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[ = To Give and Serve = ] Art by: 🪼thinking abt dilfs🪼☆Comms closed☆ Striker - Chaz/Editor: SpicyRabbitVA - COMISSIONS OPEN (4/7) #Straz #HelluvaBossChaz #HelluvaBossStriker #HelluvaBoss #Rule34 #yaoi

142,221 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren •via X (Twitter)

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Mojo Australian Open Quarterfinals 🧙🏼‍♂️🇦🇺🎾 —— 5U MAX 2026: (18-3) 85.71% 🏦 —— 5U 🇺🇸Ben Shelton +7.0 games (-155) 🔮 Seven games for Shelton when he is arguably playing the best tennis of his career is too many. Shelton has only been broken 3 times this entire tournament and has played better overall players by a landslide than Sinner. Shelton has hit 184 winners to 115 unforced errors in his 4 matches in Melbourne. This stat alone shows the quality of tennis Shelton has been playing. Sinner has hit 152 winners to 99 unforced errors. Shelton has a slight advantage in winners/unforced errors ratio while playing better opponents… And we are getting 7 games. Look, I know Sinner is insane and I know the history between these two players. I will tell you I have watched Shelton play shout 100 matches of professional tennis and the confidence he is playing with right now is unlike anything I have seen from him. While on the contrary Sinner has not looked anything above his typical level. Give me the 7 games. Even if Shelton gets broken once in every single set, we still cover or push. 6-3 6-4 6-4 | 6-4 6-4 6-4 . And this is assume we don’t get any break chances of our own. If Shelton can confidently hold serve like he has been doing all tournament then it will open the door for him to be hyper aggressive on return and go for shots that will win him the match. I love this play. Let’s get it 🧙🏼‍♂️

MOJO 🧙🏼‍♂️

37,303 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten

HALLO FRIDAY...TAMBIRAI ZUVA RINE CHIPO...🙏🙏🙏 Once again today, I stand in AWE of what the LORD has done. Today I am reminded that TRUE GREATNESS is not measured by how loud a person is, but by the IMPACT they leave on people's lives. To have sown more than US$4 MILLION into the Kingdom of God through the purchase of 8 buses from Viola at DROEKFILL INVESTMENTS at Longchen Mall and another 10 buses from Farai at FARAMATSI MOTORS , all for the work of the Church, is not just about buses—it's about advancing the Gospel, serving God's people, and building for ETERNITY. I thank GOD for every blessing He has entrusted to me, and I pray that I never grow tired of using those blessings to uplift others, support the Church, and bring smiles to those in need. Everything I have belongs to GOD FIRST, and I will continue serving Him with a grateful heart. 🙏🏽 Izwi rakati CHINOTANGA ITSITSI NE RUDO KOZOUYA KU KUNAMATA. Ichokwadi ndiri MUPOSITORI, uye ku MASOWE hativerenge magwaro epasi pano, but even the Holy Bible reminds us in 2 Corinthians 9:7 that "God loves a cheerful giver," and in Luke 6:38, "Give, and it will be given to you—pressed down, shaken together and running over." That's the GOD we serve. Archbishop Ezekiel Guti once said to me that when you generously give to the Church, honour God's house and His servants, you position yourself under OPEN HEAVENS. There is NEVER a loss when you give to God—there is only ETERNAL GAIN. With that in mind, I want to encourage every child of God, every Church leader, every entrepreneur and every believer to rise up and support the work of your ministry. Please do not also forget to honour and support your Church leaders because those who direct the affairs of the Church well are worthy of DOUBLE HONOUR. Never underestimate the POWER of GIVING. May we all be remembered not only for what we accumulated, but for the countless lives we touched through our generosity, kindness and obedience to GOD. As for me, by God's grace, my commitment is SETTLED. I will stand with my Church, support my leaders, and give towards the work of GOD for as long as I breathe. May this testimony stir FAITH, LOVE and GENEROSITY across the Body of Christ. To JESUS CHRIST ALONE be all the GLORY, HONOUR and PRAISE...NOW AND FOREVER. AMEN...🙏🙏🙏 PS ; The 10 buses on the second video will be distributed as follows 1. Guruve Jerusalem HQ Branch ERCOS 2. ⁠Guruve Nhamoyebonde Branch LUCSOD 3. ⁠St Albet Chikwira Branch 4. ⁠Mutamba Madziva Branch 5. ⁠Beitbridge Branch 6. ⁠Natvest Branch 7. ⁠Gutu Branch 8. ⁠Budiriro 5 njanji Branch 9. ⁠Epworth Goshen Branch 10. ⁠Gweru Branch Be guided accordingly and may the respective branches please contact MADZIBABA OWEN VELVET and bring forward their designated drivers for a 2 weeks training and refresher course on the operation of the buses. I THANK YOU...🙏🙏🙏

sir_wicknell.

