#for all mankind 302

[ynx1]

Discussion On The Souls of Mankind

Is the Soul Created or a Divine attribute?

The spirit or soul is not one of the attributes of Allāh as mentioned by some philosophers, rather it is one of the things that have been created by Allāh.

Allāh says,

اللَّهُ خَالِقُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ ۖ وَهُوَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَكِيلٌ

"Allāh is the Creator of all things, and He is, over all things, Disposer of affairs." Sūrah Zumar (39): 62

He also says,

هَلْ أَتَىٰ عَلَى الْإِنسَانِ حِينٌ مِّنَ الدَّهْرِ لَمْ يَكُن شَيْئًا مَّذْكُورًا

"Has there not been over man a period of time, when he was nothing to be mentioned?" Sūrah Insān (76): 1

Shaykh al-Islām Taqi Al-Dīn Ahmad Ibn Taymīyyah [D. 728H] (رَحِمَهُ ٱللهُ) said: The soul of the son of Adam is created as agreed upon by the Salaf and the scholars after them that were upon Ahlus Sunnah.

See Majmū Fatāwa (4/216-217)

Imām Ibn al-Qayyim [D. 751H] (رَحِمَهُ ٱللهُ) said:

Does the rūh (Soul) exist from eternity or is it something that is created?

Then he said: This is an issue which some scholars got wrong and many groups of the sons of Adam went astray concerning it, but Allāh has guided the followers of His Messenger to the clear truth concerning it. The Messengers (ﷺ) are unanimously agreed that the soul is created and taught and trained. This is a basic belief in the religion of the Messengers (ﷺ) , just as it is a basic belief in their religion that the universe is created, and that physical bodies will be resurrected, and that Allāh alone is the Creator and everything besides Him is created.

See Kitāb Ar-Rūh (p. 144)

Where does the soul reside in the body?

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: Did you not see when the man died and his eyes were fixedly open? He (Abu Huraira) said: Yes. He (the Prophet) said: It is due to the fact that when (the soul leaves the body) his eyesight follows the soul." Recorded in Sahih Muslim (no. 921)

Shaykh al-Islām Taqi Al-Dīn Ahmad Ibn Taymīyyah (رَحِمَهُ ٱللهُ) writes:

As for the saying of the one who said, "Where does it (the soul) reside in the body?"

Then there is no specification of any particular part of body for the soul, rather it flows through the body (as a whole), just as life, which is a temporal attribute ('arad), flows through the entire body.

For life is conditioned by the soul, if the soul is in the body, it will have life, and if the soul departs from it, then life departs from it.

See Majmū Fatāwa (9/302-303) and Risālah Fil-Ruh wal-Aql (pp. 53-55)

[daveg65]

302 - USB-C Cables Chargers and iOS Game Emulators - With Guest Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Jeff Gamet, and Ben Roethig

The latest In Touch With iOS with Dave he is joined by guest Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Jeff Gamet, and Ben Roethig. Beta this week. 17.5 Beta 2 was released this week. New Guest Brian Flsnigsn-Arthers we find out more about him and his Apple Tech.Emulators on iOS is a game changer for iOS?We discuss USB-C Cables and chargers and talk about what is good and what is bad.We discuss USB-C Cables and chargers and talk about what is good and what is bad.In Touch with Cord cutting this week AirPlay in Hotels,Plex has 1100 channels and more. Plus more.

The show notes are at InTouchwithiOS.com


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Beta this week. 17.5 Beta 2 was released this week. 

Apple Seeds Second Betas of iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 to Developers 

Everything New in the iOS 17.5 Beta - MacRumors

iOS 17.5: New features, release date, and more details - 9to5Mac

Apple Seeds Second Beta of watchOS 10.5 to Developers 

Apple Seeds Second Beta of visionOS 1.2 to Developers - MacRumors

Apple Seeds Second Beta of tvOS 17.5 to Developers - MacRumors

New iOS 17.5 Beta Lets EU iPhone Users Download Apps Directly From Websites

New Guest Brian Flsnigsn-Arthers we find out more about him and his Apple Tech. 

Emulators on iOS is a game changer for iOS?

Emulators Will Change the App Store Forever - MacStories

The Delta Videogame Emulator Launches on the App Store - MacStories

We discuss USB-C Cables and chargers and talk about what is good and what is bad.  

USB-C charging cables for iPhone, iPad and Mac | Macworld

In Touch with Cord cutting this week AirPlay in Hotels,Plex has 1100 channels and more. 

Cord Cutting in Hotels is Becoming Easier As AirPlay Comes to Select IHG Hotels

Plex Tops 1,100 Free Live Channels Worldwide, Making it The Largest Free Streaming Service | Cord Cutters News

Switching broadband is going to get easier thanks to these new 'nutrition' labels/

Review: Roku’s New Pro Remote 2 with Backlit Buttons, USB-C, & New Buttons: Is It Worth Upgrading? | Cord Cutters News

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Apple addresses predictive emoji ‘bug’ in latest iOS 17.5 beta after outrage

Microsoft brings OneNote to the Apple Vision Pro — with a key limitation

Apple Sports App Updated for NBA and NHL Playoffs 

'For All Mankind' season 5 and new spinoff series 'Star City' coming to Apple TV+ - 9to5Mac

Coming to Apple TV+: All the upcoming shows, series, movies, trailers, and more

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Dave Ginsburg is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users and shares his wealth of knowledge of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and related technologies. Visit the YouTube channel https://youtube.com/intouchwithios follow him on Mastadon @daveg65, and the show @intouchwithios

  Our Regular Contributors

Jeff Gamet is a podcaster, technology blogger, artist, and author. Previously, he was The Mac Observer’s managing editor, and Smile’s TextExpander Evangelist. You can find him on Mastadon @jgamet as well as Twitter and Instagram as @jgamet  His YouTube channel https://youtube.com/jgamet

Ben Roethig Former Associate Editor of GeekBeat.TV and host of the Tech Hangout and Deconstruct with Patrice  Mac user since the mid 90s. Tech support specialist. Twitter @benroethig  Website: https://roethigtech.blogspot.com

About our Guest

Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on X @brian8944. and Mastodon at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud.

