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Sati was a social funeral practice among some Indian communities in which a recently widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. The practice was banned several times, with the current ban dating to 1829 by the British.
The term is derived from the original name of the goddess Sati, also known as Dakshayani, who self-immolated because she was unable to bear her father Daksha's humiliation of her husband Shiva. The term may also be used to refer to the widow. The term sati is now sometimes interpreted as "chaste woman". Sati appears in both Hindi and Sanskrit texts, where it is synonymous with "good wife"; the term suttee was commonly used by Anglo-Indian English writers.
ORIGN
Few reliable records exist of the practice before the time of the Gupta empire, approximately 400 CE. After about this time, instances of sati began to be marked by inscribed memorial stones. The earliest of these are found in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, though the largest collections date from several centuries later, and are found in Rajasthan. These stones, called devli, or sati-stones, became shrines to the dead woman, who was treated as an object of reverence and worship. They are most common in western India. A description of suttee appears in a Greek account of the Punjab written in the first century BCE by historian Diodorus Siculus. Brahmins were forbidden from the practice by the Padma Purana. A chapter dated to around the 10th century indicates that, while considered a noble act when committed by a Kshatriya woman, anyone caught assisting an upper-caste Brahmin in self-immolation as a "sati" was guilty of Brahminicide.
The ritual has prehistoric roots, and many parallels from other cultures are known. Compare for example the ship burial of the Rus' described by Ibn Fadlan, where a female slave is burned with her master.
Aristobulus of Cassandreia, a Greek historian who traveled to India with the expedition of Alexander the Great, recorded the practice of sati at the city of Taxila. A later instance of voluntary co-cremation appears in an account of an Indian soldier in the army of Eumenes of Cardia, whose two wives jumped on his funeral pyre, in 316 BC. The Greeks believed that the practice had been instituted to discourage wives from poisoning their old husbands.
Voluntary death at funerals has been described in northern India before the Gupta empire. The original practices were called anumarana, and were uncommon. Anumarana was not comparable to later understandings of sati, since the practices were not restricted to widows – rather, anyone, male or female, with personal loyalty to the deceased could commit suicide at a loved one's funeral. These included the deceased's relatives, servants, followers, or friends. Sometimes these deaths stemmed from vows of loyalty, and bear a slight resemblance to the later tradition of junshi in Japan.
It is theorized that sati, enforced widowhood, and girl marriage were customs that were primarily intended to solve the problem of surplus women and surplus men in a caste and to maintain its endogamy.
Apart from the Indian subcontinent, origins of this practice have been found in many parts of the world; it was followed by the ancient Egyptians, Thracians, Scythians, Scandinavians, Chinese, as well as people of Oceania and Africa.
Sati remained legal in some princely states for a time after it had been abolished in lands under British control. Jaipur banned the practice in 1846. Nepal continued to practice Sati well into the 20th century.
On the Indonesian island of Bali, sati (known as masatya) was practised by the aristocracy as late as 1905, until Dutch colonial rule pushed for its termination.
Following outcries after each instance, the government has passed new measures against the practice, which now effectively make it illegal to be a bystander at an event of sati. The law now makes no distinction between passive observers to the act and active promoters of the event; all are supposed to be held equally guilty. Other measures include efforts to stop the 'glorification' of the dead women. Glorification includes the erection of shrines to the dead, the encouragement of pilgrimages to the site of the pyre, and the derivation of any income from such sites and pilgrims.
Another instance of systematic Sati happened in 1973, when Savitri Soni sacrificed her life with her husband in Kotadi village of Sikar District in Rajasthan. Thousands of people witnessed this incident.
Although many have tried to prevent the act of sati by banning it and reinforcing laws against it, it is still being practiced (on rare occasions) in India under coercion or by voluntary burning, as in the case of Charan Shah: a 55 year-old widow of Manshah who burnt herself on the pyre of her husband in the village of Satpura in Uttar Pradesh on 11 November 1999. Her death on the funeral pyre has provoked much controversy, as there have been questions as to whether she willingly performed the Sati or was coerced. Charan Shah had not professed strong feelings to become a Sati to any of her family members, and no one saw her close to the burning body of her husband before she jumped into the fire. The villagers, including her sons, say that she became a Sati of her own accord and that she was not forced into it. They continue to pay their respects to the house of Charan Shah. It has become a shrine for the villagers, as they strongly believe that one who has become a sati is a deity; she is worshipped and endowed with gifts.
NUMBERS
There are no reliable figures for the numbers who died by sati across the country. A local indication of the numbers is given in the records kept by the Bengal Presidency of the British East India Company. The total figure of known occurrences for the period 1813 to 1828 is 8,135; another source gives a comparable number of 7,941 from 1815 to 1828, thus giving an average of about 507 to 567 documented incidents per year in that period. Raja Ram Mohan Roy estimated that there were ten times as many cases of Sati in Bengal compared to the rest of the country. Bentinck, in his 1829 report, states that 420 occurrences took place in one (unspecified) year in the 'Lower Provinces' of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and 44 in the 'Upper Provinces' (the upper Gangetic plain).
I had to wear my idiot shorts in front of a field of footballers, tip coke over my head and pie myself.
Me. With long, painted nails. Ugh. She forced me.
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#footfetish #transmilf #curvy #cougar #transcougar #footmodel #transmodel #SugarBaby #hijrah #transsexual #genderfluid #nailsonfleek #instanails #transgender #transpride #SoccerMom #wife #bride #wifey #secretary #sissy #sissygirl #feet #nails
Me.
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#footfetish #transmilf #curvy #cougar #transcougar #footmodel #transmodel #SugarBaby #hijrah #transsexual #genderfluid #nailsonfleek #instanails #transgender #transpride #SoccerMom #wife #bride #wifey #secretary #sissy #sissygirl
Nobody knew I masqueraded as a woman and went to bars to pickup men. My girlfriend caught me walking down the street dressed as a woman. There I stood, in little black dress, in front of a busy restaurant, confronted by my girlfriend. I was humiliated as she pointed out my hot pink pedicure and toe ring visible through the black pantyhose I was wearing with my high heeled sandals. She was freaked out how I had deep cleavage and great legs. Ugh.
soft girl
bimbo
For a blog I am working on.
When I started this journey I never thought I would loose my past so completely.
I became a woman.
It's important to me to put 100% off my energy into claiming the power of the feminine by adhering to the feminine gender. Now, I state plainly, for the record: I am an airhead, no lie, an attractive unintelligent woman who loves clothes and shoes. I am sooooo on board with my women's subordinate status that it's scary. I am compliant and submissive because that is what my job requires. I am perfectly fine standing in the shadow of a man as long as I look cute and can do my nails.
I am a model. It's a thing. Don't judge.
My coworkers and I do what we can to look and feel our best. The girls helped me see I am a soft girl and being a model brought forward my hotness with a polished new hyper feminine identity. I'm a girl. A girly girl. Like, work only requires a plain mani, but my coworkers decided I should really go above and beyond in my femininity with the coffin nails look and I have had at least 1 1/2 inch fingernails since. So swish and perfect for my girly style. I'm such a follower and don't have to make my own style decisions lately. Why think when you're getting waxed and long pink glittery fingernails attached?
When work made me model exclusively strappy heels or wedges because of my soft and girly feet, the girls took that decision and we extended it to my personal life. I won't go anywhere without wearing pantyhose, short dresses or skirts showcasing my toned feminine legs and sky high heels that show off my foot model pedicure with toe rings and ankle bracelets on display. I've got nice feet.
In my work success is partiay determined by maintaining a romantic relationship with a man, and I found my sexuality can be used to maintain the relationship. My work uses sexual objectification of women and I am a willing cog in that machine. I have no choice. I have a contract. I'm just a woman. I use my assets to make a living. I'm just a girl, what difference can I make.
Even while grocery shopping I'm fully made up. Men are nice to a pretty woman. They help me, hold doors open, carry my groceries, and I just bat my eyelashes, bend my leg at the knee and bite my lip. I see them checking out my seamed stockings or staring at my bosom or watch my butt wiggle as I walk heel toe heel toe down the magazine isle in my 5 inch spikes and pink leather mini.
Oh em gee I had to go to home depot one day after work, wearing a sheer diaphanous red dress and strappy Manolo Blahnik's, red lipstick, red nails, silk stockings, dressed to the nines, and every man there wanted to help and I didn't have to do a thing. I sat at the front on a bench with my legs crossed, clicked through my social media, refreshed my lipstick and just looked pretty.
The girls and I are all like that. A fem pack of fashion conscious women in the city. I am a part of it. I fit in. I certainly look the part now.
The girls helped me discover that pinks and their various hues are definitely my color, like, I am totes a fem woman so I should breathe it in. I have pink heels, pink skirts, pink jewelry, pink lipstick, pink nails and pink nose ring. I am a pink girl. Also I am one of the bimbo girls. A high heeled glorfied secretary with sexy legs oozing sexiness with my plump pink lips and low cut dress in the office, walking around in designer pumps looking gorgeous, organizing racks of nylons, smiling at the men coz they can't keep their eyes off me.
After modeling? I will be hawt a buxom beautician doing hair and gossiping with long designer nails in a coral frock with heavy makeup, a pierced nose and tongue, dangly earrings, bangle bracelets, kissable pink lips, deep cleavage in my sundress, shapely legs in sheer nude pantyhose with shocking hot pink toenails showing from my strappy heeled sandals drawing admiring glances from men wherever I go. Me. I'm cool with that. It's why I became a woman. I am living my dream to have transformed from man to basically a painted up Barbie. I get to dress up and play with makeup and shoes.
forced femme force feminization femdom
And sell a little pantyhose in the process.
Nobody knew I masqueraded as a woman and went to bars to pickup men. My girlfriend caught me walking down the street dressed as a woman. There I stood, in little black dress, in front of a busy restaurant, confronted by my girlfriend. I was humiliated as she pointed out my hot pink pedicure and toe ring visible through the black pantyhose I was wearing with my high heeled sandals. She was freaked out how I had deep cleavage and great legs. Ugh.
soft girl
bimbo
When I started this journey I never thought I would loose my past so completely.
It's important to me to put 100% off my energy into claiming the power of the feminine by adhering to the feminine gender. Now, I state plainly: I am an airhead, no lie, an attractive unintelligent woman. I am sooooo on board with my women's subordinate status that it's scary. I am compliant and submissive because that is what my job requires. I am a model. It's a thing. Don't judge.
My coworkers and I do what we can to look and feel our best. The girls helped me see I am a soft girl and being a model brought forward my hotness with a polished new hyper feminine identity. I'm a girl. A girly girl. Like, work only requires a plain mani, but my coworkers decided I should really go for the coffin nails look and I have had at least 1 1/2 inch fingernails since. So swish and perfect for my girly style. I'm such a follower and don't have to make my own style decisions lately. Why think when you've got pink and glittery fingernails?
When work made me model exclusively strappy heels or wedges because of my soft and girly feet, the girls took that decision and we extended it to my personal life so I won't go any where without wearing pantyhose, short dresses or skirts showcasing my toned feminine legs and sky high heels that show off my foot model pedicure with toe rings and ankle bracelets on display.
In my work success is partiay determined by maintaining a romantic relationship with a man, and I found my sexuality can be used to maintain the relationship. My work uses sexual objectification of women and I am a willing cog in that machine. I have no choice. I have a contract. I'm just a woman. I use my assets to make a living. I'm just a girl, what difference can I make.
Even while grocery shopping I'm fully made up. Men are nice to a pretty woman. They help me, hold doors open, carry my groceries, and I just bat my eyelashes, bend my leg at the knee and bite my lip. I see them checking out my legs or staring at my bosom or watch my butt wiggle as I walk heel toe heel toe down the magazine isle in my 5 inch spikes.
Oh em gee I had to go to home depot one day after work, wearing a sheer diaphanous red dress and strappy Manolo Blahnik's, red lipstick, red nails, silk stockings, dressed to the nines, and every man there wanted to help and I didn't have to do a thing. I sat at the front on a bench with my legs crossed, clicked through my social media, refreshed my lipstick and just looked pretty.
The girls and I are all like that. A fem pack of fashion conscious women in the city. I am a part of it. I fit in. I certainly look the part now.
The girls helped me discover that pinks and their various hues are definitely my color, like, I am totes a fem woman so I should breathe it in. I am just one of the bimbo girls.
Transgender bride
Sissy bride
Transsexual wife
Sissy wife
Trans Sissy
Housewife
June cleaver
1950s vintage housewife
House husband
Sissy husband
Black men love my transsexual sissy sexy secretary housewife curvy trans self. My pretty feet and toes turn them on. When I caress them with my long painted fingernails they love it. Indian men from India love me also. Especially when I wear a burka burqa.
My Name Is Barack Hussein Obama, and I Approve of Humiliating myself For U.s.(1)
In Barack's quest to apologize for America by bowing to foreign dictators, has he failed to speak up for our Republic and freedom?
Submitted for your approval...
Meet Barack Obama, a portrait of self-obsession. Barry brought America to her knees with his Marxist policies. Now, we face the Obamination of Desolation crisis(2) in the Obama Zone…
Tweeter Meme of Obama TV Shows for Obowma, the Superbower in the Obama Zone
t.co/ApX24ke9 Indefinite Arrested Development #ObamaTVShows
t.co/sJ14BJAt Absolut Obamunism #ObamaTVShows
t.co/7tsJVFM4 America's Got Trouble #ObamaTVShows
t.co/qIVxdIpt Big Brother #ObamaTVShows
t.co/gyoQAa1w The Blunder Years #ObamaTVShows
t.co/sBbi3Ucg Crappy Days #ObamaTVShows
t.co/EbJHXy96 Czar 54, Where Are You? #ObamaTVShows
t.co/maki4HRT Volt 54, Where Are You? #ObamaTVShows
t.co/wwJF4lEN The Debt is High #ObamaTVShows
t.co/kW2SQ34x Different Strokes #ObamaTVShows
t.co/uhsDEOpq The Dukes of Kenya #ObamaTVShows
t.co/JQbZit2P The Fascist Princess of Bel-Air #ObamaTVShows
t.co/wwJF4lEN The Sixteen Trillion Dollar Man #ObamaTVShows
t.co/WjcODUrx Fast and Furious #ObamaTVShows
t.co/vgNlXvVy Fascist Forward #ObamaTVShows
t.co/ib20Gd4j Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. #ObamaTVShows
t.co/xAfNzUAr Lost In Space #ObamaTVShows
t.co/OpdzAGfp M. A. S. H. - Made America a Socialist Hell #ObamaTVShows
t.co/TFeWUop8 Muslim Island #ObamaTVShows
t.co/d9N2zLyx My Favorite Marxist #ObamaTVShows
t.co/HczzLAqM NBC Nightly News with Barry Soetoro #ObamaTVShows
t.co/SwWj7VDp Wheel of Misfortune #ObamaTVShows
You Tube Video: The Obama Zone
(1) Photoshop Satire notes…
A) Ah-So Sorry Emperor Akihito, my Pacific Puppet -
Barack Bows down to Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Nov 14, 2009.
Obama's Saikeirei (最敬礼 Profound Bow, bending over more than 45 degrees from the waist from the upright posture) expressed a sincere apology. A Japanese reporter asked Obama, "Was it the Right Decision" to Drop A-Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II? The Apologist-in-Chief did not answer her question.
B) Comrade Hu, Can I have my Chinese Change now? -
Barack Bows to Chinese President Hu Jintao during the official arrivals for the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington on April 12, 2010.
China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt. According to the U.S. Treasury, China held 1.15 trillion dollars of Treasury Securities as of June, 2012. Japan comes in a close second with 1.11 trillion dollars.
C) You might be a Muslim if you bow down to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. -
Barack Bows down to King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at the G20 Summit in London on Apr 2 , 2009.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCAffMSWSzY]
D) Special delivery of my Obamacare Oinkment for my Subservient Swine Flu Puppet. -
Barack Bows to Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Baja California, Mexico on June 18, 2012.
(2) The failed Obamanomics of Obama's Economic Record.
1. Median Household Income has declined by 7.3% percent from January 2009 ($54,983) to June 2012 ($50,964)
2. According to the Federal Reserve, the median net worth of families plunged by 39 percent in three years, from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010
3. According to the Federal Reserve, the percentage of families with no or negative wealth increased to 32.5 percent in 2010 - up from 19.2 percent in 2007.
4. According to the Pew Research Center, the middle income class has shrunk to 51 percent in 2011 from 61 percent in 1971.
5. According to the Pew Research Center, the median Net Worth of the Middle Class plummeted 39% from $152,950 in 2007 to $93,150 in 2010.