135,718 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat

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Celes Aurion🔜NYAN NIGHTS🐾🎧

71,777 Aufrufe • vor 11 Monaten

I've spent hours and hours thinking about how AI is going to change writing. This is a 90-minute distillation of everything I've learned. Some things I believe: 1. The combination of LLM-driven humor and image generation means that we're about to enter the golden age of memes. 2. The best writers will be fine. Robert Caro and Dostoevsky aren’t about to be disrupted by ChatGPT. 3. What are the different models like? ChatGPT is your friend who makes a lot of good points, but it’s kinda boring, Claude is your hippie friend who loves to get vulnerable but takes the whole “express yourself” thing a little too far, and Grok is your unhinged friend who leans a little too hard into tinfoil hat theories, but is always a trip to jam on ideas with. 4. People who say that AI writing is low-quality aren’t realizing that quality exists along two dimensions: (1) the absolute quality of the writing and (2) how tailored the writing is to your interests at the time. 5. I’ll tell you this: What writers are doing with AI behind closed doors is a long way ahead of what's publicly understood. I don't expect this to change anytime soon because of the social stigma associated with AI-enhanced writing. Because of that, if you want to see the cutting edge, you're gonna have to piece things together through private conversations and group chats. 6. If you want to follow what's happening in AI, remember this quote from William Gibson: “The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” You can get a glimpse of the future by looking at how a small percentage of writers are already using AI. 7. I’m bearish on writers who are currently using AI to write for them, and bullish on writers who are currently using AI to write with them. 8. What kinds of writing will continue to be written by humans? Ones that speak to our humanity. People are interested in people. Their stories, their struggles, their emotions, their drama. 9. Almost all utilitarian writing, where the goal is to convey information, not do it beautifully, will be written by AI. 10. In some ways, AI is the end of slop. So many Google search results are slop. LinkedIn posts are slop. The way Twitter got taken over by Threadbois in 2021 was also slop. AI-generated writing is already better than all of those things, so why would you read them now? 11. AI will be tougher on writers than readers. Readers will be exposed to some slop, but the Internet will be good about filtering it out. Writers, though, are now competing against ever-improving LLMs, which are getting better and better by the month. 12. Humans will contribute with unique data or perspectives. The famous Peter Thiel interview question doubles as a good writing prompt: “What very important truth do few people agree with you on?” 13. New technologies breed new kinds of art. Ever notice how flat 13th or 14th century Medieval art looks? And how different that art looks from the Renaissance art created in the 15th and 16th centuries? Technical innovations like the camera obscura and perspective grids are behind this. Similarly profound changes will come to the writing world because of AI (credit to Justin Murphy for the idea here). 14. Satya Nadella says: “The new workflow for me is I think with AI and work with my colleagues.” When it comes to discovering ideas, I've also found that jamming with an LLM is more productive than doing it with most people I know (save for a few giga-brain conversationalists). 15. Thought experiment: Will AI-writing be more like music or chess? With music, we don't care how a song is made. We just want it to be good. With chess, there's a huge market for watching human beings play even though the computers are already better. I think non-fiction writing will go the way of music. People won’t care how it was made. They’ll just care that it’s good. 16. AI has flipped the rules of tech adoption. Seasoned managers usually drag their feet with adopting new technology, but the ones I know love AI, while frontline workers struggle to see the point. My theory is that AI matches how managers already operate. Management has always been a kind of prompt engineering: set a vision, delegate, give feedback, iterate. But LLMs remove the drama that used to come with having a team. No 1-on-1s. No emotional tangles. It's like management without the headache. For frontline employees, things are different. They aren't as accustomed to setting a vision and giving feedback, so LLM prompting is a daunting and unfamiliar kind of work for them. 17. AI editors are already quite good. Sure, they aren’t as good as the world’s best editors, but they’re a fraction of the cost, they’ll instantly give you 80th percentile feedback, and they work 24/7. As a novelist recently said to me: “Paying an editor to review my novel costs me $7,000 and a 4-6 week turnaround time, whereas Claude costs me $1.25 and gets me results a few minutes later.” The edits definitely aren’t as good, but there’s a virtue to speed (and this guy isn’t a chump writer). 18. The way AI-skeptics hate on LLMs while using old models is like driving a ‘92 Honda while hating on a self-driving Tesla. 19. AI-generated fiction makes people very upset. A friend insists it’s like having sex with a robot. Doesn’t matter how good it is. It ain’t human-generated, and there’s something uniquely repulsive about that. I’ve shared the full conversation below. It’s a solo-episode of me riffing on what I’ve learned about AI for ~90 minutes. If you’d rather watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify, I’ve shared the links in the reply tweets. And if you have any questions, I’ll be extra active in the replies for this episode.