Here is our latest Episode!

[degibusdesigns]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: 7 For All Mankind Straight Leg Womens Jeans 28.

[transpidergwen]

Ed moaning about how Danielle got to command the first Mars mission because the playing field was unfairly tipped in her favor as a Black woman because the times do be changing only to fail upwards into the Phoenix mission 20 minutes later with Molly cheering him on to "stick it to the bastards" was really, really something else

[booasaur]

"I don’t see this writers missing out on a chance to go for maximum drama with Ellen having to support homophobic policies."- you are correct, Ellen will be supporting homophobic policies. I just hope by the end of S3 she realizes she's made a huge mistake, comes out to live her life outside of the GOP.

Hmm, you sent this before ep 2 aired so do you know this for a fact or were you speculating? I mean, it seems to be borne out by ep 2 once it did air, and yeah, looks like it's gonna be an ugly journey ahead.

And another anon:

I won't give away any spoilers but Ellen and Larry in 302 is just nauseous. Her arc is just terrible with 2 scenes each at 2 minutes or so. I'm more disappointed than I was going into the season - had low expectations going in.

And another anon:

Did you watch the new ep of for all mankind??

A warning: I get quite negative below about the show For All Mankind so avoid if you're a fan.

Yep, I did watch, and...I'm just. It's so funny to me that media like FK and TBH and BSC and WN and Crush will be dismissed practically sight unseen, actual quality aside, because of their target audience, but something like s3 of this show is being critically praised and considered true prestige.

First. Danny and Karen? Are they kidding me? I don't even know what to say about that or why anybody would think it's compelling storytelling. I'm not one to deny actual quality when it's there, I thought the first season was great, I can watch people do unlikable things and still think the show is good, that's not my issue. But this is just all so soapy and twisting everything, character and plot, to service the melodrama and gimmicky alt history plots they've thought of. I said in my answer about Love, Victor that I could understand making choices that serve the fiction, but that's a show about high school love, this is a show deliberately trying to play out the reality that would unfold if just one historical event changed. So little of this is what would actually happen even with the set of characters they created in s1, it's just, "wouldn't it be cool if we did this?", which is the worst way to write.

I want to continue stating my unhappiness with whatever's going on with Ed/Molly/Dani. Are they trying to say that as much as we like Ed and Molly, people naturally turn conservative in their older age and Ed and Molly are unknowingly being pretty racist in how they're going about this? Or white people are just always capable of it? Because Ed was openly racist and sexist right there and I just don't believe Molly would think Ed's the best candidate to this degree, yeah, he's a "cowboy" like her, but why would you want that in a very long-term mission, especially when he's already 60? Yeah, Molly, let's remember the fond good old days of the agency you two signed up for, when the version Ed signed up for kicked you out for being a woman. Increasingly, the weight and history of past events and characterizations we literally saw in front of us seem to matter less and it's about what the current season requires.

Are we even supposed to dislike Ed for his comments, given the show went and rewarded him with the Helios mission? And in literally looking up the spelling of Helios right now, I found this article where Joel Kinnaman discusses Ed's thought process and there's no mention of how what he said was completely beyond decency, how it's just a friendship that goes through rough patches and it's actually him who feels betrayed. We don't even need to look back at the show's treatment of race to know Dani's going to yet again get the short end of the stick narratively, look how after that conversation between Ed and Dani where she's the one who heard something so hurtful, it's Ed the show decided to stay with and be all sympathetic about. Shows can have bad things happen, they can have people do bad things, they don't have to correct it or call it out, even, including something isn't agreeing with it. But you can't ignore it entirely???? In and outside the show? And what you choose to focus on and how you tell that story says a lot! Who gets the agency, who gets the screentime, who gets the sympathy.

And then of course: Ellen. To even get to the point of discussing her and Larry having a kid, I'd have to understand why they're doing this political storyline and I do not! Why go to all this trouble? Is it to change the country for better? In which case she joined the GOP?? Will ally with a GOP hardliner?? Presumably had sex with Larry to have a kid for her image? I can only hope it was artificial insemination or adoption but given past history, I don't expect the show to care about that or the message it's conveying.

But if she's joining politics for Mars, WHY??? They're literally showing Helios right now as a private aeronautics company and had Ellen's background being perfect for it, why not have her do that? Because it would just be more dramatic, right, for the closeted lesbian to be a Republican politician? Not even a Democrat. No, no, let's have her possibly be campaigning on anti-gay stuff. Isn't that just delicious? As I said: the "wouldn't it be cool" style of storytelling.

[longsightmyth]

“India was once a vast wasteland, completely uninhabitable. It was full of fiery serpents, great deserts, and fierce beasts. Then the gods and goddesses came and the face of the land changed. They created man and gave mankind special gifts, the first one being the Golden Fruit. When it was planted, a mighty tree sprang up, and from the fruit that grew on the tree, seeds were gathered and spread all over India, changing it into a fertile land that would feed millions.” 

“But, if the Golden Fruit was planted, wouldn’t it have disappeared or become the roots of the tree?” 

“One fruit from that first tree ripened quickly and became golden, and that Golden Fruit was taken and hidden by Hanuman, the half-man, half-monkey king of Kishkindha. As long as the fruit is protected, India’s people will be fed.” 

“So that’s the fruit we have to find? What if Hanuman is still protecting it and we can’t get to it?” 

“Hanuman protected the fruit by placing it in his fortress and surrounding it with immortal servants who would watch over it. I don’t know much about the kinds of barriers that would be set up to stop you. I’m guessing there will be more than one trap designed to pull you from your course. On the other hand, you are Durga’s favored one, and you have her protection as well.”

Houck, Colleen. Tiger's Curse (Book 1 in the Tiger's Curse Series) (pp. 301-302). Splinter. Kindle Edition.

