Behaviour clip showing Falcon ( female) on the left being coaxed into the eyrie by the Tiercel (male) on the right. Some canoodling/twitterpating followed by him being kicked out and her settling in and eating grit for egg shell formation

Observing rat behaviour during a sleep monitoring session. On the left screen, you can see software used to record EEG & EMG as well as behaviour. The right screen (a TV screen) shows the rat in its cage (from another room).

read each of the statements and select the one which discribes how you feel / discuse

 

psychosocial therapies are part of the standard management of schizophrenic illnesses, but have not been subjected to systematic evaluation and are therefore not included in this guideline. This does not imply that they are not essential components of good practice.

 

The remainder of this section describes the evidence for the effectiveness of Education Programmes, Family Interventions, and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in the management of schizophrenia. Section 3 provides recommendations for the application of these interventions in clinical practice, according to the phase of the illness.

 

Education programmes

Education Programmes are directed at either patients or carers/family members and have several aims. Improvement in knowledge of schizophrenia and its course and in compliance with treatment has been shown. There is also evidence of greater satisfaction with services provided. Some programmes go beyond the provision of information and take an educational approach to skills training or problem solving.

 

Education Programmes for patients may be undertaken in individual or in group settings. Simple information-giving is less effective than interactive sessions. The focus includes giving information about the course and management of the illness, including the importance of compliance with medication and the management of stress.

 

Providing carers and family members with information on the likely course of the illness, the treatments available, the importance of compliance and the services available is an essential element of good practice It may be undertaken as part of a Family Intervention programme

 

Specific techniques, e.g. use of homework or video, have not been shown to improve the assimilation of information, but a group setting has advantages

 

Family interventions

The aims of 'Family Intervention' include reduction of frequency of relapse into illness and reduction of hospital admissions, reduction in the burden of care on families and carers, and improvement in compliance with medication.

 

Some Family Intervention Programmes have targeted families where there are high levels of criticism, hostility and over-involvement. 'High expressed emotion' is a measure of these features and programmes which reduce this or reduce the amount of 'face to face' contact between the patient and family members have been shown to reduce the frequency of relapse. However, the measurement of expressed emotion is a research technique which is not practical for everyday use. Family Intervention Programmes which are not derived from this theoretical background have been shown to be effective.

 

Most intervention strategies contain more than one technique. Separating and defining the effects of the components of an intervention strategy is not possible at present as few studies examine the effect of a single technique and only a general description of interventions used in research studies is usually given. However, a number of practice guides have been published which give detailed descriptions of the techniques employed in some studies. Family Intervention has been shown to be effective with some variation in the components of the programme, but family sessions to address the problems identified in the analysis may not be effective if the patient is not included. Social skills training and vocational rehabilitation were included in some studies. These are not covered as separate interventions in the guideline.

 

Cognitive behaviour therapy

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for psychosis is a modification of standard cognitive behavioural therapy. The aim is to modify symptoms (e.g. delusions, hallucinations) or the consequences of the symptoms which may be cognitive, emotional, physiological or behavioural. The treatment programme is intensive (involving about 20 hours of individual treatment) and based on an individually tailored formulation which provides an explanation of the development, maintenance and exacerbation of symptoms and of pre-morbid mood, interpersonal and behavioural difficulties.

 

There is now good evidence that treatment resistant symptoms (delusions, hallucinations) can be substantially reduced in a significant proportion of those who complete therapy. It is not yet clear who is most likely to benefit from treatment and many patients may be unwilling to participate. The treatment is well tolerated. However, reduction of symptoms has not been shown to lead to significant social or lifestyle improvements.

 

A combination of the following techniques has been shown to be most effective in lessening symptoms of psychosis resistant to other forms of treatment:

 

◦enhancement of cognitive behavioural coping strategies5

◦developing a rationale to explain symptoms28◦realistic goal setting

◦modification of delusional beliefs29◦modification of dysfunctional assumptions.

A number of these techniques are a refinement of normal good practice using a systematic approach.

 

'Early Intervention Studies' have aimed to identify prodromal symptoms or the 'signature' preceding relapse. The approach is not a form of cognitive therapy, but early intervention with medication or Cognitive Behaviour Therapy may be facilitated

 

The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a large bovid originating in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, and some American countries. The wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) native to Southeast Asia is considered a different species, but most likely represents the ancestor of the domestic water buffalo.

 

Two extant types of water buffalo are recognized based on morphological and behavioural criteria – the river buffalo of South Asia and further west to the Balkans, Egypt, and Italy, and the swamp buffalo, found from Assam in the west through Southeast Asia to the Yangtze valley of China in the east. The origins of the domestic water buffalo types are debated, although results of a phylogenetic study indicate that the swamp type may have originated in China and was domesticated about 4,000 years ago, while the river type may have originated from India and was domesticated about 5,000 years ago. Water buffalo were traded from the Indus Valley Civilisation to Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq, 2500 BC by the Meluhhas. The seal of a scribe employed by an Akkadian king shows the sacrifice of water buffalo.

 

At least 130 million domestic water buffalo exist, and more human beings depend on them than on any other domestic animal. They are especially suitable for tilling rice fields, and their milk is richer in fat and protein than that of dairy cattle. The large feral population of northern Australia became established in the late 19th century, and smaller feral herds are in New Guinea, Tunisia, and northeastern Argentina. Feral herds are also present in New Britain, New Ireland, Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, and Uruguay.

 

CHARACTERISTICS

The skin of river buffalo is black, but some specimens may have dark, slate-coloured skin. Swamp buffalo have a grey skin at birth, but become slate blue later. Albinoids are present in some populations. River buffalo have comparatively longer faces, smaller girths, and bigger limbs than swamp buffalo. Their dorsal ridges extend further back and taper off more gradually. Their horns grow downward and backward, then curve upward in a spiral. Swamp buffalo are heavy-bodied and stockily built; the body is short and the belly large. The forehead is flat, the eyes prominent, the face short, and the muzzle wide. The neck is comparatively long, and the withers and croup are prominent. A dorsal ridge extends backward and ends abruptly just before the end of the chest. Their horns grow outward, and curve in a semicircle, but always remain more or less on the plane of the forehead. The tail is short, reaching only to the hocks. Height at withers is 129–133 cm for males, and 120–127 cm for females. They range in weight from 300–550 kg, but weights of over 1,000 kg have also been observed.

 

Tedong bonga is a black pied buffalo featuring a unique black and white colouration that is favoured by the Toraja of Sulawesi.

 

The swamp buffalo has 48 chromosomes; the river buffalo has 50 chromosomes. The two types do not readily interbreed, but fertile offspring can occur. Buffalo-cattle hybrids have not been observed to occur, and the embryos of such hybrids do not reach maturity in laboratory experiments.

 

The rumen of the water buffalo has important differences from that of other ruminants. It contains a larger population of bacteria, particularly the cellulolytic bacteria, lower protozoa, and higher fungi zoospores. In addition, higher rumen ammonia nitrogen (NH4-N) and higher pH have been found as compared to those in cattle

 

ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR

River buffalo prefer deep water. Swamp buffalo prefer to wallow in mudholes which they make with their horns. During wallowing, they acquire a thick coating of mud. Both are well adapted to a hot and humid climate with temperatures ranging from 0 °C in the winter to 30 °C and greater in the summer. Water availability is important in hot climates, since they need wallows, rivers, or splashing water to assist in thermoregulation. Some breeds are adapted to saline seaside shores and saline sandy terrain.

 

DIET

Water buffalo thrive on many aquatic plants and during floods, will graze submerged, raising their heads above the water and carrying quantities of edible plants. They eat reeds (quassab), a giant reed (birdi), a kind of bulrush (kaulan), water hyacinth, and marsh grasses. Some of these plants are of great value to local peoples. Others, such as water hyacinth, are a major problem in some tropical valleys, and water buffalo may help to keep waterways clear.

 

Green fodders are used widely for intensive milk production and for fattening. Many fodder crops are conserved as hay, chaffed, or pulped. Fodders include alfalfa, berseem and bancheri, the leaves, stems or trimmings of banana, cassava, fodder beet, halfa, ipil-ipil and kenaf, maize, oats, pandarus, peanut, sorghum, soybean, sugarcane, bagasse, and turnips. Citrus pulp and pineapple wastes have been fed safely to buffalo. In Egypt, whole sun-dried dates are fed to milk-buffalo up to 25% of the standard feed mixture.

 

REPRODUCTION

Swamp buffalo generally become reproductive at an older age than river breeds. Young males in Egypt, India, and Pakistan are first mated at about 3.0–3.5 years of age, but in Italy

 

they may be used as early as 2 years of age. Successful mating behaviour may continue until the animal is 12 years or even older. A good river male can impregnate 100 females in a year. A strong seasonal influence on mating occurs. Heat stress reduces libido

 

Although buffalo are polyoestrous, their reproductive efficiency shows wide variation throughout the year. Buffalo cows exhibit a distinct seasonal change in displaying oestrus, conception rate, and calving rate. The age at first oestrus of heifers varies between breeds from 13–33 months, but mating at the first oestrus is often infertile and usually deferred until they are 3 years old. Gestation lasts from 281–334 days, but most reports give a range between 300 and 320 days. Swamp buffalo carry their calves for one or two weeks longer than river buffalo. It is not rare to find buffalo that continue to work well at the age of 30, and instances of a working life of 40 years are recorded.

 

TAXONOMIC HISTORY

Carl Linnaeus first described the genus Bos and the water buffalo under the binomial Bubalis bubalus in 1758; the latter was known to occur in Asia and as a domestic form in Italy. Ellerman and Morrison-Scott treated the wild and domestic forms of the water buffalo as conspecifics whereas others treated them as different species. The nomenclatorial treatment of wild and domestic forms has been inconsistent and varies between authors and even within the works of single authors.

 

In March 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature achieved consistency in the naming of wild and domestic water buffalo by ruling that the scientific name Bubalus arnee is valid for the wild form. B. bubalis continues to be valid for the domestic form and applies also to feral populations.

 

DOMESTICATION AND BREEDING

Water buffalo were domesticated in India about 5000 years ago, and in China about 4000 years ago. Two types are recognized, based on morphological and behavioural criteria – the river buffalo of the Indian subcontinent and further west to the Balkans and Italy, and the swamp buffalo, found from Assam in the west through Southeast Asia to the Yangtze valley of China in the east. The present-day river buffalo is the result of complex domestication processes involving more than one maternal lineage and a significant maternal gene flow from wild populations after the initial domestication events. Twenty-two breeds of the river type water buffalo are known, including Murrah, Nili-Ravi, Surti, Jafarabadi, Anatolian, Mediterranean, and Egyptian buffalo. China has a huge variety of buffalo genetic resources, comprising 16 local swamp buffalo breeds in various regions.

 

Results of mitochondrial DNA analyses indicate that the two types were domesticated independently. Sequencing of cytochrome b genes of Bubalus species implies that the domestic buffalo originated from at least two populations, and that the river and the swamp types have differentiated at the full species level. The genetic distance between the two types is so large that a divergence time of about 1.7 million years has been suggested. The swamp type was noticed to have the closest relationship with the tamaraw.

 

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATIONS

The water buffalo population in the world is about 172 million.

 

IN ASIA

More than 95.8% of the world population of water buffalo are found in Asia including both river and swamp types. The water buffalo population in India numbered over 97.9 million head in 2003, representing 56.5% of the world population. They are primarily of the river type, with 10 well-defined breeds comprising Badhawari, Murrah, Nili-Ravi, Jafarabadi, Marathwada, Mehsana, Nagpuri, Pandharpuri, Toda, and Surti. Swamp buffalo occur only in small areas in the north-eastern part of the country and are not distinguished into breeds.

 

In 2003, the second-largest population lived in China, with 22.759 million head, all of the swamp type with breeds kept only in the lowlands, and other breeds kept only in the mountains; as of 2003, 3.2 million swamp-type carabao buffalo were in the Philippines, nearly three million swamp buffalo were in Vietnam, and 772,764 buffalo were in Bangladesh. About 750,000 head were estimated in Sri Lanka in 1997.

 

The water buffalo is the main dairy animal in Pakistan, with 23.47 million head in 2010. Of these, 76% are kept in the Punjab. The rest of them are mostly in the province of Sindh. Breeds used are Nili-Ravi, Kundi, and Azi Kheli. Karachi has the largest population of water buffalos for an area where fodder is not grown, consisting of 350,000 head kept mainly for milking.

 

In Thailand, the number of water buffalo dropped from more than 3 million head in 1996 to less than 1.24 million head in 2011. Slightly over 75% of them are kept in the country's northeastern region. The statistics also indicate that by the beginning of 2012, less than one million were in the country, partly as a result of illegal shipments to neighboring countries where sales prices are higher than in Thailand.

 

Water buffalo are also present in the southern region of Iraq, in the marshes. These marshes were drained by Saddam Hussein in 1991 in an attempt to punish the south for the uprisings of 1991. Following 2003, and the fall of the Saddam regime, these lands were reflooded and a 2007 report in the provinces of Maysan and Thi Qar shows a steady increase in the number of water buffalo. The report puts the number at 40,008 head in those two provinces.

 

IN EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN

Water buffalo likely were introduced to Europe from India or other Oriental countries. To Italy they were introduced about the year 600 in the reign of the Longobard King Agilulf. As they appear in the company of wild horses, they probably were a present from the Khan of the Avars, a Turkic nomadic tribe that dwelt near the Danube River at the time. Sir H. Johnston knew of a herd of water buffalo presented by a King of Naples to the Bey of Tunis in the mid-19th century that had resumed the feral state in northern Tunis.

 

European buffalo are all of the river type and considered to be of the same breed named Mediterranean buffalo. In Italy, the Mediterranean type was particularly selected and is called Mediterranean Italian breed to distinguish it from other European breeds, which differ genetically. Mediterranean buffalo are also found in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Kosovo, and the Republic of Macedonia, with a few hundred in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Hungary. Little exchange of breeding buffalo has occurred among countries, so each population has its own phenotypic features and performances. In Bulgaria, they were crossbred with the Indian Murrah breed, and in Romania, some were crossbred with Bulgarian Murrah. Populations in Turkey are of the Anatolian buffalo breed.

 

IN AUSTRALIA

Between 1824 and 1849, water buffalo were introduced into the Northern Territory from Timor, Kisar, and probably other islands in the Indonesian archipelago. In 1886, a few milking types were brought from India to Darwin. They have been the main grazing animals on the subcoastal plains and river basins between Darwin and Arnhem Land since the 1880s. In the early 1960s, an estimated population of 150,000 to 200,000 buffalo were living in the plains and nearby areas.

 

They became feral and are causing significant environmental damage. Buffalo are also found in the Top End. As a result, they were hunted in the Top End from 1885 until 1980. The commencement of the brucellosis and tuberculosis campaign (BTEC) resulted in a huge culling program to reduce buffalo herds to a fraction of the numbers that were reached in the 1980s. The BTEC was finished when the Northern Territory was declared free of the disease in 1997. Numbers dropped dramatically as a result of the campaign, but have since recovered to an estimated 150,000 animals across northern Australia in 2008.