David Perell

257,480 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

KDP appears to be overplaying its hand on Iraqi oil exports through the KRG pipeline, and the gambit seems to be already backfiring. Here is why: 1. Iraq exports around 3.4 million barrels per day through Basra's ports and the Strait of Hormuz, accounting for 85 to 95% of total shipments. Baghdad has requested only 200,000-250,000 barrels per day thru the KRG pipeline, roughly 7 to 8% of what was flowing through the south. Even if Baghdad wanted to push more volume through the line, it could not. Most of Iraq's oil sits in Basra, there is no pipeline infrastructure to move it north, and the same Iranian and militia threats that closed Hormuz could target the northern route just as easily. The KRG pipeline cannot rescue Iraq's oil sector. It was never going to. 2. Permitting the exports would have been a low-cost card and a show of goodwill. But by blocking even this, the KDP has handed Baghdad and Iraqi parties a scapegoat at the worst possible moment. During a crisis that is hitting government finances and ordinary Iraqis' salaries, the KDP chose to put conditions over a resource that would not have changed the picture in any big ways, and if salaries are delayed, Iraqi parties will point at Erbil. Basically, this has turned a pipeline dispute into a political framing device, and the KDP has placed itself inside the frame. For many Iraqi parties, this is not just ammunition. It is vindication. It confirms what they have long argued: that the KRG, and specifically the KDP, is ready to exploit Iraq's moments of weakness rather than stand with it. That perception, once reinforced in a crisis of this scale, will be difficult to undo. 3. The damage is compounded by isolation. Iraqi parties across the board, in their statements on this issue, are now referring to the "Erbil government," not the KRG. The language is deliberate: this is understood as a KDP decision, not an institutional one. Nearly all other Kurdistan Region parties either oppose the move or are critical of it, and when budget negotiations resume, they will direct blame squarely at the KDP. 4. Baghdad is also close to completing the rehabilitation of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline (the below video is today), which operates under an Iraq-Turkey agreement that predates the KRG and over which Erbil holds no legal or operational control. A small section of the line passes through KDP-controlled Duhok, but the KDP cannot realistically block it or do much about it. Once that line is operational, it will push the KRG pipeline further into irrelevance. More importantly, it will give Baghdad reason to sideline the KRG pipeline for good, not just during the current crisis but after things normalise too. Ironically, the card the KDP is holding is actively depreciating by overplaying its hand. The logic of holding a card is not inherently flawed. But deploying it in the middle of a regional crisis, on an issue of national significance, in an attempt to extract leverage, - in the current context - does not serve the KDP well. The timing is especially poor given the volatility of the broader environment. The trajectory of U.S. policy under Trump remains deeply unclear. The KDP is betting on a hand without knowing how the game ends.

Kurdistan Watch

24,594 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten

Most social media tools suck. (I've tried them all over 7 years of doing this). They claim to help you go viral. They claim that you'll grow fast on social media. They claim that they'll make it easy on you, so you can just grow your following without having any form of skill or understanding. And now they're trying to go fully agentic, which only works if you know what you're doing (we'll talk about that later, we built the MCP for social media). Plus, when everyone has an advantage, it is no longer an advantage. I promise you, I love AI, but having it write everything for you, especially as a beginner, is a death sentence. You may get lucky and have one, two, or three posts do well. You may gain a lot of followers (because that's what they promise to get you to buy), but then what? Can you replicate it? Does your audience actually care about who you are? Or are you just a one hit wonder like every other creator who tries to get-followers-quick? The creators you love... the ones who put out ideas that actually change your life, understand that the creative process (capturing, resurfacing, and synthesizing ideas) is your competitive edge when everyone is racing to put out as much slop as possible. So we built an actual solution. For the people who know deep down that the toys and gimmicks being marketed to you aren't a long term strategy. It's called Eden. The second brain for creators. It has every scheduling, analytics, auto-dm, and outlier research (for all platforms) features that everyone else has - built by someone who knows what's useful and what's not. But it also has the ideation process built in, which cannot be skipped. Here's what it looks like, and how to write a post people actually care about: 1) Save inspiration from anywhere (and read + highlight) Capturing ideas, posts, links, and highlights inside of an agent or AI chat sounds like hell. Not everything needs to, or should be, jammed into a chat UI. In Eden you can: - Paste any social post link (we transcribe any post) - Integrate with Kindle, Snipd, or Readwise - Pull in X or Substack bookmarks - Jot down quick ideas or write inside docs - Open any YouTube transcript or article in Reader mode and highlight it We auto-categorize and tag everything for you, so our Deep Synthesis agent can find novel connections and relations across your library - making it easy to surface idaes you thought you lost. 2) Research what's working, study top creators Outlier tools are the bread and butter for every creator. When you do research for a YouTube video, you look for high performing titles and thumbnails, and you study what worked for others. But what about every other platform? We have a social corpus of 3m+ posts across all platforms and growing. You can scroll the Discover page for inspiration, search any creator and filter by top posts, or use Deep Social in the AI chat to search across all of them. This is what gives the MCP access to trending topics without scraping millions of posts yourself. 3) Create with everything in one place, build swipe files I don't think I will ever give up writing. I love sitting down in the morning, opening up a page, researching good ideas, and turning it into something worth sharing. In Eden, you work on Boards. You can paste social posts and build shareable swipe files, or you can add your outlines and drafts while having your library, chat, or ideas open right next to it. 4) Chat with anything to get the information you need Claude and ChatGPT are essential, but they are blind. They can't read social links. They can't see what's trending. When you're writing scripts, articles, posts, or drafts - you need to be able to pull information from the sources you research. In today's world, that usually means social posts, YouTube videos, and articles. 5) Draft, schedule, and publish to all platforms X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube shorts. And yes, we are one of the first to support article scheduling to X and Substack. You don't have to copy paste to every platform anymore. You simply write, schedule, and let it go out to all platforms. 6) Or do it all from the MCP I don't believe that the future of content is fully agentic. But, that doesn't mean that AI can't help with researching top posts, ideation, and scheduling content. You do the writing and thinking, let AI handle the busy work and resurfacing of ideas you need to find. With Eden, you don't need to give up your Claude, Hermes, or other agentic workflows. You simply connect the MCP and now you can build your own agentic content system, if that's your cup of tea. Eden is the Social Media MCP. You don't have to pay for scrapers anymore. You can finally access trends, any social link, and any account. You can access your analytics, build content dashboards with our infrastructure (that you don't need to maintain as a full time job), and post. We've actually built 4 skills for deep topic research, personal brand strategy, building a content command center, and more - we'll link those below. All in all: If you're a creator, Eden is your base. It's where you write, research, and publish every single day. Try it free below:

