray taraweeh

6. Stand in the upright position - I’tidal

After completing your Ruku’, return to the standing position while raising your hands just as in the Takbiratul Ihram position and recite during the transition:

سَمِعَ اللهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ

Sami’ Allahu liman hamida

Allah has heard the one who praised Him

Lower your hands gently. When you are in the complete upright position, recite:

رَبَّنَا وَلَكَ الْحَمْدُ

Rabbana walaKal-hamd

O Our Lord, to You are all the praises

7. Perform the first sujud

Go into prostration while saying the Takbiratul Intiqal (Allahu Akbar) without raising your hands. Let your knees touch the ground first, followed by your palms and then your forehead. While in the first Sujud, say three times:

سُبْحَانَ رَبِّيَ الأَعْلَى وَبِحَمْدِهِ

Subhānna Rabbiyal-a’lā wa bihamdih

Glory be to my Lord The Most High, and praise be to He

8. Sit on your knees

In between the two Sujud, rise from prostration to a sitting position on your knees while saying the Takbiratul Intiqal without raising your hands. In the sitting position, say :

رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِيْ وَارْحَمْنِيْ وَاجْبُرْنِيْ وَارْفَعْنِيْ وَارْزُقْنِيْ وَاهْدِنِيْ وَعَافِنِيْ وَاعْفُ عَنِّيْ

Rabbighfirlī warhamnī wajburnī warfa’nī warzuqnī wahdinī wa‘afinī wa’fu ‘annī

O Lord, forgive me, have mercy on me, cover for me my shortcomings, elevate my rank, provide for me, guide me, grant me well-being, and pardon me

9. Perform the second sujud

Afterwards, return to the prostration position to complete the second Sujud and repeat the recitation as mentioned previously. Upon fulfilling the mentioned integrals (arkān), we have completed the first raka’at.

10. Return to the standing position

Return to the standing position as you recite the Takbiratul Intiqal and repeat the steps from 4 to 9 again to fulfil the second raka’at.

11. Recite the final Tasyahhud

At the end of your 2nd raka'at, sit on your left leg while the left foot is placed and briefly exposed below your right leg. Keep your right foot upright just as in the picture shown above. Complete the prayer by reciting the final Tasyahhud;

اَلتَّحِيَّاتُ الْمُبَارَكَاتُ الصَّلَوَاتُ الطَّيِّبَاتُ ِللهِ. اَلسَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكَ أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ. اَلسَّلاَمُ عَلَيْنَا وَعَلَى عِبَادِ اللهِ الصَّالِحِيْنَ

“At-tahiyyātul mubārakatuṣ-ṣalawātuth ṭayyibātu lillāh. Assalāmu ‘alaika ayyuhan-nabiyyu wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuhu. Assalāmu ‘alainā wa ‘alā ‘ibādillāhiṣ-ṣālihīn.

Raise your right index finger. And say:

أَشْهدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُوْلُ اللهِ

Asyhadu an lā ilāha illallāh, wa asyhadu anna Muhammadar Rasuulullāh

Continue with the selawat:

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ كَمَا صَلَّيْتَ عَلَى آلِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِنَّكَ حَمِيدٌ مَجِيدٌ، اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ علَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ كَمَا بَارَكْتَ عَلَى آلِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِنَّكَ حَمِيدٌ مَجِيدٌ

Allahumma ṣalli 'ala Muhammadin, wa 'alā āli Muhammad, kamā ṣallaita 'ala 'āli Ibrāhīma, innaka Hamīdun Majīd. Allahumma bārik 'alā Muhammadin, wa 'alā āli Muhammad, kamā bārakta 'alā āli Ibrāhīma, innaka Hamīdun Majīd

O Allah, bestow your blessings upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad as you bestowed your blessings upon the family of Ibrahim. Indeed You are Praised and Glorious. O Allah, bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad as You have blessed the family of Ibrahim. Indeed You are Praised and Glorious

12. End with the salam

Turn your head to both of your sides, starting from the right, such that your cheek can be seen by anyone behind you, and say

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُم وَرَحْمَةُ الله

Assalamu alaykum wa-rahmatullah

Peace and Allah’s mercy be upon you

By giving the salam, we have therefore completed one set of terawih prayer.