[biggoonie]

DOCTOR DOOM VOL. 1: POTTERSVILLE TPB

Written by CHRISTOPHER CANTWELL Penciled by SALVADOR LARROCA Cover by ACO Victor Von Doom is at a crossroads. Wrestling with visions of an entirely different life — a better future — the lord of Latveria offers mankind a stark warning about the folly of a trillion-dollar global effort to create the first artificial black hole. But when a catastrophic act of terrorism kills thousands, the prime suspect is…Doom! Left with no homeland, no armies, no allies — indeed, nothing at all — will Doctor Doom’s reign come to an abrupt end? Forced to seek out an old “frenemy” for help, Victor will go through hell — literally! And his old foe Mephisto is waiting for him there! Doom will have to battle Taskmaster, M.O.D.O.K., the Blue Marvel and more — but can he clear his accursed name? Collecting DOCTOR DOOM #1-5. 120 PGS./Rated T+ …$15.99 ISBN: 978-1-302-92089-0

[mismagireve]

i feel like talking about my original fiction concepts

hmu if u have any questions about these fuckers:

Courtly—A child sits upon the throne with her elder half-sister, the rightful queen, as her most trusted servant.  A war rages on in a neighboring kingdom that threatens the peace of its neighbors.  An ancient conspiracy rules the land from the shadows.  And a proposal of marriage from a foreign knight threatens to bring it all screaming to the forefront.

Errant—A knight on a quest to retrieve an artifact that could secure his queen’s legitimacy in the eyes of the court accidentally unleashes an ancient evil that has been plaguing the countryside for centuries…Then promptly continues his quest with the evil at his side and falls in love on the way.

Herald—A group of outlaws uncovers the armor of a legendary knight in hopes of using it as a symbol to rally against the oppressive empire choking them down.  They get more than they expected after realizing that the armor did not simply belong to the knight: the armor is the knight, and they're rather upset about what's become of the kingdom they once defended.

Another Day In Kingfisher Bay—Welcome to idyllic Kingfisher Bay, home to a thriving superhero/supervillain population.  Would you like to spend your days cleaning up blood because one of the heroes took shelter in the wrong apartment again?  Get abducted by an alien overlord?  Or perhaps have a supervillain for a neighbor?  Try anything and everything here in Kingfisher Bay!

Inside The City Walls—One hundred years ago, a man named Mackeroy Neren protected the country around the Walled City from vampires.  When he left for a hunt and never returned, the City ceased almost all trade, and rarely ever opens the Walls.  But—something’s gotten into the City.  Something’s lurking in the shadows.  And one Patrice “Patty” Argall finds herself wrapped up in the middle of it all.

Life After Highschool—26-year-old Miho Harukita is having a stressful time adjusting to adulthood and working life, but her loving husband helps keep her grounded.  Things are looking up for the young couple as they plan out the rest of their lives together until an old foe from her high school days rears its ugly head once more: the kaiju that she and her friends helped the alien hero Starman protect humanity from.

LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU—One is the most destructive computer virus ever created by mankind.  The other is a military program with control over a third of the world’s missiles.  Somehow they ended up on the run from the government together, and all they want is a place where they can just live in peace… And maybe hold hands a bunch.

The Miracles of Saint Maylis—302 years ago, Saint Maylis converted a demon to the light of the church, training him in the faith as she would any other.  300 years ago Saint Maylis lead an army against the encroach of a great evil, and never returned.  Now, the evil is returning, and the only one who can truly stop it is the only one left who was there: Sir Penetratus Iseley, the First Miracle of Saint Maylis.

[maxksx]

Nick Land’s diagnosis… Wintermute: Stop it or Accelerate its Production?

In William Gibson’s Neuromancer we see an agon between the various forces that would resist and stop the emergence of a vastly superior Artificial Intelligence vs. those who would enter into a new set of commitments to liberate it from its human security regimes. In the novel this new Intelligence is named Wintermute, an Artificial Intelligence (AI). When the human protagonist, Chase, has to make the precipitous decision to free Wintermute at the end of the novel he conceives it as a leap into the new:

`Give us the fucking code,’ he said. `If you don’t, what’ll change? What’ll ever fucking change for you? You’ll wind up like the old man. You’ll tear it all down and start building again! You’ll build the walls back, tighter and tighter… I got no idea at all what’ll happen if Wintermute wins, but it’ll change something!’ He was shaking, his teeth chattering.1

Commenting on this in his Doctoral Thesis, Dr. Steve Overy tells us that this decision goes to the heart of Nick Land’s anti-philosophy:

In this era of accelerating technological change philosophy creates a false dichotomy between controlled change and uncontrolled change, whereas, for Land, the real dichotomy is between resisting change and accepting it. The impersonal forces of the outside irrupting at the moment: cryptocurrency, AI and singularity, demographic collapse, the death of the Westphalian state system, crises of capitalism, all are beyond the ability of humanity to steer. What remains is a binary choice to resist, or to progress. Resistance is always undertaken by the human subject in defence of what it knows, and is therefore fundamentally conservative, hence Land’s critique of Ray Brassier’s retreat into ‘conceptual issues’ as leading to philosophical conservatism.2

What’s interesting in this struggle between Land and his former students and associates of the CCRU days is the reversal in the notions of ‘conservatism’. For Land it is the Left or Progressive and academic worldview of the philosophical community of consensus reality that is stifling the emergence of AI and Superintelligence through a false dichotomy. The Left attacks Land for his siding with accelerating capitalism and consistently does this through conceptual attacks on Land’s politics rather than on the merit of his pragmatic stance outside the academy as an anti-philosopher. Land sees all theoretical and conceptual culture as bound to the Kantian treadmill of correlationism in which thought is always already conservative and bound to the old humanistic discursive loops and repetitions by its very insider consensus. Nothing new can emerge from such theory or theoretical culture in the parlance of Landian ‘libidinal materialism’.

For Land the whole Kantian tradition has bound itself within a metaphysical black box from which it cannot by conceptuality ever hope to extract or free itself. Only by opening itself to the pragmatic Outside of primary process and the productive forces that have shaped AI, modernity and Capitalism can it begin to break free of its chains to the humanistic worldview. Instead we must end the chatter of theory and critique which always lead to regressions and circularities – ‘aren’t you using ideas to critique ideas’ – that “short-circuit metaphysical attempts to access base-material” (Overy, p.  302). As Overy suggests one way forward is to align Land’s attempt at measuring desiring-production with an anti-metaphysical and mathematically precise determination of the rules that condition these underlying automatic productions of a materialist post-psychoanalytical method. (Overy, p. 303)

In summation Overy comments,

Ultimately, Land’s thought does not ask to be evaluated according to the mores of modern academic philosophy, but for its predictive ability and its correspondence to reality. (p. 304).