6. According to the Pew Research Center, middle income class share of U.S. income shrunk to 45 percent in 2010 from 62 percent in 1970.
7. The unemployment rate in the United States has been above 8 percent for 43 straight months from Feb 2009 to Aug 2012.
8. Long-term Unemployed Americans (jobless for 27 weeks or more) has risen by 92 percent from 2.6 million (Jan 20, 2009) to 5 million (Aug 2012)
9. The average duration of unemployment is 39.2 weeks (Aug 2012), a 96 percent increase from strong>20 weeks when Obama took office.
10. The percentage of working age Americans with a job has been below 59 percent for 36 straight months
11. According to the National Employment Law Project, 58 percent of the new jobs created have been low paying jobs.
12. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, only 24.6 percent of all of the jobs are "good jobs."
13. In 2011, 53 percent of college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed last year.
14. The number of jobs created by new businesses decreased by approximately 1 million from 2008 to 2010.
15. One out of every four workers earn less than $10 per hour in the 'Recovery' from the Great Recession.
16. Due to the Great Recession, the average pay for self-employed people has fallen 8 percent from $46724 in 2006 to $43,003 in 2010.
17. In the past decade, insurance premiums have increased three times as fast as wages.
18. Worker Health insurance contributions have risen by 17.5 percent from 3,515 family coveragein 2009 to $4,129 family coverage in 2011.
19. From 2001 to 2010, America has lost 15 manufacturing facilities every day on average. In 2010, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities every day closed every day.
20. According to Harvard Univesity's State of the Nation's Housing 2012 Study, 20.2 million American households spent more than half of their incomes on housing in 2010, a 12.8 percent increase from 2007 (17.9 million American households)
21. Since 2009, the cost of Household electricity skyrocketed by $300 in one year to $1419 in 2010. Electric rates have increased above the inflation rate for five consecutive years.
22. Home Values have fallen 18 percent.
contrary to popular belief, babies don't need diapers. women don't need disposable pads and tampons. and old folks and the Depends... i don't have the info yet, but i'm sure there's oppression in that package too. (i apparently have more research to do.)
i've always thought this aisle of the drug store was ridiculously humiliating and bizarre, this grouping of products for people that leak.
This nice shirt I had made in normal shirt fabric, but with a 11 cm collar. Inside the collar they is a lockable inner leather collar. Here shown with tie
I had to wear my idiot shorts in front of a field of footballers, tip coke over my head and pie myself.
Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Also known as the Greenwood Massacre.
This actually happened, and for a long time it was pretty much historically invisible to Oklahomans and to the rest of the nation.
2016/03/05(sat)
MALAYSIAS MILITARY DEATH METAL
HUMILIATION JAPAN INVASION 2016 OSAKA
at SOCORE FACTORY
HUMILIATION
DISTURD
SEX MESSIAH
SECOND TO NONE
BOYS ON THE RUN is like catching someone masturbating: unbearably humiliating, unimaginably awkward but also kind of funny. Tanishi (Kanzunobu Mineta in a performance that will ensure he never dates again) is a 29-year-old virgin whose job is refilling bubble vending machines with novelty items. His coworkers are arrogant bores and gloomy alcoholics. His hobby is porn. The one bright spot in his life is Chiharu (Mei Kurokawa), his cute co-worker who almost treats him like a human being. Could it possibly be that she...gulp...likes him? Even after he accidentally loans her a bestiality porn DVD? Signs point to “yes.”
With a little effort, Tanishi blossoms into a pretty great boyfriend, but those constant close-ups of his stirring crotch are a sign that Tanishi is also a man and men are dogs, leading to his failure. To make it even worse, Chiharu takes up with his co-worker, the handsome, arrogant Ryuhei Matsuda (one of Japanese cinema’s sneering prettyboys), sending Tanishi spiraling into despair. But like Rocky (or Travis Bickle), he’s determined to get revenge.
BOYS is based on a manga by Kengo Hanazawa and it revels in the dirty little details that most romantic comedies leave out: the inopportune boners, the bad skin, the creepy passes from roommates. Where movie magic glosses over all the dirty ookiness that makes life so strange, BOYS revels in it, and its matter-of-fact approach is downright charming. This is a movie that puts both the “sex” and the “come” back into “sex comedy.” (New York Asian Film Festival)
It was Von Steuben's troops that were facing Cornwalis in the front lines in Yorktown when the British decided to surrender to the Comte de Rochambeau during the American Revolution. Von Steuben stood next to Washington, Rochambeau, and the Marquis de LaFayette when Cornwalis surrendered.Cornwallis had refused to meet formally with Washington, and also refused to come to the ceremony of surrender, claiming illness. Instead, Brigadier General Charles O'Hara presented the sword of surrender to Rochambeau. Rochambeau shook his head and pointed to Washington. O'Hara offered it to Washington, but he also refused to accept it, and motioned to his second in command, Benjamin Lincoln, who had been humiliated by the British at Charleston, to accept it. It was Von Steuben's manuel the 'Blue Book' which trained Washington's troops at Valley Forge. All US Infantrymen are his disciples.Von Steuben is buried in New York State.
In the summer of 1781, after six years of war, the American Army was struggling. The British occupied New York City. A second British army lead by General Lord Cornwallis ravaged the South - capturing Charleston, Richmond, and apparently was heading for the Chesapeake Bay. Mutiny plagued the American army in New York and New Jersey.
There was a glimmer of hope, however. The French, allied with the Americans since 1778, had landed six thousand troops in Rhode Island while the French fleet gathered in the Caribbean preparing to do battle with the British. General George Washington and the French Commander, Comte de Rochambeau, met in May 1781 to plan their strategy. Washington wanted to attack the British in New York City. Rochambeau, fearful of attacking such a well fortified position and lacking confidence in the Continental Army's abilities, recommended marching south to battle Cornwallis in Virginia.
Washington finally acquiesced to the French position and on August 22, the two armies began their march from White Plains, New York to Virginia arriving in early September. As the combined American and French armies marched south, a battle between the French and British fleets in the Chesapeake Bay sealed the fate of General Cornwallis and his British troops at Yorktown. In the period from September 5 - 9, the French surprised the British fleet at the mouth of the Chesapeake forcing the British navy to retreat to New York, leaving General Cornwallis stranded.
After a five-day bombardment, the combined American and French forces attacked and overwhelmed Cornwallis's fortified position on the night of October 14. The British commander was left with no choice but to surrender, which he did on October 19. News of the surrender reached England on November 25 sending shock waves through the British government. Although King George III wanted to continue the battle, the surrender forced Prime Minister Lord North to resign in March 1782. His replacement began the peace process that culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Paris in September 1783 granting independence to the American colonies.
"At about twelve o'clock, the combined army was arranged and drawn up in two lines extending more than a mile in length. The Americans were drawn up in a line on the right side of the road, and the French occupied the left. At the head of the former, the great American commander [George Washington], mounted on his noble courser, took his station, attended by his aides. At the head of the latter was posted the excellent Count Rochambeau and his suite. The French troops, in complete uniform, displayed a martial and noble appearance; their bands of music, of which the timbrel formed a part, is a delightful novelty, and produced while marching to the ground a most enchanting effect.
The Americans, though not all in uniform, nor their dress so neat, yet exhibited an erect, soldierly air, and every countenance beamed with satisfaction and joy. The concourse of spectators from the country was prodigious, in point of numbers was probably equal to the military, but universal silence and order prevailed.
It was about two o'clock when the captive army advanced through the line formed for their reception. Every eye was prepared to gaze on Lord Cornwallis, the object of peculiar interest and solicitude; but he disappointed our anxious expectations; pretending indisposition, he made General O'Hara his substitute as the leader of his army. This officer was followed by the conquered troops in a slow and solemn step, with shouldered arms, colors cased and drums beating a British march. Having arrived at the head of the line, General O'Hara, elegantly mounted, advanced to his excellency the commander-in-chief, taking off his hat, and apologized for the non-appearance of Earl Cornwallis. With his usual dignity and politeness, his excellency pointed to Major-General Lincoln for directions, by whom the British army was conducted into a spacious field, where it was intended they should ground their arms.
The royal troops, while marching through the line formed by the allied army, exhibited a decent and neat appearance, as respects arms and clothing, for their commander opened his store and directed every soldier to be furnished with a new suit complete, prior to the capitulation. But in their line of march we remarked a disorderly and unsoldierly conduct, their step was irregular, and their ranks frequently broken.
But it was in the field, when they came to the last act of the drama, that the spirit and pride of the British soldier was put to the severest test: here their mortification could not be concealed. Some of the platoon officers appeared to be exceedingly chagrined when giving the word "ground arms," and I am a witness that they performed this duty in a very unofficer-like manner; and that many of the soldiers manifested a sullen temper, throwing their arms on the pile with violence, as if determined to render them useless. This irregularity, however, was checked by the authority of General Lincoln. After having grounded their arms and divested themselves of their accoutrements, the captive troops were conducted back to Yorktown and guarded by our troops till they could be removed to the place of their destination."
The Surrender Negotiations
At 10 o'clock on the morning of October 17, 1781, a drummer beating a "parley," and a British officer with a flag of truce, mounted a parapet south of Yorktown. The allies saw the signal, and soon the incessant, devastating artillery fire ceased. A hushed stillness fell over the field.
Lord Cornwallis, realizing the defeat of his army was inevitable, sent a message to General George Washington:
"Sir, I propose a cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours, and that two officers may be appointed by each side, to meet at Mr. Moore's house, to settle terms for the surrender of the posts of York and Gloucester."
Why Cornwallis selected the Moore House for the negotiations was not explained, however, there are a number of possibilities.The Moore House was well outside the line of siege fire, and therefore, not damaged. It was a neutral location, hiding the British situation in town, and possibly selected in the hope of securing better surrender terms. And finally, it was a convenient location for both sides to reach, as it was situated along the York River.
Washington agreed to only a two hour cease fire for Cornwallis to submit general terms of surrender. Messages continued to pass over the battlefield between the two commanders.
Finally, on the afternoon of October 18, the two British commissioners, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Dundas and Major Alexander Ross met in "Mr. Moore's house" with the allied officers, Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens, for the Americans, and Second Colonel Viscount de Noailles (Marquis de Lafayette's brother-in-law), representing the French.
The negotiations ended before midnight, and Laurens carried a rough draft of the articles to General Washington. Washington, however, was not completely happy with the results and made a few minor changes. Once the articles were revised and redrafted, a copy was sent to Cornwallis in Yorktown for his signature.
The Articles
The Articles of Capitulation were terms for the surrender of Cornwallis's British army. The 14 articles directed the surrender from the disposition of the troops, artillery, and arms, to even the surrender ceremony itself.
The articles directed where the troops, now prisoners of war, were to be sent. The soldiers were marched off to camps in Frederick, Maryland, and Winchester, Virginia. One field officer for every 50 men was allowed to reside near their respective regiments to witness their treatment and deliver clothing and other necessaries to the soldiers at the camps. All other officers were paroled and allowed to go to Europe, New York, or any other American post then in possession of the British forces, on the condition they would no longer fight until properly exchanged.
Another article provided for the care of the sick and wounded prisoners. Proper hospitals would be furnished, with patients attended by their surgeons on parole. Medicine and supplies were to be provided by the American hospitals, the British stores in both York and Gloucester, and passports would be issued to procure further supplies from New York if necessary.
The third article referred to the surrender ceremony and contained the provision that deprived the British of the honors war. Customary honors allowed the surrendering troops to march out of their works with their regimental flags flying and playing an enemy's tune in honor of the victor. George Washington was not going to allow these honors, instead he stated, " The same honors will be granted to the surrendering army as granted to the garrison of Charlestown". In May 1780, an American army was captured at Charleston, South Carolina and not given the honors of war, therefore, in retaliation, the British would not be granted them at Yorktown. The troops, the article read, were to "...march out...with shouldered arms, colors cased, and drums beating a British or German march. They are then to ground their arms and return to their encampment, where they will remain until they are dispatched to the places of their destination..."
By the afternoon of October 19th, 1781, both commanders had signed the Articles of Capitulation, and the defeated British army was marching out from Yorktown to lay down their arms, ending the last major battle of the American Revolution.
The site on which the Moore House now stands was first patented by Governor John Harvey in the 1630's, and was named "York Plantation." A century later, it was part of a 500 acre plantation called "Temple Farm" where Lawrence Smith II built a family home. In 1754, the estate passed to Smith's son, Robert. By 1760, however, Robert found himself in financial straits, and was forced to sell the farm that had been in his family for three generations. He sold the 500 acre estate to his brother-in-law, Augustine Moore.
Augustine Moore
Augustine Moore began his career as a merchant at the age of 14, when he became an apprentice to William Nelson of Yorktown. He served the Nelson firm for many years, and became parter of "Thos Nelson, Jr. & Co." in 1773.
In 1767, Augustine inherited three plantations from his father, establishing him as a landowner of some estate. The following year he purchased "Temple Farm", and eventually moved his wife and son into the present plantation house to become a gentleman farmer in the fashion then prevalent in Virginia.
In 1781, when General Cornwallis moved his British army into Yorktown, many residents left their homes and fled the area. The Moore family may also have abandoned their home, temporarily moving to Richmond during the Yorktown Siege. What they certainly could not have known, was that their home would become a site of national significance on October 18, 1781, when it was selected to be the backdrop for one of the final scenes of the American Revolution.
Preservation Efforts
The Moore House remained in the Moore family until 1797, when it passed to the son of Thomas Nelson Jr., Hugh Nelson, after the death of both Augustine and his wife Lucy. Thereafter, the house changed hands many times.
During the 1862 Peninsula Campaign of the Civil War, military action around Yorktown caused considerable damage to the Moore House. Sitting in between Confederate lines in Yorktown and the Union forces on Wormley Creek, the house was within easy range of shell fire. Later, foraging soldiers stripped away siding and other usable wood for
fuel.
The house remained derelict until 1881 when much needed repairs and some additions were made in preparation for the Centennial Celebration of the allied victory at Yorktown. The newly refurbished structure housed dignitaries during the celebration.
In the years between 1931 and 1934, the National Park Service, which had just established Colonial National Monument (later Historical Park), restored the Moore House to its original colonial appearance. Archeology and historic images were used to assist in its restoration.
The restoration was one of the first of its kind for the National Park Service. The house was completed and formally dedicated on October 18-19, 1934, the 153rd anniversary of the surrender of Cornwallis and his British army.
Read more about me and my life on my website with lots of pictures, videos and texts (en/en). You can find the link on the info/start page on the right side under the showcase pictures.
I love to wear women's underwear and girdles, I don't own men's underwear since a long time. But I don't want to simulate femininity and I don't have transsexual ambitions. I'm just a fat, effeminate loser, who always failed in relationships with women as a real man. I was brought up to be a sissified, feminized boy who wore girly panties, camisoles and tights, so I grew up to be a feminized sissy. For many, many years I expose my shame in public for my humiliation. I do this on the Internet and I wear blouses and skirts, bras and silicone breasts, girdle suspenders and stockings on the street and in parks, as can be seen in some photos. I am very well known in the neighborhood as a ridiculous, effeminate sissy.
Vittorio Emanuele ll
Country Italy
Town: Milan
Year of creation: 1896
Rider:Vittorio Emanuele ll
(1820 – 1878) was the King of Piedmont, Savoy, and Sardinia from 1849 to 1861 and, from 1861 until his death in 1878, the first King of a united Italy.
Vittorio became King of Piedmont in 1849 when his father had abdicated the throne after a humiliating military defeat by the Austrians.
In 1852, he gave Count Camillo di Cavour the title of Prime Minister. This turned out to be a wise choice because Cavour was a political mastermind and a major player in Italian unification in his own right. Vittorio soon became the symbol of the Italian Risorgimento, the Italian unification movement.
The Italo-French campaign against Austria in 1859 started successfully. However, Napoleon III secretly made a treaty with Franz Joseph of Austria. Later that same year, Vittorio sent his forces to fight the papal army and drove the Pope into Vatican City. This success got him excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
Vittorio supported Giuseppe Garibaldi’s Expedition of Thousand (1860-1861), which resulted in the rapid fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in southern Italy. However, the King halted Garibaldi when he appeared ready to attack Rome, still under the Papal States, as it was under French protection. In 1860 Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Romagna decided to side with Sardinia-Piedmont. Vittorio subsequently met with Garibaldi at Teano, receiving from him the control of southern Italy. Another series of plebiscites in the occupied lands resulted in the proclamation of Vittorioin 1861 as the first King of Italy by the new Parliament of unified Italy. Turin became the capital of the new state. Only Rome, Veneto, and Trentino remained to be conquered.