DAN KOE

130,783 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat

My opinion on the Grok findings is that I very simply believe in the Holy Trinity and Jesus as my savior as every WORD is WRITTEN in the Bible. These findings are based on research; not my personal experience. Researchers recently tasked Grok, Elon Musk's xAI’s artificial intelligence, with a massive challenge: analyze every single prayer written in the Bible. The goal was to find "cracks" in a text written by 40 different authors over 1,500 years—from Bronze Age shepherds to Roman-era doctors. Instead of finding contradictions, Grok found a pattern. The AI identified a hidden, four-step "algorithm" present in every successful miracle recorded in scripture. It suggests the Bible isn't just a history book, but a "user manual for reality" or system software for the universe. Here is the deal: If you understand this "Miracle Protocol," you might just find the admin mode for your own life. Grok discovered that successful prayers—whether from a king in the desert or a leader in a garden—followed a specific sequence. If one step was missed, the result failed. 1. The Anchor (Recognition) Most modern people start prayers with a shopping list of problems. The "code" requires the opposite. You must start by focusing on who the Creator is, not how big your problem is. This shifts the brain from fear to peace. •Case Study: King Jehoshaphat didn't beg for help against three armies; he first declared the power of God. Only after establishing that foundation did he mention the danger. 2. Alignment (The Shift) This is the filter. Successful requests didn't ask for selfish desires; they aligned their wants with a bigger plan. •Case Study: Hannah wanted a child for years with no luck. When she shifted her prayer—promising to give her son back to serve the higher power—she immediately conceived. The AI views "sin" or wrong requests simply as "static" that blocks the signal. 3. The Surrender Paradox: This is the hardest step for the modern mind. The data shows that demanding a specific result causes failure. The most powerful prayers asked for a massive outcome and then surrendered the result. •The Science: This mirrors "radical acceptance." When you stop fighting reality, stress drops and the brain’s problem-solving centers activate. You move the "weight" of the result to the higher power. 4. Persistence (The Loop) Prayer is not a vending machine. Grok found that almost no big prayers were answered instantly. Repetition is required—not to change the system, but to grow the person praying. The delay is a feature, not a bug. When Grok analyzed the original Hebrew and Greek text (where letters serve as numbers), it found the Number 7 stamped into the structure of sentences, paragraphs, and genealogies with a frequency that is mathematically impossible to achieve by chance. The AI also drew a parallel to Quantum Physics. In physics, particles exist as waves of possibility until they are observed. Grok suggests "faith" is simply the tool humans use to collapse a possibility into a physical fact—turning the "substance of things hoped for" into reality. You don't have to be religious to test the data. The AI suggests that if you stop begging, start aligning your goals with the "system," and master the art of surrender, you might just unlock the "admin mode" of your own life.

Victoria 🇺🇸⏳🗽🚔

140,619 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten

The world of writing has changed forever. AI is getting really good, really fast. ChatGPT is already a better writer than most humans and some professional writers. So, what’s the future of writing? 18 thoughts from Tyler Cowen: 1) Don't let AI smooth out your idiosyncrasies. Let your writing stay weird and uniquely yours. 2) Generic content is dying and the burden is on you as the writer to be distinctive. 3) The more personal your writing becomes, the more future-proof it is. Nobody wants to read memoirs from AI, even if they're technically "better." 4) Use AI as your secondary literature when you read — not just for quick answers, but as a thinking companion. As Tyler puts it, "I'll keep on asking the AI: 'What do you think of chapter two? What happened there? What are some puzzles?' It just gets me thinking... and I'm smarter about the thing in the final analysis." 5) Hallucinations aren't the crisis everyone makes them out to be. No matter the source, if you're going to use a piece of information, you should double-check it. This is true for both books and AI. 6) Secrets will become more valuable in an AI-driven world. 7) One way to use AI as a writer is to research fields you aren't as familiar with before you start writing about them. Tyler said: "I just wrote a column about declassifying classified documents. I don't know that law very well. I asked the AI for a lot of background... now I feel like I'm not an idiot on the topic." 8) AI changes what books are even worth writing. "Predictive books and books about the near future. They don't make sense to write anymore." 9) Editing trick: Try running your writing through AI and asking what some people might find obnoxious. It’s a surprisingly powerful editing trick. 10) When prompting AI, put humans out of your mind and imagine you're talking to an alien or a non-human animal. 11) Many of the most significant AI advancements are likely happening behind closed doors. For example, I hear that Google allows employees to use Gemini with virtually unlimited context windows. 12) What possibilities do large context windows open up? Researchers will be able to load entire regulatory frameworks, historical archives, or massive datasets like "tax records from Renaissance Florence" into a single query. 13) The rate of AI improvement matters more than its current capabilities. As Tyler puts it, "This is the worst they will ever be" is key to understanding their trajectory. "A lot of people don't get that. They're impressed by what they see in the moment, but they don't understand the rate of improvement." 14) The best way to appreciate the current rate of improvement is to use the latest models. 15) Being non-technical can sometimes be an advantage when thinking about AI. Here’s Tyler: "If you're not focused on the technical side, you will see other things more clearly... You just focus on what is this actually good for? And not, am I impressed by all the neat bells and whistles on this advance with AI?" 16) How Tyler uses AI to prep for podcast interviews: Don't waste time asking AI for generic interview questions or broad topics. Tyler says that's the worst question you can ask an AI. It’s “too normy.” Instead, ask specific questions about historical examples and get context. Then, let your own creative questions emerge. 17) Your relationship with mentors and peers becomes more crucial, not less, in an AI world. "Two pieces of general advice with or without AI in the world." Tyler says: "Get more and better mentors and work every day at improving the quality of your peer network." 18) The divide between AI and humans creates a striking paradox. As Tyler puts it: "On one hand the AIs are getting so much better, so learn how to use the AIs. On the other hand, the AIs are getting so much better, so invest in these other things that aren't AI—pure networks. You've gotta do both." I've shared the full conversation with tylercowen below. In the replies, I've also linked to a full transcript and relevant links to YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts if you want to listen there. And if you want a bite-size entry to the episode, I've shared some clips in the replies too.

