Somalia Online Weekly Bulletin: Informative articles only

[Baashi]

Alle-ubaahane and sareeda many thanks for posting

 

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The Axis of Hegel

 

Posted on Monday, March 29, 2004. “...martyrs are always ready when the executive committee calls for them†Originally from “Assassins and Nihilists,†Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 63, iss. 375, August 1881. By Hugh Craig.

 

Two organized societies have made murder a factor in politics. Their founders were separated by hundreds of years in time, and by thousands of miles in space, and lived, one in a Christian, the other in a Mohammedan country. Both reached their terrible practical goal by paths which started from abstract philosophical disquisitions. The corruption of Arabian theology produced Hassan-Ben-Saba;[1] the degeneration of European philosophy produced Bakunin[2].

 

Assassins

 

When God created the world—so runs an Arab tradition—He took two pieces of clay. One He cast upward, with the words, “This to heaven, and I care notâ€; the other He hurled downward, saying, “And this to hell, and I care not.†According to Palgrave, the tradition in no wise exaggerates the orthodox Mussulman[3] doctrine of predestination. Against such teaching revolt was inevitable, and equally inevitable was it that revolt against the dogma was followed or accompanied by rebellion against the “Commander of the Faithful,†whose sword upheld the dogma.

The East, even during the age of the Companions of the Prophet, swarmed with heresies. At the great university established at Cairo by the Fatimite or Ismailite caliphs, there were professors who denied the inspiration of the Koran, who asked why God took six days to make the world, when, if He were omnipotent, He could have made it in a moment, and who ridiculed the statements that Moses walked through the Red Sea, that Christ raised the dead, and that Mohammed cut the moon in two by a wave of his cimeter. According to the Arabian historians Makrisi and Nowairi, the pupils of this institution passed through a regular curriculum of skepticism, which culminated in the maxim, “Nothing is to be believed; everything may be done.â€

 

At Nishapoor, in Persia, there was a great teacher of the law, the Imam Mowaffek. “I found there,†writes one of his pupils, Nizam-ool-moolk, “two other pupils of my own age newly arrived, Hakem Omar Khayyam and the ill-fortuned Ben-Saba. Both were endowed with sharpness of wit and the highest natural powers, and we three formed a close friendship.

 

“One day Hassan-Ben-Saba said to us, ‘It is a universal belief that the pupils of Mowaffek attain to fortune. If we all do not attain thereto, one of us surely will. What shall be our mutual pledge?’ We answered, ‘What you please.’

“‘Well,’ he said, ‘let us make a vow that to whomsoever this fortune falls, he shall share it with the rest equally.’

“‘Be it so,’ I replied. I went from Khorassan to Ghuznee and Cabool, and rose to be the Vizier of the Sultan Alp Arslan.â€

 

Khayyam rejected the offers of his old school-fellow. With far different spirit, Hassan demanded, in the tone of neglected virtue, his share of office and of power. His claims were admitted; but he used his high place only to intrigue against his benefactor. He was driven from the court of Bagdad, and fled to Ispahan, a moody and disappointed man.

 

His religious opinions became unsettled; his belief in human friendship had experienced a shock. “Oh, that I had,†he exclaimed, “but two faithful friends at my devotion!†Finally, like Augustine, like Ignatius Loyola, like Wesley, like Newman, like Mills, he experienced that crisis in his spiritual life which is most fitly styled “conversion.â€

 

He sought teacher after teacher, and finally set out from his distant home to visit the spot which he now deemed the very source of truth, the skeptical college of Cairo. The ex-minister of a sultan, Hassan was no ordinary convert, and met with no ordinary reception. The head of the college, the dai el doat, or “missionary of missionaries,†met him at the frontier, the high officers of the court waited upon him when he arrived, and the Caliph placed a palace at his disposal. Henceforth Hassan seems to have held that the highest truth was the formula already quoted, “Nothing is to be believed; everything may be done.â€

 

For a second time Hassan's ambition and spirit of intrigue soon led to banishment. He returned to Persia by devious wanderings, making converts as he advanced. By their aid he obtained possession of a hill fort, Alamoot, “the Vulture's Nest,†where he could defy the troops of the sultan. It was to Hassan what Geneva was to Bakunin.[4] From it he derived the title by which his successors are best known in the history of the Crusades, the Old Man of the Mountain. There he organized his society into ever-narrowing circles of Aspirants, Believers, Teachers, and Devoted. Thence he and his successors decreed death to the bravest and proudest of his foes.