 

During the 1950s, buffalo were hunted for their skins and meat, which was exported and used in the local trade. In the late 1970s, live exports were made to Cuba and continued later into other countries. Buffalo are now crossed with riverine buffalo in artificial insemination programs, and may be found in many areas of Australia. Some of these crossbreds are used for milk production. Melville Island is a popular hunting location, where a steady population up to 4,000 individuals exists. Safari outfits are run from Darwin to Melville Island and other locations in the Top End, often with the use of bush pilots. The horns, which can measure up to a record of 3.1 m tip-to-tip, are prized hunting trophies.

 

The buffalo have developed a different appearance from the Indonesian buffalo from which they descend. They live mainly in freshwater marshes and billabongs, and their territory range can be quite expansive during the wet season. Their only natural predators in Australia are adult saltwater crocodiles, with whom they share the billabongs, and dingoes, which have been known to prey on buffalo calves and occasionally adult buffalo when the dingoes are in large packs.

 

Buffalo were exported live to Indonesia until 2011, at a rate of about 3000 per year. After the live export ban that year, the exports dropped to zero, and had not resumed as of June 2013.

 

IN SOUTH AMERICA

Water buffalo were introduced into the Amazon River basin in 1895. They are now extensively used there for meat and dairy production. In 2005, the buffalo herd in the Brazilian Amazon stood at roughly 1.6 million head, of which 460,000 were located in the lower Amazon floodplain. Breeds used include Mediterranean from Italy, Murrah and Jafarabadi from India, and Carabao from the Philippines.

 

During the 1970s, small herds were imported to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Cayenne, Panama, Surinam, Guyana, and Venezuela.

 

In Argentina, many game ranches raise water buffalo for commercial hunting

 

IN NORTH AMERICA

In 1974, four water buffalo were imported to the United States from Guam to be studied at the University of Florida. In February 1978, the first herd arrived for commercial farming. Until 2002, only one commercial breeder was in the United States. Water buffalo meat is imported from Australia. Until 2011, water buffalo were raised in Gainesville, Florida, from young obtained from zoo overflow. They were used primarily for meat production, frequently sold as hamburger.[38] Other US ranchers use them for production of high-quality mozzarella cheese.

 

HUSBANDRY

The husbandry system of water buffalo depends on the purpose for which they are bred and maintained. Most of them are kept by people who work on small farms in family units. Their buffalo live in very close association with them, and are often their greatest capital asset. The women and girls in India generally look after the milking buffalo while the men and boys are concerned with the working animals. Throughout Asia, they are commonly tended by children who are often seen leading or riding their charges to wallowing places. Water buffalo are the ideal animals for work in the deep mud of paddy fields because of their large hooves and flexible foot joints. They are often referred to as "the living tractor of the East". It probably is possible to plough deeper with buffalo than with either oxen or horses. They are the most efficient and economical means of cultivation of small fields. In most rice-producing countries, they are used for threshing and for transporting the sheaves during the rice harvest. They provide power for oilseed mills, sugarcane presses, and devices for raising water. They are widely used as pack animals, and in India and Pakistan also for heavy haulage. In their invasions of Europe, the Turks used buffalo for hauling heavy battering rams. Their dung is used as a fertilizer, and as a fuel when dried.

 

Buffalo contribute 72 million tones of milk and three million tones of meat annually to world food, much of it in areas that are prone to nutritional imbalances. In India, river-type buffalo are kept mainly for milk production and for transport, whereas swamp-type buffalo are kept mainly for work and a small amount of milk.

 

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Water buffalo milk presents physicochemical features different from that of other ruminant species, such as a higher content of fatty acids and proteins. The physical and chemical parameters of swamp and river type water buffalo milk differ. Water buffalo milk contains higher levels of total solids, crude protein, fat, calcium, and phosphorus, and slightly higher content of lactose compared with those of cow milk. The high level of total solids makes water buffalo milk ideal for processing into value-added dairy products such as cheese. The conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content in milk ranged from 4.4 mg/g fat in September to 7.6 mg/g fat in June. Seasons and genetics may play a role in variation of CLA level and changes in gross composition of the water buffalo milk.

 

Water buffalo milk is processed into a large variety of dairy products:

 

- Cream churns much faster at higher fat levels and gives higher overrun than cow cream.

- Butter from water buffalo cream displays more stability than that from cow cream.

- Ghee from water buffalo milk has a different texture with a bigger grain size than ghee from cow milk.

- Heat-concentrated milk products in the Indian subcontinent include paneer, khoa, rabri, kheer and basundi.

- Fermented milk products include dahi, yogurt, and chakka.

- Whey is used for making ricotta and mascarpone in Italy, and alkarish in Syria and Egypt.

- Soft cheeses made include mozzarella in Italy, karish, mish, and domiati in Egypt, madhfor in Iraq, alghab in Syria, kesong puti in the Philippines, and vladeasa in Romania.

- The semihard cheese beyaz peynir is made in Turkey.

- Hard cheeses include braila in Romania, rahss in Egypt, white brine in Bulgaria, and akkawi in Syria.

- Watered-down buffalo milk is used as a cheaper alternative to regular milk.

 

MEAT AND SKIN PRODUCTS

Water buffalo meat, sometimes called "carabeef", is often passed off as beef in certain regions, and is also a major source of export revenue for India. In many Asian regions, buffalo meat is less preferred due to its toughness; however, recipes have evolved (rendang, for example) where the slow cooking process and spices not only make the meat palatable, but also preserve it, an important factor in hot climates where refrigeration is not always available.Their hides provide tough and useful leather, often used for shoes.

 

BONE AND HORN PRODUCTS

The bones and horns are often made into jewellery, especially earrings. Horns are used for the embouchure of musical instruments, such as ney and kaval.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS

Wildlife conservation scientists have started to recommend and use introduced populations of feral domestic water buffalo in far-away lands to manage uncontrolled vegetation growth in and around natural wetlands. Introduced water buffalo at home in such environs provide cheap service by regularly grazing the uncontrolled vegetation and opening up clogged water bodies for waterfowl, wetland birds, and other wildlife. Grazing water buffalo are sometimes used in Great Britain for conservation grazing, such as in Chippenham Fen National Nature Reserve. The buffalo can better adapt to wet conditions and poor-quality vegetation than cattle.

 

Currently, research is being conducted at the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies to determine the levels of nutrients removed and returned to wetlands when water buffalo are used for wetland vegetation management.

 

However, in uncontrolled circumstances, water buffalo can cause environmental damage, such as trampling vegetation, disturbing bird and reptile nesting sites, and spreading exotic weeds.

 

RESEARCH

The world's first cloned buffalo was developed by Indian scientists from National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. The buffalo calf was named Samrupa. The calf did not survive more than a week, and died due to some genetic disorders. So, the scientists created another cloned buffalo a few months later, and named it Garima.

 

On 15 September 2007, the Philippines announced its development of Southeast Asia's first cloned buffalo. The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), under the Department of Science and Technology in Los Baños, Laguna, approved this project. The Department of Agriculture's Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) will implement cloning through somatic cell nuclear transfer as a tool for genetic improvement in water buffalo. "Super buffalo calves" will be produced. There will be no modification or alteration of the genetic materials, as in genetically modified organisms.

 

On 1 January 2008, the Philippine Carabao Center in Nueva Ecija, per Filipino scientists, initiated a study to breed a super water buffalo that could produce 4 to 18 litres of milk per day using gene-based technology. Also, the first in vitro river buffalo was born there in 2004 from an in vitro-produced, vitrified embryo, named "Glory" after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Joseph Estrada's most successful project as an opposition senator, the PCC was created through Republic Act 3707, the Carabao Act of 1992.

 

IN CULTURE

Some ethnic groups, such as Batak and Toraja in Indonesia and the Derung in China, use water buffalo or kerbau (called horbo in Batak or tedong in Toraja) as sacrificial animals at several festivals.

 

- Legend has it that the Chinese philosophical sage Laozi left China through the Han Gu Pass riding a water buffalo.

- According to Hindu lore, the god of death Yama, rides on a male water buffalo.

- The carabao subspecies is considered a national symbol in the Philippines.

- In Vietnam, water buffalo are often the most valuable possession of poor farmers: "Con trâu là đầu cơ nghiệp". They are treated as a member of the family: "Chồng cày, vợ cấy, con trâu đi bừa" ("The husband ploughs, the wife sows, water buffalo draws the rake") and are friends of the children. Children talk to their water buffalo, "Bao giờ cây lúa còn bông. Thì còn ngọn cỏ ngoài đồng trâu ăn." (Vietnamese children are responsible for grazing water buffalo. They feed them grass if they work laboriously for men.) In the old days, West Lake, Hà Nội, was named Kim Ngưu - Golden Water Buffalo.

- The Yoruban Orisha Oya (goddess of change) takes the form of a water buffalo.

 

FIGHTING FESTIVALS

- Pasungay Festival is held annually in the town of San Joaquin, Iloilo in the Philippines.

- Moh juj Water Buffalo fighting, is held every year in Bhogali Bihu in Assam. Ahotguri in Nagaon is famous for it.

- Do Son Water Buffalo Fighting Festival of Vietnam, held each year on the ninth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar at Do Son Township, Haiphong City in Vietnam, is one of the most popular Vietnam festivals and events in Haiphong City. The preparations for this buffalo fighting festival begin from the two to three months earlier. The competing buffalo are selected and methodically trained months in advance. It is a traditional festival of Vietnam attached to a Water God worshipping ceremony and the Hien Sinh custom to show martial spirit of the local people of Do Son, Haiphong.

- "Hai Luu" Water Buffalo Fighting Festival of Vietnam, According to ancient records, the buffalo fighting in Hai Luu Commune has existed from the 2nd century B.C. General Lu Gia at that time, had the buffalo slaughtered to give a feast to the local people and the warriors, and organized buffalo fighting for amusement. Eventually, all the fighting buffalo will be slaughtered as tributes to the deities.

- "Ko Samui" Water Buffalo Fighting Festival of Thailand, is a very popular event held on special occasions such as New Year's Day in January, and Songkran in mid-April, this festival features head-wrestling bouts in which two male Asian water buffalo are pitted against one another. Unlike in Spanish Bullfighting, wherein bulls get killed while fighting sword-wielding men, Buffalo Fighting Festival held at Ko Samui, Thailand is fairly harmless contest. The fighting season varies according to ancient customs & ceremonies. The first Buffalo to turn and run away is considered the loser, the winning buffalo becomes worth several million baht. Ko Samui is an island in the Gulf of Thailand in the South China Sea, it is 700 km from Bangkok and is connected to it by regular flights.

- "Ma'Pasilaga Tedong" Water Buffalo Fighting Festival, in Tana Toraja Regency of Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, is a very popular event where the Rambu Solo' or a Burial Festival took place in Tana Toraja.

 

RACING FESTIVALS

Carabao Carroza Festival is being held annually every May in the town of Pavia, Iloilo, Philippines.

Kambala races of Karnataka, India, take place between December and March. The races are conducted by having the water buffalo (he buffalo) run in long parallel slushy ditches, where they are driven by men standing on wooden planks drawn by the buffalo. The objectives of the race are to finish first and to raise the water to the greatest height and also a rural sport. Kambala races are arranged with competition, as well as without competition and as a part of thanks giving (to god) in about 50 villages of coastal Karnataka.

 

In the Chonburi Province of Thailand, and in Pakistan, there are annual water buffalo races.

 

Chon Buri Water buffalo racing festival, Thailand In downtown Chonburi, 70 km south of Bangkok, at the annual water buffalo festival held in mid-October. About 300 buffalo race in groups of five or six, spurred on by bareback jockeys wielding wooden sticks, as hundreds of spectators cheer. The water buffalo has always played an important role in agriculture in Thailand. For farmers of Chon Buri Province, near Bangkok, it is an important annual festival, beginning in mid-October. It is also a celebration among rice farmers before the rice harvest. At dawn, farmers walk their buffalo through surrounding rice fields, splashing them with water to keep them cool before leading them to the race field. This amazing festival started over a hundred years ago when two men arguing about whose buffalo was the fastest ended up having a race between them. That’s how it became a tradition and gradually a social event for farmers who gathered from around the country in Chonburi to trade their goods. The festival also helps a great deal in preserving the number of buffalo, which have been dwindling at quite an alarming rate in other regions. Modern machinery is rapidly replacing buffalo in Thai agriculture. With most of the farm work mechanized, the buffalo-racing tradition has continued. Racing buffalo are now raised just to race; they do not work at all. The few farm buffalo which still do work are much bigger than the racers because of the strenuous work they perform. Farm buffalo are in the "Buffalo Beauty Pageant", a Miss Farmer beauty contest and a comic buffalo costume contest etc.. This festival perfectly exemplifies a favored Thai attitude to life — "sanuk," meaning fun.

 

Babulang Water buffalo racing festival, Sarawak, Malaysia, is the largest or grandest of the many rituals, ceremonies and festivals of the traditional Bisaya (Borneo) community of Limbang, Sarawak. Highlights are the Ratu Babulang competition and the Water buffalo races which can only be found in this town in Sarawak, Malaysia.

Vihear Suor village Water buffalo racing festival, in Cambodia, each year, people visit Buddhist temples across the country to honor their deceased loved ones during a 15-day period commonly known as the Festival of the Dead but in Vihear Suor village, about 35 km northeast of Cambodia, citizens each year wrap up the festival with a water buffalo race to entertain visitors and honour a pledge made hundreds of years ago. There was a time when many village cattle which provide rural Cambodians with muscle power to plough their fields and transport agricultural products died from an unknown disease. The villagers prayed to a spirit to help save their animals from the disease and promised to show their gratitude by holding a buffalo race each year on the last day of "P'chum Ben" festival as it is known in Cambodian. The race draws hundreds of spectators who come to see riders and their animals charge down the racing field, the racers bouncing up and down on the backs of their buffalo, whose horns were draped with colorful cloth.

Pothu puttu matsaram, Kerala, South India, is similar to Kambala races.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Obvious wintry shot, yet the first in my archive.

iPad, mitypewriter, br

Inspired by a documentary on CTG, which I saw long time ago, but only found online tonight the transcript of the rules.

 

Catherine the Great's "Rules for the Behaviour of All Those Entering These Doors"

1. All ranks shall be left outside the doors, similarly hats, and particularly swords.

2. Orders of precedence and haughtiness, and anything of such like which might result from them, shall be left at the doors.

3. Be merry, but neither spoil nor break anything, nore indeed gnaw at anything.

4. Be seated, stand or walk as it best pleases you, regardless of others.

5. Speak with moderation and not too loudly, so that others present have not an earache or headache.

6. Argue without anger or passion.

7. Do not sigh or yawn, neither bore nor fatigue others.

8. Agree to partake of any innocent entertainment suggested by others.

9. Eat well of good things, but drink with moderation so that each should be able always to find his legs on leaving these doors.

10. All disputes must stay behind closed doors; and what goes in one ear should go out the other before departing through the doors.

 

If any shall infringe the above, on evidence of two witnesses, for any crime each guilty party shall drink a glass of cold water, ladies not excepted, and read a page from the "Telemachida"* out loud.

 

Who infringes three points in one evening, shall be sentenced to learn three lines from the "Telemachida" by heart.

 

If any shall infringe the tenth point, he shall no longer be permitted entry.