In 1866 Vittorio allied himself with Prussia in the Third Italian War of Independence. Although not victorious in the Italian theater, he managed anyway to receive Veneto after the Austrian defeat in Germany. In 1870, after two failed attempts by Garibaldi, he also took advantage of the Prussian victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War to capture Rome after the French withdrew. He entered that city in 1870 and set up the new capital there in 1871.
Vittorio died in 1878, just after the reversal of excommunication by Pope Pius IX. He was buried in the Pantheon. His successor was his son Umberto I.
Sculptor: Ercole Rosa
(1846 –1893) was an Italian sculptor
Ercole was born in Rome to a stonemason of limited means. As a boy, Ercole was employed by his father making small terracotta figurines, which were sold. The Bishop of San Severino, from where the family originated, sponsored the boy's education at the Academy of St Luke in Rome. Erocle by 1861 was working as an aide for various sculptors in town. In 1867, he fought with the troops of Garibaldi at the Battle of Mentana. Six years later he exhibited at the Fine Arts Exhibition, a sculptural group depicting the Brothers Cairoli. A bronze work was commissioned by the City of Rome and placed in a prominent spot in the Pincian Gardens, overlooking the center of Rome.
After this work, he gained major commissions: he labored for 12 years to complete the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan, which was inaugurated in 1896 posthumous to his death. Among his other works were the statues in the facade of the Palazzo delle Finanze of Rome, the Diana the hunter; the large bust of Alessandro Manzoni in the Roman Galleria nazionale d'arte moderna e contemporanea; the Bust of Bartolomeo Eustachi in the city hall of San Severino; a bust of Nicola Fabrizi and Garibaldi.
Bibliography
monumento ai Fratelli Cairoli e il Sacro Drappello di Villa Glori by Baccio Emanuele Baineri, editor Stab. tipografico di G. Civelli (1883).
L'Edilizia Moderna, Year 5, Volume 6 (1896), pages 40–41. Article on Ercole Rosa, by Luca Beltrami.
Encyclopedia Treccani (1936) article by Palma Bucarelli.
Milan is a city in Northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city has 3.22 million residents The urban area of Milan is the fourth largest in the EU with 5.27 million inhabitants. According to national sources, the population within the wider Milan metropolitan area (also known as Greater Milan), is estimated between 4.9 million and 7.4 million making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and one of the largest in the EU. Milan is the economic capital of Italy and is a global financial centre. Milan is, together with London, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich and Paris, one of the six European economic capitals.
Milan is a leading alpha global city, with strengths in the fields of art, chemicals, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media (communication), services, research and tourism. Its business district hosts Italy's stock exchange (Italian: Borsa Italiana), and the headquarters of national and international banks and companies. In terms of GDP, Milan is the wealthiest city in Italy, has the third-largest economy among EU cities after Paris and Madrid, and is the wealthiest among EU non-capital cities. Milan is viewed along with Turin as the southernmost part of the Blue Banana urban development corridor (also known as the "European Megalopolis"), and one of the Four Motors for Europe. Milan is one of the international tourism destinations, appearing among the forty most visited cities in the world, ranking second in Italy after Rome, fifth in Europe and sixteenth in the world. Milan is a major cultural centre, with museums and art galleries that include some of the most important collections in the world, such as major works by Leonardo da Vinci. It also hosts numerous educational institutions, academies and universities, with 11% of the national total of enrolled students.
Founded around 590 BC under the name Medhelanon by a Celtic tribe belonging to the Insubres group and belonging to the Golasecca culture, it was conquered by the ancient Romans in 222 BC, who latinized the name of the city into Mediolanum. The city's role as a major political centre dates back to the late antiquity, when it served as the capital of the Western Roman Empire. From the 12th century until the 16th century, Milan was one of the largest European cities and a major trade and commercial centre; consequently, it became the capital of the Duchy of Milan, one of the greatest political, artistic and fashion forces in the Renaissance. Having become one of the main centres of the Italian Enlightenment during the early modern period, the city subsequently became the industrial and financial capital of modern Italy. Capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, after the Restoration it was among the most active centres of the Risorgimento, until its entry into the unified Kingdom of Italy.
Milan has been recognized as one of the world's four fashion capitals. Many of the most famous luxury fashion brands in the world have their headquarters in the city, including: Armani, Prada, Versace, Moschino, Valentino and Zegna. It also hosts several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair, which are among the world's biggest in terms of revenue, visitors and growth. The city is served by many luxury hotels and is the fifth-most starred in the world by Michelin Guide. It hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015. In the field of sports, Milan is home to two of Europe's most successful football teams, AC Milan and Inter Milan, and one of Europe's main basketball teams, Olimpia Milano. Milan will host the Winter Olympic and Paralympic games for the first time in 2026, together with Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Milan, Italy is an ancient city in northern Italy first settled under the name Medhelanon in about 590 BC by a Celtic tribe belonging to the Insubres group and belonging to the Golasecca culture.[1][2] The settlement was conquered by the Romans in 222 BC and renamed it Mediolanum. Diocletian divided the Roman Empire, choosing the eastern half for himself, making Milan the seat of the western half of the empire, from which Maximian ruled, in the late 3rd and early 4th century AD. In 313 AD Emperors Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan, which officially ended the persecution of Christians. In 774 AD, Milan surrendered to Charlemagne and the Franks.
During the Middle Ages, the city's history was the story of the struggle between two political factions: the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Finally the Visconti family took power (signoria) in Milan. In 1395 Emperor Wenceslas made Milan a duchy, thus raising the dignity of the city's citizens. In the mid-15th century the Ambrosian Republic was established, taking its name from St. Ambrose, a beloved patron saint of the city. The two rival factions worked together to create the Ambrosian Republic in Milan. However, the republic fell apart in 1450 when Milan was conquered by Francesco Sforza of the House of Sforza, which ushered Milan into becoming one of the leading cities of the Italian Renaissance.
From the late 15th century until the mid 16th century, Milan was involved in The Italian Wars, a series of conflicts, along with most of the city-states of Italy, the Papal States, the Republic of Venice and later most of Western Europe. In 1629 The Great Plague of Milan killed about 60,000 people out of a total population of about 130,000, by 1631 when the plague subsided. This event is considered one of the last great outbreaks of what was a pandemic that ravaged Europe for several centuries, beginning with the Black Death. In 1713-1714 treaties gave sovereignty to Austria over most of Spain's Italian possessions, including Lombardy and its capital, Milan. Napoleon invaded Italy in 1796, and later declared Milan the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. After Napoleon's occupation ended the Congress of Vienna returned Lombardy and Milan to Austrian control in 1815. This is the period when Milan became a center for lyric opera.
The Milanese staged a rebellion against Austrian rule on March 18, 1848. The Kingdom of Sardinia joined the rebels, and a vote was held in Lombardy which voted to unify with Sardinia. The Austrians defeated the Sardinians on 24 July and reasserted their domination over Milan and northern Italy. Just a few years later another insurgency by Italian nationalists succeeded in ousting the Austrians with the help of Sardinia and France in 1859. Following the Battle of Solferino Milan and the rest of Lombardy joined the Kingdom of Sardinia, which soon achieved control of most of Italy. In 1861 the re-unified city-states and kingdoms became the Kingdom of Italy once again.
With the unification of the country, Milan became the dominant commercial center of northern Italy. In 1919 Benito Mussolini rallied the Blackshirts for the first time in Milan, and later they began their March on Rome from Milan. During World War II Milan was extensively damaged by Allied bombings. Upon the surrender of Italy in 1943 German forces occupied northern Italy until the end of the war in 1945. Members of the Italian resistance in Milan took control of the city and executed Mussolini, his mistress, and other leaders of his Fascist government by hanging in Piazzale Loreto, Milan.
Since the end of World War II, Italy experienced an economic boom. From 1951 until 1967 the population of Milan grew from 1.3 million to 1.7 million. The city was reconstructed, but in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the city suffered from a huge wave of street violence, labor strikes and political terrorism during so called Years of Lead. During the 1980s, Milan became one of the world's fashion capitals. The rise of financial services and the service economy during the late 20th century further strengthened Milan’s position as the Italian economic capital. The city’s renewal in the 21st century was marked, among others, by hosting of the World Expo 2015 or big redevelopment projects such as Puorta Nuova or CityLife.
Antiquity
Around 590 BC, a Celtic tribe belonging to the Insubres group and belonging to the Golasecca culture settled the city under the name Medhelanon. According to Titus Livy's comments, the city was founded around 600 B.C. by Belloveso, chief of the Insubres. Legend has it that Belloveso found a mythological animal known as the scrofa semilanuta (in Italian: "half-woollen boar") which became the ancient emblem of the city of Milan (from semi-lanuta or medio-lanum). Several ancient sources (including Sidonius Apollinaris, Datius, and, more recently, Andrea Alciato) have argued that the scrofa semilanuta is connected to the etymology of the ancient name of Milan, "Mediolanum", and this is still occasionally mentioned in modern sources, although this interpretation has long been dismissed by scholars. Nonetheless, wool production became a key industry in this area, as recorded during the early Middle Ages (see below).
Milan was conquered by the Romans in 222 B.C. due to its strategic position on the northern borders of the Empire and was renamed Mediolanum. When Diocletian decided to divide the Empire in half choosing the Eastern half for himself, Milan became the residence of Maximian, ruler of the Western Roman Empire. The construction of the second city walls, roughly four and a half kilometers long and unfurling at today's Foro Bonaparte, date back to his reign. After the abdication of Maximian (in 305 A.D.) on the same day on which Diocletian also abdicated, there were a series of wars of succession, during which there was a succession of three emperors in just a few short years: first Severus, who prepared the expedition against Maxentius, then Maxentius himself in a war against Constantine, and finally Constantine himself, victor of the war against Maxentius. In 313 A.D. the Emperors Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan (Edict of Constantine), ending the persecutions against Christians.
The beginning of the 5th century was the start of a tortuous period of barbarian invasions for Milan. After the city was besieged by the Visigoths in 402, the imperial residence was moved to Ravenna. An age of decadence began which worsened when Attila, King of the Huns, sacked and devastated the city in 452 A.D.
Middle Ages
In 539, the Ostrogoths conquered and destroyed Milan during the Gothic War against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In the summer of 569, a Germanic tribe, the Lombards (from which the name of the Italian region Lombardy derives), conquered Milan, overpowering the small Byzantine army left for its defense. Some Roman structures remained in use in Milan under Lombard rule, but the city was eclipsed by the nearby Lombard capital of Pavia during the next two centuries.
Milan surrendered to Charlemagne and the Franks in 774. The aristocracy and majority of the clergy had taken refuge in Genoa. In 774, when Charlemagne took the title of "King of the Lombards", he established his imperial capital of Aachen in what is today Germany. Before then the Germanic kingdoms had frequently conquered each other, but none had adopted the title of King of another people. The Iron Crown of Lombardy (i.e. referring to Charlemagne's kingdom and not to the Italian region), which was worn by Charlemagne, dates from this period. Milan's domination under the Franks led by Charlemagne did nothing to improve the city's fortune, and the city's impoverishment increased and Milan became a county seat.
The 11th century saw a reaction against the control of the Holy Roman Emperors. The city-state was born, an expression of the new political power of the city and its will to fight against feudal overlords. Milan was no exception. It did not take long, however, for the city states to begin fighting each other to try to limit neighbouring powers. The Milanese destroyed Lodi and continuously warred with Pavia, Cremona and Como, who in turn asked Frederick I Barbarossa for help. In a sally, they captured Empress Beatrice and forced her to ride a donkey backwards out through the city. These acts brought the destruction of much of Milan in 1162. A fire destroyed the storehouses containing the entire food supply: and within just a few days Milan was forced to surrender.
A period of peace followed and Milan prospered as a centre of trade due to its position. As a result of the independence that the Lombard cities gained in the Peace of Constance in 1183, Milan returned to the commune form of local government first established in the 11th century. In 1208 Rambertino Buvalelli served a term as podestà of the city, in 1242 Luca Grimaldi, and in 1282 Luchetto Gattilusio. The position was a dangerous one: in 1252 Milanese heretics assassinated the Church's Inquisitor, later known as Saint Peter Martyr, at a ford in the nearby contado; the killers bribed their way to freedom, and in the ensuing riot the podestà was almost lynched. In 1256 the archbishop and leading nobles were expelled from the city. In 1259 Martino della Torre was elected Capitano del Popolo by members of the guilds; he took the city by force, expelled his enemies, and ruled by dictatorial powers, paving streets, digging canals, and taxing the countryside. He also brought the Milanese treasury to collapse; the use of often reckless mercenary units further angered the population, granting an increasing support for the della Torre's traditional enemies, the Visconti. The most important industries in this period were armaments and wool production, a whole catalogue of activities and trades is given in Bonvesin della Riva's "de Magnalibus Urbis Mediolani".
On 22 July 1262, Ottone Visconti was made archbishop of Milan by Pope Urban IV, against the candidacy of Raimondo della Torre, Bishop of Como. The latter started to publicise allegations that the Visconti had ties to the heretic Cathars and charged them with high treason: the Visconti, who accused the della Torre of the same crimes, were then banned from Milan and their properties confiscated. The ensuing civil war caused more damage to Milan's population and economy, lasting for more than a decade. Ottone Visconti unsuccessfully led a group of exiles against the city in 1263, but after years of escalating violence on all sides, in the Battle of Desio (1277) he won the city for his family. The Visconti succeeded in ousting the della Torre permanently, and proceeded to rule Milan and its possessions until the 15th century.
Much of the prior history of Milan was the tale of the struggle between two political factions: the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Most of the time the Guelphs were successful in the city of Milan. Eventually, however, the Visconti family were able to seize power (signoria) in Milan, based on their "Ghibelline" friendship with the Holy Roman Emperors. In 1395, one of these emperors, Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia (1378–1400), raised Milan to the dignity of a duchy. Also in 1395, Gian Galeazzo Visconti became Duke of Milan. The Ghibelline Visconti family was to retain power in Milan for a century and a half from the early 14th century until the middle of the 15th century.
In 1447 Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, died without a male heir; following the end of the Visconti line, the Ambrosian Republic was enacted. The Ambrosian Republic took its name from St. Ambrose, popular patron saint of the city of Milan. Both the Guelph and the Ghibelline factions worked together to bring about the Ambrosian Republic in Milan. Nonetheless, the Republic collapsed when, in 1450, Milan was conquered by Francesco Sforza, of the House of Sforza, who made Milan one of the leading cities of the Italian Renaissance.
Early modern
The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 that involved, at various times, most of the city-states of Italy, the Papal States, the Republic of Venice, and later most of the major states of Western Europe. Milan's last independent ruler, Lodovico Sforza, called French king Charles VIII into Italy in the expectation that France might be an ally in inter-Italian wars. The future King of France, Louis of Orléans, took part in the expedition and realised Italy was virtually defenceless. This prompted him to return a few years later in 1500, and claim the Duchy of Milan for himself, his grandmother having been a member of the ruling Visconti family. At that time, Milan was also defended by Swiss mercenaries. After the victory of Louis's successor Francis I over the Swiss at the Battle of Marignan, the duchy was promised to the French king. When the Habsburg Emperor Charles V defeated Francis I at the Battle of Pavia in 1525, northern Italy, including Milan, returned to Francesco II Sforza, passing to Habsburg Spain ten years later on his death and the extinction of the Sforza line.
In 1556, Charles V abdicated in favour of his son Philip II and his brother Ferdinand I. Charles's Italian possessions, including Milan, passed to Philip II and remained with the Spanish line of Habsburgs, while Ferdinand's Austrian line of Habsburgs ruled the Holy Roman Empire.
Great Plague of Milan
The Great Plague of Milan in 1629–31 killed an estimated 60,000 people out of a population of 130,000. This episode is considered one of the last outbreaks of the centuries-long pandemic of plague that began with the Black Death.
War of the Spanish Succession
In 1700 the Spanish line of Habsburgs was extinguished with the death of Charles II. After his death, the War of the Spanish Succession began in 1701 with the occupation of all Spanish possessions by French troops backing the claim of the French Philippe of Anjou to the Spanish throne. In 1706, the French were defeated at the Battle of Turin and were forced to yield northern Italy to the Austrian Habsburgs. In 1713–1714 the Treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt formally confirmed Austrian sovereignty over most of Spain's Italian possessions including Lombardy and its capital, Milan.