 

Against the wielders of the sword the Assassins brandished the dagger, and neither prince nor caliph, Mohammedan nor Christian, could escape their reign of terror. Conrad of Montferrat, King of Jerusalem, was stabbed to death in the streets of Tyre by two Assassins who had been for six months in his service waiting for the opportunity. The Sultan Saujar found a dagger implanted in his pillow, and received a letter bidding him to take warning, or the next time the dagger would be lodged in his heart. Henceforth, in fact, no man's life in the East was safe. The chiefs of the Assassins always affirmed that they killed no man for money or private revenge. “It is our habit,†says a letter attributed to one of their chiefs, “to admonish those who have acted injuriously in anything toward us or our friends, and if they despise our admonition, to punish with severity by our ministersâ€â€”almost the identical words which the executive committee of the Nihilists published in their organs respecting the death of Alexander II.

 

Nihilists

 

During the reign of the Emperor Nicholas, Moscow was the head-quarters of the opposition to his system of government. Old Believers who hated the Established Church, old Russians who hated modern ideas, Slavophils who detested the German influence, Panslavists who dreamed of a still larger Russia, discontented nobles, romantic poets, freethinking philosophers, liberals of all shades, found there a Cave of Adullam. Ivan Bakunin, the son of a wealthy noble, had been educated at the imperial school of artillery cadets. He graduated honorably, but instead of being placed in the Guards, he was sent to a lonely post in the interior. Here, with nothing but trivial details demanding his attention, and cut off from all congenial society, the young lieutenant became melancholy and reflective. He neglected his duties, was forced to resign, and at once proceeded to Moscow.

 

Here he met Herzen, Tourguéneff, Aksakoff, and others, all young, all enthusiastic, and all devoted students of Hegel. Their days were spent in perusing the “Logik†and “Aesthetik†of their oracle, and their nights in animated discussions as to his meaning. Friends who in other respects had been inseparable fell out for weeks together over their various conceptions of the nature of Absolute Intelligence. Bakunin declared that he would make the study of Hegel's Logic the business of his life. “Hegel's views,†he wrote, “are allied to our socialistic theories. His philosophy makes men free; it leaves no stone in Christendom unturned; it liberates the world from obsolete traditions.â€

 

Having learned all that Moscow could impart, he went to Berlin, and listened to the Hegelian expounder Michelet. But even Berlin did not satisfy his thirst for knowledge. He removed to Halle, and imbibed wisdom from the lips of Arnold Roge. In the Halle Jahrbücher for 1842, Bakunin made his first appearance in print. “The Positive,†he writes, “exists only in the contrary of the Negative; the destruction of the one is the completion of the other. Moderation is impossible, for it implies that both are equally true or false. The Negative alone determines the balance, and comprehends the totality of the contrast.†Then, leaving mere discussion of the master's great principle of the “identity of contraries,†he waxes more impassioned: “Let us cry aloud, 'Repent, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!' The spirit of Intelligence, the ever young, the ever newborn, is not to be looked for among the ruins of the past. It destroys and annihilates only because it is the fathomless and ever-creating fountain of all life.†Noble words, which, alas! like Hassan-Ben-Saba's search for truth, ended in strange results.

 

We need not speak of Bakunin's life during the eventful years of 1848 and 1849. He was in the thick of every insurrection. From Paris he went to Prague, from Prague to Dresden. He advised the insurgents to burn Dresden in order to save it from capture, and when taken prisoner himself, declared to his captors, “In politics the issue alone determines what is a crime and what is a noble action.†The Saxon government handed him over to Austria, Austria transferred him to Russia, and after long confinement in the Schlüsselburg, the most dreaded of Russian prisons, the hapless Hegelian was sent to Siberia. He escaped under circumstances which involved that violation of his parole from which men of honor shrink.

 

When he returned to Europe, his welcome was a cold one. He alienated all shades of the revolutionary party by his cynicism and inconsistency. When, in 1867, the International Society was formed, Bakunin joined it, but soon formed from among its more advanced members a new body, “L'Alliance de la Démocratie sociale.†The programme of this new society was at entire variance with the programme of the International. It demanded “the abolition of the state, the extirpation of all religion, collectivism not communism, an organization of society from below by its own voice, not from above by authority.â€

 

Even within this alliance Bakunin organized a smaller and more select body, “The Secret College of Brethren,†which carried on the organization after his death. It is these secret brethren who teach that “killing is no murder, but a just punishment,†who threaten kings on their thrones and ministers in the cabinet, who demand the “suppression of God,†and proclaim that their immediate object is anarchy. The field of action of Bakunin's society is Russia, because there it finds a people at once simple-minded and fanatic, there it finds a nation honey-combed with secret sects of the wildest tenets and strangest practices, and because there it can command the faith of disciples as self-sacrificing as Hassan's “Devoted Ones.â€