 

Note: *The "Telemachida" was a contemporary Russian poem about the adventures of Telemachus, son of Odysseus, which most contemporaries found tedious and long-winded.

It still fascinates me, how different life forms, of many sizes and scales can create a micro-ecosystem directly relevant to the surface, temperatures, exposures etc. etc. etc.

The Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), also known as the Komodo monitor, is a large species of lizard found in the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang, and Padar. A member of the monitor lizard family Varanidae, it is the largest living species of lizard, growing to a maximum length of 3 metres in rare cases and weighing up to approximately 70 kilograms.

 

Their unusually large size has been attributed to island gigantism, since no other carnivorous animals fill the niche on the islands where they live. However, recent research suggests the large size of Komodo dragons may be better understood as representative of a relict population of very large varanid lizards that once lived across Indonesia and Australia, most of which, along with other megafauna, died out after the Pleistocene. Fossils very similar to V. komodoensis have been found in Australia dating to greater than 3.8 million years ago, and its body size remained stable on Flores, one of the handful of Indonesian islands where it is currently found, over the last 900,000 years, "a time marked by major faunal turnovers, extinction of the island's megafauna, and the arrival of early hominids by 880 ka [kiloannums]."

 

As a result of their size, these lizards dominate the ecosystems in which they live. Komodo dragons hunt and ambush prey including invertebrates, birds, and mammals. It has been claimed that they have a venomous bite; there are two glands in the lower jaw which secrete several toxic proteins. The biological significance of these proteins is disputed, but the glands have been shown to secrete an anticoagulant. Komodo dragon group behaviour in hunting is exceptional in the reptile world. The diet of big Komodo dragons mainly consists of deer, though they also eat considerable amounts of carrion. Komodo dragons also occasionally attack humans in the area of West Manggarai Regency where they live in Indonesia.

 

Mating begins between May and August, and the eggs are laid in September. About 20 eggs are deposited in abandoned megapode nests or in a self-dug nesting hole. The eggs are incubated for seven to eight months, hatching in April, when insects are most plentiful. Young Komodo dragons are vulnerable and therefore dwell in trees, safe from predators and cannibalistic adults. They take 8 to 9 years to mature, and are estimated to live up to 30 years.

 

Komodo dragons were first recorded by Western scientists in 1910. Their large size and fearsome reputation make them popular zoo exhibits. In the wild, their range has contracted due to human activities, and they are listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. They are protected under Indonesian law, and a national park, Komodo National Park, was founded to aid protection efforts.

 

ETYMOLOGY

The Komodo dragon is also known as the Komodo monitor or the Komodo Island monitor in scientific literature, although this is not very common. To the natives of Komodo Island, it is referred to as ora, buaya darat (land crocodile), or biawak raksasa (giant monitor).

 

EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY

The evolutionary development of the Komodo dragon started with the Varanus genus, which originated in Asia about 40 million years ago and migrated to Australia. Around 15 million years ago, a collision between Australia and Southeast Asia allowed the varanids to move into what is now the Indonesian archipelago, extending their range as far east as the island of Timor. The Komodo dragon was believed to have differentiated from its Australian ancestors 4 million years ago. However, recent fossil evidence from Queensland suggests the Komodo dragon evolved in Australia before spreading to Indonesia. Dramatic lowering of sea level during the last glacial period uncovered extensive stretches of continental shelf that the Komodo dragon colonized, becoming isolated in their present island range as sea levels rose afterwards.

 

DESCRIPTION

In the wild, an adult Komodo dragon usually weighs around 70 kg, although captive specimens often weigh more. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, an average adult male will weigh 79 to 91 kg and measure 2.59 m, while an average female will weigh 68 to 73 kg and measure 2.29 m. The largest verified wild specimen was 3.13 m long and weighed 166 kg, including undigested food. The Komodo dragon has a tail as long as its body, as well as about 60 frequently replaced, serrated teeth that can measure up to 2.5 cm in length. Its saliva is frequently blood-tinged, because its teeth are almost completely covered by gingival tissue that is naturally lacerated during feeding. This creates an ideal culture for the bacteria that live in its mouth. It also has a long, yellow, deeply forked tongue. Komodo dragon skin is reinforced by armoured scales, which contain tiny bones called osteoderms that function as a sort of natural chain-mail. This rugged hide makes Komodo dragon skin poorly suited for making into leather.

 

SENSES

As with other Varanids, Komodo dragons have only a single ear bone, the stapes, for transferring vibrations from the tympanic membrane to the cochlea. This arrangement means they are likely restricted to sounds in the 400 to 2,000 hertz range, compared to humans who hear between 20 and 20,000 hertz. It was formerly thought to be deaf when a study reported no agitation in wild Komodo dragons in response to whispers, raised voices, or shouts. This was disputed when London Zoological Garden employee Joan Proctor trained a captive specimen to come out to feed at the sound of her voice, even when she could not be seen.

 

The Komodo dragon can see objects as far away as 300 m, but because its retinas only contain cones, it is thought to have poor night vision. The Komodo dragon is able to see in color, but has poor visual discrimination of stationary objects.

The Komodo dragon uses its tongue to detect, taste, and smell stimuli, as with many other reptiles, with the vomeronasal sense using the Jacobson's organ, rather than using the nostrils. With the help of a favorable wind and its habit of swinging its head from side to side as it walks, a Komodo dragon may be able to detect carrion from 4–9.5 km away. It only has a few taste buds in the back of its throat. Its scales, some of which are reinforced with bone, have sensory plaques connected to nerves to facilitate its sense of touch. The scales around the ears, lips, chin, and soles of the feet may have three or more sensory plaques.

 

BEHAVIOUR AND ECOLOGY

The Komodo dragon prefers hot and dry places, and typically lives in dry, open grassland, savanna, and tropical forest at low elevations. As an ectotherm, it is most active in the day, although it exhibits some nocturnal activity. Komodo dragons are solitary, coming together only to breed and eat. They are capable of running rapidly in brief sprints up to 20 km/h, diving up to 4.5 m, and climbing trees proficiently when young through use of their strong claws. To catch out-of-reach prey, the Komodo dragon may stand on its hind legs and use its tail as a support. As it matures, its claws are used primarily as weapons, as its great size makes climbing impractical.

 

For shelter, the Komodo dragon digs holes that can measure from 1–3 m wide with its powerful forelimbs and claws. Because of its large size and habit of sleeping in these burrows, it is able to conserve body heat throughout the night and minimize its basking period the morning after. The Komodo dragon hunts in the afternoon, but stays in the shade during the hottest part of the day. These special resting places, usually located on ridges with cool sea breezes, are marked with droppings and are cleared of vegetation. They serve as strategic locations from which to ambush deer.

 

DIET

Komodo dragons are carnivores. Although they eat mostly carrion, they will also ambush live prey with a stealthy approach. When suitable prey arrives near a dragon's ambush site, it will suddenly charge at the animal and go for the underside or the throat. It is able to locate its prey using its keen sense of smell, which can locate a dead or dying animal from a range of up to 9.5 km. Komodo dragons have been observed knocking down large pigs and deer with their strong tails.

 

Komodo dragons eat by tearing large chunks of flesh and swallowing them whole while holding the carcass down with their forelegs. For smaller prey up to the size of a goat, their loosely articulated jaws, flexible skulls, and expandable stomachs allow them to swallow prey whole. The vegetable contents of the stomach and intestines are typically avoided. Copious amounts of red saliva the Komodo dragons produce help to lubricate the food, but swallowing is still a long process (15–20 minutes to swallow a goat). A Komodo dragon may attempt to speed up the process by ramming the carcass against a tree to force it down its throat, sometimes ramming so forcefully, the tree is knocked down. To prevent itself from suffocating while swallowing, it breathes using a small tube under the tongue that connects to the lungs. After eating up to 80% of its body weight in one meal, it drags itself to a sunny location to speed digestion, as the food could rot and poison the dragon if left undigested for too long. Because of their slow metabolism, large dragons can survive on as little as 12 meals a year. After digestion, the Komodo dragon regurgitates a mass of horns, hair, and teeth known as the gastric pellet, which is covered in malodorous mucus. After regurgitating the gastric pellet, it rubs its face in the dirt or on bushes to get rid of the mucus, suggesting, like humans, it does not relish the scent of its own excretions.

 

The largest animals eat first, while the smaller ones follow a hierarchy. The largest male asserts his dominance and the smaller males show their submission by use of body language and rumbling hisses. Dragons of equal size may resort to "wrestling". Losers usually retreat, though they have been known to be killed and eaten by victors.

 

The Komodo dragon's diet is wide-ranging, and includes invertebrates, other reptiles (including smaller Komodo dragons), birds, bird eggs, small mammals, monkeys, wild boar, goats, deer, horses, and water buffalo. Young Komodos will eat insects, eggs, geckos, and small mammals. Occasionally, they consume humans and human corpses, digging up bodies from shallow graves. This habit of raiding graves caused the villagers of Komodo to move their graves from sandy to clay ground and pile rocks on top of them to deter the lizards. The Komodo dragon may have evolved to feed on the extinct dwarf elephant Stegodon that once lived on Flores, according to evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond.

 

The Komodo dragon drinks by sucking water into its mouth via buccal pumping (a process also used for respiration), lifting its head, and letting the water run down its throat.

 

SALIVA

Auffenberg described the Komodo dragon as having septic pathogens in its saliva (he described the saliva as "reddish and copious"), specifically the bacteria E. coli, Staphylococcus sp., Providencia sp., Proteus morgani, and P. mirabilis. He noted, while these pathogens can be found in the mouths of wild Komodo dragons, they disappear from the mouths of captive animals, due to cleaner diets and the use of antibiotics. This was verified by taking mucous samples from the external gum surfaces of the upper jaws of two freshly captured individuals. Saliva samples were analyzed by researchers at the University of Texas, who found 57 strains of bacteria growing in the mouths of three wild Komodo dragons, including Pasteurella multocida. The rapid growth of these bacteria was noted by Fredeking: "Normally it takes about three days for a sample of P. multocida to cover a Petri dish; ours took eight hours. We were very taken aback by how virulent these strains were". This study supported the observation that wounds inflicted by the Komodo dragon are often associated with sepsis and subsequent infections in prey animals. How the Komodo dragon is unaffected by these virulent bacteria remains a mystery.Research in 2013 suggested that the bacteria in the mouths of komodo dragons are ordinary and similar to those found in other carnivores. They actually have surprisingly good mouth hygiene. As Bryan Fry put it: "After they are done feeding, they will spend 10 to 15 minutes lip-licking and rubbing their head in the leaves to clean their mouth... Unlike people have been led to believe, they do not have chunks of rotting flesh from their meals on their teeth, cultivating bacteria." The observation of prey dying of sepsis would then be explained by the natural instinct of water buffalos, who are not native to the islands where the Komodo dragon lives, to run into water when attacked. The warm, feces filled water would then cause the infections. The study used samples from 16 captive dragons (10 adults and six neonates) from three U.S. zoos.

 

VENOM

In late 2005, researchers at the University of Melbourne speculated the perentie (Varanus giganteus), other species of monitors, and agamids may be somewhat venomous. The team believes the immediate effects of bites from these lizards were caused by mild envenomation. Bites on human digits by a lace monitor (V. varius), a Komodo dragon, and a spotted tree monitor (V. scalaris) all produced similar effects: rapid swelling, localized disruption of blood clotting, and shooting pain up to the elbow, with some symptoms lasting for several hours.

 

In 2009, the same researchers published further evidence demonstrating Komodo dragons possess a venomous bite. MRI scans of a preserved skull showed the presence of two glands in the lower jaw. The researchers extracted one of these glands from the head of a terminally ill specimen in the Singapore Zoological Gardens, and found it secreted several different toxic proteins. The known functions of these proteins include inhibition of blood clotting, lowering of blood pressure, muscle paralysis, and the induction of hypothermia, leading to shock and loss of consciousness in envenomated prey. As a result of the discovery, the previous theory that bacteria were responsible for the deaths of Komodo victims was disputed.

 

Kurt Schwenk, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut, finds the discovery of these glands intriguing, but considers most of the evidence for venom in the study to be "meaningless, irrelevant, incorrect or falsely misleading". Even if the lizards have venom-like proteins in their mouths, Schwenk argues, they may be using them for a different function, and he doubts venom is necessary to explain the effect of a Komodo dragon bite, arguing that shock and blood loss are the primary factors.

 

Other scientists such as Washington State University's Biologist Kenneth V. Kardong and Toxicologists Scott A. Weinstein and Tamara L. Smith, have stated that this allegation of venom glands "has had the effect of underestimating the variety of complex roles played by oral secretions in the biology of reptiles, produced a very narrow view of oral secretions and resulted in misinterpretation of reptilian evolution". According to these scientists "reptilian oral secretions contribute to many biological roles other than to quickly dispatch prey". These researchers concluded that, "Calling all in this clade venomous implies an overall potential danger that does not exist, misleads in the assessment of medical risks, and confuses the biological assessment of squamate biochemical systems".

 

REPRODUCTION

Mating occurs between May and August, with the eggs laid in September. During this period, males fight over females and territory by grappling with one another upon their hind legs, with the loser eventually being pinned to the ground. These males may vomit or defecate when preparing for the fight. The winner of the fight will then flick his long tongue at the female to gain information about her receptivity. Females are antagonistic and resist with their claws and teeth during the early phases of courtship. Therefore, the male must fully restrain the female during coitus to avoid being hurt. Other courtship displays include males rubbing their chins on the female, hard scratches to the back, and licking. Copulation occurs when the male inserts one of his hemipenes into the female's cloaca. Komodo dragons may be monogamous and form "pair bonds", a rare behavior for lizards. Female Komodos lay their eggs from August to September and may use several types of locality; in one study, 60% laid their eggs in the nests of orange-footed scrubfowl (a moundbuilder or megapode), 20% on ground level and 20% in hilly areas. The females make many camouflage nests/holes to prevent other dragons from eating the eggs. Clutches contain an average of 20 eggs, which have an incubation period of 7–8 months. Hatching is an exhausting effort for the neonates, which break out of their eggshells with an egg tooth that falls off soon after. After cutting themselves out, the hatchlings may lie in their eggshells for hours before starting to dig out of the nest. They are born quite defenseless and are vulnerable to predation. Sixteen youngsters from a single nest were on average 46.5 cm long and weighed 105.1 grams. Young Komodo dragons spend much of their first few years in trees, where they are relatively safe from predators, including cannibalistic adults, as juvenile dragons make up 10% of their diets. The habit of cannibalism may be advantageous in sustaining the large size of adults, as medium-sized prey on the islands is rare. When the young approach a kill, they roll around in fecal matter and rest in the intestines of eviscerated animals to deter these hungry adults. Komodo dragons take approximately three to five years to mature, and may live for up to 50 years.