Napoleon invaded Italy in 1796, and Milan was declared the capital of the Cisalpine Republic. Later, he declared Milan the capital of the Kingdom of Italy and was crowned in the Duomo. Once Napoleon's occupation ended, the Congress of Vienna returned Lombardy, and Milan, along with Veneto, to Austrian control in 1814. During this period, Milan became a centre of lyric opera. Here in the 1770s Mozart had premiered three operas at the Teatro Regio Ducale. Later La Scala became the reference theatre in the world, with its premières of Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. Verdi himself is interred in the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, his present to Milan. In the 19th century, other important theatres were La Cannobiana and the Teatro Carcano.
Wars of the 19th century
On 18 March 1848, the Milanese rebelled against Austrian rule, during the so-called "Five Days" (Italian: Le Cinque Giornate), and Field Marshal Radetzky was forced to withdraw from the city temporarily. The Kingdom of Sardinia stepped in to help the insurgents; a plebiscite held in Lombardy decided in favour of unification with Sardinia. However, after defeating the Sardinian forces at Custoza on 24 July, Radetzky was able to reassert Austrian control over Milan and northern Italy. A few years on, however, Italian nationalists again called for the removal of Austria and Italian unification, with riots consuming the city in 1853. In 1859 Sardinia and France formed an alliance and defeated Austria at the Battle of Solferino. Following this battle, Milan and the rest of Lombardy were incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia, which soon gained control of most of Italy and in 1861 was rechristened as the Kingdom of Italy.
Early industrialization
The political unification of Italy cemented Milan's commercial dominance over northern Italy. It also led to a flurry of railway construction that had started under Austrian patronage (Venice–Milan; Milan–Monza) that made Milan the rail hub of northern Italy. Thereafter with the opening of the Gotthard (1881) and Simplon (1906) railway tunnels, Milan became the major South European rail focus for business and passenger movements e.g. the Simplon Orient Express. Rapid industrialization and market expansion put Milan at the centre of Italy's leading industrial region, including extensive stone quarries that have led to much of the air pollution we see today in the region. In the 1890s, Milan was shaken by the Bava-Beccaris massacre, a riot related to a high inflation rate. Meanwhile, as Milanese banks dominated Italy's financial sphere, the city became the country's leading financial centre.
Late modern and contemporary
In 1919, Benito Mussolini's Blackshirts rallied for the first time in Piazza San Sepolcro and later began their March on Rome in Milan. During the Second World War Milan suffered extensive damage from Allied bombings.[18] When Italy surrendered in 1943, German forces occupied most of Northern Italy until 1945. As a result, resistance groups formed. As the war came to an end, the American 1st Armored Division advanced on Milan – but before they arrived, the resistance seized control of the city and executed Mussolini along with several members of his government. On 29 April 1945, the corpses of Mussolini, his mistress Clara Petacci and other Fascist leaders were hanged in Piazzale Loreto.
During the post-war economic boom, a large wave of internal migration (especially from rural areas of Southern Italy), moved to Milan. The population grew from 1.3 million in 1951 to 1.7 million in 1967. During this period, Milan was largely reconstructed, with the building of several innovative and modernist skyscrapers, such as the Torre Velasca and the Pirelli Tower. The economic prosperity was however overshadowed in the late 1960s and early 1970s during the so-called Years of Lead, when Milan witnessed an unprecedented wave of street violence, labour strikes and political terrorism. The apex of this period of turmoil occurred on 12 December 1969, when a bomb exploded at the National Agrarian Bank in Piazza Fontana, killing seventeen people and injuring eighty-eight.
In the 1980s, with the international success of Milanese houses (like Armani, Versace, and Dolce & Gabbana), Milan became one of the world's fashion capitals. The city saw also a marked rise in international tourism, notably from America and Japan, while the stock exchange increased its market capitalisation more than five-fold. This period led the mass media to nickname the metropolis "Milano da bere", literally "Milan to drink". However, in the 1990s, Milan was badly affected by Tangentopoli, a political scandal in which many politicians and businessmen were tried for corruption. The city was also affected by a severe financial crisis and a steady decline in textiles, automobile, and steel production.
In the early 21st century, Milan underwent a series of sweeping redevelopments. Its exhibition centre moved to a much larger site in Rho. New business districts such as Porta Nuova and CityLife were constructed. With the decline in manufacturing, the city has sought to develop on its other sources of revenue, including publishing, finance, banking, fashion design, information technology, logistics, transport, and tourism. In addition, the city's decades-long population decline seems to have come to an end in recent years, with signs of recovery as it grew by seven percent since the last census.
Got some more 48 Sheet billboards in Birmingham.
A few more from Pershore Street.
Only missed two on Pershore Street now.
Other side of Pershore Street - near The Leisurebox.
The feeling of humiliation is nothing but the feeling of being an object.
Horse, sunny-side egg
By MadeIn Company.
Had my pre-op today. Ok...first thing I want to say is how humiliated I felt!! Ugh!! I love my doctor, but, well...ok...I am just gonna tell the story. I went in there and he asked a bunch of questions (there was a student with him observing) So...after the q&a he said...we are going to leave and you will get undressed...everything but your underwear must come off and put that gown on (in other words, the blue paper bag) So I did as I was told. Then he came in and first thing he did was my bp which was a bit elevated...hmmm...couldn't be because I am naked in front of two men, could it?!?! LOL Being the good dr. that he is, he realized this and re took the bp later when I was dressed. Ha Anyway...he asked when the last time was that I saw the obgyn. LOL I said..oh...3 or 4 years ago. He then said..do you do self breast exams? Me..Nope. Ok, so we need to do one today. OH MAN So he called in the receptionist...the only other woman there to come in and observe as it is a law to have another woman there. So here I am...laying on the table in a TINY room with the dr. some kid watching and now a woman in there too. He exposes my breast and begins. I was so humiliated. I know none of them were thinking anything...but all I could think about was how much I hate my body and now THREE of them were looking at it!! UGH A forth got to see too. The guy who did the ekg. terrible! I cried. Silently cried....nobody could tell. They thought I was covering my face because of the sun. :)
Anyway...the good news is that I took this photo! 2 reasons. 1st...it is my first public photo!! And 2nd...I never look when they take blood...I freak out! 365 helped me to not freak! I was focusing on getting a picture and not the fact that there was something inside my arm! Yay for 365 project!!!
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I had to wear my idiot shorts in front of a field of footballers, tip coke over my head and pie myself.
Taken at the demonstration with about 20.000 people in Berlin today. According to "Der Tagesspiegel" they were protesting against the "financial and economic policies of the German government". I just happened to pass by.
You can see police men and a police car in the background. I don't know why, but I never feel quite comfortable around so much police. And I have just watched a movie about the RAF (German terrorist group from the 70ies) that includes a scene where policemen beat up students, which didn't really help. The movie "The Baader Meinhof Complex" was worth watching though.
Update: I just read that apparently there were some clashes with the police and I am quite happy that I left before it happened.
2016/03/05(sat)
MALAYSIAS MILITARY DEATH METAL
HUMILIATION JAPAN INVASION 2016 OSAKA
at SOCORE FACTORY
HUMILIATION
DISTURD
SEX MESSIAH
SECOND TO NONE
On discussing Karl Ove Knausgaard (on having read the first chapter of six volumes).
"A six-book autobiographical series ... outlining the "banalities and humiliations of his life", his private pleasures, and his dark thoughts." (quote lezen.tv)
Ruin: Re-reading Joyce was doing me in. He was so nasty to his less talented brother, Stanislaus, who, of course, adored him. Though I understand that tyranny. I feel I need to move forward, closer to the present.
Linda Boström Knausgård says:
“As a writer, I respect his right to use his own life as material and, objectively, I thought the books were very good. But on a personal level I was really angry about the way he looked at me. His view of me was so limited, he saw only what he wanted to see. It was as if he didn’t know me at all. Reading it felt like suffering a loss. Now I just wonder if maybe he’s one of these male writers that can’t really write about women.” (quote The Guardian)
“My Struggle” is six volumes and more than a million words. In that light, “Welcome to America,” [by Linda] with its valorization of silence, its poetic compression, and its slightness—the book is a hundred and sixty pages long—feels pointed. “Things would have been different, I think, if Karl hadn’t gone away into his books,” Boström Knausgård said. “He is really caring about his children, but he was bored being a full-time parent. He thought that he would like it, but he really didn’t. He would act like he was dying when I got home from work. The idea that he could not physically bear to spend time with his baby, that his writing was the only important thing—it hurt me.” (quote 'The New Yorker')
Nat: That narcissism, boredom, incapacity, hypochondria ...
Ruin: I wonder how many men can really write about women, and the reverse.
That sounds like the correct retort, to write your own book. Joyce faced a barrage of objectors too, when he published 'Ulysses', from people recognising themselves. I suspect that it might go with the territory. I certainly didn't like that description of me in that book of short stories I appeared in either. But hey ho, I will die (that universal and commonplace truth), and it won't matter. It's a strange feeling when it happens though, there's huge room for misunderstanding and misinterpretation, or for somebody else recognising something in you that you hadn't gotten around to recognising yet in yourself. One can always hope that the book in question, the one that 'mis-describes' you, will disappear into the oblivion of the remainder bin. Unless, of course, the narcissist in you enjoys the notoriety, as I suspect mine does.
Although I have been putting up some images of some remarkable suffragette literary women, I wouldn't dare suppose to write about them.
Anyway, I am also looking forward to reading the 'new' Simone De Beauvoir too. I loved her 'Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter' all those 50 years ago, so I am not a total male chauvinist pig. I also loved her 'Should We Burn de Sade?'.
I think it might be virtually impossible to write as the other gender. I certainly could never write as a woman, and I don't think any male author can, and the reverse of course. "Light and non-judgemental" might be the only way forward, as you suggest. It's has certainly taken me years to get to that point with my mother. I have no memories of my father at all, up to that point when I said I was leaving home at 18 years old, with him sitting in that darkened room, with the bulb removed from the lamp, crying. So, trying to write about him would be virtually impossible. It doesn't start one off on a firm footing at all, unless you start with absence, which I suspect might be the only way to go. I also learnt how to make myself absent, how to walk away. It was a survival instinct, one I continue to struggle with utilising. But now survival seems less attractive, in a type of slap in the face to that whole idea of continuing.
That's quite a crater to look into, men and their absent fathers. Karl, in the first chapter, remembers his father at eight years old. I am already envious, though not pulled in yet. I am willing to continue further because his father became an alcoholic, so I would like to see what that does to him, and how it works its magic. I can guess already though and see it in his interviews and his need to please and be supported in what he writes, evidence that reading of 50 pages of his working manuscript to a friend over the phone. I understand this neediness completely. I see his hurt little boy and understand why a mother might detest, or resent, this.
But yes, "That narcissism, boredom, incapacity, hypochondria" I recognise them all. I comfort myself with the notion that no one sets out to be a bad mother, an alcoholic father, a vengeful son, or even Adolf Hitler, for that matter. It's cold comfort, but it might be all that is available. In the best of all possible worlds we work it out somewhat, without actually hurting people or generating a school shooting in our formative years or a world war later on. But Goya and Saturn were both right, the son has to eat the father, or rather a child has to eat his or her, or their, parents, there is no other way. I see us both struggling with this 'autophagy' in different ways. Personally I have always been more Rabelaisian than Epicurean. I suspect this might cause tensions between us, as I recognise in you a certain Epicureanism. I don't think either approach is 'right' or 'wrong'.
A book might be a 'safety valve' of sorts, it might relieve some of the pressure. I have come to believe that the artist or writer, or basically any of those who are saddled with this awful trap of being deemed ‘creative’, needs to remove themselves from ‘decent society’, decent people, people who are capable of just getting on with their lives. There is a maniacal quality to describing others, and it includes that four-word description of yours. It's a bit like having an awful fever. It's beyond having an itch to scratch.
So yes, I will read Knausgaard and will probably read his ex-wife's answer too. We are hampered by time restrictions, and we are also holding on in this double-pandemic age, but I am more than willing to see how far I can get.
Sometimes I like brevity, thinking about his ex-wife's 160 pages, a 'quickie', but sometimes I like and want to be relentlessly pounded. Proust me or 'Orlando' me, I can appreciate both.
Quoting me, because I dare:
“I would love to eat at your epicurean restaurant in Downtown Manhattan. From your description of your own encroaching financial undoing, I might never get to do so. Let’s slink off together to lick our wounds and find a hovel somewhere to hide from the world and make art and write! We can describe the licking.
But, that scurrilous suggestion excludes your gloriously epicurean companion, your ‘Him indoors’. I love to watch him eat, drink and savour. He manifests the most extreme Epicureanism I have ever encountered. As you know, my tendency is towards the Rabelaisian, though I must be Rabelaisian with a worm, resembling Laurel rather than Hardy. I like to think that a rake is just a glutton with a worm. However, an Epicurean could never get a worm as his refined palate would never allow it to pass his constantly monitoring lips. To make yourself bankrupt due to excess of taste, as opposed to excess of appetite, seems noble and romantic to me. Duchamp and Joyce would have approved, Austen would not.”
Thankfully there is room for both.
I love women very much, but even if I love to wear women's underwear and girdles, I don't want to simulate femininity and I don't have transsexual ambitions. (I don't own men's underwear since a long time.) I'm just a fat, effeminate loser, so I expose myself wearing bra, garter belt and women's stockings to my public humiliation. I do this, as seen in some pictures, also in the street and in parks.
Read more about me and my life on my website with lots of pictures, videos and texts (en/en). You can find the link on the info/start page on the right side under the showcase pictures.
The Armistice Clearing at Compiègne:
Diagram of internal Layout of French Renault FT-17 Char Mitrailleur 'Mosquito' Tank, 1918.
I manually edited this photo, having found a similar image with appropriate EN captions - Source 'The Times History of The War'; Volume XIX, page 101, published 1919).
Movable Turret - Gunner - Machine Gun -
Emergency Door - Petrol Reservoir - Ventilator -
Radiator - Motor - Tail -
Change-Speed Lever - Steering Lever - Entrance -
Brake Pedal - Pedal for Releasing Clutch - Driver -
Starting Handle - Change Speed gear -
Oil Reservoir - Fly Wheel and principal Clutch -
Steering Clutch and Brake
Char Renault FT 17: '00626'
The Renault FT was also called "FT 17" although this specific naming was never acknowledged by Renault or any official working on the project.
It was to be related to the year 1917, like "modele 1917" as it was customary for many French weapons of the time, but this was introduced after the war.
"FT" has no meaning but was the next identification letters available for this project in Renault nomenclature (some authors suggested later "Faible Tonnage" "low tonnage" or "Franchisseur de Tranchées" "trench crosser"). It began as a concept, and became a personal project of Louis Renault, the famous car maker. He sought the ideal weight-to-ratio proportion for a more agile and faster tank than the Schneider CA-1 and the heavy Saint Chamond, and also a cheaper and easier model to produce.
All started after a meeting between Colonel Estienne and him at the Hotel Claridge in Paris. Until then, Louis Renault declined any involvement into tank production, claiming his lack of experience with tracked vehicles and other commitments. However, as an engineer he was taken up by the challenge, and after the meeting, started a practical study for a light vehicle, easy to manufacture with a reduced, unskilled workforce (factories had been depleted then by mass drafts and enlisting).
The Renault FT prototype included a rotating turret, a concept already tested with the Little Willie, a rear engine configuration, a front driver, with the turret operator (and commander) right behind. Compared to the short and narrow hull, the modified Holt chassis was big enough to allow sufficient grip on any ground. To manage large trench crossings a rear tail was mounted, which facilitates balance and hanging. Instead of "mobile fortresses" or "land cruisers", the Renaut FT seemed lightly armed, but the turret made it versatile and efficient in most circumstances.
The Renault 4-cylinder air-cooled petrol engine was started either by a rear crank or an internal one. It was handily reachable from above, protected by a large hood. The petrol tank was installed after the turret and before the engine, high for gravity and well-protected except from above. A steel chain was usually suspended on the rear tail in order to be used for towing another vehicle. Large metal boxes were suspended on the flanks, with shovels, picks, spanner and other tools, as well as sometimes additional fuel tanks and spare track links. There was no means of communication between the turret operator and driver and the interior was almost deafeningly noisy, so a kind of "kicking code" in the back, shoulders or even head of the driver was used to transmit steering orders. These were armed with a Puteaux M19 37 mm (1.45 in) short-barreled, low-velocity gun, or a coaxial Hotchkiss 7.92 mm (0.31 in) machine gun.