Land left the loop of academic philosophy long ago for an anti-philosophical and pragmatic acceptance of the Outsider view and observer of our cultural malaise. His outsider stance and political proclivities have aligned him as the enemy of the Left and it’s minions. Speaking of academic philosophy in our time Land reminds us that they are “characterized by their moral fervour, parochialism, earnestness, phenomenological disposition, and sympathy for folk superstition,” while those of the outer reaches, the anti-philosophers and followers of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Bataille, and their ilk are known by their “fatalism, atheism, strangely reptilian exuberance, and extreme sensitivity for what is icy, savage, and alien to mankind.” 3

Gibson, William. Neuromancer (United Kingdom: Grafton, 1986) p.307

Overy, Steve. The genealogy of Nick Land’s anti-anthropocentric philosophy: a psychoanalytic conception of machinic desire. https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/10443/3350/1/Overy%2c%20S.%202016.pdf(Page 298). Bio: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/profile/stephenovery1.html#research

Land, N. The Thirst for Annihilation (London and New York: Routledge, 1992) pp. 97-98(Page 301).

https://socialecologies.wordpress.com/2019/02/25/nick-lands-diagnosis-wintermute-stop-it-or-accelerate-its-production/

[brandtcooper9-blog]

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[mordacitatis]

The Devil in the Details

@random-stuff-thrown-into-a-pot @rhetoricandlogic sorry that I’m just getting around to posting this! It’s a little essay I did for a Folklore class in the spring. Y’all both expressed interest. It’s mostly about the Devil in European folklore and the characterization of the creature. To everyone else who doesn’t care about my college essay’s...sorry if the read more doesn’t work...

           Unsurprisingly, a large number of tales that specifically reference the devil are from Europe. Many German tales collected by the Grimm brothers reference deals with the devil and how to outwit them. Scandinavian countries like Norway, Switzerland, and Finland have tales that deal with the devil and the consequences of cheating him. Some of these tales migrated to America with the immigrants brave enough to make the trip. However, the devil isn’t a large character in folk literature and oral tales until the rise of Christianity. Before this, “Germanic people knew of no devil” (Röhrich 23). The visual characteristics that the devil often has in folk tales developed in the late middle ages. The horns, cloven feet, tail, and goats eyes are no longer a large part of theological depictions of the devil as Christianity developed over the years and pushed such dramatic characteristics into the realm of the folk tale (Röhrich 23). The devil appears in folktales in many forms. He often arrives at a time of great need and offers a deal in exchange for service or soul. The devil acts very similarly in both folk legends and folk wonder tales and common themes are found throughout.

           Trapping the devil is a theme that is commonly noted in both folk legends and wonder tales. In “The Blacksmith and the Devil,” the blacksmith traps the devil in a leather sack from which only the blacksmith can remove things (Grimm 248). He beats and tortures the devil to make him agree to let the blacksmith go. “About the Black Spider,” a folk legend from Switzerland, also shows clever people trapping the devil (Dorson 81-83). After he has been slighted by not being allowed to steal an unchristened child, he slaps a person in his anger and a giant black boil appears from which a spider comes out. The spider spreads to others and the only way to stop it is to trap it in a wood beam or in a hole in a window frame. An Icelandic legend details the devil being trapped in the skin of a bucket of milk and forced to sit on the alter and listen to a sermon by Sæmund the Learned (Sehmsdorf 54.9). In each of these tales, the devil is tricked into being subdued. This is likely because the devil cannot be killed and must be dealt with in other ways. The devil isn’t characterized as stupid in these tales, but the “partner” that he is dealing with is most definitely a “trickster hero, who can defeat [him]” (Röhrich 26). This makes the devil quite angry; the stake at hand is another soul to be owned. In some tales he just runs away fuming (Grimm and Sehmsdorf), but in the black spider tale, the consequence is mass death. This is because the tale isn’t a jocular one, but specifically symbolizes the horrors of the Black Plague. It is also a tale warning against making deals with the devil, as these deals can have horrible consequences.

           Another theme prevalent in devil tales is shape-shifting. The devil is said to take many different forms. Some common motifs (G303.3) are the devil taking the form of a man, a well-dressed gentleman, a little man, or taking the form of an animal like a black dog or a dragon (Thompson 315-320). Each of these forms can be found from various sources. The devil is able to take the shape of creatures in many tales. He confirms his identity to Grimm’s blacksmith by transforming into a tall fir tree and then into a tiny mouse.  He takes the form of a dragon in “The Devil and His Grandmother” but has a human grandmother (Grimm 405-8). There are also endless tales in which the devil takes the shape of a dog to steal the souls of the dying. Multiple Brothers Grimm tales present the devil in the form of a little man, whether he be black or merely described as little (Grimm 302-3, 384-6, 333-6). There is an aspect of racial prejudice in the devil being described as black more often. The idea that black skin tone signals ‘otherness’ is harmful, but at the time that many of these tales were told, not uncommon. The ability to pass as a man is probably the devil’s most used identity. He takes the shape of a man in “The Sheep and the Ram,” a Canadian legend, for the purpose of gaining a bride (Dorson 450-451). He also takes the form of a man in “The Blacksmith and the Devil” (Grimm 248-50). In the first tale, the man isn’t known as the devil until God tells the youngest brother. In the second tale, the devil is known on sight. Most tales in which the devil is man shaped, he is known on sight or easily noticed by cloven hooves or a tail. This fact is particularly important in tales of the devil playing cards.