 

PARTHENOGENESIS

A Komodo dragon at London Zoo named Sungai laid a clutch of eggs in late 2005 after being separated from male company for more than two years. Scientists initially assumed she had been able to store sperm from her earlier encounter with a male, an adaptation known as superfecundation. On 20 December 2006, it was reported that Flora, a captive Komodo dragon living in the Chester Zoo in England, was the second known Komodo dragon to have laid unfertilized eggs: she laid 11 eggs, and seven of them hatched, all of them male. Scientists at Liverpool University in England performed genetic tests on three eggs that collapsed after being moved to an incubator, and verified Flora had never been in physical contact with a male dragon. After Flora's eggs' condition had been discovered, testing showed Sungai's eggs were also produced without outside fertilization. On 31 January 2008, the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, became the first zoo in the Americas to document parthenogenesis in Komodo dragons. The zoo has two adult female Komodo dragons, one of which laid about 17 eggs on 19–20 May 2007. Only two eggs were incubated and hatched due to space issues; the first hatched on 31 January 2008, while the second hatched on 1 February. Both hatchlings were males.

 

Komodo dragons have the ZW chromosomal sex-determination system, as opposed to the mammalian XY system. Male progeny prove Flora's unfertilized eggs were haploid (n) and doubled their chromosomes later to become diploid (2n) (by being fertilized by a polar body, or by chromosome duplication without cell division), rather than by her laying diploid eggs by one of the meiosis reduction-divisions in her ovaries failing. When a female Komodo dragon (with ZW sex chromosomes) reproduces in this manner, she provides her progeny with only one chromosome from each of her pairs of chromosomes, including only one of her two sex chromosomes. This single set of chromosomes is duplicated in the egg, which develops parthenogenetically. Eggs receiving a Z chromosome become ZZ (male); those receiving a W chromosome become WW and fail to develop, meaning that only males are produced by parthenogenesis in this species.

 

It has been hypothesized that this reproductive adaptation allows a single female to enter an isolated ecological niche (such as an island) and by parthenogenesis produce male offspring, thereby establishing a sexually reproducing population (via reproduction with her offspring that can result in both male and female young). Despite the advantages of such an adaptation, zoos are cautioned that parthenogenesis may be detrimental to genetic diversity.

 

HISTORY

DISCOVERY BY THE WESTERN WORLD

Komodo dragons were first documented by Europeans in 1910, when rumors of a "land crocodile" reached Lieutenant van Steyn van Hensbroek of the Dutch colonial administration. Widespread notoriety came after 1912, when Peter Ouwens, the director of the Zoological Museum at Bogor, Java, published a paper on the topic after receiving a photo and a skin from the lieutenant, as well as two other specimens from a collector. The first two live Komodo dragons to arrive in Europe were exhibited in the Reptile House at London Zoo when it opened in 1927. Joan Beauchamp Procter made some of the earliest observations of these animals in captivity and she demonstrated the behaviour of one of these animals at a Scientific Meeting of the Zoological Society of London in 1928. The Komodo dragon was the driving factor for an expedition to Komodo Island by W. Douglas Burden in 1926. After returning with 12 preserved specimens and 2 live ones, this expedition provided the inspiration for the 1933 movie King Kong. It was also Burden who coined the common name "Komodo dragon." Three of his specimens were stuffed and are still on display in the American Museum of Natural History.

 

STUDIES

The Dutch, realizing the limited number of individuals in the wild, outlawed sport hunting and heavily limited the number of individuals taken for scientific study. Collecting expeditions ground to a halt with the occurrence of World War II, not resuming until the 1950s and 1960s, when studies examined the Komodo dragon's feeding behavior, reproduction, and body temperature. At around this time, an expedition was planned in which a long-term study of the Komodo dragon would be undertaken. This task was given to the Auffenberg family, who stayed on Komodo Island for 11 months in 1969. During their stay, Walter Auffenberg and his assistant Putra Sastrawan captured and tagged more than 50 Komodo dragons. The research from the Auffenberg expedition would prove to be enormously influential in raising Komodo dragons in captivity. Research after that of the Auffenberg family has shed more light on the nature of the Komodo dragon, with biologists such as Claudio Ciofi continuing to study the creatures.

 

CONSERVATION

The Komodo dragon is a vulnerable species and is on the IUCN Red List. There are approximately 4,000 to 5,000 living Komodo dragons in the wild. Their populations are restricted to the islands of Gili Motang (100), Gili Dasami (100), Rinca (1,300), Komodo (1,700), and Flores (perhaps 2,000). However, there are concerns that there may presently be only 350 breeding females. To address these concerns, the Komodo National Park was founded in 1980 to protect Komodo dragon populations on islands including Komodo, Rinca, and Padar. Later, the Wae Wuul and Wolo Tado Reserves were opened on Flores to aid with Komodo dragon conservation.

 

Komodo dragons avoid encounters with humans. Juveniles are very shy and will flee quickly into a hideout if a human comes closer than about 100 metres. Older animals will also retreat from humans from a shorter distance away. If cornered, they will react aggressively by gaping their mouth, hissing, and swinging their tail. If they are disturbed further, they may start an attack and bite. Although there are anecdotes of unprovoked Komodo dragons attacking or preying on humans, most of these reports are either not reputable or caused by defensive bites. Only a very few cases are truly the result of unprovoked attacks by abnormal individuals, which lost their fear towards humans.

 

Volcanic activity, earthquakes, loss of habitat, fire, loss of prey due to poaching, tourism, and illegal poaching of the dragons themselves have all contributed to the vulnerable status of the Komodo dragon. Under Appendix I of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), commercial trade of skins or specimens is illegal.

 

On Padar, a former population of the Komodo dragon became extinct, of which the last individuals were seen in 1975. It is widely assumed that the Komodo dragon died out on Padar after a strong decline of the populations of large ungulate prey, for which poaching was most likely responsible.

 

IN CAPTIVITY

Komodo dragons have long been great zoo attractions, where their size and reputation make them popular exhibits. They are, however, rare in zoos because they are susceptible to infection and parasitic disease if captured from the wild, and do not readily reproduce. As of May 2009, there were 13 European, 2 African, 35 North American, 1 Singaporean, and 2 Australian institutions that kept Komodo dragons.

 

The first Komodo dragons were displayed at London Zoo in 1927. A Komodo dragon was exhibited in 1934 at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., but it lived for only two years. More attempts to exhibit Komodo dragons were made, but the lifespan of these animals was very short, averaging five years in the National Zoological Park. Studies done by Walter Auffenberg, which were documented in his book The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor, eventually allowed for more successful managing and reproducing of the dragons in captivity.

 

A variety of behaviors have been observed from captive specimens. Most individuals are relatively tame within a short time, and are capable of recognizing individual humans and discriminating between familiar keepers. Komodo dragons have also been observed to engage in play with a variety of objects, including shovels, cans, plastic rings, and shoes. This behavior does not seem to be "food-motivated predatory behavior".

 

Even seemingly docile dragons may become unpredictably aggressive, especially when the animal's territory is invaded by someone unfamiliar. In June 2001, a Komodo dragon seriously injured Phil Bronstein, the then husband of actress Sharon Stone, when he entered its enclosure at the Los Angeles Zoo after being invited in by its keeper. Bronstein was bitten on his bare foot, as the keeper had told him to take off his white shoes and socks, which the keeper stated could potentially excite the Komodo dragon as they were the same color as the white rats the zoo fed the dragon. Although he escaped, Bronstein needed to have several tendons in his foot reattached surgically.

 

IN POPULARE CULTURE

Komodo dragons are used as a main theme in Komodo (1999), Curse of the Komodo (2004) and Komodo vs. Cobra (2005).

 

The comedy team of Bob and Ray performed a popular sketch entitled "The Komodo Dragon Expert."

 

The plot of the 1990 film, The Freshman, involves a university freshman, an aging mobster and a Komodo dragon.

 

In the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall, one of the Chinese henchmen in a casino that Bond visits in Macau is overtaken, dragged off and presumably killed by a Komodo dragon.

 

WIKIPEDIA

City Rock Festival Sept 17th 1977

Hosted By John Peel

The Damned (never played see below)

Eddie And The Hot Rods

Doctors Of Madness

Lew Lewis Band

Chelsea

Slaughter And The Dogs

Asward

Fruit Eating Bears

John Cooper Clarke

Glory

Solid Waste

tickets £3.00 advance or £3.50p on the gate.

 

City rock, the first ever punk festival in September 1977 and hosted by John Peel, but unfortunately things did not go to plan. Bob Mardon promoter who attempted to save Chelmsford City Football Club and make it as a big time promoter found his show ending in shambles. Only 1500 young punks turned up for the event on a perfect sunny September day, in fact only 500 tickets had been sold in advance of the show.

Promoter Bob Mardon an ex-college dance organiser announced after coming out of hiding that he was broke with personal debt of £14.000. Now in 1977 that was a lot of money with the new Ford Capri selling at £3000 and a 3 bedroom house at about £10.000, average wage £78.00 per week.

First Punk Rock Show Ever

 

The day before the show local newspapers report and speculate on the event reporting a mass security operation in the town to deal with the 15000 punks expected all with a reputation of anti social behaviour. A spokesman from the event said “we have enough bouncers to handle anything unless it turns into a riot, inside the ground there will be 90 bouncers and seven patrol dogs while police will monitor the situation outside the stadium”

 

A late publicity campain was launched with 3500 posters splashed around centrel London. Mardon was now under exstream pressure as builders demanded cash for alteration work at the football ground but remained posative about the show expecting a late rush on tickets. Asked how many people would attend he said "we don't know what will happen, it's like going to play a football match without knowing if we will win. we hope we can"

 

Martin Havelin local record shop owner and board member at CCFC is also involved and was hoping to raise £5000 for the football club. It was reported after that he had in fact lost £7000 of his own money.

Despite only 1500 punks and music fans turning up, the show went on. Comparing John Peel introduced the artist onto the stage. I was at the festival, I had looked forward to the event ever since its announcement. I was a part time punk, as if I had gone to work looking anything remotely like a punk you would have been sent home or sacked. So before a punk gig I would spray my hair sliver, gel and spike it up. I had an old Baddow Comprehensive School blazer that was ripped with chains hanging, A swastika badge pinned on, old ripped drain pipe jeans with anti social graffiti on, with silver DM's and anything I could wear that would disgust people.

The Jam and Generation X pull out of the show due to poor ticket sales and the head-liner's are rapidly replaced by Barry Master's band from Southend On Sea “Eddie and The Hot Rods” .

 

Things backstage at the show soon started to turn sour as angry bouncers demanded payment from Mardon who had locked himself into the his office at the ground. News got out on Anglia TV that stewards had left the site and anyone could now get get in for nothing, this did attract a few more into the stadium. Some friends of mine the Harrison family been Sue, John and Mark came along after hearing the TV report and filled us in on the media reports. But Punks in the ground were now getting angry as news spread that the show may be cancelled, John Peel appealed for calm but was pelted with bottles as the punks became increasingly mad. Plastic bags full of urine were also thrown onto the stage, with one band "Asward" been pelted of stage, Peel said "one more can thrown and the band will walk off and immediately they were pelted bt many cans.

 

Despite this all the bands on the bill above played apart from the Damned who refused to play unless they were paid. (they felt gilty after and returned to the Chancellor Hall some weeks later and played for free.) As Richard Strange played with his band Doctors Of Madness one dis crumpled scaffolder who was not going to be paid started to dismantle the stage during the performance this continued when Eddie and The Hot Rods closed the festival.

As Punks enjoy the music my biggest fears for the festival had become a reality as it was turning into a major flop. I had talked at length at the time with fellow punk mates and we felt that the band to have filled that stadium at the time would have been the Sex Pistols. In hindsight its easy to look back but here is my pefect line up for 1977 The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam, Sham 69, X Ray Spex, Generation X, Buzzcocks, Sioxsie And The Banshees, The Adverts.

 

Maurice Hyde

  

Duncan Egleton Looks Back At The Chelmsford Punk Festival 1977 & The Damned / 999 Free Chancellor Hall Gig

  

I have a bit of a confession to make; I never went to this one. I did have a good reason though, a week before the festival we were out celebrating with one of the lads I went to school withs, 19th birthday. Gary Cove. We had a night out at Chelmsford’s only night club at the time, Deejays. If you remember it, it was at a time when everything shut at 11. I can even recall that the closing times for pubs used to be 10.30 during the week and 11 at the weekend and I think that Sundays used to be 10. In the summer it got better as the weekdays changed to 11. Anyway Deejays used to be quite a scary place, a hangout for the Melbourne and Boarded Barns lads, all a little bit older than us with fearsome reputations. They always played the Feelgood classic “Back in the night” there and to get the late licence they had to sell Chicken and Chips in a basket. That night I had shitloads of beer (and chicken and chips) and was so pissed I did not remember a thing until I awoke in hospital the next day. My leg was in a full plaster and was broken. Apparently while walking home along Parkway where the Kings Head meadow used to be (now Tesco home and wear), I tried to be a matador with a passing motorbike and came of worse. I can not remember a thing but my mates thought I had killed the motorbiker as he was screaming and rolling about in agony, so they tried to carry me off away from any Police investigation. The biker had a couple of grazes and I had a broken leg which kept me off work for 6 months. The motorbike hit the railings of the meadow and put a big dent into them. Luckily for me my dad had an insurance which covered all of costs. The thieving bastards from the council even charged for the railings. I wouldn’t have minded but that dent was there until the railings were taken away when they built on there several years later.

  

I was absolutley gutted that I couldn’t go as it’s not everyday that your town hosts a national festival which was going to be so well attended to put the town well on the map. I can remember the excitement and anticipation of the upcoming event. A new bridge over the River Can had to be built ( see image click to enlarge), the local papers were full of the prospect of the invaiding filth that was to come. Anyway the rest is history, a flop. Typical Chelmsford. I felt sorry for the people involved, Martin Haviland; I think he used to own a real cool record shop in New London Rd, Ecstasy Records. This was a proper record shop where you could listen to anything you wanted to on headphones. That’s if you could get a pair due to all the old hippies in there, who never seemed to do or be anywhere else. The festival was all that was wrong with Chelmsford at the time, it was never supported and seen as a benifit for the town. Much like the Chelmsford Spectacular, the council gave up on that, when it made a loss, seeming to worry more about a handfull of people who take their dogs for a walk than the majority of people. This was a great family weekend now sadly gone. How long was it before Chelmsford got more night clubs other than Deejays? There are now a host of clubs and bars (sadly too late for me) which youngsters come from miles to go to for a night out, who reckon Chelmsford is a great place to live.

 

It’s a shame as I was only housebound for about 2 weeks but the festival was just the week after. I did get to see the Damned at the free gig at (90p to cover hall cost's, see ticket) the Chancellor. Trying to get up

 

those stairs with a plaster on was hard work. A few of my mates went on an emergency rush to London to stick up posters around the capital the night before the City Punk festival to try to drum up support. I know that one of them has a few in his loft still. A nice piece of local history. If I had of been there, it would have been the Damned and Slaughter and the dogs that I would have like too seen. Nowadays it would be Lew Lewis and the Rods.

 

A good festival lineup for those times would be Patti Smith Band, The Jam, The Pistols, Dr Feelgood, the Clash, Penetration, 999, Iggy Pop and I would have loved to have seen handsome Dick Manitoba with the Dictators.

  

I broke my wrist the year after playing football luckilly nothing since then.

 

Duncan

 

chelmsfordrocks.com

the female (on right of image) had clearly been busy re-excavating the burrow (damp mud on bill & feet) & was expecting her reward from her partner. For some reason, the male seemed to change his mind &, at the last moment, attempted to retrieve his gift (I'm pleased to report he didn't get it back !).