FT 17s after the First World War were in service with more than 20 countries around the world and took an active part in many military conflicts on different continents. It has become one of the most popular interwar model, and purchased by Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Belgium, while Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Greece and Sweden tested it. The biggest buyer outside Europe was Brazil. The FT influence worldwide could not be underestimated: They were the very first US, Soviet and Italians tanks, generating close-copies and printing a profound mark on later developments.
There were still thousands of FTs in various conditions around the globe when the Second World War broke out. The bulk of this WWI vintage fleet was in France, mostly because of a late rearmament. Both the Renault R35 and Hotchkiss H35 were due to completely replace this model (almost 2800 light tanks combined in May 1940). But still around 1850 FTs were listed as of 1939, renamed "FT-31". These were rearmed version with the Reibel 7.5 mm (0.295 in) compact machine-gun, a gas-operated model originally designed to serve on the Maginot line. But this upgrade did not improve their limited capabilities in range and speed, although not worrying an ageing general staff still thinking in trench warfare terms. Many were stationed in the Colonies, others served in second line, some were in various depots or assigned to training units when the western campaign began. This fleet was seized by the Germans, and reused for various duties.
Numerous Renault FT-17s saw action during the three first years of the war. The Polish ones were committed when the Germans launched Fall Weiss, Finnish modified Neiraas and Koiraas fought as dug out pillboxes for ambushes during the winter campaign, the Belgian FT-18s were also at the stakes when the Werhmacht crossed the north-eastern border in May 1940. Later on in April 1941, the Yugoslavian FTs and a very few Greek models also saw action against the Panzerdivisions. In Indo-China, also in 1941, French colonial armoured brigades equipped with the FT-17 (in original conditions) opposed a Thai invasion. The very same year, Iran, still operating a small fleet of FTs was found mobilized during the Anglo-Soviet invasion of their country. Perhaps some of these were sold or sent to Afghanistan and found some years ago by G.I.s in a metal dump.
I love women very much, but even if I love to wear women's underwear and girdles, I don't want to simulate femininity and I don't have transsexual ambitions. (I don't own men's underwear since a long time.) I'm just a fat, effeminate loser, so I expose myself wearing bra, garter belt and women's stockings to my public humiliation. I do this, as seen in some pictures, also in the street and in parks.
Read more about me and my life on my website with lots of pictures, videos and texts (en/en). You can find the link on the info/start page on the right side under the showcase pictures.
I love women very much, but even if I love to wear women's underwear and girdles, I don't want to simulate femininity and I don't have transsexual ambitions. (I don't own men's underwear since a long time.) I'm just a fat, effeminate loser, so I expose myself wearing bra, garter belt and women's stockings to my public humiliation. I do this, as seen in some pictures, also in the street and in parks.
Read more about me and my life on my website with lots of pictures, videos and texts (en/en). You can find the link on the info/start page on the right side under the showcase pictures.
I love women very much, but even if I love to wear women's underwear and girdles, I don't want to simulate femininity and I don't have transsexual ambitions. (I don't own men's underwear since a long time.) I'm just a fat, effeminate loser, so I expose myself wearing bra, garter belt and women's stockings to my public humiliation. I do this, as seen in some pictures, also in the street and in parks.
Read more about me and my life on my website with lots of pictures, videos and texts (en/en). You can find the link on the info/start page on the right side under the showcase pictures.
I had to wear my idiot shorts in front of a field of footballers, tip coke over my head and pie myself.
I love women very much, but even if I love to wear women's underwear and girdles, I don't want to simulate femininity and I don't have transsexual ambitions. (I don't own men's underwear since a long time.) I'm just a fat, effeminate loser, so I expose myself wearing bra, garter belt and women's stockings to my public humiliation. I do this, as seen in some pictures, also in the street and in parks.
Read more about me and my life on my website with lots of pictures, videos and texts (en/en). You can find the link on the info/start page on the right side under the showcase pictures.
Sati was a social funeral practice among some Indian communities in which a recently widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. The practice was banned several times, with the current ban dating to 1829 by the British.
The term is derived from the original name of the goddess Sati, also known as Dakshayani, who self-immolated because she was unable to bear her father Daksha's humiliation of her husband Shiva. The term may also be used to refer to the widow. The term sati is now sometimes interpreted as "chaste woman". Sati appears in both Hindi and Sanskrit texts, where it is synonymous with "good wife"; the term suttee was commonly used by Anglo-Indian English writers.
ORIGN
Few reliable records exist of the practice before the time of the Gupta empire, approximately 400 CE. After about this time, instances of sati began to be marked by inscribed memorial stones. The earliest of these are found in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, though the largest collections date from several centuries later, and are found in Rajasthan. These stones, called devli, or sati-stones, became shrines to the dead woman, who was treated as an object of reverence and worship. They are most common in western India. A description of suttee appears in a Greek account of the Punjab written in the first century BCE by historian Diodorus Siculus. Brahmins were forbidden from the practice by the Padma Purana. A chapter dated to around the 10th century indicates that, while considered a noble act when committed by a Kshatriya woman, anyone caught assisting an upper-caste Brahmin in self-immolation as a "sati" was guilty of Brahminicide.
The ritual has prehistoric roots, and many parallels from other cultures are known. Compare for example the ship burial of the Rus' described by Ibn Fadlan, where a female slave is burned with her master.
Aristobulus of Cassandreia, a Greek historian who traveled to India with the expedition of Alexander the Great, recorded the practice of sati at the city of Taxila. A later instance of voluntary co-cremation appears in an account of an Indian soldier in the army of Eumenes of Cardia, whose two wives jumped on his funeral pyre, in 316 BC. The Greeks believed that the practice had been instituted to discourage wives from poisoning their old husbands.
Voluntary death at funerals has been described in northern India before the Gupta empire. The original practices were called anumarana, and were uncommon. Anumarana was not comparable to later understandings of sati, since the practices were not restricted to widows – rather, anyone, male or female, with personal loyalty to the deceased could commit suicide at a loved one's funeral. These included the deceased's relatives, servants, followers, or friends. Sometimes these deaths stemmed from vows of loyalty, and bear a slight resemblance to the later tradition of junshi in Japan.
It is theorized that sati, enforced widowhood, and girl marriage were customs that were primarily intended to solve the problem of surplus women and surplus men in a caste and to maintain its endogamy.
Apart from the Indian subcontinent, origins of this practice have been found in many parts of the world; it was followed by the ancient Egyptians, Thracians, Scythians, Scandinavians, Chinese, as well as people of Oceania and Africa.
Sati remained legal in some princely states for a time after it had been abolished in lands under British control. Jaipur banned the practice in 1846. Nepal continued to practice Sati well into the 20th century.
On the Indonesian island of Bali, sati (known as masatya) was practised by the aristocracy as late as 1905, until Dutch colonial rule pushed for its termination.
Following outcries after each instance, the government has passed new measures against the practice, which now effectively make it illegal to be a bystander at an event of sati. The law now makes no distinction between passive observers to the act and active promoters of the event; all are supposed to be held equally guilty. Other measures include efforts to stop the 'glorification' of the dead women. Glorification includes the erection of shrines to the dead, the encouragement of pilgrimages to the site of the pyre, and the derivation of any income from such sites and pilgrims.
Another instance of systematic Sati happened in 1973, when Savitri Soni sacrificed her life with her husband in Kotadi village of Sikar District in Rajasthan. Thousands of people witnessed this incident.
Although many have tried to prevent the act of sati by banning it and reinforcing laws against it, it is still being practiced (on rare occasions) in India under coercion or by voluntary burning, as in the case of Charan Shah: a 55 year-old widow of Manshah who burnt herself on the pyre of her husband in the village of Satpura in Uttar Pradesh on 11 November 1999. Her death on the funeral pyre has provoked much controversy, as there have been questions as to whether she willingly performed the Sati or was coerced. Charan Shah had not professed strong feelings to become a Sati to any of her family members, and no one saw her close to the burning body of her husband before she jumped into the fire. The villagers, including her sons, say that she became a Sati of her own accord and that she was not forced into it. They continue to pay their respects to the house of Charan Shah. It has become a shrine for the villagers, as they strongly believe that one who has become a sati is a deity; she is worshipped and endowed with gifts.
NUMBERS
There are no reliable figures for the numbers who died by sati across the country. A local indication of the numbers is given in the records kept by the Bengal Presidency of the British East India Company. The total figure of known occurrences for the period 1813 to 1828 is 8,135; another source gives a comparable number of 7,941 from 1815 to 1828, thus giving an average of about 507 to 567 documented incidents per year in that period. Raja Ram Mohan Roy estimated that there were ten times as many cases of Sati in Bengal compared to the rest of the country. Bentinck, in his 1829 report, states that 420 occurrences took place in one (unspecified) year in the 'Lower Provinces' of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and 44 in the 'Upper Provinces' (the upper Gangetic plain).
(WIKIPEDIA)
Tan Zuoren, a Chengdu environmental activist, went on trial for inciting the overthrow of state power in Chengdu on May 12. He is a well-known activist who participated in protests against a big petrochemical plant planned for Pengzhou City, north of Chengdu and for gathering information on the number of students killed and school buildings destroyed in the May 12 earthquake. A translation his indictment is at www.flickr.com/photos/74568056@N00/3780152188/in/set-7215...
Below is a translation of the defense plea his lawyers presented in court. Many Chinese websites are taking this done as soon at it is posted but some bloggers took a photograph of this document and posted the picture. That makes it harder for the censors to find.
Defense Plea in the Tan Zuoren Case
Xiao Xuehui blog
August 17, 2009
[At the request of Ms. Wang Qinghua, [note: the wife of Tan Zuoren] the first instance plea of lawyers Xia Lin and Pu Zhiqiang has been released. The two lawyers faced many obstacles and put up with humiliation in order to carry out their important work with rare perseverance to complete their plea, stopping and starting because they were interrupted many times. The first instance plea should have been published as an exact copy of the original document. This is not possible, however, because of web filtering and so in order to defeat the control of the web, we made technical changes in some of the keywords. This is a very precious legal document. Everyone concerned with the case of Tan Zuoren should read it.
--- Xiao Xuehui made this explanation and requests that this document be reposted on other websites.]
The Case of Tan Zuoren Accused of Incitement to Overthrow State Power
Defense Plea
To the Panel of Judges of the Tan Zuoren case:
The Beijing Huayi Law Office, which was commissioned according to law by the defendant Tan Zuoren, designated the lawyers Xia Lin and Pu Zhiqiang to make the first instance plea. After receiving this commission, we reviewed the case files, interviewed the defendant, and conducted many interviews and conducted many investigations. We believe that after being reviewed by the court, the accusations brought by the prosecution against Tan Zuoren cannot be proven. Based on the indictment and evidentiary materials exchanged with the prosecution before the trial, we make the following defense:
I. With regard to the nature of the article "1989: The Last Beauty I Witnessed -- the Tiananmen Diary of an Eyewitness" written by the defendant Tan Zuoren:
The prosecution states that "The accused Tan Zuoren is dissatisfied with the way the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party handled the"June X Incident" and the conclusions it drew about that incident. For many years, he has been carrying out in many ways "June X" commemorative activities. On May 27, 2007, Tan Zuoren concocted an article entitled "1989: The Last Beauty I Witnessed -- the Tiananmen Diary of an Eyewitness" and distributed it through the internet to the website outside of mainland China's borders "The Torch of Liberty" as well as to other websites. The main points of this article provide a distorted account of the "June X Incident" and to libel the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee's handling of it.
The definition of "libel" in the dictionary is "making something out of nothing, saying bad things about a person, damaging a person's reputation, slandering someone" (See Modern Chinese Language Dictionary, Second Edition, P. 315, published January 1983.) The prosecution's charge that the defendant Tan Zuoren "made a distorted account and committed libel" is a matter to evaluate according to the facts and as to whether the contents of Tan Zuoren's article are true.
The court investigation has already determined that "1989; The Last Beauty I Witnessed -- the Tiananmen Diary of an Eyewitness" was written on May 27, 2007 and is his personal response to statements about the "June X Incident" by Ma Li, Chairman of the Hong Kong Popular Alliance. The purpose of the article was to make the facts clear (see interrogation record).
However, after Ma Li made that statement, the Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong Popular Alliance, Liu Jianghua said that Ma Li's statement did not represent the views of the Popular Alliance and wanted to apologize on his behalf. Tan Zuoren wrote this article based upon his memories as an eyewitness of the period leading up to and following the "June X Incident". The prosecution in its accusation states that Tan Zuoren "made a distorted and libelous account" but has not presented evidence to support that accusation. Nor has it in court "made an accurate account", so how can Tan Zuoren be accused to writing falsehoods?
According to the indictment, Tan Zuoren has "for many years in many ways conducted activities commemorating "June X" but has presented no evidence to support this charge. Moreover, according to Tan Zuoren's own account during interrogation in court, before the 2007 statement of Ma Li, he had not conducted any commemoration of "June X". So what is the basis of "for many years" and what is the basis of "in many ways"?
The defense believes that this prosecution charge against the defendant Tan Zuoren is vague, untrue and not supported by the evidence.
The charge cannot be proved according to law and so should clearly be rejected.
II. With regard to the prosecution's accusation that Tan Zuoren communicated with the "enemy element outside China's borders" Wang Dan and suggested that voluntary blood donation drives be conducted.
According to the prosecution¡¯s accusation, "Shortly after the article was published, the enemy element outside China's borders Wang Dan contacted him by e-mail and on several occasions sent him propaganda materials about the "June X" incident.
On June X, 2008, the accused Tan Zuoren together with others in Chengdu's Tianfu Square conducted a voluntary blood donation drive to commemorate "June X" by donating blood. Shortly thereafter, he was interviewed by the telephone by the media outside mainland China's borders "Voice of Hope". Since November 2008, Wang Dan on several occasions sent him materials on activities to commemorate the so-called twentieth anniversary of the "June X" incident. On February 10, 2009, the accused Tan Zuoren sent Wang Dan an email "Suggestions on the Twentieth Anniversary of June X" suggesting that during this year's "June X" period conducting so-called "June X Worldwide Chinese Voluntary Blood Drives" in order to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of "June X".
With respect to this charge, the defense believes:
1. Criminal methods of incitement to overthrow state power involves the open encouragement of a group of two or more people. The facts presented in this accusation involve a private email between Wang Dan and Tan Zuoren. This is not in accord with the open nature of this crime and that the incitement be directed at a group of two or more people.
2. The designation of Wang Dan as an "enemy element outside of China's borders" has not been officially announced by the state and the defendant is not aware of this. Moreover, a search of PRC criminal law did not turn up a crime of "communicating with enemy elements outside of China's borders". The prosecution has already determined that Wang Dan is "an enemy element outside of China's borders" and according to the accusation statement, Wang Dan took the initiative to send to a mailing list materials on "June X". Considering the political attitudes and behavior of the two people involved in the communication, it could be claimed that Wang Dan was inciting Tan Zuoren but surely it would be nonsense to suppose that the accused Tan Zuoren sought to incite Wang Dan. This is clearly absurd nonsense. This accusation by the prosecution is obviously mistaken.
III. With respect to the prosecution charge that Tan Zuoren made statements about the May 12th Earthquake
The court investigation states that after the May 12 earthquake, the accused Tan Zuoren was interviewed several times by media from both inside and outside China's borders and on many occasions acted as a guide to assistant them in their interviews and investigations. These media included Xinhua, Liaowang Oriental Weekly, First Financial Daily, Humanity and the Biosphere, etc. as well as Hong Kong broadcasters under the Hong Kong government. No matter whether he was interviewed by media from inside or outside China's borders, he said the same thing.
However, the prosecution accusation stresses only that "Tan Zuoren on several occasions was interviewed by media from outside China's borders, and make statements that severely damaged the image of our Party and government" clearly takes things out of context to make these activities look suspicious.
The defense response to these accusations:
1. The prosecution's accusations are abstract and empty. The prosecution presented 22 articles that total several tens of thousands of words as evidence. Looking over these articles, one finds some discussion of the work of the Party and government in earthquake relief. Tan Zuoren praises them where praise is due but not excessively. He does not pass over their shortcomings in silence but discusses them. Just which chapters and which words have anything to do with subversion? I really don't know.
These 22 articles were collected by the prosecution from the private computer of Tan Zuoren were edited by Tan Zuoren himself on his computer in the "My Documents" folder. None of them are transcripts of media interviews. This being such an "important case" so how could it have been handled so sloppily? How can these documents be taken as manuscripts that are used as evidence in a criminal case?
