Dear People,
From as-sahifa al-sajjadiyya ( regarded as the psalms of Islam) by Imam Ali Ibn al-Husayn ( alaihi salaam) this prayer in which he implores protection from evil, immorality and blameworthy actions:
O lord, I implore Thy protection from the excitation of greed, the impetuosity of anger, the domination of envy, the lack of patience, the scarcity of contentment, the depravity of morals, the importunity of passion, the excess of zeal, the submission of desires, the opposition to right, the drowsiness of negligence, the entrance into troubles, the preferring of the wrong to the right, the persistence in sins, the underestimation of guilt, the overestimation of service, the pride of the wealthy, the despising of the poor, the abuse of power over those under our hands, the omitting to thank those who are kind to us, assisting the oppressor, forsaking the oppressed, aiming at that to which we are not entitled, and speaking in matters of learning without knowledge.
And we implore Thy protection from keeping in mind the weakness of others, from being proud of our good deeds, and from indulging in far-reaching hopes.
O Lord, we flee to Thee for protection from inward evil (sinful thoughts), from the underestimation of minor sins, from the domination of Satan over us, from being involved in calamity by the course of events and from being oppressed by the sultan.
And we flee to Thee for protection from acquiring extravagant habits, and from want of livelihood.
And we ask thy protection from the ridicule of enemies, from the begging of equals, from living in hardship and dying without preparation.
And we seek Thy protection from the exceeding regret, from the great calamity, from the terrible misfortune, from an unsafe refuge, from being unrewarded and from the visitation of the chastisement.
O Lord, bless Mohammad and his family and protect me and all true believers, both male and female, from all these by Thy mercy, O most Merciful!"
My late Pir Hazrat Aga ( whose shoelaces I was privileged to tie) and after him his son Mahbub Ali Shah (Hajj Ali Tabanda who also took me by the hand, are precious to us…
I'm not usually ruffled by Trump's tantrums and all the goings on that swirl around him, but this afternoon I could not attend a memorial dinner in honour of Dr Noor Ali Tabandeh , because in spite of unwavering bitachon, I'm feeling a little distressed about Herr Trump's latest edict - this latest Ozymandias edict by Ozymandias Trump , definitely not his last in his long series of foreign policy missteps, if indeed his spontaneous shooting from the hip – by animal instinct only as in " grab them by the pussy" – in reaction to each and every new situation merits the name of "policy". Just look at his tweets, another unending series, several thousands of them so far, destined to survive as his main literary legacy. As everyone except him knows, all such off-the-cuff actions don't add up to the merits and the cohesion in the strategy that's usually behind the thinking known as "policy"
As the whole world can see, he now rules his home turf the USA by edict, bypasses Congress - still hasn't shown his tax returns, and probably to appease warmonger John Bolton and guarantee that the old bolt with the walrus moustache won't testify against him when he goes on trial in the Senate - if he is subpoenaed to do so, he has killed the military commander of Iran's awesome military and is now threatening to bomb Iran to the stone ages if Iran as much as touches a single hair of any American citizen. Just like the Ozymandias epitaph:
"King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Trump has now crossed the Rubicon and sealed his own fate. He is not going to be President of the United States much longer and there's not much that he can do to change that sorry fact. Just as he wants regime change in Iran so too most people in the world want to see regime change in the United States, want to see Trump gone. He is not even sure that he's going to make it to witness any kind of inauguration on Wednesday the 20th of January, next year.
If he's telling the truth, he may not want regime change in Iran - not even a change of the current regime to one that would love him, adore him, be compliant with all his wishes, in short, would be very Donald Trump-friendly. In his heart of hearts, he would like to have a new Supreme Leader of Iran, one that would lead his council of Ayatollahs and the people of Iran to chant this new chant after their Friday prayers in Mashhad; Tehran and Qom:
Long Live President Donald J Trump the great leader of the United States of America!
Long live President Donald J. Trump the great Leader of the Free World!
Long live the Great America!
Long live Prime Minister Netanyahu!
Long live Israel!"
From the Oval Office in Washington D.C., Donald Trump would like to dictate the foreign policy that should be followed by Mexico, Canada, Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Cuba, Afghanistan, Egypt, Turkey (God forbid) Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Ukraine, France, and Germany.
Just as in his heart of hearts, he would like to see a regime change, even a peaceful, miraculous, non-violent regime change that would come overnight, maybe led by an incarnation of Cyrus the Great, - the Messiah, preferably one that would start supplying free oil to his friends in Tel Aviv, so too his enemies at home and abroad would like to see a change of regime in the United States of America one that would start showing some respect for the diverse members of the human family!
Completely ignoring international law and diplomatic protocol would Trump give an order to liquidate the Supreme Military Commander of China/ Russia/France/North Korea/ India/ Pakistan / Japan/ The United Kingdom/Poland/ Canada, whilst any of those gentlemen were on a state visit to sovereign Iraq? Or whilst they were about to address the United Nations in New York? Or are we now all following ancient Jewish Law:" If someone is on his way to kill you, you must rise and kill him first" - on the logic of suspicion only?
Don't worry about Iran. Iran will be up and running again long after Trump is done and gone.
For now, typical of the Wild West Cowboy who shoots first and asks questions later, he says that he has red hot information that Soleimani was planning to kill a few Americans. Well, Soleimani is not the only one who has such plans. There are even Americans who are planning to kill their fellow Americans - just look at the murder statistics, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and hate crimes in the USA since Trump became president! I daresay that he has enough enemies in his own country who may at this very moment be planning to see the last of him, as soon as possible and by any means necessary and if possible. I Listen to Anderson Cooper 360 and Chris Cuomo Prime Time, and the rest of what CNN has to say, regularly…
For reasons of secrecy, Trump will say that he can't divulge the details of the alleged plans that Soleimani was fashioning to kill Americans – and of course if pressed to do so, he can easily cook up, concoct some cock and bull story, even retroactively. Didn't General Colin Powell with his walking stick point out on the United Nations screen Saddam's mobile launchers, from which dear Saddam was going to unleash his horrendous weapons of mass destruction? Of liars, Jesus did say the following and it's in the so-called "New Testament":
"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
Trump may regard Israel as his little brother, but the very first thing that Trump has got to get in his head is this: Iran ( a Great Civilisation thousands of years before America was "discovered" ) and Iraq, the cradle of civilisation ( from where Abraham came, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and all that ) are not American colonies – and so, rightly so, Iraq's parliament has just given Trump's American troops marching orders, out of Iraq, out of Iraq - and after destroying that country and killing over 1,455,590 Iraqi citizens the still unrepentant Trump has the temerity to start threatening anyone who thinks that they should just get the hell out of their country and get lost?
Ayatollah Khomeini said, "Every day is Ashura and every land is Karbala!"
The saying is that God resists the tyrannical and the proud. The self-proclaimed "leader of the free world" and those he so disgustingly refers to as " shithole countries" ought not to behave in such a way that he lowers himself to being seen to be at the same level as e.g. Yazid, " a pagan at heart, whose depravity had undermined the foundations of religion and morality"
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