I was up at one of our local churchyards for my walk this morning when I noticed this female Mallard.

She was quacking away and then flew up into a hole in a tree, if she's nesting there I worry about the babies when they hatch.

The pond is just across a fairly busy road if they try to get there.

Heading for Hurlford and a reunion with my twin-brother and some pals from our schooldays way back in the 1950's I stopped at the Friars Carse Country House Hotel a few miles north of Dumfries on the twisty A76. Originally built as a home for the Riddell family Friars Carse was regularly visited by Robert Burns during his tenancy of nearby Ellisland Farm. He became a firm friend of Captain Robert Riddell though on one occasion it appears that Burns overstepped the mark of good behaviour and offended Captain Riddell's wife. Despite a grovelling apology she never forgave him. Heavy drinking was a feature of nights at Friars Carse and its easy to imaging things getting out of hand, boys will be boys and Rabbie was a fully paid-up member of the club! Its recorded that while a guest at the house Burns would take himself off to the quiet of this sheltered"hermitage" and sit enjoying the the woodland views over the river Nith and compose. The following verse was written by Burns at the Hermitage in 1788:-

 

LINES WRITTEN IN FRIARS CARSE HERMITAGE

 

Thou who chance may hither lead,

Be thou clad in russet weed,

Be thou deckt in silken stole,

Grave these counsels on thy sole.

Life is but a day at most,

Sprung up from night – in darkness lost;

Hope not sunshine every hour,

Fear not clouds will always lour.

 

Here is an exchange of poems between Robert Burns and Robert Riddell;

 

FROM ROBERT RIDDELL TO BURNS:

 

Dear Bard

To ride this day is vain

For it will be a steeping rain

So come and sit with me

Wee'l twa or three leaves fill up with scraps

And whiles fill up the time with Cracks

And spend the day with glee.

 

FROM ROBERT BURNS TO ROBERT RIDDELL

 

Dear Sir, at ony time or tide

I'd rather sit wi' you than ride,

Tho' 'twere wi' royal Geordie:

And trowth your kindness soon and late

Aft gars me to mysel look blate

The Lord in Heaven Reward Ye!

 

During Robert Riddell's tenure at Friars Carse the house was known by the name of Glenriddel but reverted to its former title following his death, an event commemorated by Burns who wrote the following verses: -

 

SONNET ON THE DEATH OF ROBERT RIDDELL ESQ OF GLENRIDDEL

 

No more, ye warblers of the wood! no more;

Nor pour your descant grating on my soul;

Thou young-eyed Spring! gay in thy verdant stole,

More welcome were to me grim Winter's wildest roar.

 

How can ye charm, ye flowers, with all your dyes?

Ye blow upon the sod that wraps my friend!

How can I to the tuneful strain attend?

That strain flows round the untimely tomb where Riddell lies.

 

Yes, pour, ye warblers! pour the notes of woe,

And soothe the Virtues weeping o'er his bier:

The man of worth-and hath not left his peer!

Is in his "narrow house," for ever darkly low.

 

Thee, Spring! again with joy shall others greet;

Me, memory of my loss will only meet.

 

Robert Burns 1759-1796

Robert Riddell 1755-1794

 

For a view of the House see: www.flickr.com/photos/8521690@N02/8437882712/in/photolist...

 

OOAK Ayumi Nakamura by me 💘

Natalia Fatale

Every summer the waters of Witless Bay, Newfoundland welcome a large number of Humpback Whales that come to feed on the abundant caplin and krill. It is a perfect opportunity to watch various behaviours such as lobtailing. The whale repeatedly lifts its flukes out of the water, slapping it with the ventral surface.

St Aidan's Nature Park

Governments around the world are drawing on behavioural insights to improve public policy outcomes: from automatic enrolment for pensions, to better tax compliance, to increasing the supply of organ donation.

 

But those very same policy makers are also subject to biases that can distort decision making. The Behavioural Insights Team has been studying those biases and what can be done to counter them, in collaboration with Jill Rutter and Julian McCrae of the Institute for Government.

 

The report was launched with remarks from Alex Chisholm, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.

 

Dr Michael Hallsworth, Director of the Behavioural Insights Team in North America presented the key findings.

 

The findings, their relevance to policy making today, and what they mean for the way governments make decisions were discussed by:

 

Polly Mackenzie, Director of Policy for the Deputy Prime Minister, 2010–15 and now Director of Demos

 

Dr Tony Curzon Price, Economic Advisor to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

 

The event was chaired by Jill Rutter, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.

 

#IfGBIT

 

Photos by Candice McKenzie

211/2/2015

Nestlé Research Center studies behaviour to understand drivers of pleasure and healthy food choices.

  

7.6.2025.

RSPB - Bempton cliffs.

© Jonne Kingma Photography

 

Model: Marissa

Comparing ƒ stop changes in Bodie, California — from ƒ2.0 to ƒ8.0.

 

Behaviour of old film lenses.

The difference of using a manual focus ƒ2.0 35mm film lens for putting the world onto a CMOS sensor instead of film.

 

The twists and bends, the skew of details, the uneven light has a toll.

 

This is a part of California/Nevada 2012 Photo Trip.

22 February 2015. Stoneleigh Road N17.

 

In my opinion, our local street cleaners - working for Veolia - do a good job; collecting and bagging waste in the company's purple bags.

 

Which are supposed to be collected reasonably quickly.

 

But while the "official" bags await collection, they act like a "magnet" - tacitly encouraging a few people to add their own waste bags to the pile.

Photographed for a personal project at Stephansplatz, Vienna, Austria. 21 September 2023

 

A candid street photograph showing a crowd next to Stephansdom (St Stephen's Cathedral), Vienna. A popular hotspot for tourists, it’s a common sight to see people photographing it, and posing for photos next to it.

Tried to take a picture of a really pretty Robin in a tree, right when I took the pic it took flight. For a minute I was annoyed at how not clear the image is, but then I realized I had captured a pretty awesome moment!

A little touch of mud not snow for a change

this is 9 seconds sequence

A distant shot but at least with the action spread out you don't require such a drastic crop.

St Aidan's Nature Park.

Male Buffalo beetles use their wings to move between populations and search out females.

 

Video by Chris Boccia

After observing the behaviour of all 15 livestock guardian dogs for several hours today, this guy was definitely in charge. More aloof than the other dogs and was always watching what was going on. If any of the other dogs were unsure about a situation they would glance across at him. If they started barking he was there in a jiffy!

 

www.linkedin.com/pulse/livestock-guardian-dogs-role-large...

 

www.wildtransylvania.com

Buffalo beetles forage on the ground, and are usually found feeding on fallen fruit and other vegetable detritus.

 

Video by Chris Boccia

Continued from: www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/52652408863/in/datepos...

 

My Master’s Wrath and Mercy

 

رَبَّنَاۤ إِنَّكَ مَن تُدۡخِلِ ٱلنَّارَ فَقَدۡ أَخۡزَیۡتَهُۥۖ وَمَا لِلظَّـٰلِمِینَ مِنۡ أَنصَارࣲ

Our Lord! Indeed [You] whom You admit in the Fire then surely You (have) disgraced him, and not for the wrongdoers (are) any helpers.

Surah Aal e Imran, Verse 192

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Rabbana innaka man tudkhil in-naar: O my Lord! Indeed You are the one who admits into the Fire, so surely…

 

Akhzaytahu: you have disgraced him and made him (stuck) in the narrowness of imkaan, possibilities, imprisoned, punished, exiled (from Your Self), because they wronged themselves with their focus upon those other than You…

 

Wa ma lid-daalimeen: and there isn’t for the transgressors, the ones who have firmly placed themselves in the shadows of imkaan, possibilities…

 

Min ansaar: any helper who can help them and make them exit from those possibilities, except for the one who received permission from You to (be a helper) and make them exit from the possibilites from amongst the Prophets and the Auliya, Your Friends, after Your granting ability to them by the sending of the Messengers.

 

On the evening of that second day of hell, I went to the shrine near my house. I did not ask the blessed person of the shrine for anything. Not for relief, not for some understanding of how I had become so entrapped in a thought that only appeared to be nonsensical. I couldn’t even discuss it with anyone. Not that there was anyone to discuss it with! I sat there like a zombie for a while and then left. I knew in my silence, I had surrendered the matter in any case.

 

When I entered my bedroom, I saw a copy of Al Fath Ar Rabbani that I didn’t use for my regular reading. Qari Sahib had gifted it to me but it was much heavier and larger than my Urdu copy. This one had a side by side Arabic to Urdu translation on each page. I prayed the prayer of the istakhara and pried the book open to a random page.

 

Al Fath Ar Rabbani:

 

It started with a verse:

 

وَمَن یَتَّقِ ٱللَّهَ یَجۡعَل لَّهُۥ مَخۡرَجࣰا

 

And whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out,

 

وَیَرۡزُقۡهُ مِنۡ حَیۡثُ لَا یَحۡتَسِبُۚ

 

And He will provide for him from where he doesn’t think (it is possible).

 

Surah At Talaq, Verse 2-3

 

I didn’t look up the exegesis of the verse then. Qari Sahib wasn’t there anyway and I really wanted to know what the rest of the page said.

 

“(The above verse) closed the door of depending on means. It closed the door of the wealthy and the kings and opened the door of tawakkul, reliance. The one who was mindful, the reward for him is that He, Subhanahu, will make relief for him and a way out from what is constricted for (other) people.”

 

The first two lines gave me pause. Doors had been spoken about earlier. Now Ghaus Pak (ra) was closing them. Two of the people I happened to be thinking of were in fact rich. They were wealthy. That had never played into our interaction in terms of a factor. There wasn’t a remarkable difference in our life styles. But the mention was specific for a reason. That was not lost on me.

 

I continued to read each word, carefully going back and forth from the Arabic to the Urdu.

 

“What should I do with you, say to you? You would have been heard if you called the living but he is not alive, the one you call.”

 

From the word “alive” I knew again that I had already been told, warned, alerted by all those verses about the dead and the graves, the deaf and the blind. Not once but repeatedly. Each time gently. After translating the verses I had always felt calm. Then just like that I would forget them as if they had never even appeared.

 

Then in the next line, Ghaus Pak (ra) expressed his fury at my own “prolonged” state of stubborn-ness and ignorance and he didn’t mince his words.

 

“Your heart is empty of islam, surrender and imaan, faith and iqaan, certainty. There is no Ma’rifat, Divine Recognition, for you. There is no ilm, knowledge, for you. For you are only hawas, indulging in foolish behaviour that is dangerous, therefore speaking to you is a waste.”

 

That’s when my heart first felt fear. Never ever before had Ghaus Pak (ra) said anything remotely harsh to me. Speaking to me was a waste of his time? I just stared at the words in disbelief.

 

“O hypocrites! You were contented with words about tawakkul, reliance upon Allah, with your tongues while your hearts are mushrik, worshippers of other gods in Creation. My heart is filled with anger towards you out of ardency (of love) for Allah Azzo Jal. If you are silent and you leave your rivalry (with Him), it is better, otherwise your houses will be burned.”

My heartbeat increased. I stopped reading.

 

“Your houses will be burned.” “My heart is filled with anger.” I felt scared to read the next line.

 

But then I saw that it was a prayer. For it was addressing Subhanahu and it started with the words, “Ya Haailo…”

It was a new Name of Allah for me. The word existed in Urdu as well. I knew what it mean. Haa’il, that which comes in between. I peered at the next words closely, fearfully. And it said:

 

يا حائل بين الماء المالح والعذب،

 

“Ya Haail-u! O One who protects, stops and obstructs and causes not to happen, by coming in between the water salty and fresh.”

 

The appearance of the words from the verse I had just translated was uncanny.

 

حل بيننا وبين التسخط عليك والمنازعة لك في أقدارك،

 

“Come between us and between discontentment towards You and quarreling with You about fate decreed.

 

حل بيننا وبين معاصيك ببرزخ من رحمتك

 

Come between us and between resistances to Your Authority with the barzakh, the protective partition, of Your Rahma, Mercy!

آمين

 

Ameen…”

 

Each time I moved to the Urdu the words had a pounding effect on me. To be sure of the meaning, I started looking up each Arabic word.

 

التسخط : displeasure, irritation, anger.

 

المنازعة : opposition, disagreement, conflict, dispute.

 

معاصي : resistance to authority.

 

I was left dumbfounded.

 

He continued:

 

“O listener! If you were Muttaqi, the one who is mindful and conscious of your Rabb, who raised you, Azzo Jal, Dakir, in remembrance of Him, as Muwwahidan, in union only with Him, Musheeran, pointing towards Him, before the trial, then when you are dropped into the fire of the distress that causes suffering, He will order,

 

یَـٰنَارُ كُونِی بَرۡدࣰا وَسَلَـٰمًا

 

O fire! Be coolness and safety.

 

After that it was a crazy day.

 

Ghaus Pak (ra) had exactly followed the Sunnah of the Quran. First had come the admonition, then the mercy. For an hour, I stared at the page and read it over and over. My heart sank every time I came to the words of his wrath. It was the first time in my life that my Master was angry with me.

 

I couldn’t get over it. Obedience was woven, no, kneaded into my nature. But all my efforts that had to do with changing the fabric of my nafs were superficial. Giving charity was easy. It was the expression of gratitude. As promised it brought me a serene state of peace. Why wouldn’t I do it only sincerely, in utter obedience? Why wouldn’t I increase it? I was the recipient of all its rewards which were truly indescribable in terms of rendering me a joy.

 

It was the changing of the nafs that was impossible.

 

I decided to immediately memorize the prayer. It was about to entail for me the most perfect expression of fear and sincere need for deliverance. That was something that I had never experienced before.

 

First I went back to re-read the verse of the seas salty and sweet.

 

That was the first moment I realized, I am both a Mo’min and I am a Kafir. All I could see in the state of being a Mo’min was the ill-will in my disposition. And all I could see in my state of Kufr was my carelessness and unawareness. There was no longer an “other.” In everything it was only me!

 

That was first forced the question; when am I which?

 

وَمَا یَسۡتَوِی ٱلۡبَحۡرَانِ هَـٰذَا عَذۡبࣱ فُرَاتࣱ سَاۤىِٕغࣱ شَرَابُهُۥ وَهَـٰذَا مِلۡحٌ أُجَاجࣱۖ

 

And not are alike the two seas.

This (is) fresh, sweet, pleasant its drink, and this salty (and) bitter…

Surah Fatir, Verse 12

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Then exemplified Subhanahu both of the groups, the Mo’min, the believer and the Kafir, the denier of truth, as two seas sweet and salty, so He said:

 

Wa ma yastawi al bahraane: And the two seas are not alike in advantage and benefit received from them both because…

 

Hada: the (state of the) Mo’min, the attester to the sea of Imaan, faith and Irfaan, Divine Recognition, the one upon whom is poured water from the Sea of the Essence of One-ness…

 

Adb-un: is like water fresh and delightful, giving pleasure to the mind, sweet in perfect sweetness…

 

Furat-un: sweet, it breaks the persistent feeling of ill will (to harm and avenge people) for those burning with thirst in the mirage of the world with the coolness of Yaqeen, certainty…

 

Saa’ighun sharaabuhu: easy is its drinking i.e. easy is its going down, for those set up on the nature of Tauheed, Allah Subhanahu’s One-ness.