2. The court investigation determined that Tan Zuoren is the deputy secretary-general of the Green Rivers environmental NGO and has long been concerned about the construction of hydroelectric power plants in southwest China. His statement about the earthquake involved an analysis of the causes of the earthquake how it could have been prevented was from the perspective of an expert. This analysis is based upon a considerable amount of scientific evidence. The defense has already provided these materials to the court. Moreover, two experts on the subject, Fan Xiao, an engineer from the Sichuan Province Mining Bureau Geological Survey Team and Prof. Ai Nanshan of the Sichuan University Construction and Environmental College are willing to testify as defense witnesses in court. They are now waiting outside the court because unfortunately the court arbitrarily refused to hear them. We regret this decision.
3. According to the court record of interrogation, Tan Zuoren after the May 12 earthquake made 23 trips to determine the number of students who were killed in the earthquake as well as the number of school and dormitory buildings that had collapsed. He spent over 50 days on these survey trips and collected much first-hand material. He made an objective description of the situation based on these trips.
His surveys showed that for many of the schools in the earthquake zone, poorly construction quality led to their collapse. The problem of "bean curd construction" that Tan Zuoren describes certainly exists. Tan Zuoren urges now that the cause of the collapse of the schools and dormitories be thoroughly investigated, that the people responsible face criminal prosecution, and that a natural disaster should not be an excuse to hide a man-made calamity. What is wrong with saying this? And how can anyone be accused of committing a crime by saying this?
Provoked by the deaths of so many students, Tan Zuoren may have said some words in anger and criticized the Ministry of Education. But the defense wants to remind the prosecution: to criticize is not to incite to overthrow the state. The Ministry of Education has never represented state power. Therefore nothing could be as ridiculous as this accusation against Tan Zuoren for incitement to overthrow state power.
IV. The prosecution's accusation on the legal nature of Tan Zuoren's behavior.
The prosecution believes that "the indicted Tan Zuoren, in order to achieve his goal of subverting state power and overthrowing the socialist system fabricated things out of whole cloth, distorted news, and spread speech that is injurious to state power and the socialist system in order to hurt the image of state power and the socialist system in the eyes of the people. This constitutes a crime under article 105 of the Criminal Code of the People's Republic of China. The crime is clear, the evidence is certain and abundant. Tan Zuoren should be prosecuted and convicted of the crime of inciting subversion of state power."
The defense again reminds the panel of judges that the accused Tan Zuoren, who has made an accurate description of many matters, is accused of "fabricating things out of whole cloth and distorting news". However, the prosecution has not yet presented any evidence to contradict what Tan Zuoren has written nor any evidence supporting the accusation. If the prosecution is unable to present relevant evidence, then some of the matters it has presented as fact are not credible.
The defense presents three opinions on the legal validity of the accusations brought by the prosecution:
1. Tan Zuoren's speech related to this case is a matter of a citizen exercising his right to make suggestions and criticisms. That speech does not constitute incitement to overthrow the state and does not fit the criteria for that crime.
This crime is found in the first chapter of the criminal code, "Crimes Against State Security". Examining that section of the law, it is clear that the definition of this crime is limited to threatening state security.
How can speech threaten state security? We can find an explanation in "The Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information" which are widely accepted by international society. Principle Five holds that ¡°Subject to Principles 15 and 16, expression may be punished as a threat to national security only if a government can demonstrate that: (a) the expression is intended to incite imminent violence; (b) it is likely to incite such violence; and (c) there is a direct and immediate connection between the expression and the likelihood or occurrence of such violence.¡±
In China's legal system no legal or administrative explanation accompanies the legislation on this crime. Therefore, widely accepted international principles can provide an important reference point for the judging this case. The speech of Tan Zuoren relating to this case had no language inciting to overthrow of the state or to violence. On the contrary, Tan Zuoren's political views favor gradual and peaceful social progress. The objective effect of his views does not harm but actually supports state security and so of course do not fall with the legal definition of this crime.
Article 41 of the PRC Constitution stipulates: "Citizens of the People's Republic of China have the right to criticize and make suggestions to any state organ or functionary." The defense believes that Tan Zuoren's speech involved in this case was the normal exercise by a citizen of their right to criticize and make suggestions, and should therefore be protected by the PRC Constitution. How can it be construed as "incitement to overthrow the state"?
2. Tan Zuoren did not have any subjective intention to incite to overthrown the State.
This crime in its subjective aspect relates to intention, the person committing the act must have the motive of inciting two or more persons to act to overthrow state power and to overthrow the socialist system.
The defense believes that in order to determine the subjective motive of a personal act, one needs to do a historical study of it objective manifestations over a long period. The court investigation shows that the indicted freely confesses without reservation that he is passionate about the well-being of society and that he has for a long time been making outstanding contributions to political science and administration.
The principal facts are these:
* During 1996 - 1997, he served as the chief planner of the Chengdu City government's Fenghuang Mountain development project and later led the planning work for the Sichuan International Rehabilitation Center and the Chengdu Rest Home and Assistance Center for the Elderly, the Chengdu City Temporary Residence project, and was asked by the Pi County government to design the Jinguancheng Recreation Area, the Shudu Rear Garden and other projects.
* In 1998, he was asked by the Sichuan Province Academy of Social Sciences to plan the "Great Turn of the Century Human Talent Project".
* In 1999 he participated in the Yangtze River Environmental Memorial Construction Project.
* In 2000 he planned the Sichuan Exhibition Center transformation project;
* In 2001 he was chosen by the Chengdu Daily as an outstanding citizen of Chengdu;
* In 2002 he planned and implemented the "Century of Great Changes - Chengdu's Big Transformation" a major photo exhibition; at the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress consultative conference his proposal to enact a law to protect the Great Panda was adopted. He also participated in the planning for the construction of the "Deng Xiaoping Old Home Tourism District";
* In 2004 he was invited by the Chengdu Jinniu District to devise a plan for the Jinsha Ruins Park. His proposal for the "Tianfu Gourmet Park" was adopted and became a key project for Chengdu. On behalf of the Sichuan Cultural Bureau he designed and organized a "Culture and the Creative Industries Forum"; revised and made new suggestions for the "Chengdu City Cultural Tourism Industry Plan", participated in several important meetings organized by the Chengdu City Propaganda Department, participated in the survey and review of the "South to North Water Diversion Project".
* In 2006, he was asked to design the "Chengdu City Eastern Suburbs Creative Industries Park" concept;
* In 2007 he led the "Chengdu Citizen Ethnic Culture Tourism Development Plan". His Botiao River Research Project and the research on the "Small Scale Western Waters Diversion" won the approval of Premier Wen Jiabao.
* In 2008, he designed the Cultural Tourism Street project for the Xichang City government. He wrote and distributed an academic report on the issues of the Pengzhou City petrochemical plant project entitled "A Citizen's Suggestion on the Pengzhou City Petrochemical Project" and sent it to the departments concerned.
* In 2009 he participated in the "May 12 Student Deaths Survey".
The facts above demonstrate that Tan Zuoren has contributed for the past twenty years to the construction of Chengdu and of Sichuan Province, to scientific planning and to economic planning, all of which have greatly improved the image of the government. In his capacity as Chinese citizen or as an outstanding expert, Tan Zuoren has also of course criticized some improper administrative actions of the government. How could these well-intentioned and honest criticisms can be maliciously understood as incitement to overthrow state power?
3. The behavior and speech of Tan Zuoren do not constitute this crime.
As everyone knows, the character of the PRC government is a "people's democratic dictatorship", that is to say the great majority of the people through democratic means hold state power. Overthrowing state power, then, having the intention to use anti-democratic methods to destroy the system of people's democracy. By looking through all of Tan Zuoren's writings, one can see that he is a person who passionately loves the people, supports democracy, and is opposed to autocracy. Mr. Tan Zuoren is a pioneer of people's democracy and its guardian, not one who would overturn it and destroy it. To convict him of incitement to overturn state power contradicts the basic character of PRC state political regime.
V. Summation
The matters described above are sufficient to prove that none of the accusations of the prosecution about the speech and actions of Tan Zuoren constitute the crime described in Article 151 in the PRC Criminal Code of "incitement to overthrow state power". The accusation that Mr. Tan Zuoren committed this crime fails for lack of evidence.
Sichuan since ancient times has been a place where cultured people gather. Many heroes have arisen throughout the history of Chengdu. We are confident that Sichuan has sufficient political wisdom to handle the Tan Zuoren case. Let us quote here a couplet from the Wuhou Temple of Chengdu for the people involved in this case:
"Those able to win people's hearts are able to eliminate their doubts and their worries; from ancient times people knowledgeable in military affairs have avoided fighting whenever possible; those who are not able to judge situations will make mistakes no matter whether they are strict or lenient. Those who govern Sichuan in the future should deeply reflect upon this."
The defense earnestly requests that the panel of judges reflect deeply and according to Article 162 of the Law of Criminal Procedure of the PRC, and that they find and proclaim the defendant Tan Zuoren not guilty.
Defense attorneys: Xia Lin and Pu Zhiqiang
Beijing Municipality Huayi Law Firm
August 12, 2008
Continued from Part I of The Upside of Humiliation: www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/52272860962/in/datepos...
From a lecture on his person: “The grief of the event, his witnessing of it, never left him for a single second his entire life. Not for an instant. So let’s look at grief for a moment. What is it? It is an emotional and psychological experience that we undergo after some loss. It applies to all kinds of losses. But then there is a term bereavement. Which is a specific type of grief. It is what you undergo when you lose a loved one.
We will still use the word grief for the purpose of this lecture. Grief is an individualized process. You cannot generalize it. Everybody’s reaction and endurance of it is unique. There can be no time limit set for how long it should be felt. The stages defined by psychology in the West are denial, anger, bargaining (with God), depression, and finally acceptance.
There are two kinds of grief, acute and prolonged. Acute is a shock, the pain is sharp but transient. The Sufis call it a meaning making tone. When you start making sense of things. Prolonged grief is an emotional crisis, almost like a paralysis.
It’s a numbness, a social withdrawal, total pain. It causes dysfunctionality. Grief has four components; separation distress, traumatic distress, guilt and remorse and social withdrawal.
But Hazrat Zain ul Abideen’s (as), the unmatched social reformer of his time, a political reformer, his reaction and way of dealing with pain, for him the answer lay in three verses in the Quran. For what someone might face as a test once in a while over a lifetime, he underwent it all in nine days.
وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُم بِشَىْءٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْخَوْفِ وَٱلْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْأَمْوَلِ وَٱلْأَنفُسِ وَٱلثَّمَرَتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ ٱلصَّبِرِينَ
And surely We will test you with something of fear and hunger and loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good news to the patient ones.
Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 155
Tafseer e Jilani
Wa lunabluwannakum: And We test them, Allah takes an oath on Himself, We will test you and we will place you in a trial, testing your steadfastness and your reach in Allah’s Tauheed, His One-ness…
Bi shayin: just a little, which will tell of most of it (your steadfastness) and the duality (of your reach in Tauheed)…
Min al khauf: from something of fear that comes from things that you hate that are external for e.g. fire, drowning, an enemy etc…
Wal joou’: and from something that comes from the things that you despise that are internal like greed and (excessive) hopes and miserliness and such…
Wa naqsim minal amwaal: and a little bit of loss of possessions which make your hearts incline towards them naturally…
Wal anfus: and a little bit of loss of something that belongs to your self which make you feel strength and pride because of them, from your children and your siblings and your relatives and your clan…
Was samaraat: and something of fruits, which are dependent on possessions and children, which grant honour and your showing off of your domination upon the enemy.
Wa bashirr: And give them glad tidings, O Akmal Ar Rasool, The Messenger who perfects The Messengers (peace be upon him and his family)…
As Saabireen: the patient ones among the ones who are certain in Tauheed and they…
ٱلَّذِينَ إِذَآ أَصَبَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌۭ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّآ إِلَيْهِ رَجِعُونَ
Those who, when strikes them a misfortune, they say, "Indeed, we belong to Allah and indeed we towards Him will return."
Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 156
Alladina ida asabathum museebatun qalu: are the ones who when affliction touches them, they say with collective union in their tongue…
Inna: Indeed, We are a shadow…
Lillah: of Allah Al Wahid, The One One, Al Ahad, The One and Only, Al Mutajjali, The One who reveals and unveils with His Perfect Names and His Exalted Attributes in this world…
Wa inna: and indeed we are, after our returning in the Afterworld…
Ilayhi: towards Him and not towards anyone other than Him from the shadows (of association)…
Raji’oon: the ones returning, the ones who make the returning of the shadow towards The One who created the shadows.
Subhan Allah!
أُو۟لَٓئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَتٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌۭ ۖ وَأُو۟لَٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُهْتَدُونَ
Those are the ones, on them are blessings from their Lord and Mercy.
And those are the guided ones.
Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 157
Ulaika: They are the ones, happy, steadfast in the place of Tauheed, who are cleansed from the imprisonment of time and space, being and not being.
Alaihim: Upon them, not upon other than them from the people of ranks, is…
Salawaat: His Inclination and His Focus, which rise from the Ocean of His Essence, flowing from the streams of Attributes and Names towards the Cosmos of Appearance to grow Divine Recognition and Truth which make one reach towards the Giver of the Eternal Blessings and towards an enjoyment that lasts forever, pouring upon them forever…
Mir Rabbihim: from their Lord who brought them to the Place of Honour…
Wa rahmatun: and Mercy which covers them, and no one other than them, in abundance.
Wa ulaika: And they are the Al Wasiloon, the one who reach..
Hum ul muhtadoon: as the guided ones towards the True Origin and the True Abode.
I was left speechless.
There was an incident in the lecture about Imam Zain ul Abideen’s (as) blessed person which created a reflection. As if I could see the verses through his being. At one point the Imam (as) was imprisoned by his arch enemy Marwan. Zuhri, the Supreme Justice of the court of the time went to see him. Seeing his condition, shackled in chains, hardly any food and water, he fell on his feet and crying, expressed how something like this could happen to one of the sons of the one who brought the faith to this world.
Imam Zain ul Abideen (as) only said this: “It is enough for make me feel proud that in Karbala my father was beheaded and left without a burial, without even clothes, his body trampled by horses. It is enough to make me feel proud that my aunt and my sisters were made to sit bareback on camels for a thousand miles without a veil, when no one even set eyes on their shadow before and I was dragged behind them in markets through cities.”
It was the word he used in Arabic, fakhar, that I knew. It exists in Urdu but I still had to look it up to make sure I was translating it right: something that makes you proud!
And I thought about what Allah Subhanahu had said to Hazrat Bayazid Bastami (ra) when the means to gain what he had been told: his ilm, knowledge, his taqwa, restraint, piety and mindfulness, and his sakhawat, generosity had not granted him his heart’s only desire, Nearness, closeness, qurb!
“Bayazid, Come to me by way of that which I am not,” Allah Subhanahu had said.
“But what is it that you are possibly not?” The saint had asked, baffled.
He received the answer, “Humility and humiliation.”
Everything the Imam (as) was describing sounded like nothing but the purest and deepest humiliation a human being could possibly experience. Yet he was proud of it. I wondered, just like the martyr sees Allah in his final moment of life in this world, hence his title shaheed, the witness, was the Imam (as) and his blessed family seeing Allah Al Baseer, The Seeing One, throughout the time of their pain? Like their father, Imam Ali (as) who never prayed a sala’t where he didn’t see his Lord?
Perhaps that was why even in those 10 days of Karbala, never did any person of the household of Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family) miss a single raka’t of the 1,000 they prayed every single night. When I, if I haven’t eaten properly the night before, find myself tired and making excuses to shorten my dawn prayers, which are hardly of length to begin with.
Imam Zain ul Abideen (as) said to Zuhri, “You believe me to be helpless?”
He looked down and Zuhri narrates, ‘I looked at the Imam’s (as) hands and the shackles were broken and he said to me, Put them back on again.’
Zuhri said I placed the chains around his wrist and asked,
“What was that Ya Imam (as)?”
He replied, “This is surrender to the Pleasure of your Lord God. We only do that which is His Pleasure and nothing else.”
Was it any wonder they were the ones Chosen Ones whose capacity was deeper than oceans?
يَخْتَصُّ بِرَحْمَتِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ ۗ
He chooses for His Mercy whom He wills.
Surah Aal e Imran, Verse 74
Tafseer e Jilani
Yakhtassu bi rahmatihi: He chooses for His Mercy, a Mercy Expansive, All Encompassing, a Mercy which is a collection of Excellence and Perfection…
Mayya sha’u: whom He wills from His Chosen Worshippers, honoring them with His Bounty from Himself, according to their capacity, whose (that Mercy’s) depth cannot be known and its boundary cannot be estimated.