 

During the Crusades, Henry, Count of Champagne, visited the Syrian chief of the Assassins. The Frank prince boasted of the courage of his fellow-Crusaders; the Assassin made signs to two of his followers to leap from the towers of his castle, and they plunged down to certain death. Peter the Great and Frederick I of Prussia are the subjects of a similar story. “Let us see,†said the Czar, “which of us is obeyed the best. Order one of your troopers to jump down this precipice.†Frederick gave the word. The German soldier asked permission to go home and say good-by to his wife before making the leap. Peter signed to a Cossack. The man dashed forward to the giddy verge, when the Czar dragged him back. “My subjects,†he exclaimed to Frederick, “place my orders before their families.â€

Such, today, is the devotion of the Nihilist to the orders he receives: martyrs are always ready when the executive committee calls for them. This dreaded body assumed its present form in 1878, when, in the dark woods and forests of Litepsk, the first convention of terrorists was held. The organization is at once elastic and strong; it consists of autonomous groups and an evershifting centre. One day the committee meets in London, another day in St. Petersburg, another day in Geneva. It has command of large sums of money, for on entering the society the neophyte surrenders his fortune as well as his liberty of action, and it employs all the resources of modern science for its destructive ends.

[Salafi_Online]

Baarakallahu feek Ya bashi

 

here is one inshallah hope your enjoy,benefit that is!

 

 

An Occupied Space Cannot Contain Two Opposites

 

 

By Imaam Ibnul Qayyim al-Jawziyyah

 

For a space to accept what is being put in it, it has to be emptied of the opposite. The same way this is relevant with individuals and objects, it is also true for beliefs and wills. So, if the heart is occupied with loving and believing in falsehood, then it has no space for loving and accepting the truth. Just like if a tongue is busy uttering what does not have benefit, then its owner will not be able to utter what has benefit for him except if he stops talking about what is useless. Also if the different body parts are busy doing what is not obedience then it is not possible to keep them occupied in doing what is obedience except if he (the owner) frees them of the opposite. In the same way, a heart full of loving other than Allaah, wanting him, longing to meet him, and enjoying his company cannot be occupied with love for Allaah, wanting Him, longing to meet Him except by emptying it (the heart) from attachment to anything other than Him (Allaah). And the tongue cannot move to remember Him nor can the body parts move to His service except if he (the owner) frees them from mentioning and servicing other than Him. So if the heart is full of occupation with creation and sciences that do not have benefit then there is no space for being occupied with Allaah and knowing His Names, Attributes, Laws. And the secret of that is that the Isghaa (listening in concentration) of the heart is like the Isghaa (listening in concentration) of the ears, so if he listens to other than the Hadeeth (meaning speech , words, subject) of Allaah, then there will be no room to listen to or understand the Hadeeth of Allaah. Just like if he is inclined in love towards other than Allaah then he would have no room to incline in love towards Allaah. If the heart utters other than the remembrance of Allaah then it will not have any space to utter His remembrance by using the tongue. And that is why we find in an authentic narration from the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam):

 

"It is better for your mouths to be full of pus until it makes it go bad than to be full of poetry." [1]

 

So he made it clear that a mouth can be full of poetry and therefore it also becomes full of doubts, fictions and unexisting measures. Also the sciences that have no benefit, jokes, comedies, stories and so on. If the heart is full of that, then when the truths of the Qur`aan, and the sciences that can make it experience its full function and happiness, come to him, it will not find any space for itself and no acceptance (from it), so it bypasses it (the heart) and moves to another place. If you give advice to a heart full of its opposite, it will not find a way in and (the heart) will not accept it. It does not enter inside but it only passes by briefly and not from the inside. That is why it was said:

 

"Clean your heart from other than Us , and you will find Us

 

For our Highness is compatible with every clean heart

 

And patience is a chest for the treasure of being associated with Us

 

He who makes the chest compatible wins its treasure."

 

 

http://www.troid.org/

[raula]

http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/refugee/hcp/hivsomali.pdf

 

Read this article to get more indepth HIV/AIDS in somalis in MN-its a bit lengthy but the format is very much easier to maneuver through.

 

According to the Minnesota Dept. of Health, the Somali refugee population currently residing in Minnesota has a "relatively low rate [of HIV/AIDS infection]compared to other African communities" since only 18 cases have been reported in this community

-ONLY 18 cases so far,but the numbers could be deceiving due to obstacles relating to cultural, religious and knowledge [stereotypes associated with not seeking medical attention] of the "killerdisease."