           In an attempt to warn people away from the sins of gambling and cursing, there are many folk tales that include the devil playing cards. A largely Danish tale, the devil has a “partiality for playing at cards [that] has long been proverbial,” and he often shows up to games when cursing draws his attention (Puhvel 34). The devil joins the table (or sits under the table as a dog) and is not realized until someone has to look under the table for some reason and notices the cloven hooves. At this moment, the men recognize him as the devil, “whom they had called so many times” (Sehmsdorf 294-5). While many tales involving the devil see him trying to steal people’s souls, the card games seem more benign. The minister is called and forces the devil out of a small hole; the men are chastened and refrain from playing cards for a time. This legend is migratory and has been found with major similarities in Norway and Prussia (Puhvel 35). A particular Norwegian tale characterized the devil as a hustler “first losing, then starting to win in grand style,” but even he falls victim to a happenstance of some gambler leaning down and glimpsing his hooves (Puhvel 35). These tales use the devil as a cautionary character and isn’t the only set of tales that does such a thing.

           Dancing and music are equally reviled as gambling by European Christians. Many legends show the devil showing up to a dance hall. A particularly interesting one has a young woman who loves to dance who is joined by the devil, who dances her to death. The fiddle continues to play and doesn’t stop until the devil leaves. In many Scandinavian and fundamentalist American cultures, “the fiddle is the devil's own instrument, and therefore playing it involves one with the devil himself” (Woods 197). A Norwegian example of Migratory Legend (ML) 3070, it is a didactic tale warning against the evils of dancing (Sehmsdorf 293). This is quintessential Christian doctrine, and as my Baptist father was often told: “sex is a sin because it leads to dancing.” This ML is also found in Sweden with a slight twist. Instead of the devil dancing someone to death, he offers his services as a fiddler to a group of dancers and the music does not allow them to stop dancing. They continue to dance and “did not even get to stop when all that was left were their skulls…dancing to the rhythm” (Sehmsdorf 294). The devil being characterized as a fiddler is also found in folk music. In a particular song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by the Charlie Daniels Band, the devil uses his fiddling skills to try and steal a soul. “Johnny” is able to beat the devil at his own game and so receives a fiddle of gold.

           Throughout all devil tales, it is fairly obvious that what the devil desires is gaining souls. While he may go about it by making deals or by corrupting people, he is always after souls. This characterization does not change, regardless of whether the tale is a legend or a wonder tale. The tone differs widely across every type of tale as well. Many tales are humorous in nature, as they are often trickster tales. The outcome is almost always in favor of the person who is making deals with the devil, as they are the trickster character who usually comes out on top. While the devil takes all shapes and sizes, his characterization is fairly consistent throughout all forms of folk media, demonstrating small variations depending on the purpose of the story. Across all cultures, mankind has sought an explanation for the less desirable or socially unacceptable behaviors inherent in each individual. To place the responsibility on an external, evil, manipulative force outside of our control often justifies impulsivity, and eases a guilty conscious. Turning the table on that same evil manipulator provides a sense of triumph and pride that restores our self-worth and empowers us to believe we can overcome our base natures and be the good and honorable heroes of our own stories. The devil is in the details.

 Works Cited

Dorson, Richard M., editor. Folktales Told around the World. The University of Chicago Press, 1975.

Grimm, Jacob, et al. The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: the Complete First Edition. Princeton University Press, 2016.

Kvideland, Reimund, and Henning K. Sehmsdorf, editors. “The Devil.” Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend. University of Minnesota Press, 1988.

Puhvel, Martin. “The Legend of the Devil-Haunted Card Players in Northern Europe.” Folklore, vol. 76, no. 1, 1965, pp. 33–38. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1258089.

Röhrich, Lutz. “German Devil Tales and Devil Legends.” Journal of the Folklore Institute, vol. 7, no. 1, 1970, pp. 21–35. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3814229.

The Charlie Daniels Band. “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” Million Mile Reflections, Epic, 1979.

Thompson, Stith. Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. Revised and Enlarged ed., Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955-58, sites.ualberta.ca/~urban/Projects/English/Motif_Index.htm.

Woods, Barbara Allen. “The Norwegian Devil in North Dakota.” Western Folklore, vol. 17, no. 3, 1958, pp. 196–198. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1496044.

[theathenianinspector]

Contemporary portrayals of Ares, the god of war (not Kratos), have not been kind. A fair amount of emphasis has been placed on his violent and combative aspects, understandable since he was a god of war, to create a god that has been utilised as a villain by many world builders and writers. But this focus on violence I would argue has skewed our view against him to the point of being reductionist.

  Ares has been present in most films and popular series’ that involve classical mythology. And most of them he is if not a total villain, a horrendous bully. In Clash of the Titans (2010) he betrays Zeus alongside Hades (a god who has also been misrepresented in contemporary media), in Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief he is manipulated by Kronos to hold Zeus’ Master Bolt and most importantly is a total jerk to our nominal protagonist who eventually defeats him in single combat. While in Wonder Woman (2017) he is the antagonist who supposedly brings out the violent and bloodthirsty sides of mankind during the First World War, plus he is portrayed as attempting again to overthrow Zeus. Lastly in God of War Ares is responsible for all manner of injustices towards Kratos…again for the purposes of overthrowing Zeus. Seriously where did this idea that Ares wanted to overthrow Zeus come from?

  Ares slaughters his Olympian brethren. Wonder Woman (2016)

  The most positive depictions of Ares in modern media have been Immortals (2011) when he helped Theseus against his father’s wishes, and Disney’s Hercules (1997) which by far portrayed him most kindly as he barely got any screen time. So why do we villainize Ares? I would argue that as he was solely the god of war, he didn’t have any extra domains such as weaving, metalwork or music, he could only be seen as destructive. We can get a sense of this in his portrayal in the Iliad when Zeus rebukes him for returning to him in tears after being lanced by the mortal hero Diomedes:

  “Sit thou not in any wise by me and whine, thou renegade. Most hateful to me art thou of all gods that hold Olympus, for ever is strife dear to thee and wars and fighting. Thou hast the unbearable, unyielding spirit of thy mother, even of Hera; her can I scarce control by my words. Wherefore it is by her promptings, I think, that you suffer this. But I will no longer endure you in pain, for you are my offspring, and it was to me that thy mother bare you; but were you born of any other god, as the pestilence you are, then long ere this hadst thou been lower than the sons of heaven.”