I realized then that my humiliation, it could never make me feel fakhar. It was a courtesy of my nafs. I chose it every time. Almost always, it misguided me by making me believe I was softer and kinder than others, hiding from me all the while that it was just proud. It thought in secret for me to only discover later, I was imagining I was better than the other. Like Iblis!
I ticked all the boxes of transgressors; wicked, disobedient, hypocritical, angry, ruled by my tabyat, impatient. The only thing I had going for me was that I always felt deep regret. I instantly apologized. I yearned to be forgiven so repentance poured forth from me.
The lecture on Muharram continued: “Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family) said that in the first instance of the difficulty, patience must be exercised. Not hours or days later. Not thinking one needed time to “process.” In the first instant. Meaning what? That the family of the Prophet (peace be upon him and them) understand that every relationship is through and from Allah alone. It is never yours to lose. Nothing is yours. It all belongs to only Him.”
When I had first started feeling confused about the coldness of the behaviour of someone who seemed to be walking on air days ago around me, it was Qari Sahib who happened to say something in a class that made my heart calm.
“Before you rely on someone,” he was quoting Ghaus Pak (ra), “Kissi pe bharosa karne se pehle uss se dosti karo. (Before you rely on someone, make sure they are your friend!) And how do you know anyone for sure? Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family) says through three things; either live next to them as their neighbor so you know how their days and nights are timed, travel with them so their character is revealed or engage in business with them to see their morals.”
The verse from my last video appeared before my eyes: it was always easy to rely on God. He had already said He was my Friend. And His Beloved (peace be upon him and his family).
And Imam Ali (as) for whom specifically, the verse descended.
إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ ٱللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُۥ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَهُمْ رَكِعُونَ
Your only Friend is Allah and His Messenger, and those who believe,
and those who establish prayer and give zakat and they are those who bow down in prayer.
Surah Al Maida’, Verse 55
Tafseer e Jilani
Inna walliyyukum Allah: Indeed, Allah is your Friend, The One who is in charge of your matters as related to all kinds of ordinary love…
Wa Rasooluhu: and so is His Messenger (peace be upon him and his family), who is His Vice-regent second to Him, also in charge…
Walladina aamino: and those who brought faith in Allah with a special love (extraordinary) because of their following the Prophet (peace be upon him) and they…
Alladina yuqeemoona: are the one who are forever…
As salat: in prayer that brings one close to Allah’s Essence…
And yu’toona az zakata: and they give charity which cleanses their batin, inner being, from focus on anything other than Allah…
Wa: in the state of…
Hum rak’ioon: bowing in their prayer.
Huzoor Ghaus Pak (ra) says the verse is revealed for Maula Ali (may Allah gives honour to his countenance), when a beggar asked him (for alms) while he was in ruku’, bowing in prayer, and he loosened his ring so that it dropped (for him to take).
No wonder all my friendships fizzled into thin air one by one. How else was I going to learn that Innama, only three were my friends!
At first when I started to apply the rule of Wahjurhum hajran jameela, my nafs only brought me further humiliation in every encounter. The rule had been given. The key word was “avoid” and then it appeared again, “with gracious avoidance.” My nafs decide to ignore exactly that word. It would say to me on random days, “Well if we’re having a lunch and inviting four people, can’t we invite a fifth?”
It would sound reasonable enough so I would. Then would come the slap of humiliation from the other end. On another day it would say, “If we’re going to the same place an hour away, might as well driver together.” I would agree and a harder slap would come. “We’re in the area,” it would suggest, “let’s stop by and say hi.” And the humiliation would further intensify.
Until I understood why only because of the kindness of my guide who guides all guides!
In those days, one night I would read Al Fath Ar Rabbani and in it Ghaus Pak (ra) would say: Knowledge without the application of deed will only take you back to creation again and again.
Basically towards humiliation instead of towards dignity.
I realized what I was doing or rather was made to realize it because I was constantly reiterating the verse of avoidance in the lectures with the kids. I would circle back to it all the time. But I was tweaking the rule. Hence, the rest of its application was rendering it void. It wasn’t even that it was without result. It was having the exact opposite effect. Instead of bringing me into safety, my nafs was forcing me into harm.
So I reminded myself:
Wahjurjum: leave them and turn your attention away from them…
Hajran jameela: with beautiful avoidance, smiling, cheerfully,
without inclining towards their false delerium (confusion and reduced awareness)
and without consideration for them or looking after them
and without speaking to them
and with tawakkul, reliance upon Allah and entrust the matter of avenging them to Him. For indeed, He is Enough for you regarding their supply of misdeeds and ridicule.
It took me two weeks to apply the rule correctly. For 14 days I burned in the hell of my own creation. But each time I brought the blame upon myself because of another verse that lives with me every single day of my life to the point that I memorized it to utter in the prostrations of my namaz:
وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذ ظَّلَمُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَهُمْ جَآءُوكَ فَٱسْتَغْفَرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ
وَٱسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ ٱلرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ تَوَّابًۭا رَّحِيمًۭا
And if they, when they wronged themselves, come to you and asked forgiveness of Allah,
and the Messenger (peace be upon him) asked forgiveness for them,
surely, they would have found Allah Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
Surah An-Nisa’, Verse 64
Tafseer e Jilani
Wa lau annahum: And if they, without doubt, due to the intensity of their ghaflat, forgetfulness and hypocrisy…
Id zalamu anfusahum: that which befalls you of affliction, (which is) harmful, not submitting to you (O Beloved)…
Jaa’uka: they must come to you as the ones who repent, the one who are apologetic because of that which happened from them…
Fastaghfarullah: then they ask for forgiveness from Allah (being) sincere and regretful…
Wastaghfara lahum Ar Rasoolu: and The Messenger (peace be upon him) also asks for forgiveness for them through intercession and praying before Allah, asking for the acceptance (of the person by Him) after they have come as the ones who are apologetic…
Lawajadullaha: surely, they will find Allah (to be) and they will testify to Him being the One who grants Bounty and Mercy…
Tawwaban: (and find Allah to be) The One who accepts their repentance…
Raheeman: The One who is Merciful to them and grants them ability to do this (go the The Messenger (peace be upon him).
I was ghafil, forgetful, (of the rule). I was a hypocrite. I had lied to my nafs so I trained it to lie to me. Except now when it spoke I believed it and those lies only harmed me. I believed them just like once it believed me.
Sigh!
I had quoted the above verse on forgiveness countless times. But this time different words were hitting me like arrows as I read it in repetition:
My affliction came upon me from my own self because I didn’t submit, not to Allah Subhanahu, but His Beloved (peace be upon him and his family).
When I appeared before him then, tired, sad, needing release from what I had done which had imprisoned me, I needed to be
1.apologetic
2.regretful
3.repentant
4.sincere
5.then again feeling regret
6.then again being apologetic
A common friend had asked me when I finally started refusing invites, “Will you not ever meet again?”
“No,” I said, “We might. But I’m not thinking about it.”
I knew I would never take any steps to initiate contact. My friend became silent. She asked if I needed an apology for a shift to happen, hinting that it seemed unlikely. I smiled.
“I’ve had this experience many times before,” I said, “I hold no grudge. You will only find me smiling and cheerful,” I laughed, feeling again that pang of gratitude that I did not have to act cold. My heart still liked them. I did not need to distress it with a false sense of dignity.
Pir Naseeruddin Naseer (ra) says the person who does something wrong and does not apologize or express regret, their heart is sealed. Since it is the exercise of a choice, the person, perhaps unconsciously, becomes defiant. Disobedient. The Quran defines such a person as a fajir and Maula e Kayinaat (as) said to his son just before his passing;
و ایاک و مصادقۃ الفاجر فانہ یبیعک بالتاقۃ
And avoid the Fajir, the one who is defiant about his disobedience and insistent upon it,
for, without doubt, he will sell you for nothing.
The elusive “sell me for nothing” line was now crystal clear. Anyone entirely governed by their tabyat, acquired nature, was in a constant state of fear or sadness. Whereas the Friends of God never felt either because they controlled their tabyat while we were controlled by ours.
أَلَآ إِنَّ أَوْلِيَآءَ ٱللَّهِ لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
Verily, the Friends of Allah, there will be no fear upon them and not they will grieve.
Surah Yunus, Verse 62
Tafseer e Jilani
Ala Inna auliya Allah e: Al Munkhalaeena, the ones who are detached from the demands of being human in total, Al Munsalekheena, the one who are far from the requirements of desires of their selves in totality...
La khauf-un alayhim wa la hum yahzanoon: there is no fear upon them nor do they feel grief because fear and sadness, they only come from the effects of the tabyat, (the secondary nature that is acquired from outside), and the pursuit of that which fulfills it.
Not to mention the layer of forgetfulness, likely the top layer of the tabyat. My being existent or non-existent for them, it was the same.
And suddenly I was free! Not from one relationship or two but all that held no sincerity towards me. Smiling and cheerful!
And of all things I was the one in a place, courtesy of the hadith of my Nabi, who is Rauf and Rahim (peace be upon him and his family), where I might be rendered love from my Lord for executing a command perfectly.
إنَّ اللهَ تعالى يُحِبُّ إذا عمِلَ أحدُكمْ عملًا أنْ يُتقِنَهُ
Indeed, Allah The Exalted One loves when one of you does a deed exactly as it should be done.
The hadith brought home the point of the verse that when every single person was in the same boat of khusr – loss. The only possibility of separation from that state, any distinction, was a deed, salih, good.
وَٱلْعَصْرِ
إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ لَفِى خُسْرٍ
إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ
(Allah takes an oath) upon time,
that the human being is surely in a state of loss,
except those who believe and do righteous deeds…
Surah Al-Asr, Verses 1-3
Tafseer e Jilani:
Wal Asr: Then Allah Suban Ta’ala takes an oath upon time and the ages, the meaning of which is about the Eternal Essence of Allah, from the beginning till the end, Timeless and Everlasting.
Innal Insaana: Indeed, the human being, created such to have a natural propensity towards the nature of ma’rifa, the Recognition of God and imaan, faith according to his share of the Lahoot, the Realm of the Divine, where there is no time and space…
Lafe khusr: is in a state of loss, immense and humiliating failure, as a result of their busyness in that which is useless due to the requirements (and needs) of his physical being, as related to his share of the world of Nasoot, the life in this world.
Illa: Except the Muqinoon, those who possess inner certainty…
Alladina Aamino: about the One-ness of Allah Subhan Ta’ala and are conscious, through their steadfastness, in their behaviour continuously in His Kingdom and about His Authority.
Wa: And with this faith and certainty…
Amilos Sualihaat: they do good deeds which points towards their ikhas, sincerity and their yaqeen, absolute conviction, and niyyat, intention.
“When someone makes a particular action beautiful, Allah falls in love with that person,” a friend who is a scholar told me. “But the problem lies in us humans defining beauty itself. As long as my fitrat, the core being of a human being as created by Allah remains saleem, pure, then I will have a proper consciousness of beauty. I will call a beautiful thing beautiful and an ugly thing ugly.
But if my nature gets corrupted, then things become the opposite. If my tabyat, which is acquired by my habits and environment, overpowers the fitrat, ugly things become beautiful for me and beautiful things become ugly. What is beautiful loses its worth. That is the problem with the corruption of the soul. That is why one of the meanings of Islam is keeping the fitrat safe. That is why in the Hereafter Allah says what will save you is your qalb, your heart within the heart which recognizes Him, if it is saleem.”
I looked up the verse he quoted:
إِذْ جَآءَ رَبَّهُۥ بِقَلْبٍۢ سَلِيمٍ
Remember when he came to his Lord with a pure heart.
Surah As Saffat, Verse 84
Tafseer e Jilani
Remember, O Messenger who completes the Messengers (peace be upon you and your family), the time when…
Id ja’a Rabbuhu biqalbin saleem: when he, the Prophet Ibrahim (as), came to his Lord with a heart perfect, intact from all of the inclinations false and opinions untrue.
In another lecture I came upon the most interesting definition of freedom from within my faith, of being free as a human being.
“What is freedom?” the scholar asked his audience. “The first question one has to ask is freedom for what and freedom from what. If you cannot answer these questions, you don’t understand what freedom is.
Freedom is defined as removing the obstacles from my path of prosperity and evolving. But removing others from my path of freedom is easy. The problem arises when I am the block in my own path of freedom. That is the challenge. What if I am the hurdle in my spiritual or socio-economic or moral progress.
The Quran addresses both social freedom and individual freedom through the context of sending Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family).”
The he quoted the verse:
لَقَدْ مَنَّ ٱللَّهُ عَلَى ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعَثَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًۭا مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ
يَتْلُوا۟ عَلَيْهِمْ ءَايَتِهِۦ
وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ
وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ ٱلْكِتَبَ
وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ
وَإِن كَانُوا۟ مِن قَبْلُ لَفِى ضَلَلٍۢ مُّبِينٍ
Indeed, Allah has bestowed a favour upon the believers, when he raised in their midst an apostle from among themselves,
to convey His Messages unto them,
and to cause them to grow in purity,
and to impart unto them the Divine Writ as well as wisdom,
where as before that they were, indeed, most obviously, lost in error.
Surah Aal e Imran, Verse 164
I had translated its tafseer so I went back to it.
Laqad Mannallahu: By the Name of Allah, He bestowed a great Favour…
Ala al Mo’mineen: upon the ones who are sincere…
Id ba’atha fi-him: when he raised him, the Prophet (peace be upon him)), from amongst them for their guidance…
Rasool an: as a Messenger to be their Murshid, guide, who was brought up…
Min Anfusihim: in them to guide them with different types of guidance.
Yatlu alihim: First of all, he recites to them (the Quran) and makes them listen…
Ayati hi: to Allah’s Verses, which indicate towards the One-ness of His Essence.
Wa Yuzzakihim: Secondly, he purifies them from the evils whisperings of Satan and those desires that lead one astray from the Path of Allah’s One-ness.
Wa Yuallimuhim: And thirdly, he teaches them…
Al Kitab: the Book, which explains and clarifies to them the means to cleanse the overt, the zahir, as well as everything which is related to the apparent world.
Wa: Then fourthly he teaches them…
Al hikmat; the wisdom that purifies their inner being, the batin, from the inclination towards anything other than Allah, (both people and things), and which connects them to Sidrat al Muntaha, the Lote Tree, near which is Jannat ul Mawa, Heaven.
Wa in Kanu Min Qablu: And they were before the unveiling of these four stations…
Lafi Dalalin Mubeen: in clear waywardness and severe humiliation.
At the end then Ghaus Pak (ra) prays: “Ya Allah! By Your Bounty, save us from the sleep of those who are heedless.
I re-read each word carefully. Through the perfect being of Ajmal Ar Rusul alone, the most beautiful Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) because he is the noor who brings, reveals, unveils and clarifies it, the Book cleanses the overt. Through the wisdom he alone teaches, the inner is purified.
But before both he does the tazkiya, the purification of thought.
As Qari Sahib says, “For purity to enter, the vessel must be pure!”
I counted the number of times the verb hada’, to guide, appeared in the verse. Only through his guidance, seeking it, staying in it, came the safety from the whisperings of Satan and one’s own desires, unending and dictated by the nafs.
In another verse, I saw an additional meaning of what malice in the breast is: selfishness, duality.
I was noticing how Mankind was entirely blanketed in self-centeredness courtesy of the addiction to technology. For the first consequence of any addiction, be it sick love, eating, watching tv or holding a phone 24/7, is selfishness. The second cause of wickedness of the heart, was duality. Which Ghaus Pak (ra) defined as hopes and expectations associated with others.
وَنَزَعْنَا مَا فِى صُدُورِهِم مِّنْ غِلٍّ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهِمُ ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ ۖ
وَقَالُوا۟ ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ ٱلَّذِى هَدَىٰنَا لِهَـٰذَا وَمَا كُنَّا لِنَهْتَدِىَ لَوْلَآ أَنْ هَدَىٰنَا ٱللَّهُ ۖ
And We will remove whatever is in their breasts of malice.
Flows from underneath them the rivers.
And they will say, "All the praise (is) for Allah, the One Who guided us to this, and we were not to receive guidance if not (had) guided us Allah. Certainly, came Messengers of our Lord with the truth."
Surah Al-Araaf, Verse 43
Tafseer e Jilani
Wa: After they have entered the Heaven of Tauheed, One-ness…
Naza’na ma fi sudoorihim min ghill-in: after We erased from their breasts, duality and selfishness
Tajri min tahtihal anhaar: (the Heaven) under which flow rivers of Ma’rifat, Knowledge of God and Haqaiq, Realities of the Essence of God, sprouting from the Ocean of the His One-ness.