Each terawih prayer consists of two raka’at. If you intend to pray 8 raka'at of terawih prayer, do 4 sets of 2 raka'at. If you intend to do 20 raka'at of terawih prayer, do 10 sets of terawih Prayer.

Read: How to Pray in Islam: Step-By-Step Guide to Solat for Beginners

13. Do the witr prayer

how to taraweeh at home

After completing the terawih prayer, it is encouraged to end the night with the witr prayer. Witr can also be performed after completing Qiyam al-Layl which refers to other supererogatory (sunnah) prayers that are done towards the end of the night or after waking up from sleep. This was mentioned by the Prophet s.a.w.:

“Make the last of your prayers at night the witr prayer."

(Sahih Bukhari)

Witr prayer should be performed in an odd number of raka'at and is usually done in 3 raka'at. This is done by performing two raka’at of the same steps mentioned with the salam, and then followed by one raka’at with the salam to complete the three raka’at of the Witr prayer. The maximum number of raka’at for the sunnah witr prayer is 11 raka’at.

14. Read recommended zikir and supplications

how to taraweeh at home

There are supplications that are often read in mosques after every terawih prayer. However, if you do not read them, it does not invalidate the prayer. Nonetheless, reciting them is definitely encouraged. (Read Page 36 of Contemporary Irsyad Series - Ramadan edition)

What is important for us is to make full use of this blessed time and position to sincerely supplicate to Allah s.w.t. and express our love, hope, fear, regret, heart and soul to The One Who Hears, is Kind and Most Merciful to His servants.

However, it is understandable that we sometimes find it hard to think of what to dua. For the supplications that are often read after terawih and witr prayers, you may refer to this list of beautiful duas for Ramadan.

May this step-by-step guide on how to perform the terawih prayer benefit us. May this Ramadan be a more meaningful one, and may Allah s.w.t. accept our humble deeds. Ameen.

Allah knows best.

There are many benefits of praying in a congregation. To get your terawih questions answered, Ustaz Irwan Hadi, together with Ms Marina Yusoff and her family, share how you can do your terawih prayer at home:



https://muslim.sg/articles/how-to-perform-solat-terawih-step-by-step-guide

https://telegra.ph/How-To-Perform-Solat-Terawih---Step-by-Step-Guide-03-11

PERKONGSIAN 1 HARI 1 HADIS

Witir Penutup Solat Malam

عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عُمَرَ قَالَ سَأَلَ رَجُلٌ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَهُوَ عَلَى الْمِنْبَرِ مَا تَرَى فِي صَلَاةِ اللَّيْلِ قَالَ مَثْنَى مَثْنَى فَإِذَا خَشِيَ الصُّبْحَ صَلَّى وَاحِدَةً فَأَوْتَرَتْ لَهُ مَا صَلَّى وَإِنَّهُ كَانَ يَقُولُ اجْعَلُوا آخِرَ صَلَاتِكُمْ وِتْرًا فَإِنَّ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أَمَرَ بِهِ

Daripada 'Abdullah bin 'Umar berkata: "Seorang laki-laki bertanya kepada Nabi SAW yang pada ketika itu sedang berada di atas mimbar. "Bagaimana cara solat malam?" Baginda menjawab: "Dua rakaat dua rakaat. Apabila dikhuatirkan masuk subuh, maka solatlah satu rakaat sebagai witir (penutup) bagi solatnya." Ibnu  Umar berkata: "Jadikanlah witir sebagai solat terakhir kalian, kerana Nabi SAW memerintahkan hal yang demikian." (HR Bukhari No: 452) Status Hadis Sahih

Pengajaran:

1.  Rasulullah SAW mengajar cara solat sunat malam hari (qiamullail) dilaksanakan dua rakaat dan salam diikuti dua rakaat lagi dan salam dan seterusnya sehingga ditutup dengan solat sunat witir.

2.  Jika waktu dah hampir solat subuh, disarankan agar menunaikan solat sunat witir satu rakaat.

3.  Solat witir dijadikan solat penutup kepada solat sunat di malam hari paling kurang satu rakaat.

Ayuh kita tunaikan solat sunat di malam hari sekurang-kurangnya satu rakaat witir.