David Perell

175,200 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

Jon Rahm shot a 3 under par 67 to take a share of the lead at the PGA Championship. After the round, he praised the PGA of America for the set up of Aronimink this week: “I would like to know who came up with that, by the way. Honestly, when I heard people talking about 20-under par, it made me question my ability to read a golf course, because I was looking at the greens and where they could put pin locations and possible wind, I just -- my mind was never -- I actually got worried. I'm like if somebody shoots 20-under, the amount of records they're going to break this week would be unheard of. “You know why I think that can happen is also the fairways up here by the numbers are probably wide. They don't play as wide as they really are. Holes like 7, 10, 15, with how much slope you have to the fairway, you have to hit a very accurate golf shot to be in it. Like that, you can add too 2, 4 -- maybe not on 6, but like I said, 10, 12, 15, 16, right? “You need to hit -- with the slope of the fairway and the wind going with the slope of the fairway, it plays a lot more difficult than I think a lot of people would have foreseen at first with how much they're rolling out. And credit to the PGA for the setup. They found some incredible hard pin locations out there. Usually when we're practicing, we put our disks out, and there's definitely quite a few that I would have told Adam, man, there's no way they're going to put a pin there, and they did. So we found a way to keep it all close together. “As hard as it is to play, the challenge can also be kind of fun if you do well. That's probably the reason why the leaderboard is so bunched up and it's going to be such a good Sunday tomorrow. So in that sense, showmanship-wise, they've done a great job.” Jon was also asked if a win for him this week would be a boost for LIV Golf as they look for investment outside of the PIF: “Honestly, in a week like this, one, I'm thinking more about myself. I'm not going to take on anything outside what I can control when it comes to competing tomorrow. “If I do get it done and I sit here again tomorrow, then you can ask me the same question, and I'll give you an answer. But what it would mean for Spain as well in the grand slam tally and being the last leg of the grand slam for us as well, there's a lot of things that would mean a lot, but too much of it is out of my control. “So hopefully I can keep doing what I've done so far this week, especially today, and I get the chance to answer that tomorrow.” If Jon were to win tomorrow it would put him 3 legs towards the Career Grand Slam, complete the Grand Slam for Spain, and end the drought of major winners for LIV Golf that extends back to Bryson DeChambeau’s US Open win in 2024. It’s a massive final round ahead for the Spaniard. Jon Rahm Rodriguez PGA Championship