Wa: After their unveiling due the dissolving of their identity and they triumph in the Everlasting Existence of Allah…
Qaalu: they said, with the capability of their tongues as inspired by Allah, that they may become steadfast on gratitude…
Alhamdo: praise and admiration that rises from tasleem o raza, surrender and acceptance…
Lillah alladi hada-na li hada: for The One who made us reach the status of contentedness and the Place of the Honour of meeting Him…
Wa ma kunna li nahtadiya: Which we would not have reached if we had stayed in the company of our desires and the darkness of our selves…
Lau la an hada-na: were it not for his Lutf, Kindness and Endless Generosity and Vast Mercy.
I memorized the second verse instantly to utter in my prostrations.
The lecture continued: “The Rasool (peace be upon him and his family) has been sent to cleanse your overt and inner beings. So in fact he has been sent to free you from your own self that shackles you.”
I went back to my notes from my lecture for the kids and looked up the list of what emanates from my self to remember exactly the definition of those “shackles:”
وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ وَنَعْلَمُ مَا تُوَسْوِسُ بِهِۦ نَفْسُهُۥ ۖ
And certainly We created man and We know what his self whispers to him.
Tafseer e Jilani
Wa: And We…
Na’alamu: We know him from that point…
Ma tuwaswisu: (as to) what whispers and makes up a rambling story…
Bihi nafsohu: from his own self and sways his heart (from that point) until now from
1.those kinds of delusions and false imaginings
2.and those things that descend upon him as animalistic desires
3.and those thoughts that are imprisoned by the chains of rituals
4.and shackles of inherent habits that are inherited
5.as a result of useless ponderings which are mixed with unthinking paranoia.
I began to look up the verses the scholar had quoted to emphasize that there was only one original source of tazkiya, purification. There was only one human being that Allah Subhanahu had chosen, appointed, named in all His Other Books and announced that he in turn, determined and then commanded, solely, what was intrinsically beneficial and what caused harm for the self.
The lecture continued: “Ma’roof is that which my fitrat knows and recognizes as good and munkir is that which my iftrat knows is sinful and wrong. So the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) does not command anything that the fitrat dislikes and only commands that which it already knows as good.
For the Quran repeatedly uses the words “transgression of boundaries” in the context of the injustice we do to our own selves. Not the injustice we perpetrate on others. Not the injustice others impose on us. The focus is always brought to one’s own nafs al Ammara. Similarly he only forbids that which the fitrat already knows is harmful for it. Nothing else! There is no conflict in his instruction and order for the soul.”
Then he quoted the verse which I translated with Qari Sahib:
ٱلَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ ٱلرَّسُولَ ٱلنَّبِىَّ ٱلْأُمِّىَّ
ٱلَّذِى يَجِدُونَهُۥ مَكْتُوبًا عِندَهُمْ فِى ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةِ وَٱلْإِنجِيلِ يَأْمُرُهُم بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ
وَيَنْهَىٰهُمْ عَنِ ٱلْمُنكَرِ وَيُحِلُّ لَهُمُ ٱلطَّيِّبَـٰتِ
وَيُحَرِّمُ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْخَبَـٰٓئِثَ وَيَضَعُ عَنْهُمْ إِصْرَهُمْ وَٱلْأَغْلَـٰلَ ٱلَّتِى كَانَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ
فَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ بِهِۦ وَعَزَّرُوهُ وَنَصَرُوهُ وَٱتَّبَعُوا۟ ٱلنُّورَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أُنزِلَ مَعَهُۥٓ ۙ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ
Those who follow the Messenger, the Ummiyy Prophet (peace be upon him) whom they find written with them in the Torah and the Injīl ,
and who bids them what is fair and forbids what is unfair,
and makes lawful for them good things,
and makes unlawful for them impure things,
and relieves them of their burden, and of the shackles that were upon them.
So, those who believe in him and support him, and help him and follow the light sent down with him, - those are the ones who are successful.
Surah Al Ara-af, Verse 157
Tafseer e Jilani
Wahum: And they are…
Alladina yatti’buna As Rasool: the ones who follow the Messenger (peace be upon him), the one who was sent with the Essence of One-ness (Al Mursil bi Tauheed)…
An Nabiyya: the Prophet, Al Mutammim li mukarim il akhlaq, the one who was sent to complete the nobleness of manners (upon Allah’s Akhlaq, His Attributes)…
Al Ummiya: the one who is Al Muttahaqiq, the one who was made inevitable, Al Makhsoos, the one who was made uniquely special with Ilm il Luduni, the Divine Knowledge, which was taught to him from his Lord without acquisition (from other means), without effort, without any formal training from any teacher, and he is…
Alladi yajidoonahu: who they find in all of the books of the faiths…
Maktooban: written about in those books, about his being sent and his religion and his name and his appearance and all of his attributes…
Ayndahum fi Torat wal Ineel: in the Torat and in the Injeel, Bible, that when he will announce his Prophet-hood…
Ya’monohum bil ma’roof and yanhahum ayn al munkir ya
yahillu lahum tayyebaat: who bids them what is fair and forbids what is unfair, and makes lawful for them the good things, which they forbid upon their own selves…
Wa yuharrimu alaihum al khabais: and makes unlawful for them impure things, which they made lawful for themselves…
Wa aidan: And also…
Yada’u anhum israhum: relieves them of their loads i.e. the burdens which they carry by leaving the world and detaching from it, which was more than their strength to bear, just like they cut their bodily parts by which they sinned and just like they cut the cloth they wore if it became soiled and other than this…
Wa; he also made them free…
Al aghlaal: of their shackles i.e. the painful difficulties…
Allati kanat alaihim falladina aamino bihi: which came upon them. So those who believed in him, (the Messenger peace be upon him), when he was sent and gave his invitation (towards the One-ness of Allah)…
Wa azzaruhu: and they honoured him in the way that he was deserving of honour and glorification…
Wa nasaruhu: and they helped him, supporting him in his religion…
Wstaba’u an Noor: and they followed The Light, which is the Quran…
Alladi unzila ma’hu: which is sent with him from Allah to help him and to testify…
Ulaika: these are the ones who are the fortunate and radiant and accepted by Allah. They are the Al Muwwafiqoon, the ones given the ability to follow him.
Humul muflihoon: It is they who are the successful ones i.e. Al Muqassaroon, the ones who are confined by Him in success and triumph with victory.
Subhan Allah!
It was exactly what the scholar said. There was no conflict in what he ordered and what was intrinsically a source of ease. The hurdle was indeed one’s own self every single time that pulled on in the opposite direction of what was naturally good for it. In the form of hesitation, reluctance, delay, refusal, denial!
The lecture continued: “Imam Ali (as) says it most beautifully in the exact opposite manner of the mantra of the West which is ‘We are all born free.’ Because Islam gives one the right of social and individual freedom like nothing else for it is a freedom given by God Himself.
لا تكُن عبدا لغيرك، وقد خلقك الله حُرًا
Don’t be a slave to any other because indeed, Allah Subhanahu, has created you free.
Those who themselves are as individuals enslaved by their nafs, they are the ones who try to enslave others as well. Only the likes those who are free, like Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family), free others. Like Hazrat Bilal (ratu), Hazrat Anas (ratu), you, me. If I am free from my nafs I want everybody to be free. And if I am enslaved by it, I want everybody to be enslaved by it as well. And then become enslaved to me.”
I realized that once I decided I would adhere to a rule, my nafs surrendered itself never because of my own “determination.” I had written once before, because I learnt it from Maulana Rum (ra), that the nafs holds the aql prisoner. Reflection, consideration, they’re all impossibilities because the nafs does not bow to that which it imprisons. On top of it the ghaflat, perpetual state of forgetfulness, allows for a permanence of the dire state.
Masnavi Shareef: “Your nafs has made itself your lord and master. The one who slaughters it is your aql, the power to reflect. But it becomes hostage to the ego and prays for blessings from the Divine without struggling for them. But the price of receiving that blessing without trial is the killing of the ego, for it is the root of all wrongdoing. And that is impossible without a guide.”
رزق جانی کے بری با سعی و جست
جز با عدل شیخ کو داؤد تست
How can you ever gain blessings from your own struggles and endeavours?
Without the assistance of the Spiritual Master who intervenes for you like Hazrat Dawood (as)?
نفس چوں با شیخ بیندگام تو
از بن دندان شود او رام تو
When your nafs, your ego, sees you in the footsteps of your guide, it will have no choice but to become obedient to you.
عقل گایے غالب آید در شکار
بر سگ نفست کہ باشد شیخ یار
The aql, your powers to reflect, will only conquer the enemy, your ego, in this battle
when you are accompanied by your Sheikh.
My nafs allowed me to follow the rule of the verse of avoidance only because of the attention of someone upon me. A Master, A Master of Masters. A Master of the Universe!
As I wrote the piece and translated from the Arabic word by word the exegesis of the verses, I started honing in on Allah’s Names and Attributes to deepen my understanding of them. So that when my heart uttered them in my namaz, my qalb felt something. That Station of Ma’rifat, Recognition of The Divine, if not saw, then at least heard something. If not from the Realm of the Unseen, then from my own tongue.
And I remembered that the Prophet who perfected the Message (peace be upon him and his family) saying:
لا یستقیم ایمان احدکم حتی یستقیم قلبہ
و لا یستقیم قلبہ حتی یستقیم لسانہ
و لا یستقیم لسانہ حتی تستقیم اعمالہ
“None of you can persevere in your imaan, faith, till his qalb, the Seat of Recognition of Allah, becomes steadfast.
And his qalb cannot be unfaltering until his tongue becomes correct.
And his tongue cannot be correct until his deeds become unwavering.”
Ghaus Pak (ra) says; “Anything that I have been bestowed in my life as a blessing only came to me by way of the Ahl e Bait – the blessed household of Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family).”
This comes from someone who is in fact one of the most extraordinary members of that household himself. The one who is the unquestioned conduit of spirituality for the Universe till the end of its existence. After Damascus I knew with certainty that the same held true for me. Everything I was ever bestowed in my entire life only came to me by way of the Ahl e Bait (as).
My heart was flooded by that love in the city called Paradise by Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family) himself. The first time, the second, every single time. Upon each return I felt like I entered a womb, the only word to describe my feelings. I was loved and cared in a way I had never experienced in my life. Hence if that life were to hit reset, if I was also allowed one thing that wasn’t a part of the first one, I would request that I be born in Damascus and live there forever.
Iqbal said, and I have quoted him umpteenth times in my pieces, that heaven and hell are here in this world. Ghaus Pak (ra) says the same. His definition of hell is unforgettable: deprivation, humiliation, doubt, desires, endless hopes. All due to the nafs causing paranoia and delusions.
Fi naari jahannuma (Surah Tauba, Verse 109): in the fires of Hell i.e. a deep valley, very wide, full of the fire of deprivation and humiliation.
And doubt!
لَهُم مِّن جَهَنَّمَ مِهَادٌ وَمِن فَوْقِهِمْ غَوَاشٍ ۚ
وَكَذَٰلِكَ نَجْزِى ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ
For them Hell (is) their resting place and their covering as well. And thus We recompense the wrongdoers.
Surah Al-Araaf, Ayaat 41
Lahum min jahannama: Hell is the torture of imkaan, possibility which is doubt.
Mihaad: They will burn in these fires of their false desires…
Wa min fauqihim ghiwash: covered with the fires of their power and wealth and claims of being great and possessing abundance.
Wa ka daalika najzi ad-dualimeen: The zalimeen are the ones who transgress the boundaries of Allah due to their nafs which are drowning in the addiction of their senses, their paranoia and their delusion.
In a lecture on a day, Qari Sahib quoted the iconic line in the Quran about the faith that all Muslims know; La ikrahu fi-deen.
“There is no compulsion in embracing Islam and none in practicing it. Pray, don’t pray. Give zaka’t, don’t give it. Forgive or hold a grudge. Lie or tell a truth. It is all up to you. Be clear on the influence of your own nafs upon your own self.”
We studied the tafseer of the verse by Ghaus Pak (ra). I wanted to understand what it meant. And of course I was rewarded for the effort. For when translations called Taghut, “false deities and gods,” Ghaus Pak (ra) called the nafs al Ammara, bringing the matter from the “other” back upon one’s own self.
لَآ إِكْرَاهَ فِى ٱلدِّينِ ۖ قَد تَّبَيَّنَ ٱلرُّشْدُ مِنَ ٱلْغَىِّ ۚ
فَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِٱلطَّغُوتِ وَيُؤْمِنۢ بِٱللَّهِ فَقَدِ ٱسْتَمْسَكَ بِٱلْعُرْوَةِ ٱلْوُثْقَىٰ لَا ٱنفِصَامَ لَهَا ۗ
وَٱللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
There is no compulsion in the religion. Surely has become distinct the right (path) from the wrong. Then whoever rejects false deities and believes in Allah, then surely he grasped the handhold - firm, which will not break for him.
And Allah (is) All-Hearing, All-Knowing.
Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 256
Tafseer Jilani
La ikraha: There is no force and there is no threat and there is no compulsion...
Fi deen: in compliance in the religion of Islam and being obedient of it, after the appearance of the ultimate truth because…
Qad tabayyana: indeed, it becomes clear and indeed, it is made distinct…
Ar rushd: the right path and guidance…
Min al gayye: from allurement and misguidedness.
Fa man yakfur bit taaghute: So anyone who denies the truth by believing in false idols, which is the nafs al Ammara which misguides from the Path of Truth…
Ya yu’min billah: and brings faith in Allah Al Hadi, The True Guide, towards the Straight Path…
Faqad-is-tamsaka: surely he attached himself to, and in fact, grasped and clung…
Bil urwatil wusqa: to the strong rope which is the Rope of Allah Subhanahu, hanging from the Permanence of His Essence to the Everlasting-ness of His Names and Attributes…
Lan fisama: It (the rope) will not break and it will not disconnect…
Laha: from itself ever.
Wallahu: And Allah Al Hadi, The Guide, is for all…
Samee’un: The All Hearing with His Essence the words of everyone…
Aleem-un: All Knowing of everything and the interests of all which have been placed inside them.
“So reflect,” says Ghaus Pak (ra), “O you are perishing, where do you place yourself in this?”
The marker of distortion and disruption in faith was the nafs. And the savior: connection of Allah Subhanahu’s Names and Attributes woven inside the rope that brought attachment to Him.
While I wrote the piece, my reflections were all concentrations upon the namaz. I began to write down each line in it to understand the sequence of the meaning.
The beginning is a seeking of refuge in Allah Subhanahu:
Audobillah e min as Shaitan ar rajeem – I seek refuge from Satan the accursed.
Then comes Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Rahim – the first invocation of Allah’s Names.
It was followed by the Surah Al Fateha, the preface of the Quran. In it the first three lines of the Surah were praise of Allah Subhanahu. The first line also being the expression of gratitude:
Alhamdolillah e Rabbil Aalmeen – All praise is for Allah, the Lord of all the Universe.
The second and third verses both invoked His Names, the same ones:
Ar Rahman Ar Rahim – The Entirely Merciful, The Especially Merciful.
Then Maalik e Youm iddin – The King of the Day of Judgement.
After came the submission; We only worship you and We only ask You for help.
And finally the prayer, which was for guidance!
But in that ask was a secret. The Sirat e Mustaqeem for which guidance was sought, that Straight Path, the verse reveals, was the one walked upon by those someones who were blessed by Him – siraat alladaina an’amta alayhim.
From the verb, I learnt a new Name of Allah: Naeem.
I heard a scholar say once: “Allah Subhanahu did not come to Earth and walk that path Himself. He sent others to show it and those who followed them and those after who followed them until in a meadow of grass, footsteps became outlined. A path leads to the Path.”
The greatest conflict within the faith today exists because people refuse to follow anyone else. But they don’t know, their aql imprisoned by their nafs will never surrender to anything except precisely when they follow another.
As my attention upon the words in the namaz intensified, I began to wonder that was actually being said by me in the part called the Tashahhud.
Part III Continued on: www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/52274085984/in/datepos...
What's more humiliating? That this guy has to wear the chicken head, or that I'm in the McDonalds drive-thru at 8:00 in the morning?
Somebody stop my
Wife! She's humiliating
A defenseless dog!
Kidding. Jules didn't actually let Movie go out in the panda suit (though it *was* freezing). It's actually a little big for her, and the hood falls over her eyes, and then she bumps into things.
The price of fashion.
(P.S. John, RIP. 28 years.)