#BangunkanJiwamu
#TeguhkanUkhuwahSebarkanRahmah
#BinaNegaraRahmah
#PertubuhanIKRAMMalaysiaNegeriJohor
#PalestinMerdeka

27hb Februari 2024
17hb Syaaban 1445H

Utk dapatkan 1 Hari 1 Hadis Pertubuhan Ikram Malaysia Negeri Johor, sila klik link di bawah :
telegram.me/hadisharian_ikram

‘A 2009 randomized controlled trial published in Phytotherapy Research has found that using 0.9 milliliters of castor oil capsules three times a day had similar effects for knee arthritis as 50 milligrams of diclofenac sodium (5).’

Castor Oil: Key Health Benefits and How to Use It
by Dr. Jockers
FDA Disclaimer
Affliliate Disclosure
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castor oilCastor Oil: Key Health Benefits and How to Use It

Castor oil is a fatty oil that is made from the castor seeds of the castor bean plant. Castor oil has many potential health benefits, including relieving constipation, supporting liver health, improving skin health, reducing inflammation, and more.

In this article, you will learn what castor oil is. You will learn about the health benefits, and I will discuss how to use castor oil. You will learn about the potential risks and how to pick and purchase castor oil. Finally, I will explain how to make a castor oil pack to help improve your health.

castor oil

What Is Castor Oil

Castor seed oil, also known as castor oil or Ricinus Communis, is made by pressing the seeds of the plant to be used for a variety of conventional purposes. It is part of the Eurphorbiaceae plant family, which is a flowering spurge family, mostly cultivated in India, South America, and Africa. Out of these places, India is responsible for about 90 percent of the castor oil global exports.

It is also among the oldest cultivated crops in the world, making up about 0.15 percent of the world’s vegetable oils. Castor oil has an amber to green color. It has a mild scent and taste. It may be used both topically and orally as a natural remedy for various ailments. It is also used in many cosmetic products sold.




Castor oil is made up of phytochemicals, including:

Undecylenic acid
Ricinoleic acid
Rincinoleic acid is responsible for about 90 percent of the chemical structure of castor oil. It is a fatty acid that may be responsible for the numerous health properties castor oil is used for in natural and alternative medicine. When ricinoleic acid is released in the intestines, it may bind with receptors that line the intestinal tract and the smooth-muscle cells in the uterus, which may help to promote natural healing abilities (1).

According to a 2017 review published in the Pakistani Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, castor oil may have many phytochemistry, biological and pharmacological activities, offering natural medicinal benefits (2). It may offer anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, liver-protective, free radical-scavenging, and wound-healing benefits.



Health Benefits of Castor Oil

Castor oil has many potential health benefits. Let’s look at each of these one by one.

Promotes Lymphatic Drainage

Castor oil may help to support lymphatic drainage and may help to remove the build-up of toxins and debris in the body. If your body is overloaded with environmental toxins, microbes, and debris, they may accumulate within the lymphatic system, which is responsible for filtering bacteria. This may cause lymphatic stagnation.

2007 research published in the International Journal of Toxicology has found that injecting rats with castor oil helped to suppress tumors that developed as the result of liver damage. (3). As castor oil gets absorbed through the skin, it may increase blood circulation, lymphatic drainage, and lymphocyte production, which may boost immune health and benefit those with a compromised immune system.

lymphatic

Anti-Microbial and Anti-Inflammatory

Castor oil may also offer anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory benefits. It may be a great massage oil for sore muscles, joints, and tissues. According to a 2000 study published in Mediators of Inflammation, ricinoleic acid in castor oil may offer anti-inflammatory and analgesic benefits (4).

A 2009 randomized controlled trial published in Phytotherapy Research has found that using 0.9 milliliters of castor oil capsules three times a day had similar effects for knee arthritis as 50 milligrams of diclofenac sodium (5).

Moreover, castor oil may have immune health-boosting effects by fighting microbes. According to a 2016 study published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, it may help to fight a variety of different types of bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (6). When used internally, it may help to relieve constipation, thus elimination, and as a result, the removal of microbes and toxins in the gut.