 

Wa hada: And this (the other sea/group) i.e. the Kafir, the denier of truth or ungrateful, malevolent, unkind, is in the sea of ghaflat, unawareness and carelessness…

 

Milh-un: (is like water) salty, it does not reform a person who wants to reform themselves, whoever tastes from it, instead…

 

Ujaaj-un: (it is) burning, bitter, corrupting for the disposition. The one who tasted from it was destroyed, devastatingly, forever such that there is no rescue for him, instead…

 

Wa: the sea of bitterness, in it is still an advantage, but there is no benefit for the Kafir, the denier of truth, and the one who refuses to be guided at all.

 

The Kufr a Muslim most often imbues is that of ingratitude.

 

That is why the Quran says, it is a choice.

 

‏إِنَّا هَدَيْنَهُ ٱلسَّبِيلَ إِمَّا شَاكِرًۭا وَإِمَّا كَفُورًا ‎

 

Indeed, We guided him to the way, whether he be grateful and whether he be ungrateful.

 

Surah Al Insaan, Verse 3

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Allah Subhanahu made the way clear completely and perfectly. Now the human being has the choice:

 

Imma shakiran: Either he becomes grateful, occupied with the thankfulness of blessings and regularity upon fulfilling the rights of Divine Kindness, giving the reins of his determination and his choice to the rightful guidance and commands so that he may become of the Arbaab il Anayate wa Sadaad, the people of blessings and correct-ness and Al Mutana’imeena, the ones granted favours in the Heaven of Raza, God’s Pleasure and Tasleem, surrender.

 

Wa imam kafoor-an: Or he can be ungrateful for blessings (bestowed), being in denial of The One bestowing the blessings, following in the footsteps of the people of ghafalat, forgetfulness and enemity (towards Allah), disputing and being corrupt until he will become of the people of Hell.

 

“The people forever burning in the fire of possibilities!”

 

The intensity of the incident first exploded upon me once I started reciting the prayer. Each time I uttered the words, I broke down so severely, it was like someone beloved to my heart had died. Each time I heard the words in my ear that I was displeased, in opposition, resistant to my Lord, to His Authority, to His Being, I would cover my ears with my hands and almost wail.

 

One word entered my life like it had never done before. I had been saying a tasbeeh of it for years but my heart hadn’t felt the plea in the words even once till now.

 

Astaghfirullah! – I seek the forgiveness of my Lord!

 

I would repeat it incessantly through my tears. But the prayer had three lines and each line had in it a word that was the proof of my state of rebellion. The experience was intense and whatever I’m writing here to express it, the truth is that it is inexpressible. It cannot be related.

 

Only when the last line came,

 

ببرزخ من رحمتك

 

…with the barzakh, the protective partition, of Your Rahma, Mercy!

 

did I feel a tranquility come over me so instantly, every other feeling preceding it absolute vanished. Obviously I became hooked to the prayer.

 

I started saying it every single time an imkaan returned, those useless, worthless, mirages of possibilities bearing my ill-will towards others who were all absent and insignificant. I would say the prayer from the beginning till the end. Each time I spanned the cycle in the same way. I cried and cried, my tears trying to drown my self.

 

Then I would despise myself for being in such abominable state. How could I have the audacity to be displeased, quarreling, resistant? I would be pausing through the entire utterance with Astaghfirullah in repetition until I would reach the part of the barzakh, the partition. Then again I would be calm like nothing had happened. Instantly!

 

وَٱسۡتَغۡفِرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَۖ

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورࣱ رَّحِیمُۢ

 

And seek forgiveness (of) Allah. Indeed, Allah (is) Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

Surah Al Muzzammil, Verse 20

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa: And what happened to you in your past which came from the leaving of istighfar, the seeking of forgiveness…

 

Astaghfirullah: (so now it is time to) keep seeking the forgiveness of Allah, Al Mufaddil, The Bestower of Bounty, Al Mukarrim, The Granter of Forgiveness for what you did and become occupied with compliance to His Commands in the rest of your life as compensation for what has elapsed.

 

Innallaha: Indeed Allah, Al Muta’lliu, The Only One informed of your regrets and your intentions in it (that seeking of forgiveness and being in obedience of His Orders)…

 

Ghafoorun: is Forgiving, He forgives your sins from the past also…

 

Raheem-un: is All Merciful, He accepts your tauba, repentance, which is followed by your errors by His Favour and His Generosity (of which you are undeserving).

The prayer took over my life for the next few days. I didn’t speak about it to anyone. I continued my classes with Qari Sahib. In my next class, the first thing I did was look up the verse my page had opened to:

 

وَمَن یَتَّقِ ٱللَّهَ یَجۡعَل لَّهُۥ مَخۡرَجࣰا

 

And whoever is in taqwa, conscious of Allah, He will make for him a way out,

 

وَیَرۡزُقۡهُ مِنۡ حَیۡثُ لَا یَحۡتَسِبُۚ

And He will provide for him from where not he thinks (it is possible).

Surah At Talaq, Verse 2-3

 

Tafseer Jilani

 

Wa: And overall…

 

Mayyattaqillah: the one who is mindful of Allah Subhanahu and safeguards his nafs, self, from His Qahr, Wrath, and Ghadab, Displeasure and keeps watch over himself from crossing the limits of His Boundaries which are drawn by Him, (the boundaries created) for the safeguarding of the rights of the people, especially the rights of spouses and practice mutual love for each other and (the one who) relies upon Him in all his states and entrusted his matters, all of them, to Him…

 

Yaj’al lahu: He, Allah Subhanahu, makes for him…

 

Makhrajan: a way out from the narrowness of possibilities which give result to different kinds of khudlan, humiliation and khusraan, losses.

 

Wa yarzaquhu: And He gives sustenance and carries towards him all of his needs that he is needful of in the subsistence of his family…

 

Min haysu la yahtasibu: i.e. from a place not expected and where he doesn’t have to wish for it to come from.

 

Narrowness of possibilities, humiliation, losses! There was a way made out, unexpected, unforeseen, “where he doesn’t have to wish it from.” With sustenance, not livelihood in currency as rizq is most often translated, but sustenance, emotional, mental, physical, spiritual, not for one individual in question but the entire family.

 

For whom? The one who was in a state of consciousness of Subhanahu and who was mindful of the rights of others. The one who was watchful that His Displeasure and His Wrath did not reach him because of crossing boundaries set by Him.

Like the displeasure and wrath of my Master had reached me.

 

There was a time I used to pride myself on a relationship with my Lord that didn’t have fear in it. But two years ago, whilst writing a piece for the Urs Mubarik of Maulana Rum (ra), I had felt intense fear. I had been translating stories from the Masnavi and one of them had been about the Day of Judgement and how each person would have to fend for themselves. I had come across one of the verses alluding to that reality recently.

 

وَلَا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةࣱ وِزۡرَ أُخۡرَىٰۚ وَإِن تَدۡعُ مُثۡقَلَةٌ إِلَىٰ حِمۡلِهَا لَا یُحۡمَلۡ مِنۡهُ شَیۡءࣱ وَلَوۡ كَانَ ذَا قُرۡبَىٰۤۗ

إِنَّمَا تُنذِرُ ٱلَّذِینَ یَخۡشَوۡنَ رَبَّهُم بِٱلۡغَیۡبِ وَأَقَامُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَۚ وَمَن تَزَكَّىٰ فَإِنَّمَا یَتَزَكَّىٰ لِنَفۡسِهِۦۚ

وَإِلَى ٱللَّهِ ٱلۡمَصِیرُ

 

And no bearer will bear burdens (of) another.

And if a call heavily laden (soul) calls another to (carry) its load, nothing will be carried of it anything even if he be (from) near of kin.

You can only warn those who are conscious of their Lord - unseen and who establish the prayer.

And whoever purifies himself, then only he purifies for his own self.

And to Allah (is) the destination.

Surah Fatir, Verse 18

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa: And after that you recognized the Qudra, Authority, of Allah and you heard of the perfection of His Being in no need of anything, so for all of you is compulsory, the executing of His Commands and staying away from what He has forbidden because…

 

La taziru: no nafs, self, will, bear …

 

Waaziratu-n: as the bearer of burdens for being sinful, resisting authority…

 

Wizra: the burden (of) a wrong action of the nafs, self, that is indisciplined…

 

Ukhra wa in tad’u: of another and if any nafs, soul, asks…

 

Musqalatu-n: heavily laden by burdens and resisting authority…

 

Ila himliha: to share its burden i.e. someone else carry some of the burdens received by it to lessen them…

 

La yuhmal minhu shay-an: he will not carry any thing from another’s burden even if he consents to carry the burden because it is the demand of Allah’s Justice…

 

Wa lau kana: And if the person who was called to carry the burden…

 

Da qurba: is the family i.e. from the family of the asker, still all of the selves on that Day pledged (to carry) what they earned from their resistance. Each nafs will carry for its own self and no accountability will be for it except what it earned.

 

Then said Subhanahu addressing His Beloved (sending salutations and greetings upon him and his family the whole while) in the matters of His Servants:

 

Innama tundiru alladina yakhshauna Rabba-hum bil ghaib: only will you warn those who surrender to their Lord Unseen: meaning they are not beneficial, your warnings, which you recite O Akmal Ar Rusul, O Messenger who perfects Messenger-hood (salutations and greetings upon you and your family are sent by Him who made you the Nazeer) upon those wayward, with the exception of the group who are fearful of Allah and His Wrath and His Punishment, even though He is unseen for them, hearing Him, in submission to what has descended from Him, fearful of what can come from Him suddenly…

 

Wa: and along with that…

 

Aqaamus salata: they established prayer commanded, bringing closeness for them to His Essence, Al Mukhlisoona, sincere in it, Al Muttaharreena, purifying their selves from the inclination of everything except Allah Al Haqq, The Only Truth.

 

Wa man tazakka: And the one who purified himself and he cleansed his self from the leaning towards the capacity to invent a deceitful practice and whims…

 

Fa innama yatazakka li nafsihi: so indeed he only purified his nafs for his own self because the benefit of his purification returned to him, beneficial for him in his beginning and his end.

 

Wa: And after his purification from the demands of being human and the demands of animalistic desires which block from reaching of the origin of his nature…

 

Ilallahi: towards Allah, Al Munazza, The One Above all shortcomings, Al Mubarra’, The One Above all things lowly…

Al Maseer-u: (who is) The Destination i.e. Al Munqallab, the place returned to and the final abode i.e. everything returns towards Him and everyone’s purpose is Him, Subhanahu.

 

I was reminded of the exaltedness of the Chosen before Allah by the word Al Muttaharreena, the ones pure. How everyone had to purify themselves. Only one group was purified by Subhanahu Himself. That was the family of His Beloved (salutations and greetings upon him and his kin who were rendered void of any shortcoming at all).

 

The Name of Allah Subhanahu that Ghaus Pak (ra) used to begin the tafseer was an absolute favourite. I loved using it when calling out to Him in my prayers. It made no other words to follow the call even necessary. He was Al Musleh, The Reformer!

 

إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ ٱللَّهُ لِيُذْهِبَ عَنكُمُ ٱلرِّجْسَ أَهْلَ ٱلْبَيْتِ وَيُطَهِّرَكُمْ تَطْهِيرًۭا

 

Indeed, Allah wishes to remove from you the impurity, (O) People (of) the House!

And to purify you (with thorough) purification.

Surah al Ahzab, Verse 33

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Innama yureedullahu: Indeed Allah Al Musleh, The Reformer of the states of His Worshipper, wishes for those who are chosen by Him, teaching them such advice and reminders which enter the heart and giving them warnings strange, unlike any other…

 

Liyudhiba ankum ar-rijsa: removing impurities from you, unattractive, loathsome by both the mind and by Jurisprudence (which can be in contradiction to one another), O…

 

Ahl e Bait: the people of the house of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), Al Majbooleen, who are raised upon honour and nobility..

 

Wa yutahhirakum: (and it is also His Will) to make you absolutely pure from the dirt of one’s nature and things that are hateful imperfections that exist from the beginning (from birth like the Shaitaan attached to each person), which are hurdles in the cleansing of personal nature (for e.g. menstruation or emissions)…

 

Tat-hirah: (to make you, O family of the Beloved, absolutely pure) in absolute purity. Such purity that nothing remains in you, any doubt of disfigurement and the disgrace of any shortcoming.

 

The verse of each person having to bear the consequences of their own actions had made me reflect on all the parallels I was drawing after Damascus of what I had thought was for that Day but seemed to exist and play out in our lives here. The nafs experiencing being Mutma’inna was the greatest of them all.

 

But no one could carry anyone’s burden in this world either.

Parents want to take on their child’s disease. Children want to give happiness to parents whose bitterness tells them that they will never come to possess it again. I have often wanted to give of the sight of one of my eyes to a cousin who lost it in both.

 

My nafs would ask me things like, “We won’t be able to drive again.”

 

I would consider it and say, “It’s ok. We don’t drive that much anyway.”

 

So on and so forth it goes. But it was not impossible. Each nafs had to pay the price for each decision in this world as well. Bear its consequence. Asking for forgiveness though, feeling repentant, held in it the promise of being forgiven. That existed for a relationship worldly or with Subhanahu. If it was sincere!

 

‏فَمَن تَابَ مِنۢ بَعْدِ ظُلْمِهِۦ وَأَصْلَحَ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَتُوبُ عَلَيْهِ ۗ

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌ

 

But whoever repented from after his wrongdoing and reforms, then indeed,

Allah will turn in forgiveness to him. Indeed, Allah (is) Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

Surah Al Maidah, Verse 39

 

Tafseer e Jilani:

 

Faman ta’aba: So the one who repents and returns towards Allah mukhlis-an, sincere (in heart), khai’ifan, in fear (of reckoning)…

 

Min ba’ada dulmihi: after he transgressed boundaries set by Him …

 

Wa aslaha: and reformed themselves with repentance (by returning towards Allah with sincerity) for the corruption that they have brought upon their own nafs (self) by disobeying Allah’s Orders.

 

Fa innallaha: Indeed, Allah is Al Musleh, The Reformer of all states of His Servant.

 

Yatubu alaihi: And Allah also turns towards Him and accepts his tauba, repentance, after giving him the ability for that repentance.

 

Innallaha: Without doubt, Allah is the One who is Al Muyassir, the One who gives ease in all matter for His Servants…

 

Ghafur an: He is the Forgiver of all their sins.

 

The identity of the one repenting, Ta’ib, was defined specifically:

 

Faman ta’aba: So the one who repents and returns towards Allah sincere (in heart), in fear (of reckoning)…

Fear was requisite.

   

The Necessity of Fear

 

‏وَءَاخَرُونَ ٱعْتَرَفُوا۟ بِذُنُوبِهِمْ خَلَطُوا۟ عَمَلًۭا صَلِحًۭا وَءَاخَرَ سَيِّئًا عَسَى ٱللَّهُ أَن يَتُوبَ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌ ‎

 

And others who have acknowledged their sins.

They had mixed a deed righteous (with) other (that was) evil.

Perhaps Allah will turn (in mercy) to them.