 

check out pg. 8-to get the stats on how many cases of HIV/AIDS are Somalis and overall in the African Communities in Minnesota(Ethiopians are leading).

 

May Allah protect us from this wrath-Amin.

[Jurnee]

Asalamu alaikum,

 

In light of what has happened to our brothers and sisters in Asia and Africa the past week, i thought this article would be helpful in reminding us on how we should deal with this calamity.

 

Sabr (Patience)

It implies patience, forbearance, perseverance, determination, fortitude, constancy and steadfastness. Sabr assumes different dimensions depending upon which aspect of life is the point of reference:

 

Sabr in personal life

1. The first kind of Sabr is 'patience' as it is ordinarily understood.

 

It is the ability to hold back, remain calm, maintain one's cool, restrain oneself and wait and see despite the urge to jump on, barge in, respond, and do something in the situations of heat, pressure, anxiety, curiosity, anger, confrontation, etc.

 

It also represents the patience exercised during the hardships people face in their lives such as illnesses and diseases, death of loved ones, natural calamities and disasters, and problems or setbacks emanating from the situations and circumstances beyond one's control. Knowing that all these things are part of our test for which we have been put on the earth and knowing that our success lies in how well we react to and handle such situations helps a believer endure these hardships without panicking, complaining or being frustrated.

 

"A person who faces a physical or financial setback, keeps quiet about it and does not complain to people, has a right on Allaah to be forgiven." (Attributed by Ibn 'Abbaas to the Prophet sal-Allaahu alaihi wasallam as reported in At-Tabaraani's Al-Owsat).

 

"A Muslim does not suffer any mental or physical anguish, or any distress, grief, pain or sorrow - even from the prick of a thorn - except that Allaah expiates his mistakes and sins." (Bukhaari and Muslim)

 

This Sabr is an extremely important virtue for a believer. The Prophet sal-Allaahu alaihi wa sallam, talking to some poor Muslims from Ansaar whom he had given whatever he had, said:

 

"Whoever practices Sabr, Allaah Subhanahu wa Ta'aala gives him Sabr. And no one can be given anything better or more far-reaching (comprehensive) than Sabr." (Aboo S'eed Khudri in Bukhaari and Muslim)

 

In a letter of condolence dictated for Mu'aadz Ibn Jabal on the death of his son, the Prophet sal-Allaahu alaihi wa sallam said, "May Allaah increase your reward and bestow you patience, and enable us and you to be thankful to Him. Our lives, our wealth and our families are blissful gifts that are trusts temporarily entrusted. Allaah gave you the opportunity to enjoy (your son gifted to you in trust) with happiness and pleasure, and then he took it from you in return for a big reward. May He bestow upon you blessings, mercy and guidance, if you restrain yourself in expectation for His reward. So, be patient and do not let wailing destroy your reward, to be sorry afterwards. Remember wailing neither brings back the dead, nor removes the grief. What had to happen has happened." (At-Tabaraani)

 

However, tears or sadness is not against the spirit of the patience. When the son of the Prophet's daughter, Zainab, was taking his last breath in the Prophet's lap, tears came down from Prophet 's eyes. When Sa'd wondered, the Prophet sal-Allaahu alaihi wa sallam explained, "This is an expression of mercy that Allaah has put in the hearts of people." (Reported from Usamah Ibn Zaid in Bukhaari and Muslim)

 

This kind of patience is the lowest level of Sabr expected of the believers and is one of the qualities emanating from the Taqwaa in the heart. The test of the patience is at the initial shock. With time, everyone cools down. The patient person controls his/her reactions at the very outset. Reacting emotionally in the beginning and then cooling off is indicative of lack of patience.

 

The Messenger of Allaah sal-Allaahu alaihi wa sallam told a women crying over the grave of her husband, "Maintain Taqwaa and be patient." Later on he explained to her, "The real Sabr (patience) is that which is demonstrated at the initial shock." (Reported from Anas in Bukhaari and Muslim)

 

The Messenger of Allaah sal-Allaahu alaihi wa sallam said, "Allaah Tabaaraka wa Ta'aala says: O son of Adam! If you remained patient restraining yourself and expecting my reward at the initial shock, I will not be happy without rewarding you with Jannah." (From Abee Umaamah in Ibn Maajah)

 

The complementary quality for this Sabr is Shukr (gratitude) which means thanking Allaah Subhanahu wa Ta'aala for any good things, happy occasions, successes, health, profitability, good harvest and prosperity we enjoy in our life. Because all of these things depend, in addition to our hard work, on many favourable circumstances and conditions that are beyond our control, a believer thanks Allaah Subhanahu wa Ta'aala for providing the ability to work hard and making our efforts fruitful through all those favourable circumstances and conditions.