Thins Bile and Dilates the Bile Ducts

Bile is a greenish-brown liquid or digestive juice that emulsifies fats for your small intestine to absorb. It moves from your liver to the gallbladder, and then your body stores it until it needs it for the digestion of food. Bile is essential for digestion and the absorption of nutrients. Problems with bile production, bile flow, and bile acid malabsorption may lead to abdominal pain, bloating, gas, and other digestive issues.

Using castor oil packs over the abdomen and liver area may not only help liver detoxification but may also help to thin the bile, dilate bile ducts, and improve bile flow. It may also help to relieve painful spasms and cramps of the bile ducts and gallbladder.

With that said, though anecdotal and personal evidence seems to support that castor oil may benefit bile health, we need more research evidence to back this up.

castor oil

Supports Liver Detoxification

Your liver serves vital functions in the body and is critical for the process of detoxification. The liver helps circulate fluid in the body and transforms toxins into a substance which then can be dissolved, flushed down the bile ducts, relocated into the small intestine, or eliminated through stool.

Using castor oil packs over the liver area may help to support liver detoxification and liver health and reduce related health symptoms. According to a 2012 systematic review published in the International Journal of Naturopathic Medicine, using castor oil topically may help to support liver function and cholesterol levels (7).

weaken immunity

Improves Bowel Motility

Supporting digestion may be one of the main potential health benefits of castor oil. Castor oil packs may help to improve bowel motility, which means a decreased risk of constipation and fewer digestive issues. According to a 2012 systematic review published in the International Journal of Naturopathic Medicine, using castor oil topically may help to reduce constipation (7).

According to a 2011 clinical trial published in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, castor oil packs may help to reduce constipation, straining during bowel movements, and the risk of incomplete bowel movements (8). According to a 2021 pilot study published in the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Pharmacology and Therapeutics, it may help to cleanse the colon before a colonoscopy (9).

poop, 16 Ways to Achieve Healthy Poop

Reduces Pain, Swelling and Edema

Castor oil may also help to reduce pain, swelling, and edema. According to a 2018 study published in Polymers in Advanced Technology, castor oil may help to reduce inflammation pain and support wound healing (10). According to a 2000 study published in Mediators of Inflammation, ricinoleic acid in castor oil may offer anti-inflammatory effects, which may help to decrease pain and swelling (4).

A 2009 randomized controlled trial published in Phytotherapy Research has found that castor oil may help to reduce symptoms of knee arthritis (5). Thus, it may help to lower pain and swelling linked to this condition.

Moreover, poor circulation and poor lymphatic flow may increase swelling and edema. Because castor oil may help to support the lymphatic system and circulation, it may also reduce the risk of edema.

edema

Improves Circulation and Tissue Oxygenation

Using castor oil may also help to improve circulation and tissue oxygenation. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the lymphatic system may influence the heart, lung, brain, and other organs health (11). By supporting lymphatic circulation, castor oil may help to support the cardiovascular circulatory system and tissue oxygenation too and reduce fluid retention and edema (3).

Castor oil is also commonly used in wound healing (10). Its wound-healing effects may partly lie in supporting circulation, tissue oxygenation, and blood flow. However, we still need more research on the potential circulatory and tissue-oxygenating benefits of castor oil.

castor oil

Supports Healthy Immune Function

Castor oil may support healthy immune function in a variety of ways. As we already discussed, it may help lymphatic function, which spreads across your entire body and helps to remove excess fluid, protein, and waste (11).

Castor oil may support lymphatic drainage and blood flow. It may support the production of the lymphocyte white blood cells that fight bacteria, which may assist the health of the thymus gland, which is responsible for creating T cells for the immune system.

It may also also help to fight and remove microbes from your body. According to a 2016 study published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, it may help to fight a variety of different types of bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (6).

weaken immunity

Moisturizes Skin

Castor oil also offers skin-protecting benefits. 100 percent pure castor oil is natural and free of synthetic chemicals. It is rich in healthy fatty acids that may boost skin health. Using it topically may help moisturize your skin, prevent water loss from the skin, reduce dry skin, and improve irritated skin.

According to 2005 research published in the Journal of Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nursing, it may help the recovery of pressure ulcers and wound healing thanks to its moisturizing and antimicrobial benefits (12). Castor oil may also mix well with coconut oil, almond oil, and olive oil, which are also beneficial for your skin health.