Flushing It

139,728 Aufrufe • vor 4 Monaten

Islamic Art of War By: Ofer Binshtok Islam wages a continuous global war through various methods and with varying intensity against non-Muslims 24/7, as commanded by the Quran and Muhammad, a war that has persisted for approximately 1400 years and will continue indefinitely. In places where non-Muslims grow weary of conflict and seek peace, avoiding confrontation and attempting to appease Islam, believing they have achieved tranquility through signing agreements with Islam and even allowing its migration into their territories, during this time, Islam builds its strength and attacks them when it senses it has the upper hand, from within and from outside, in the most brutal way possible. This war strategy relies on the Islamic Art of War, based on the Quran and Muhammad's Sunnah. Quran 8:39 - The goal: a world containing only Muslims through war. Quran 98:6 - Demonization of non-Muslims. Quran 3:28 - Deceive non-Muslims. Quran 47:35 - Do not seek peace when you have the upper hand. In other words, attack. Quran 8:60 - During a hudna (ceasefire), Islam prepares for war. Quran 9:123 - Attack nearby non-Muslims. Quran 9:5 - Kill every non-Muslim in the world. In 622 AD, Muhammad migrated from Mecca to the settlement of Medina (Yathrib) in the Arabian Peninsula, where he was received as a refugee by the Jews who had established and controlled the prosperous region, granting him shelter. Within approximately eight years, after building his strength, Muhammad eliminated the presence of Jews and other non-Muslims in the area. In 628 AD, Muhammad signed a ten-year hudna (truce) agreement in Hudaibiya with the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, as his forces were weaker than theirs. In 630 AD, when his power was sufficiently strong, he violated the agreement with the Quraysh, attacked Mecca, conquered it with ease, and eradicated all other cultures present there. Muhammad's Sunnah, which is binding in Islam according to Quran 33:21, commands every Muslim to emulate all of Muhammad’s words and deeds, which are considered sacred. ---- "A Muslim must be loyal only to the Islamic Ummah" By: Ofer Binshtok The identity of the Muslim is solely to be a part of the global Islamic Ummah, without any connection to a nation-state or to another culture that is not the Islamic Ummah. The idea of independent Islamic nation-states contradicts the Islamic idea as it is found in the Quran and Muhammad's Sunnah. A Muslim, wherever he is in the world, is part of the Islamic Ummah. A Ummah that should be ruled by a caliph through Sharia law. Islam is a global political-religious worldview of a world without borders. The existing Islamic nation-states are actually an act of heresy. A disbeliever who converts to Islam must completely break away from his former identity, become part of the Islamic Ummah, and serve its purposes personally. Every Muslim, wherever he is, is personally obligated to act so that the Islamic Ummah will be established—that is to say, to collapse every nation-state that exists in the world so that the Islamic Ummah will replace it. The fact that the idea of Ummah is included in the central motif of the Quran is evidence of the vital significance of this concept. In Islamic terminology, the term "Ummah" refers to the religious community, also known as the Islamic holy community. This is the primary interpretation of the phrase found in the Quran. Quran 5.51: "O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as Auliyâ’ (friends, protectors, helpers), they are but Auliyâ’ of each other. And if any amongst you takes them (as Auliyâ’), then surely he is one of them. Verily, Allâh guides not those people who are the Zâlimûn (polytheists and wrong-doers and unjust)." Quran 2.143 "Thus, have We made of you an Ummat justly balanced, that ye might be witnesses over the nations, and the Messenger a witness over yourselves; and We appointed the Qibla to which thou wast used, only to test those who followed the Messenger from those who would turn on their heels (From the Faith). Indeed it was (A change) momentous, except to those guided by Allah. And never would Allah Make your faith of no effect. For Allah is to all people Most surely full of kindness, Most Merciful." Quran 3.104 "Let there be one nation of you, calling to good, and bidding to honour, and forbidding dishonour; those are the prosperers." Quran 3.110 "You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah. If only the People of the Scripture had believed, it would have been better for them. Among them are believers, but most of them are defiantly disobedient." Quran 16.92 "And be not like her who undoes the thread which she has spun after it has become strong, by taking your oaths a means of deception among yourselves, lest a nation may be more numerous than another nation. Allah only tests you by this [i.e who obeys Allah and fulfills Allah's Covenant and who disobeys Allah and breaks Allah's Covenant]. And on the Day of Resurrection, He will certainly make clear to you that wherein you used to differ [i.e. a believer confesses and believes in the Oneness of Allah and in the Prophethood of Prophet Muhammad SAW which the disbeliever denies it and that was their difference amongst them in the life of this world]." Tafsir Al-Qurtubi, volume 1, page 649: Muhammad said, "The earth was made a mosque for me." Sahih al-Bukhari, 3167: "The Prophet said, "If you embrace Islam, you will be safe. You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle." --- "Because Muhammad admitted to using terrorism, committing an act of terrorism is considered as a holy deed in Islam." (122) CHAPTER. The statement of the Prophet: I have been made victorious for a distance of one month journey with terror (cast in the hearts of the enemy). The Statement of Allah: "We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve...(V.3:151) Sahih Al-B ukhari\ translated by Muhammad Muhsin Khan.- Riyadh. Volume 4. (122) CHAPTER. (56 - THE BOOK OF JIHAD) (Fighting for Allah's Cause) Page – 140. Hadith 2977 - Narrated AbU Hurairah: Allah's Messenger A said: "....and I have been made victorious with terror (cast in the hearts of the enemy)... Sahih Al-B ukhari\ translated by Muhammad Muhsin Khan.- Riyadh. Volume 4. (122) CHAPTER. (56 - THE BOOK OF JIHAD) (Fighting for Allah's Cause) Page – 140. Quran 68.4 And indeed, you are (Muhammad) of a great moral character. Quran 33.21 "Indeed in the Messenger of Allâh (Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم you have a good example to follow for him who hopes for (the Meeting with) Allâh and the Last Day, and remembers Allâh much." --- "When a Muslim looks at a non-Muslim, the Quran creates a lens for him through which he sees and understands the non-Muslim, composed of these three verses (and there are many more):" 8:55, 98:6, and 9:28. Verses 8:55 and 98:6 portray non-Muslims as the worst creatures, even worse than cockroaches, bedbugs, and ticks. Verse 9:28 portrays non-Muslims as physically and spiritually filthy, akin to the filth of excrement. In summary: When a Muslim looks at a non-Muslim, he sees him through the lens of the Quran as the worst creatures, worse than cockroaches and ticks, and physically and spiritually filthy to the level of excrement. Quran 8.55 “Verily, The worst of moving (living) creatures before Allâh are those who disbelieve, - so they shall not believe.” Quran 98.6: "Verily, those who disbelieve (in the religion of Islâm, the Qur’ân and Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم) from among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) and Al-Mushrikûn will abide in the Fire of Hell. They are the worst of creatures." Quran 9.28: “O you who believe (in Allâh’s Oneness and in His Messenger Muhammad!) Verily, the Mushrikûn (polytheists, pagans, idolaters, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allâh, and in the Message of Muhammad) are Najasun (impure). [1] So let them not come near Al-Masjidal-Harâm (at Makkah) after this year; and if you fear poverty, Allâh will enrich you if He wills, out of His Bounty. Surely, Allâh is All-Knowing, All-Wise.” (V.9:28) Their impurity is spiritual and physical: spiritual, because they don’t believe in Allâh’s Oneness and in His Prophet Muhammad; and physical, because they lack personal hygiene (filthy as regards urine, stools and blood). And the word Najas is used only for those persons who have spiritual impurity e.g. Al-Mushrikûn. Quran 9.14 "Fight against them so that Allâh will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give you victory over them and heal the breasts of a believing people." Quran 8.39: "...fight them until disbelief (non-Muslims) disappears and the whole Dean (way of life) is for Allah alone...