 

This is what is alluded to in the following Ahaadeeth:

 

The Messenger of Allaah sal-Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said, "Wondrous are the believer's affairs. For him there is good in all his affairs, and this is true only for a believer. If he encounters something troubling, he remains steadfast with patience, and that is good for him. If he experiences something pleasing, he thanks Allaah, and that is good for him. (Reported from Suhaib in the Muslim)

 

The Messenger of Allaah sal-Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said, "Allaah told Eesa (Jesus) peace be upon him: I will bring up an Ummah after you who will thank Allaah when they encounter what they like; and they will restrain themselves expecting reward from Allaah and will remain patient when they suffer something they dislike." (Reported from Aboo-Ad-Dardaa by Baihiqi in Shu'abul-Eemaan)

 

source: http://www.alinaam.org.za/library/char/sabr.htm

[Baashi]

In a letter of condolence dictated for Mu'aadz Ibn Jabal on the death of his son, the Prophet sal-Allaahu alaihi wa sallam said, "May Allaah increase your reward and bestow you patience, and enable us and you to be thankful to Him. Our lives, our wealth and our families are blissful gifts that are trusts temporarily entrusted. Allaah gave you the opportunity to enjoy (your son gifted to you in trust) with happiness and pleasure, and then he took it from you in return for a big reward. May He bestow upon you blessings, mercy and guidance, if you restrain yourself in expectation for His reward. So, be patient and do not let wailing destroy your reward, to be sorry afterwards. Remember wailing neither brings back the dead, nor removes the grief. What had to happen has happened." (At-Tabaraani)

What had to happen has happened - how true!

 

Many thanks Shankroon for sharing this timely article with us.

[Wiilo]

April 25, 2005

Specialists Say 'Healers' in Angola Are Helping to Spread Deadly Virus

 

By SHARON LaFRANIERE

 

JOHANNESBURG, April 24 - International health specialists battling an outbreak of Marburg virus in Angola suspect that unorthodox medical practices by local traditional healers may be contributing to the spread of the deadly disease.

 

The experts suggest that the healers, who lack medical training and supplies but are a substitute for doctors in many rural African communities, are administering injections in homes or in makeshift clinics with reused needles or syringes.

 

In the northern Angolan province of Uíge, where all but 11 of the 244 deaths reported in the outbreak have occurred, epidemiologists say they must convince people that such practices can be fatal.

 

Dr. Pierre Formenty, an expert in hemorrhagic fevers like Marburg and a member of the World Health Organization's team in Uíge, said on Saturday that unsafe injections could explain why an average of three people per day continue to die of the virus a full month after international teams arrived in Angola to battle it.

 

Although it is not clear what solutions the healers are injecting, specialists said, the virus can easily be transmitted from an infected to an uninfected person through a contaminated needle or syringe.

 

"I would say it is bit bizarre that we still have these high numbers per week," Dr. Formenty said in a telephone interview. He said medical workers had developed a campaign against injections at home "asking people to use other kinds of medicines or to come to hospital or the health center to have a safe injection with new devices."

 

Another expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insisted that unnecessary shots were common, saying, "There is a notion in Africa that if you haven't been given an injection, you haven't been treated."

 

Dr. Formenty said that while intense efforts to track possible cases and limit the potential for transmission of the virus were helping to curtail the epidemic, it was not clear whether the outbreak had peaked.

 

"I would say that it's just a gut feeling that maybe things are going better in the sense that people are reporting more and more systematically the deaths," Dr. Formenty said. Other encouraging signs, experts said, include the arrival on Thursday of a 28-member Angolan medical team in Uíge and the opening of a fever ward at the provincial hospital.

 

"Certainly we are breaking the chain of transmission," said Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization's alert and response operations. "This is the most critical time now in the response, now that we are beginning to get things under control," he said.

 

When asked why it took a month for Angolan health authorities to send a significant team of specialists to Uíge, Dr. Ryan said only that the authorities had been worried the epidemic would spread to Luanda, where crowded conditions and an international airport could help the virus spread out of control, and to elsewhere in Angola.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/25/international/africa/25marburg.html?pagewanted=print&position=

 

 

SalAamA kA DheH:........

[LANDER]

Hot air: Summit heads to a close with no sign of progress

[Qandalawi]

^^ Sxb this sums up the arrogance of the US and their full control over the issues concerning the world at large.

[LANDER]

very true Tukaale, I'm glad most other develloped countries are still making an effort though, still whitout the co-operation of the worlds largest poluter.

 

In contrast check out this initiative by Castro and Chavez.

 

Castro's 'miracle' cures the poor of blindness