Supports Wound Healing

Moisturizing the skin is not the only skin-related potential benefit of castor oil. It has been used to improve wound healing as a natural remedy for a long time. A 2018 study published in Polymers in Advanced Technology has found that it may help to reduce inflammation pain and support wound healing (10). According to a 2005 research published in the Journal of Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nursing, it may help wound and pressure ulcer recovery (12).

According to a 2016 study published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, it may help to fight a variety of different types of bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (6). This may help to reduce infections of the skin, reduce the risk of a staph infection, and support wound healing.

castor oil

How to Use Castor Oil

If you are interested in the potential benefits of castor oil, you may wonder how to use castor oil. Here are some potential options for using castor oil, both topically and orally.

As a Laxative for Constipation Relief

You may try castor oil as a laxative for constipation relief, taken orally. The common oral dose to treat constipation is between 15 to 60 mL, as a single dose. This is between one and four tablespoons, taken once a day. For children between 2 and 12, the dose is generally 5 to 15 mL once a day, and for babies under age 2, it’s 5 mL once a day.

You may mix it in water before drinking it. Always read the directions carefully. Ideally, start on the low end of the dosage and see how your body handles it. Don’t take castor oil internally for more than seven days. And always consult your healthcare practitioner before using it orally. Stop using it if you experience any side effects.

castor oil

Support Hair and Eyebrow Growth

Castor oil may support hair growth and eyebrow growth. For hair growth, you may massage a few tablespoons of castor oil into your scalp and hair, then spread it all over your hair. You may leave it on overnight and wash it out in the morning.

For your eyebrows, use a cotton swab or a clean mascara and apply a small amount of castor oil over your clean brows for about 20 minutes or longer. You may even apply it before sleep and sleep in it. Clean it with the help of a cotton swab and be careful it doesn’t get into your eyes.



Reduce Bags Under Eyes

Castor oil may help to reduce under-eye bags, dark circles, and hyperpigmentation. First, wash your face. Then massage 3 to 4 drops of the oil under your eyes. You may try a carrier oil, such as jojoba, almond, or coconut oil, to dilute it.

Using your fingertips for massaging works just fine, but you may also use a jade roller. You may leave it on overnight and clean it in the morning gently. Be careful that it doesn’t get into your eyes.



Improve Skin Health and Dandruff

Castor oil may offer numerous skin health benefits. For acne, you may apply the oil with a clean cotton swab. You may also mix it with apple cider vinegar, frankincense essential oil, or other essential oils to reduce swelling, inflammation, pain, and scarring. To reduce breakout, you can massage some of the oil into your skin and leave it on for the night, then cleanse it off in the morning.

For hydration, mix ¼ cup of castor oil and ¾ cup of virgin coconut or olive oil, and apply it on your face or elsewhere on your body. For moisturizing, mix ¼ cup of castor oil with olive oil, coconut oil or jojoba oil. Massage it on your skin, leave it on overnight, then rinse. You may mix one teaspoon of castor oil with one egg yolk for a 10 to 20-minute face mask.

For sunburns, mix coconut oil and castor oil at a 1 to 1 ratio and apply it on the affected area to reduce inflammation, redness, and pain. For dandruff and scalp issues, massage castor oil into your scalp and leave it on overnight.



Reduce Joint or Menstrual Pain

To reduce joint pain, you may massage castor oil into your skin on the affected area as you would with any other pain-relieving cream. About a dime-sized amount, every 3 hours or so may be helpful. Try it for three days for symptom relief.

For menstrual cramps, you may either massage it on your lower abdomen area or use a castor oil pack. At the end of this article, you will learn about how to make and use a castor oil pack.

castor oil packs

Improve Bile Flow and Liver Detoxification

We know that healthy bile flow is key for eliminating toxins from the liver, digesting and absorbing fats and fat-soluble nutrients and improving the microbial balance in the gut microbiome.

Castor oil is great for improving bile flow, liver detoxification, and liver function. For this, I recommend using a castor oil pack, which I will explain in more detail at the end of this article.

castor oil packs

Contraindications to Using Castor Oil

Castrol oil is generally recognized as safe. It can also be found in high concentrations in some cosmetics, including lipstick. However, according to 2007 research published in the International Journal of Toxicology, there may be some toxic effects when consumed orally, thus using it orally may not be recommended (3).