(for Islam)” Quran 9.5: “...kill the Mushrikun (non-Muslims) wherever you find them…" Al-Bukhari: "To wage war against Allah means to reject faith in Him." Quran 2.191: "The sin of disbelief in Allah is greater than committing murder." --- "The concept of Jihad as defined by Sharia law." By: Ofer binshtok. 09.0 JIHAD (0: Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada, signifying warfare to establish the religion. And it is the lesser jihad. As for the greater jihad, it is spiritual warfare against the lower self (nafs), which is why the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said as he was returning from jihad, "We have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad." The scriptural basis for jihad, prior to scholarly consensus (def: b7) is such Koranic verses as: (1) "Fighting is prescribed for you" (Koran 2:216); (2) "Slay them wherever you find them" (Koran 4:89); (3) "Fight the idolators utterly" (Koran 9:36); and such hadiths as the one related by Bukhari and Muslim that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: "I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and perform the prayer, and pay zakat. If they say it, they have saved their blood and possessions from me, except for the rights of Islam over them. And their final reckoning is with Allah"; and the hadith reported by Muslim, "To go forth in the morning or evening to fight in the path of Allah is better than the whole world and everything in it." Details concerning jihad are found in the accounts of the military expeditions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), including his own martial forays and those on which he dispatched others. The former consist of the ones he personally attended, some twenty seven (others say twenty-nine) of them. He fought in eight of them, and killed only one person with his noble hand, Ubayy ibn Khalaf, at the battle of Uhud. On the latter expeditions he sent others to fight. himself remaining at Medina, and these were forty-seven in number.) THE OBLIGATORY CHARACTER OF JIHAD 09.1 Jihad is a communal obligation (def: c3.2). When enough people perform it to successfully accomplish it, it is no longer obligatory upon others (0: the evidence for which is the Prophet's saying (Allah bless him and give him peace), "He who provides the equipment for a soldier in jihad has himself performed jihad," and Allah Most High having said: "Those of the believers who are unhurt but sit behind are not equal to those who fight in Allah's path with their property and lives. Allah has preferred those who fight with their property and lives a whole degree above those who sit behind. And to each. Allah has promised great good" (Koran 4:95). If none of those concerned perform jihad, and it does not happen at all, then everyone who is aware that it is obligatory is guilty of sin, if there was a possibility of having performed it. In the time of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) jihad was a communal obligation after his emigration (hijra) to Medina. As for subsequent times, there are two possible states in respect to non-Muslims. The first is when they are in their own countries, in which case jihad (def: 09.8) is a communal obligation, and this is what our author is speaking of when he says, "Jihad is a communal obligation," meaning upon the Muslims each year. The second state is when non-Muslims invade a Muslim country or near to one, in which case jihad is personally obligatory (def: c3.2) upon the inhabitants of that country, who must repel the non-Muslims with whatever they can). 09.2 jihad is personally obligatory upon all 'those present in the battle lines (A: and to flee is an enormity (dis: pH)) (0: provided one is able to fight. If unable, because of illness or the death of one's mount when not able to fight on foot, or because one no longer has a weapon, then one may leave. One may also leave if the opposing non-Muslim army is more than twice the size of the Muslim force). 09.3 Jihad is also (0: personally) obligatory for everyone (0: able to perform it, male or female, old or young) when the enemy has surrounded the Muslims (0: on every side, having entered our territory, even if the land consists of ruins, wilderness, or mountains, for non-Muslim forces entering Muslim lands is a weighty matter that cannot be ignored, but must be met with effort and struggle to repel them by every possible means. All of which is if conditions permit gathering (A: the above-mentioned) people, provisioning them, and readying them for war. If conditions do not permit this, as when the enemy has overrun the Muslims such that they are unable to provision or prepare themselves for war, then whoever is found by a non-Muslim and knows he will be killed if captured is obliged to defend himself in whatever way possible. But if not certain that he will be killed, meaning that he might or might not be, as when he might merely be taken captive, and he knows he will be killed if he does not surrender, then he may either surrender or fight. A woman too has a choice between fighting or surrendering if she is certain that she will not be subjected to lin indecent act if captured. If uncertain that she will be safe from such an act, she is obliged to fight, and surrender is not permissible). Source: Reliance of the Traveller - Revised Edition. The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law 'Umdat al-Salik by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (d. 769/1368) in Arabic with Facing English Text, Commentary, and Appendices. Edited and Translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller. Amana publications-Beltsville. Maryland U.S.A. Page 599-601. [CERTIFICATION OF AL-AZHAR] IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, MOST MERCIFUL AND COMPASSIONATE al-Azhar Islamic Research Academy. General Department for Research, Writing, and Translation. Mr, Nuh Ha Mim Keller. Amman, Jordan. Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. To commence: In response to the request you have submitted concerning the examination of the English translation of the book 'Umdat al-salik wa 'uddat alnasik by Ahmad ibn Naqib in the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, together with appendices by Islamic scholars on matters of Islamic law, tenets of faith, and personal ethics and character: we certify that the above-mentioned translation corresponds to the Arabic original and conforms to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni Community (Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama'a). There is no objection to printing it and circulating it. The stamping of the pages of the above-mentioned work with the seal of the department has been completed. May Allah give you success in serving Sacred Knowledge and the religion. Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. Composed on 26 Rajab 1411 A.H.l11 February 1991 A.D. General Director of Research, Writing, and Translation Fath Allah Ya Sin Jazar [signed] Muhammad 'Umar Muhammad 'Umar [signed] Seal of al-Azhar [stamped] General Department for Research, Writing, and Translation.