Indeed, Allah (is) Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

Surah At Tauba, Verse 102

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa: And the people of Medina…

 

Aakharoona: others, not from the ones who were Al

 

Munafiqoona, persistent upon hypocrisy, Al Muttarraneena, and who practice it, but instead…

 

A’tarifu bi dhunobihim: acknowledge their sins which happened from them from mukhalifa, being against (someone) and bughz, grudges, and ta’an, being accusatory and

istikhfaaf, showing disregard and gheebat, back-biting, when sitting alone with the hypocrites and the ones who practice hypocricy.

 

And while they have the appearance of imaan, faith, and ikhlas, sincerity, but they…

 

Khalatu amalan salihan: mixed good deeds from ikhlas, sincerity and raza, seeking the pleasure of Allah and tasleem, submission…

 

Wa: and deeds…

 

Aakhara sayyan: others which were bad and those deeds were done while in the community of the hypocrites in their discourse and being accusatory. For this reason they are downgraded from the rank of the Mukhliseen, Sincere, in all their circumstances.

 

Asallaho an yatooba alayhim: And Allah will most likely accept their repentance i.e. He gives them ability upon tauba, repentance and nidama, regret and accepts from them their repentance after they become sincere in it.

 

Innallaha: Indeed, Allah Al Musleh, The One who corrects the states of His Servants…

 

Ghafooran: is Forgiving of the one who repents and regrets from the core of the qalb, the Station of Recognition of Allah in the heart…

 

Rahim: is The One who accepts their repentance when they are excessive (trangressors).

 

In writing that piece for Maulana’s Urs Mubarik I had been crying too. That crying was out of fear for a time yet to come. It was the first time I had learnt the purpose of fear in a relationship with my Lord. It was deemed essential for a believer. In that relationship fear was an element that was necessary for it to reach completion.

 

Verses attesting to that had appeared again and again.

The way out with an all encompassing rizq from the Divine was promised for whom? The one who was in a state of consciousness of Subhanahu and who was mindful of the rights of others. The one who was watchful that His Displeasure and His Wrath did not reach him because of crossing boundaries set by Him.

 

The Message could only be received by those “who are fearful of Allah and His Wrath and His Punishment, even though He is unseen for them, hearing Him, in submission to what has descended from Him, fearful of what can come from Him suddenly…”

 

Suddenly I understood why all those hours and days and weeks, months and years I spent trying to tell the ones I loved what might save them from pain were a waste of time. Theirs as well as mine. At the end of the day they never really cared if I might become angry with them or not. It never mattered. When it did, they always listened. When it didn’t that’s when they took me for granted.

 

Like I, God forbid, had been taking my Creator and His Benevelonce for granted. Astaghfirullah!

 

After the tafseer I returned to the page to re-read the next part which I had couldn’t focus on before. The incident of the fire was about the Prophet Ibrahim (as). How it was ordered to change its intrinsic nature and become cool for him by Divine Command. It was an incident only about him and for him. Not anyone else and certainly not the ordinary.

 

“…before the trial then, when you are dropped into the fire of the distress that causes suffering, He will order,

 

یَـٰنَارُ كُونِی بَرۡدࣰا وَسَلَـٰمًا

 

O fire! Be coolness and safety.

 

I had done the tafseer from before so I looked it up.

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Ya Naaro: O Fire, created on the nature of burning and heat…

 

Kooni bardan: become cool and leave your burning and heat…

 

Wa: and don’t harm Our Friend by your coolness as well but instead become…

 

Salaman: safety i.e. a glad reception and peaceful for him and don’t harm him.

 

How did that come to happen? If

1.I was a Muttaqi, the one who is mindful and conscious of their Rabb, who raised them, Azzo Jal,

 

2.I was sincere in my Zikr because it came from the heart. Not the mind and not the tongue.

 

3.I was Muwwahidan, in union only with Him forgetting the others,

 

4.Musheeran, pointing towards Him, feeling that nearness because I was aware that I was always being seen by Him,

 

5.then BEFORE the trial, when I was dropped into the fire of the distress that causes suffering, He would order for me,

 

یَـٰنَارُ كُونِی بَرۡدࣰا وَسَلَـٰمًا

 

O fire! Be coolness and safety.

 

It was unbelievable!

 

Shaitaan has endless tactics. Ways to enter lives and ruin then. His favourite tactic though is causing ghaflat.

 

Forgetfulness of obeying Divine Commands, forgetfulness of crossing boundaries in the rights of others, forgetfulness of Allah’s remembrance.

 

Fa ansaahum dikr Allah: so he made them forget the remembrance of Allah, Al Munqad, The Only Deliverer from deviation from the straight path, Al Murshid, The Only Guide towards guidance.

 

Hence ghaflat was the deadliest weapon. It naturally created the absence of repentance. That show of remorse was his worst nightmare because he possesses intimate knowledge of the Essence of Subhanahu. He knew what repentance could deliver when expressed with sincerity.

 

The incident from the Masnavi I had translated for that piece was about the waking of Hazrat Amir Muawia (ratu) by Iblis to say his prayers:

 

“Hazrat Amir Muawia (ratu) was asleep one day when he was awakened by someone. When he looked around he saw no one. Then he noticed a man skulking behind the door. He asked, “Who are you?” The man replied, “The world knows me. I am unfortunate Iblis.”

 

Hazrat Amir Muawia (ratu) asked him sternly, “Why have you woken me?” He responded, “The time for prayer is about to pass, O Amir.”

 

Then he quoted the Prophet of God (salutations and greetings be upon the one most distinguished in the blessings of Allah and his beloved family),

 

عجلوا ألطاعات قبل الفوت

 

Complete your worship before it (its time) expires.

 

You should run to the mosque before you miss it.”

 

Hazrat Amir Muawia (ratu) retorted, “You can never want such a thing so as to guide someone. You came in like a thief and now you tell me you are a well-wisher? Why would I believe a thief and then one who claims he wants to benefit me?”

 

Here Iblis uttered the words revealing his envy:

 

‘Once I was ranked amongst the angels and walked the path of obedience willingly. I was the knower of Divine Secrets and a companion of the ones who lived near Allah’s Throne. As travelers roam wherever they might go, the love of the homeland never leaves them. Who has ever forgotten their first love?

 

I have also drunk the waters from the rivers of The Divine’s Blessings and I have also walked in the Gardens of His Pleasure. He placed His Affection upon me as well, looked upon me with Favour. When I was a child, who fed me and guided me? He did.

 

Once I too was a lover of His Entity and Essence. If then that mighty Ocean of His Generosity rejected me, so what? When the heart is separated from what it once loved, then it learns to value the days where there was union.’

 

تا دهد جان را فراقش گوشمال

جان بداند قدر ايام وصال

 

When the separation from Him softly offers reproach,

then one is nostalgic for days passed.

 

Whether it was “kufr,” refusal or whether it was “imaan,” believing, both were made by that Power and both belong to Him.”

 

Hazrat Amir Muawaia (ratu) remained unmoved. “What you say is true but you have no part in it anymore. You misguided countless before me. You are fire, yet you expect me to believe you will not burn me? Who has not been deceived by you? Because of your cunning, the nation of Nuh (as) is still burning in regret. You caused the destruction of the nation of A’ad, drowning them in punishment and grief. The people of Lut (as) were stoned because of you.

 

You have created countless trials for Mankind. Firaoun, the philosopher, scholarly, his powers to reflect were blinded by you. Abu Lahab became ignorant because of you. Abul Hikm was rendered Abu Jahal because of you. You are the ocean of deceit, people but a drop. Answer truthfully. Why would you wake me to pray?”

 

Iblis replied, “Oh man of despair! You do not accept the truth despite a 100 arguments. My fault is only that one bad deed has made me renowned for sinfulness. The truth is that if you had missed your prayer, nothing of the world would have remained of value before your eyes. Tears of pain and loss would have been shed. This crying, this softness of the heart, this intense pain and sadness, would have become the reward of a 100 prayers. I did not want you to let out the sigh that would gain you the deep appreciation of Allah.

 

Remember the man who arrived at the Mosque late and was told by the congregation leaving it that the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family by their Lord who gazes upon them) had already said the last “salam.”

 

The young man sighed so deeply, the sound of it shook the listeners’ hearts.

 

One of them said, ‘Give me your sigh and take the blessing of my prayer.’

 

The man accepted his namaz and presented his sigh to me in turn. The sigh was filled with such humility and submission, the one who traded his prayer for it attained a higher rank and more.

 

A voice of the Unseen said to him in a dream, ‘In your trade, you have received the best of life, so rejoice!’

 

Your fear, O Amir, of The Divine and my envy are the reason I woke you. I woke you from the fear that your cries of repentance would burn me with jealousy. I am the envier of Mankind. I can never want anything good for them. In this envy I did what I did. I am the enemy of humans. How can I want that any benefit comes to them?”

 

Hazrat Amir Muawia (ratu) listened to his words then said to Iblis, “Now you have told the truth, O thief. In reality, you do not want that I humbly plead before my Lord with sincerity, that I weep tears of regret and repentance because the rank of that sighing and distress is more dear to Allah than anything else.”

 

ﮐﮧ ﺑﺮﺍﺑﺮ می ﮐﻨﺪ ﺷﺎﮦ ﻣﺠﯿﺪ

ﺍﺷﮏ ﺭﺍ ﺩﺭ ﻭﺯﻥ ﺑﺎ ﺧﻮﻥ ﺷﮩﯿﺪ

 

In equal regard holds The Almighty,

the tears of the sinner, the repentant, and the blood of the martyr.

 

Subhan Allah! The story was exquisitely narrated by Maulana (ra). Was it any wonder that the Masnavi was given the honour of being called the Quran in Farsi.

 

Shaitaan knows what Subhanahu’s Exalted Name Al Ghafoor encompasses. That His Mercy prevails over everything else. So he’s worried that the expression of regret, if it is sincere, might yield a person instant forgiveness. Of not one sin but all of them in one go!

 

Bishar Haafi (ra) was the most extraordinary example of that:

 

Hazrat Bishr Haafi (ra) spent most of his life drinking alcohol and roaming the streets in a state of intoxication. He belonged to a very wealthy family and lived alone. Twice, sometimes thrice a day, he changed his clothes, each garment finer than the next.

 

One day upon reaching his house he came upon a piece of paper lying on the road. It had the words Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim written on it. When he saw his Lord’s Name thrown on the ground like that he started weeping. Then he picked up the paper, kissed it, put some itar (perfume) on it and placed it on a high spot.

 

That night he heard the voice of Allah Al-Afuww, The Supreme Pardoner, asking him, was he not tired yet of being so distant from Him. And just like that, overnight, he became a wali (saint). He left his all of his wealth and roamed the streets barefoot. That is how he got his title, Haafi, the one who walks barefoot.

 

He was one of the few people for whom Imam Hanbal (ra) rose from his seat to greet when he entered and one of the only he walked with out to the street when he left.

When asked why he treated a faqeer, one who had given up the world and its possessions for poverty and worship, with such honour, Imam Hanbal (ra) replied, ““Jiss Rab ko mein maanta hun, Bishr Haafi uss Rab to jaante hain – the Lord that I merely believe in, Bishr Haafi knows that Lord.”

 

Subhan Allah!

 

Shaitaan takes pride in the destruction of Man, declaring it often in the Quran. He thinks he’s fulfilling his promise, keeping his word. One of those is his announcing that he will take a share of everything a Servant of God is bestowed.

Before I read the verse, I thought that was in the context of worldly possessions. Taking control of their possessions to fulfill his general mission to destroy Mankind. The usual ways of doing it via the mechanics inherent in capitalism, endless dictatorships and such. I had written about those extensively because it played out all the time. How it guaranteed his success.

 

But Ghaus Pak (ra) explained it differently.

 

لَّعَنَهُ ٱللَّهُۘ وَقَالَ لَأَتَّخِذَنَّ مِنۡ عِبَادِكَ نَصِیبࣰا مَّفۡرُوضࣰا

 

Allah cursed him and he said, "I will surely take from Your Slaves a portion appointed."

Surah An Nisa, Verse 118

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

And how can we worship him and call him and indeed…

 

La’anaullahu: cursed Him Allah Subhanahu and expelled him from the Honour of His Presence and made him leave from (the list) of His Sincere Worshippers for the sake of deceiving the worshippers for the purpose of shirrk, associating others with Allah, and tughyan, oppression…

 

Wa: and after that he became hopeless of Allah’s Clemency and in despair of His Mercy…

 

Qala la’attakhidanna min ibadika: he said, “I will surely take from Your Servants, the ones because of whom you expelled me and because of whom you made me distant (from You)…

 

Naseeban: a portion, a share complete from what You made for him…

 

Mafroudan: appointed for them from Your Tauheed, Your One-ness, and honouring You by deluding them and deceiving them so that they commit shirrk (hoping and expecting from others except You) and associate others with You and say about You what is inappropriate for Your Majesty till they will fall by this from the binding of Your Safekeeping and Your Guardianship and become deserving of Your Displeasure and Your Anger.

 

The Displeasure and Anger would be coming one way or the other. It could be felt willingly or one would be made to feel it. Either way, it was unavoidable!

 

In each tafseer I was noticing what caused Allah Subhanahu’s Anger and Displeasure. Shaitaan had robbed me of my share for my entire life. I would have remained in that robbed state performing rote rituals even if some of them were above what was obligatory. I would have remained a Mushrik till my dying day had my Master not intervened in the manner that he did.

Ghaus Pak (ra) was the perfect manifestation of the undeniable truth that ends Surah Fatiha. Only following in the footsteps of the ones bestowed inaam, Divine Favours, was the path of least resistance. Least humiliation. Least agony.

 

For as I shockingly learnt from the Quran, even the infidels of Mecca who were proud of being Mushrikeen, it was their inherited tradition, believed in Subhanahu. After Him they worshipped those self-created idols of clay that they adorned the Ka’aba with.

 

Even they, when asked, who made these heavens and the earth, replied, “Allah.”

 

وَلَىِٕن سَأَلۡتَهُم مَّنۡ خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضَ لَیَقُولُنَّ ٱللَّهُۚ

 

And if you ask them who created the heavens and the earth? Surely, they will say, "Allah." Say, "Then do you see what you invoke from besides Allah?

Surah Az-Zumar, Verse 38

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Then pointed Subhanahu towards elaborating on His Tauheed, Divine One-ness, indicating to the Mushrikeen, the ones who associate others with Him, registering their state of beguile and allurement and being foolish, so He said, addressing His Beloved (upon whom and whose family He sends greetings and salutations continuously):

 

Wa la’in sa’altahum: And if you ask them, O Akmal Ar Rusul, Messenger who perfects the Messengerhood (Allah sends greetings and salutations upon you and your family since always), the disbelievers of the Quresh…

 

Man khalaqas samawaati wal ard: who created the Heavens and the Earth i.e. the highest in creation and the lowest in creation and what is between them from their mixing and who has brought them into existence and who has constructed in them and who has made to appear what is in them from the natural wonders and peculiarities…

 

Layaqoolunna: so they say, for sure…

 

Allah: Al Muttafarrid, The Only One who creates and invents, Al Muttwaahid, The One All Alone in His being worshipped and His being The Sustainer, because they have no power to turn away from this answer with their backs.

 

Ghaus Pak (ra) too was displeased and angry with me. But only out of his love for His Lord. That was the way of His Friends. They only loved because of Him. They only had enemity because of Him. I was deserving of that wrath upon me. In hindsight I was fortunate that it came.