There are currently not enough studies and clinical trials on the benefits and safety of castor oil, thus many doctors are unaware of the potential health benefits and physiological effects. Limited studies and tales of midwifery, including a 2012 report published in PNAS, have reported symptoms of nausea, cramps, and loss of fluid and electrolytes when ingesting the oil (13).

If you ingest castor oil, it gets broken down by your small intestine into ricinoleic acid. Ricinoleic acid acts as an irritant, which may help to relieve constipation. While this may be good news if you have constipation, this same effect may cause digestive discomfort, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal side effects in others.

However, if you have constipation, it may be beneficial, generally by starting with 1 teaspoon in the morning and seeing if you get the relief you need. If not, you can try 2 teaspoons the following morning. This is generally safe. If you notice any pain, discomfort, or side effects, back off.

Sometimes castor oil is also used by some midwives to help induce labor. However, it is important that you don’t try this at home by yourself, only by the recommendation and with the support of your midwife or healthcare professional.

However, castor oil is not for everyone. People who should avoid it may include:

Women who are Pregnant: As I mentioned, sometimes castor oil is actually used to induce labor, and limited research evidence backs this up. This may happen because ricinoleic acid contained in the oil may signal a response from the lining of the uterus. Therefore, castor oil is not recommended for women who are pregnant unless recommended by a doctor to stimulate labor (13).
Women Experiencing Heavy Menstrual Flow: Women experiencing heavy menstrual bleeding should also avoid the use of castor oil packs during menstruation. Otherwise, these packs may possibly help to ease cramping and regulate a woman’s menstrual cycle.
Individuals with Gastrointestinal Problems: The ricinoleic acid has been found to interact with the lining of the gastrointestinal tract and can worsen gastrointestinal conditions and increase symptoms or the risk of complications. Individuals experiencing ulcers, diverticulitis, hemorrhoids, and colitis should avoid castor oil packs unless otherwise recommended by a doctor. Other more minor and general gastrointestinal issues such as gas, bloating, cramping, and constipation, generally respond very well to the use of castor oil packs and may be beneficial.
Individuals with Extreme Skin Sensitivities: Castor oil packs should also not be used by anyone who has any chronic skin conditions with increased skin sensitivities. Individuals with these issues may be at an increased risk of developing a reaction from the topical application of castor oil packs (3).
castor oil packs

How to Purchase Castor Oil

Whether you are looking to buy only castor oil itself or an entire kit for a castor oil pack, you need to look for a high-quality product. I highly recommend and personally use Queen of Thrones castor oil. Dr. Marisol is an expert in castor oil therapy, and she has made it much easier to use this oil with her high-quality products.

Queen of Thrones offers quality castor oil products, including organic castor oil in a glass jar, which is what I personally use at home. Getting organic castor oil in a glass jar is important because if there is any pesticide residue contained in the oil or plastic residue (phthalates) from the bottle, it can be absorbed through the skin.

Using high-quality products, like Queen of Thrones may help to prevent this. Use the coupon code DRJOCKERS10 at checkout with Queen of Thrones to save 10%.

castor oil packs

How to Make a Castor Oil Pack

So, how do you make your own castor oil pack? Start by getting some Queen of Thrones, then follow these instructions:

Before applying a castor oil pack to the skin’s surface, test for skin sensitivity. Rub a small amount of the oil directly onto a limited area of skin to determine if a reaction develops.
Avoid using electric heat pads without an automatic shut-off following a period of time. According to testimonials, some people had issues falling asleep with ease during castor oil pack treatments. If you choose to get the pieces separately (as opposed to the Queen of Thrones castor oil pack), then here are instructions on how to do them correctly:
Choose a place where you can lie down comfortably. Cover it with an old towel to avoid damage from dripping oil.
Use a large enough flannel that’s enough to cover the area you use it on.
Saturate the flannel with enough oil to make it wet but not dripping.
Lie down and cover your entire abdomen area with flannel or the specific area, for example, your liver area, you are using it on.
Cover the flannel with some plastic.
Put some heating source on top, such as a heating pad, hot water bottle, or hot towel.
Relax for 45 minutes to 2 hours with the castor oil pack there. Using this time for meditation or breathwork is a great idea, but you may listen to music, read, or watch your favorite show.
When finished, wash it off with soapy water or a solution of 2 tablespoons of baking soda in a quart of water.
You can store your pack in the fridge and reuse it later. It’s safe to use until you see a visible change in color.
Repeat this process at least three times per week for a month for optimal results or as recommended by your health practitioner.
You will see that it can be a lot of work, and that is why I believe the Queen of Thrones pack makes it much easier to do as it provides the flannel with ties on it, so you don’t need to wrap yourself in plastic! Use the coupon code DRJOCKERS10 at checkout with Queen of Thrones to save 10%.