5.889-898

  We also find very few cults worshipping Ares in Greek cities. The reason for which has been speculated that the Greeks did not wish to openly worship violence. The most accounted for place of Ares worship was Sparta which kept a statue of the god chained so he would never desert them (Pausanias 3.15.7). This has given the impression that Spartans were somehow more violent and warmongering than their fellow Greeks – an assertion difficult to support with historiography. Sparta if anything was cautious to war lest their Helots revolt in their army’s absence. Also, by the time of Pausanias they had shrines to Athena, Zeus, Artemis and Aphrodite. While our modern reception has taken this perception of Ares and combined it with a contemporary dread and condemnation of all violence and war on the collected experience of two world wars and the more visibly accessible carnage of the 21st century . So was Ares just pure unadulterated violence?

  Ares the antagonist of God of War (2005)

  The Homeric Hymn to Ares would certainly disagree with that assessment, Ares is paid such complements as: ‘exceeding in strength’, ‘doughty in heart’, ‘Saviour of cities’, ‘unwearying’, ‘defence of Olympus’, ‘father of warlike Victory’, ‘ally of Justice’, ‘leader of righteous men’, ‘sceptred King of manliness’ (1-6). Much more than an aggressive force of violence, Ares is warfare done in defence of the city and a paragon of aristocratic masculinity. He is associated with the qualities that make a city successful and harmonious: strength, victory and justice. We might associate him with warmongering, but he could just as much be invoked by a soldier defending his home. The Hymn goes on:

  ‘Shed down a kindly ray from above upon my life, and strength of war, that I may be able to drive away bitter cowardice from my head and crush down the deceitful impulses of my soul. Restrain also the keen fury of my heart which provokes me to tread the ways of blood-curdling strife.’

l.10-15

  Ares appears to be a god that inspires courage as well as (uncharacteristic) discipline. From the hymn the god gave the soldier his will to keep down both his dread to go into battle and possibly die as well as his urge to commit violence against his fellow citizens. I would therefore argue that Ares represents not the violence and warfare, but its primal emotional aspect: its courage, urge to defend one’s home and the discipline required to overcome fear. Thus, the Spartans didn’t keep Ares chained as a means to ensure perpetual brutality, but so that the values of bravery and discipline would never desert them in battle. And it is these realms that pop culture has failed to recognise and so has resulted in the demonization of Ares’ persona.

    Greek and Roman depictions of Ares

  If the qualities of bravery and discipline seem remote to the god of war’s character because you’ve astutely noticed that the former Iliad passage was from Ares fleeing a battle, or you’ve heard of the story when he was overpowered by two giants and kept in a jar, then that is understandable. Ares can also be argued to have been a negatively perceived god because of the company he kept: Deimos (Dread) and Phobos (Fear) were his charioteers so that didn’t exactly help with PR. However, bear in mind that Athena was also present at the same battle as Ares in the Iliad and was also one of the gods that allegedly temporarily overthrew Zeus, while Ares wasn’t even named in masterminding the plot (Homer, Iliad 5.840-6 ; 1.399-406); and pop culture doesn’t nearly give her the same amount of negativity. Moreover, terror was not a domain particular to Ares. The satyr god Pan is the origin for the English word ‘Panic’ and Dionysus was actually also attributed the fear of men turning tail and fleeing battle as a form of madness (Euripides, Bacchae 302-6). Regarding his lacklustre performance against Otus and Ephialtes (Homer, Iliad 5.385-92), bear in mind that Zeus, the King of Olympus, had his tendons ripped out by the monster Typhon, and that Ares fighting them in the first place was by definition doing his job as defending Olympus. We should also give him some credit for defeating the serpent footed giant Echidnades who was a son of Echidna, the mother of monsters and whom Kronos used to confront Zeus’ thunderbolts (Nonnus, Dionysiaca 18. 274).

  Thus, the popular view of Ares as the embodiment of human violence and warmongering is simply reductionist. Since mainstream reception has assumed that Ares is bad by definition because aggression and violence are such, the god of war has been villainised and implicated in strangely consistent plots where he overthrows his own father Zeus. On this, Zeus was actually paranoid that Athene was the one to defeat him, hence why he ate her and her mother Metis which resulted with Athena’s birth as she sprang forth from Zeus’ head. This singular interpretation has left out key evidence of Ares’ wider significance and characterisation which should be considered when we think of portraying him responsibly to public audiences to get a better impression of the Greeks’ god of war.

  Dan Tang

The Athenian Inspector

  If you want to learn about the Romans, check out: https://romanimperium.wordpress.com/

Rehabilitating Ares in Pop Culture Contemporary portrayals of Ares, the god of war (not Kratos), have not been kind. A fair amount of emphasis has been placed on his violent and combative aspects, understandable since he was a god of war, to create a god that has been utilised as a villain by many world builders and writers.

[darakshafatimasstuff]

Ashura / عاشورہ A Lesson in Freedom ❤️❤️

The month of Muharram brings with it the memory of a sacrifice the like of which is difficult to find in the history of Islam, indeed of mankind. Imam Husayn (AS) and his family and companions emerged victorious in a battle that they seemingly lost in material terms.

The cost of this victory was immense, a period of great suffering which ended for the martyrs on the tenth day, the Ashura, but was to go on for much longer for the family members who

were taken captive.

Imam Husayn was the grandson of the Prophet (PBUH). He and his brother Hasan (AS) had been declared leaders of the youth of Paradise.

So how could people calling themselves muslims turn to kill him? Their problem was the age old one of ignorance and greed.

They were either not aware of his high merits and noble lineage or were more attracted to the worldly benefits that a successful battle against him would bring.

In order to remove any misconceptions in the minds of his opponents, the Imam addressed them on the day of Ashura before fighting commenced.

The tone of his voice was so loud that most people heard, "People, listen to my words and do not hurry me so that I may remind you of the duties you have toward me and so that I may give you reasons for my coming to you.

If you accept my reasons, believe my words and give me justice, you will become happier through that, and you will not have any cause against me. If you do not accept my reasons and give me justice of your own accord as individuals, 'Then agree upon your affair and call your associates.

Let not your affair be in darkness to you.' [Cf. Quran 10:71] Indeed my guardian is God, Who sent down the Book. He takes care of the righteous.' [Cf. Quran 7:196].