 

In a single page he had expressed his irritation, reprimanded me, then taught me a prayer that brought me before my Lord in utmost repentance and showed me how even suffering ordained could morph into the opposite, become a blessing.

Thus I began to see how the barzakh, that partition of the Divine’s Mercy, began to take form in my life.

 

In Lahore it was part of my daily routine to visit an elderly friend who had been unwell for years. There were good days and bad but as a result of ever increasing illnesses that brought with them acute pain, more and more they would be in the worst mood possible.

 

But they too had a Spiritual Master. So every so often, he would step in and lift them out of the bitterness they were drowning in. Like a breather to remind them of who they were and not who they had become. Then they would be let go again and sink. That was how it was playing out for now.

 

The Spiritual Master is the Arif. Since Ghaus Pak (ra) says that they can see destiny ordained, they decide when to step in, for how long and when to retreat to let the disciple’s journey play out. But they are always there, keeping their eye on those who are in their charge, looking into their hearts to see how rusted they have become.

 

Each day I entered the house not knowing what mood awaited me. Mostly I was greeted with intense sarcasm, mistrust which manifested in a poisonous tongue resulting in complete humiliation. Sometimes I was alone in the room, other times people were present who ignored the incidence. I always wondered why they were silent. I was about to find out.

 

I had been reciting the prayer gifted to me by Ghaus Pak (ra). Then I was uttering it as my own repentance but like all prayers, there were branches of other Divine Mercies emanating from it. A day or two later, I entered the room expecting a thrashing. We happened to be sitting right next to each other. It was early in the day. She was being served breakfast.

 

All I had said thus far was “How did you sleep?”

 

In response came a fire of reproaches. How I could not be relied upon. I was insincere. Selfish. And so on. On every other occasion, no exceptions, I would attempt to exercise patience as I had learnt it. Silent in the tongue, begrudging in the heart, angry in the mind. Even that didn’t always work. Sometimes I would lose it and say something curt, leaving earlier than I would otherwise. Only to be extremely disappointed in my failure of restraint, beating myself up about it before I even reached my car to head home.

 

On that day, as we sat so close to each other that our thighs almost touched, I listened to the sharpness of the words that normally sliced through my heart with a calm I had never experienced before. It was so eerie that I just sat there making sure what I was feeling was in fact real. I felt like they were speaking to someone else in the room. But there was no one else.

 

I focused on my heart. Did it feel a grudge, sorry for itself for being attacked without provocation? It didn’t. I honed in on my mind. Was it angry or rolling its eyes thinking, “Here we go again.” It wasn’t. There was a partition between us. The barzakh I had pleaded for with my weeping had appeared.

It was so unexpectedly crazy it felt like magic!

 

The truth, as it turned out, was that everyone followed Iblis. The believers, the non-believers. The grateful, the ungrateful. He turns each Mo’min into a Kafir. At some point or the other, everyone was taken in by his seduction. No one’s nafs was spared.

 

Except for one group!

 

وَلَقَدۡ صَدَّقَ عَلَیۡهِمۡ إِبۡلِیسُ ظَنَّهُۥ فَٱتَّبَعُوهُ إِلَّا فَرِیقࣰا مِّنَ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِینَ

 

And certainly, Iblis found his assumption about them to be true, so they (all) followed him except a group of the believers.

Surah As Saba, Verse 20

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Then said Subhanahu taking an oath…

 

Wa: upon Himself…

 

Laqad saddaqa: indeed he, Iblis, authenticated…

 

Alayhim: upon those, Al Haalikeen, the ones who destroy themselves in the maze of khusraan, losses and kufraan, denial and ingratitude…

 

Iblis: the enemy for them, persistent, permanent in enemity with them from the beginning of their creation…

 

Dannahu: his belief, which was what he thought to be true for them when he said to their father, the Prophet Adam (as),

 

لَأَحۡتَنِكَنَّ ذُرِّیَّتَهُۥۤ إِلَّا قَلِیلࣰ

 

I will surely destroy his offspring except a few – Al Isra, 62

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

La ahtanikanna durriyaatahu: Iblis said: I will make them wayward and trap them with vulgarity and by alluring them to do something wrong so that I can erase their names from the book of believers. So how can they become of the Arifeen, the ones who recognize Allah and the Al Mukaashifeen, for whom everything unveils, Al Mushahideen, the witnessing ones because what they are made from and their foundation, it demands different kinds of corruption and various kinds of sin and waywardness.

 

And for me there are many opportunities (through these demands) to create paranoia for them and allure them till they become misguided from the straight path of guidance and the way of correctness…

 

Illa qaleela: except a few amongst them for indeed they are Sabitoon, steadfast on what they are set up on. I have no power to persuade them towards wrongdoing because they are Muwwayadeen, assisted by You and they are Muwwafiqeen, granted ability by Your Power.

 

And he said:

 

وَلَا تَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَكِرِينَ ‎

 

And you will not find most of them to be grateful - Surah Al Araaf, Verse 17

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

La tajidu: You will not find, Ya Muizzu, O You who is The Bestower of Honour to everybody else in in humiliation and The One directing the astray to the Right Path…

 

Aksarahim Shakireen: most of them to be grateful when they will return towards You, they will be not be the grateful ones, spending from what You bestowed them of blessings on what You commanded them not to do.

 

And he said:

 

وَلَأُضِلَّنَّهُمۡ وَلَأُمَنِّیَنَّهُمۡ

 

And I will surely deceive them and surely arouse desires in them – An Nisa, Verse 119

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa laudillanahum: And I will surely deceive them by different deceptions and whisperings of doubt and paranoia from the Way of Your Tauheed, One-ness…

 

Wa layumanniannahum: and I will arouse desires in them by their concerns with their livelihood in this place of deception (the world) with hirs, greed and tool al amal, never ending hopes and all types of desires of their nafs, their egos, which arise from lust and (seeking of) pleasure and much else apart from this. And after that he misguided them from the path of

 

Shukr, Gratitude and Imaan, faith…

 

Fattaba’uhu: they followed him, ungrateful and denying of the blessings and Al Munim, the Bestower of those Blessings, all of them…

 

Illa fareeqan min al Mo’mineen: except a group from the

Mo’mineen, the believers, Al Mu’qineena, possessing certainy in the Tauheed, the One-ness of Allah, Al Musaddeqeena, attesting to His Prophets, Al Muttadakkireena, taking warning that he is their enemy forever, so they turned back from him and from his persuasion by deception, thus they remained Saalimeen, secure, from his persuasion to deceive.

 

No wonder a connection to that group was deemed essential to receive guidance. They were in a count, set apart from everyone else in Creation. They were the ones who were “an’amta alayhim.”

 

The inordinate focus on the prayer from Ghaus Pak (ra) brought my attention to the verses expounding on the etiquettes of the prayer in the Quran. I looked them up:

 

ٱدۡعُوا۟ رَبَّكُمۡ تَضَرُّعࣰا وَخُفۡیَةًۚ

إِنَّهُۥ لَا یُحِبُّ ٱلۡمُعۡتَدِینَ

 

Call upon your Lord humbly and privately.

Indeed, He (does) not love the transgressors.

Surah Al Araaf, Verse 55

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Udu’u: Call upon Him, those who have been set up on the true nature of Tauheed, One-ness…

 

Rabbukum: your Rabb, Al Mutafarraq, The One who is Unique in your raising and in making you appear…

 

Tadarru’an: (call upon Him) humbly as the ones who beseech Him…

 

Wa khufiatan: and quietly, as the ones hiding and the ones scared, and the ones submissive from the depths of the heart, not unstable in the edges of the tongue like the transgressors.

 

Innahu la yuhibbil Mu’tadeena: Indeed, He does not like the ones who cross the boundaries of what is right, the Al Mujawizeena, the ones who exceed limits, the Al Mujahireena, the ones who ask for things loudly, Al Maalliheena, the ones who ask for wrong things in their prayer because His Knowledge of their states is enough regarding their asking.

 

It was new word for me. Mu’tadeena! I knew already Subhanahu did not like the Kafireen, the deniers of truth. He did not like the Zalimeen, the unjust, the ones who crossed limits. He did not like the Faisqeen, those defiant in their disobedience. The Mu’tadeen were also transgressors. Overtly they seemed the same as the Kafireen.

 

Except in the tafseer, everything about them seemed to be related to those of us who were on the inside of the circle of Islam. For we the ones who were praying to Subhanahu. Except we were asking for things loudly. We were asking for things wrongly. We did not deny Subhanahu. We deluded ourselves that we were aspiring to be of the Mo’mineen, the believers. We didn’t even know we had become aligned with the disbelievers. Like them we were not scared of Him.

 

The most exalted of prayers in the Quran are the ones Allah Subhanahu Himself taught His Beloved (salutations and greetings upon him and his blessed family and the utterance that came forth from them that lead the way to our salvation). It was as if He said to him, “Ask from me this and ask it like this.”

 

One of those prayers then appeared that seemed to be exactly for such a situation. For if one was being rendered a transgressor whilst in prayer, then clearly refuge was in need from Shaitaan who was prevailing in exactly that moment. A moment that one thought was intensely private and only between them and their Lord.

 

وَقُل رَّبِّ أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنۡ هَمَزَتِ ٱلشَّیَـٰطِینِ

 

And say, "My Lord! I seek refuge in You from the suggestions (of) the evil ones,

 

وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ رَبِّ أَن یَحۡضُرُونِ

 

And I seek refuge in You, My Lord! Lest they be present with me."

Surah Al Mu’minoon, Verse 97-98

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa qul Rabbi: So say, “O Lord who raises me by Your Kunf, Safekeeping and Jawaar, Watchfulness…

 

Audo bika min hamazaati Shayateen: I seek refuge in You from the promptings of the evil ones and their waswase, whisperings and the different kinds of seductions and

misleading.

 

Wa: And especially…

 

Aoudo: I seek protection and come into refuge…

 

Bika: with You, O…

 

Rabbi Ayyahdiroon: my Lord, lest they come near me and let my focus be upon You and when my heart is soft in its inclination towards You and I invoke You, especially during my prayer and during my recitation and during the time I present my needs to You.

 

It revealed to me why the recitation of the namaz, why the recitation of the Quran, all worship was made to begin with seeking of refuge from Shaitaan and his followers.

 

فَإِذَا قَرَأۡتَ ٱلۡقُرۡءَانَ فَٱسۡتَعِذۡ بِٱللَّهِ مِنَ ٱلشَّیۡطَـٰنِ ٱلرَّجِیمِ

 

So when you recite the Quran, seek refuge in Allah from the Shaitaan, the accursed.

Surah An Nahl, Verse 98

 

Fasta’id: then seek refuge and invoke, first of all…

 

Billahi: Allah, Al Mutajalli, The One who unveils, by the attribute of speech, which makes others helpless before it, Al Hafeed, The Protector of His Sincere Servants from everything in useless sins and disobedience…

 

Min: (which occur) due to doubts and paranoia…

 

Ash Shaitaan ar rajeem: from Shaitaan the accursed one, Al Matrood, the one expelled and the one made distant from the court of the Presence of Allah Azzo Jal with the stoning of the effects of the Attributes of Allah’s Wrath and (seek refuge) from his delusions and rationalizations which are the armies of desire and forgetfulness and false imaginings and thrilling hallucinations which persuade different kinds of hopes and lust.

 

Basically possibilities!

 

Yet another revelation that came to me through the prayer Ya Haailo had to with the virtue of patience.

 

قُلۡ یَـٰعِبَادِ ٱلَّذِینَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱتَّقُوا۟ رَبَّكُمۡۚ لِلَّذِینَ أَحۡسَنُوا۟ فِی هَـٰذِهِ ٱلدُّنۡیَا حَسَنَةࣱۗ

إِنَّمَا یُوَفَّى ٱلصَّـٰبِرُونَ أَجۡرَهُم بِغَیۡرِ حِسَابࣲ

 

Say, "O My slaves those who believe!

Be mindful of your Lord. For those who do good in this world is good,

Only will be paid back in full the patient ones their reward without account."

Surah Az Zumar, Verse 10

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Qul: Say, Ya Akmal Ar Rusul (Allah sends blessings and salutations upon you since the beginning of everything), O Messenger who completes the Messenger-hood, give this message on Our Behalf, calling out to the selected sincere amongst my Servants…

 

Ya ibadi: O My Worshippers, by attaching them with His Essence making them special and honouring them…

 

Alladina aamano: those who attained to faith from amongst you in the One-ness of My Essence and My Appearance according to My Affairs and My Ever changing-ness in accordance with My Names and Attributes, the requirement of your faith is taqwa, mindfulness from the demands of your desires…

 

Ittaqu Rabbukum: be conscious of your Lord and stay away from what is forbidden by Him and what He has ordered prevented for you and characterize yourself with His Commands and know that He…

 

Lilladina ahsanu: for the ones with spiritual excellence and beautiful regard with Allah…

 

Fi hadihi duniya: in this world, which is the place of gaining lessons and choosing…

 

Hasana: there is goodness, multifold and more than a thousand times more than that in the Hereafter which is the Dar al Qarar, the abode which is forever so take heed, O people of vision, both inner and outer.

…

Innama yuwaffa as sabiroon: Only the steadfast are given in full as the Al Mutahammiloona, the ones who carry their burdens with the different kinds of difficulties and toiling with patience in the practice of Imaan, faith…

 

Ajrahum: their reward and in abundance upon them will be goodness and different kinds of recompenses and honours…

 

Bighairi hisaab: without count, for all of it and exceeding it, with no possibility of measure and enumeration and without any number, merely by His Bounty for them and His Honour upon them.

 

My way of practicing it was about to change.

 

Continued on: www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/52649820039/in/datepos...

 

Greater Manchester Police has praised the behaviour of visitors to Manchester during a weekend of sport in the city.

 

On Friday 20 May 2016, the Great City Games saw a number of athletes compete in various events on a purpose-built athletics arena in Albert Square and track on Deansgate.

 

The following day (21 May 2016) saw Manchester United beat Crystal Palace 2-1 to win the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium, with a number of fans watching the match in public venues throughout Greater Manchester.

 

The weekend extravaganza concluded on Sunday 22 May 2016 with over 30,000 lining up to take part in the Great Manchester Run before England defeated Turkey 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium in a UEFA Euro 2016 warm-up match in the evening.

 

The events saw tens of thousands of visitors to the city centre, creating a buzzing and carnival-like atmosphere.

 

Assistant Chief Constable John O’Hare said: “This has been a fantastic weekend for Manchester and the atmosphere in the city has been superb from start to finish.

 

“It was great to see so many pictures of smiling faces and people having a good time and I hope everyone who has visited the city this weekend will be going away with some great memories.

 

“I would like to thank everyone who has played a key role in ensuring that the weekend has been successful.”

 

For more information about Policing in Greater Manchester please visit www.gmp.police.uk

 

To report crime call police on 101 the national non-emergency number.

 

You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.

 

A solitary bee found clinging to a leaf with its mandibles on a cold morning.

 

It was raining the night before and it was still to cold for the solitary bee to fly away so it was still biting on to the leaf where it spent the night.

 

Species belongs to the Anthophoridae family