Final Thoughts

Castor oil is a fatty oil that is made from the castor seeds of the castor bean plant. It has many potential health benefits, including relieving constipation, supporting live health, improving skin health, reducing inflammation, and more. I recommend that you follow my tips in this article on how to use this great natural product for your health.

If you want to work with a functional health coach, I recommend this article with tips on how to find a great coach. Our website offers long-distance functional health coaching programs. For further support with your health goals, just reach out and our fantastic coaches are here to support your journey.



Inflammation Crushing Ebundle

The Inflammation Crushing Ebundle is designed to help you improve your brain, liver, immune system and discover the healing strategies, foods and recipes to burn fat, reduce inflammation and Thrive in Life!

As a doctor of natural medicine, I have spent the past 20 years studying the best healing strategies and worked with hundreds of coaching clients, helping them overcome chronic health conditions and optimize their overall health.

In our Inflammation Crushing Ebundle, I have put together my very best strategies to reduce inflammation and optimize your healing potential. Take a look at what you will get inside these valuable guides below!

autoimmune conditions

Sources In This Article Include:

1. Tunaru S, et al. Castor_oil induces laxation and uterus contraction via ricinoleic acid activating prostaglandin EP3 receptors. PNAS 2012;109(23):9179-9184. DOI: 1073/pnas.1201627109

2. Marwat SK, Rehman F, Khan EA, Baloch MS, Sadiq M, Ullah I, Javaria S, Shaheen S. Review – Ricinus cmmunis – Ethnomedicinal uses and pharmacological activities. Pak J Pharm Sci. 2017 Sep;30(5):1815-1827. PMID: 29084706

3. Final Report on the Safety Assessment of Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Glyceryl Ricinoleate, Glyceryl Ricinoleate SE, Ricinoleic Acid, Potassium Ricinoleate, Sodium Ricinoleate, Zinc Ricinoleate, Cetyl Ricinoleate, Ethyl Ricinoleate, Glycol Ricinoleate, Isopropyl Ricinoleate, Methyl Ricinoleate, and Octyldodecyl Ricinoleate. International Journal of Toxiciology. May 2007;26:31-77. DOI: 1080/10915810701663150

4. Vieira C, Evangelista S, Cirillo R, Lippi A, Maggi CA, Manzini S. Effect of ricinoleic acid in acute and subchronic experimental models of inflammation. Mediators Inflamm. 2000;9(5):223-8. doi: 10.1080/09629350020025737. PMID: 11200362

5. Medhi B, Kishore K, Singh U, Seth SD. Comparative clinical trial of castor_oil and diclofenac sodium in patients with osteoarthritis. Phytother Res. 2009 Oct;23(10):1469-73. doi: 10.1002/ptr.2804. PMID: 1928853

6. Al-Mamun MA, Akter Z, Uddin MJ, Ferdaus KM, Hoque KM, Ferdousi Z, Reza MA. Characterization and evaluation of antibacterial and antiproliferative activities of crude protein extracts isolated from the seed of Ricinus communis in Bangladesh. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2016 Jul 12;16:211. doi: 10.1186/s12906-016-1185-y. PMID: 27405609

7. Evidence for the Topical Application of Castor_Oil.International Journal of Naturopathic Medicine 2012. Link Here

8. Arslan GG, Eşer I. An examination of the effect of castor_oil packs on constipation in the elderly. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2011 Feb;17(1):58-62. doi: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2010.04.004. Epub 2010 May 18. PMID: 21168117

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11. Scientists Seek to Understand Lymphatic System’s Impact on Other Organ SystemsLink Here

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