The Imam continued, "Trace back my lineage and consider who I am. Then, look back at yourselves and remonstrate with yourselves. Consider whether it is right for you to kill me and desecrate my inviolability.

Am I not the son of the daughter of your Prophet, the son of the executor of his will and his cousin, the first of believers in God and the man who first believed in what His Apostle brought from his Lord?

Was not Hamzah, the leader of the martyrs, my father's uncle and Ja'far at-Tayyar my own uncle? Have you not heard the Prophet of God's saying concerning myself and my brother: 'These are the two lords of the youths of the inhabitants of heaven'?

"If you believe what I am saying - and it is the truth for, by God, I have never told a lie since I learned that God hated people who told them and that those who opposed Him grieved Him ...

If you still regard me as a liar, then there are still to be found people who would tell you the truth if you ask them. Ask Jabir b. Abdullah al-Ansari, Abu Said al-Khudri, Sahl b. Sa'd, Zayd b. Arqam and Anas b. Malik to tell you what they have heard from the Apostle of God concerning myself and my brother. Is this not sufficient to prevent your shedding my blood?

"If you are in doubt about this, do you have the slightest doubt that I am the son of the daughter of your Prophet? By God! There is no son of a prophet other than me among you and among the other peoples from east to west.

Tell me, are you seeking retribution from me for one of your dead whom I have killed, or for property of yours that I have expropriated, or for a wound that I have inflicted?" Dead silence reigned over the whole army and nobody uttered a word.(3)

The speech of the Imam had an effect on those hearts that still had some remnants of humanity left in them. The classic struggle between 'Ruh' and 'Nafs' began. Where goodness won, the men found themselves in the ranks of the Imam, willing to fight the enemy to certain death.

The foremost of these men was Hurr b. Yazid. A commander in Ibn Sa'd's army, he had intercepted the Imam's contingent at Dhu Husum, where he addressed the Imam, "Husayn, I remind you of God with regard to your life, for I testify that if you fight, you will be fought, and if you are fought, you will be killed."

He replied, "Do you think that you can frighten me with death? Could a worse disaster happen to you than killing me?

I do not know what to say to you. I can only address you as the brother of al-Aws addressed his cousin when he met the latter as he was going to help the Apostle of God. His cousin said to him: 'Where are you going, for you will be killed?' He replied:

I will depart, for there is no shame in death for a young man whenever he intends right and strives as a Muslim, And has supported righteous men through the sacrifice of his life, abandoned the cursed and made alliance with the consecrated"

These words must have resonated in Hurr's mind. A decision had to be taken before commencement of hostilities. True to the meaning of his name, Hurr opted for true freedom. Little by little he began to approach the Imam's camp. One of his tribe Muhajir b. Aws asked him, "What do you want, Ibn Yazid? Do you want to attack?" He was silent but a great shudder came over him.

Al-Muhajir said, "By God! Ibn Yazid, your behaviour is suspicious.

By God! I have never seen you act like this before. If I was asked who was the bravest of the Kufans, I would not ignore you. What is this I see in you?"

Hurr answered, "By God! I am giving my soul the choice between heaven and the fire of hell. By God! I will not choose anything before heaven, even though I am cut to pieces and burnt."

He whipped his horse and joined the Imam. He said, "May God accept my soul for you, son of the Apostle of God.

I was the one who intercepted you and made you stop in this place... I have come repenting to my Lord for what I have done, and offering you my life as consolation so that I may die before you. Will you accept that as repentance from me?"

The Imam replied, "Yes, God will accept your repentance and forgive you... You are the free man (al-hurr) as your mother named you. You are a free man in this world and the next."

The battle began. All who fought lost their lives, though what they won was worth much more. Not only did they secure a place in Paradise but they also set an everlasting example of justice and morality, of patience and sacrifice, and above all, of freedom for generations to come.

The story of Hurr is a story of this freedom - freedom from the other-than-God and from the ungodly. It is the story of hope for you and me, an opportunity to reexamine our lives to see where we stand in this world, where both the opportunity for piety and wretchedness exists. Do we obey the commandments of Islam and identify ourselves with Imam Husayn? For, as Sana'i said:

Religion is your Husayn, while desires and hopes are pigs and dogs - yet you kill the first through thirst and feed these two. How can you keep on cursing the wicked Yazid and Shimr? You are a Shimr and a Yazid for your own Husayn!

References:

1.Tabari, Ta'rikh, II, 328

2.Tabari, Ta'rikh, II, 329

3.Tabari, Ta'rikh, II, 330

4.Tabari, Ta'rikh, II, 302

5.Tabari, Ta'rikh, II, 333

6.Tabari, Ta'rikh, II, 334

7.Sana'i, Diwan, 665

[art-now-poland]

(302) "St.Matthew and Angel", Krzysztof Pajak

146x114cm The Temptation of St. Anthony Biblical subjects and saints' lives do more than inspire exclusively religious or mystic art. The Bible, witch after all is but one of many attempts by mankind to discover the Truth, can also serve as a reason for painting the contemporary world. Marc Rothko, the great contemplative of the twentieth century, the creator of an amazing and wonderful chapel in Texas, was undoubtedly a mystic, even though it is difficuft to find a single saint in any of his paintings. Memling, on the other hand, failed in his painting to create the necessary guff separating the Kingdom of Heaven from the world of men. His religious scenes, full of poise and elegance as they are, evoce all the smells, tastes and sounds of his time, the waning Middle Ages and the fast-approaching Renaissance. Finally, the sentimentalized and idealized image of Christ and the Saints, which still survives in the broad popular area of so-called religious art, was the creation of the nineteenth century. The pictures of Krzysztof Pająk, under the collective title of "The Temptation of St. Anthony", are closer to the profane view of Memling than the philosophical, mystic world of Rothko. Today, with the collapse of rigid moral values and the world having become more colourful than ever (the division between "good* and "hair, "black" and "white", finally blurred), the absorbing subject of the temptation of St. Anthony can stand as a symbol of our own waning century. The Evil One still tempts modern man, in all manner of seductions. The choice of a religious subject confirms the link with earlier artists and their fascination with biblical themes; such a choice also confirms Pająk's delight in both pictorial and thematic diversity. In the middle of our modern chaos and confusion, the challenge inherent in painting angels and saints exists. It is the challenge of not painting them in a manner reminiscent of a century, the nineteenth, now consigned safety to the past. In Pająk's painting, angels, saints and devils (not to mention unidentified biblical beasts) lead the happy lives. Bv of creatures familiar with both pop art and exotic civilizations. His "cities" represent our longing for the archetypal lost paradise, which in Pająk's case is the lost, mythical city of Atlantis. Sparkling and full of rich colour, Pająk's "Last Supper", "St. Matthew and the Angel", 'Pieta', Five Minutes to the Flood" and 'Temptation of St. Anthony" are as sensual as the Bible and only abstract on the surface. Pajak belongs to those artists who do not belive in pure abstraction. Those pictures of his which feature concentra¬tions of streets and "antique" buildings (such as his biblical "Exodus from Egypt") are in no way abstract Hfe ancient cities, like all great cities, are seats of good and evil, and in this respect they are supremely hM~" and highly seductive. In the same way as the Bible records a great many diverse events, so Pająk's pictures, not unlike mosaics, contain a great many vibrating colours sparkijiag with inner light. In his cities the primary colours of neon lights, so often a feature of the film world, create a sense of distance and serve to keep the viewer at arm s length. The biblical scenes, on the other hand, have the quality of rich oriental carpets which almost ask to be touched. Less disciplined and less elegant than the cities, they are full of a joy derived from a sampling of the world with all five senses. Even the sense of hearing is present in Pająk's highly musical refigjoas paintings. Modern art, working as it does in various media, often brings together image and sound. But there is noting original in this, for painting and music have always been close friends. Goya, during the final thirty** yens of his life, worked in complete silence, rejected bright and vivid coloyts, and used instead soft, muted shades. Pająk values simplicity above all else, holding it to be a sure form of greatness. He refuses to wfr w» medium with another and remains loyal to canvas and paint. He tempts his a. Anthony wife MM eotoers ringing like bells. And if in the end the saint isn't tempted, it is his sight whfch te at ta*. St. MfcNf Wśk. after all, be colour blind. Milena Dabić

https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-302-St-Matthew-and-Angel/90942/3774616/view

[biggoonie]

FANTASTIC FOUR: THE END TPB

(NEW PRINTING) Written by ALAN DAVIS Penciled by ALAN DAVIS Cover by ALAN DAVIS ON SALE FEBRUARY 2020 In the distant future, the efforts of the heroic Fantastic Four have led to a new golden age for mankind. The solar system has been colonized, lifespans have been increased, and humanity enjoys an unheard of state of personal comfort. However, personal tragedy at the hands of Dr. Doom has long since split the Fantastic Four asunder. Ben Grimm has moved to Mars to raise his family, Johnny Storm is one of the Avengers, Susan Storm is an archaeologist, and Reed Richards is an isolated scientist aboard a personal space station. Contact between the solar system and extraterrestrials has been curtailed by treaty, but now an alliance of dissident aliens and old foes of the Fantastic Four has sparked the beginnings of an all-out invasion. The Fantastic Four must once again become a family to save the human race! Collecting FANTASTIC FOUR: THE END #1-6. 144 PGS./Rated T+ …$15.99 ISBN: 978-1-302-92462-1

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Via Youtube: Tawheed on 12th May, 2021 V1: 114- Should all mankind enter Islam and follow its teachings [Noor ala alDarb, Shaikh ibn Baz, Vol1] Language: English Q: If we want to make Da'wah (calling to Islam) to a person, how do we start it? Please advise us, may Allah reward you well. [Vol. 1, Page No. 302-303] A: Begin by attracting people to Islam and clarifying to them that Islam is the Religion of Allah with which He sent all the prophets, and revealed the books, and sent the last of the Prophets, Muhammad (ﷺ), to preach. It is obligatory on all mankind to enter Islam and live committed to it. This is an obligation on all mankind, whether they are Jews or Christians or communists or any other people. All mankind, males or females, are obliged to enter Islam, embrace it, follow it and remain steadfast in it. Allah created all creatures to worship Him Alone. This worship for which they were created is Islam, with which Allah sent the prophets, and sent Muhammad (ﷺ), and made the Shariah (Divine law) revealed to him abrogate all previous Shariahs. It abrogated the law of the Tawrah (Torah) and the Injil (Gospel) and all other worshipping that exists on earth. The Shariah of Muhammad (ﷺ) abrogated all. Therefore, all mankind must follow it and hold firm to it. Thus, clarify to people that Islam is the Religion of Allah, and that He sent Muhammad (ﷺ) to preach this religion. It is the very same religion of all the previous prophets before Muhammad (ﷺ). Its core and foundation is testifying that La ilaha illa Allah (there is no god but Allah) and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. First, teach them the Two Shahadahs (Testimonies of Faith), explain their meanings, then teach them Salah (Prayer), Zakah (obligatory charity), Sawm (Fasting), Hajj and the six Pillars of Iman (belief), and explain their meanings, and inform them that they must disassociate themselves from all other religions that oppose Islam including Christianity and others. They must believe that "Eisa (Jesus, peace be upon him) is the Servant and Messenger of Allah, His Word ("Be!" - and he was), which He bestowed on Maryam (Mary, may Allah be pleased with her) and a Ruh (spirit) created by Him. If the person is a Christian, teach them that "Eisa is the Servant and Messenger of Allah whom Allah created from a female without a male. Allah said to him "Be" and he was. We are obliged to believe that he is the Servant of Allah and His Messenger, not that he is Allah, or the son of Allah, or the third of three (trinity). Rather, he is the Servant of Allah and His Messenger whom Allah created from a female, Maryam the virgin, the honest (may Allah be pleased with her), and he has no father. Allah said to him "Be" - and he was. We must have faith in this, believe it and disavow the ways of the Jews and the Christians in this matter. https://binbaz.org.sa/fatwas/9927/%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%AC%D9%8A%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%A9-%D8%BA%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%85 #Islam #Quran #Hadith #Sunnah #Fatwa