Ofer Binshtok - Kafir - עופר בינשטוק

867,373 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

New episode on Joseph Wechsberg’s 1966 book ⁠The Merchant Bankers Merchant banking is fascinating. It's a very distinctive form of entrepreneurship. There's an old-school way of doing business that appeals to me. The merchant bankers’ profiled in this book have a combination of: •personal honor •speed of action •clear thinking •independent judgment •seamless webs of deserved trust •discretion •and willingness to make unconventional decisions The founder of every merchant banking dynasty was a merchant before he was merchant banker. Once they discovered financing transactions was more profitable than physically trading goods, their real products became judgment, information, advice, access, and trust. Their greatest asset was not money. Their greatest asset was their reputation. Instead of recounting the histories of families like the Rothschilds, Barings, Hambros, Warburgs, and Lehman Brothers, I wanted to extract the principles they shared. Those principles are what you will learn by listening to this episode. Timestamps and quotes: 0:01 In every merchant-banking dynasty there is one pioneer who began with nothing and died rich. 1:31 When I asked him how he'd become a millionaire he tapped his right temple and said "I used my head. Don't you ever forget that, my child." I didn't. 3:42 How they make their money is a secret to most people outside the bank— and many people in it. 4:25 Nearly all of them started as a family business. 4:30 Almost all merchant bankers were merchants before they became bankers. 4:45 First they attended to their own affairs, later they financed the transactions of friends and clients. 4:55 It was easier to sell one's signature than a bale of silk; it was also more profitable. 5:22 They knew the best-kept secrets. 5:50 He defined merchant banking as a sense of commercial honor, an absolute fairness in all dealings, and a willingness to suffer pecuniary loss, if need be, rather than tarnish by one unworthy act the good name of the firm. 6:05 Character was prized more than wealth. 7:12 Their motto: "We must not let in daylight upon magic.” 11:41 He comes to us because we give him fast, personal service. I couldn’t tell him, ‘I’ll call you back.’ That’s exactly what the big commercial banks would have done. It would take them a week, processing his request through channels and committee meetings. If we acted like that, we would be out of business in a couple of years. I’ve known him for years. I trust him. 12:30 We have no large bureaucracy inside but a vast network outside. We know a lot about a lot of people. And we rely on the prestige of our name. People trust us. 14:05 One has to keep a lot of useful information in one’s head. 15:06 Merchant banking is not a concrete science but an abstract art. 15:15 People have been fired for incompetence but never for making an occasional mistake. 15:22 We are always encouraged to make fast decisions though it may be the wrong decision once in a while. This is competitive, aggressive business. Very exciting. There is no routine. Every day is different, and you learn as you go along. 15:30 There is no set pattern. Anything that concerns money we attempt to cater for. 15:42 We are consciously unorthodox. 15:53 The big banks live on their deposits, we merchant bankers on our wits. 16:55 What the merchant bank offers above all is trust. A lot of business is done with very little paperwork. 17:08 Merchant bankers are basically trustful optimists. 17:27 Lawyers like to complicate matters. We like to simplify them. 19:31 If one gets too big, one loses one’s flexibility. 20:56 We became marriage brokers, arranging another amalgamation. A process of economic cross-fertilization. We may take a minority interest, but never control. We believe the management should be left to the managers. 25:05 Ideas are a merchant banker’s lifeblood. 25:51 The merchant bank was an ideal combination — efficient and unbureaucratic. 27:09 It’s the name of the merchant banker that builds a magic bridge between buyer and seller. They may not trust one another but both trust us. 29:21 Nothing is more like itself, nothing less like anything else. 35:04 Progress in thinking is progress towards simplicity. 36:53 Influence is more important than power. 37:00 Men of talent are often complex and hard to understand. 39:04 Happiness is not the fulfillment of desires but the fulfillment of duties. 39:13 Management is made up of people, and people are unfathomable. 43:30 Funny thing, the hardest things to raise money for often turn out to be the best.

David Senra

71,829 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten

Hamas negotiator talks to The Grayzone about new barriers to Palestinian freedom This December in Doha, Qatar, The Grayzone’s Aaron Mate sat down with senior Hamas negotiator and former Minister of Health in the Gaza Strip Dr. Basem Naim to discuss the fractured ceasefire in Gaza, the prospects for a second phase, and Hamas’s political and military positions amid ongoing Israeli siege. Dr. Naim argues that the so-called ceasefire has largely failed due to Israeli violations and that any meaningful progress toward peace is impossible without addressing the roots of the crisis: the lack of Palestinian self-determination and ongoing military occupation. Dr. Naim contends that Hamas has fully complied with its obligations under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, including the release of Israeli prisoners and bodies, while Israel has failed to uphold its commitments. More than 350 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded since the ceasefire began, with frequent Israeli attacks continuing daily. Israel has restricted humanitarian aid, blocked essential supplies, limited entry of heavy machinery needed for rubble removal and reconstruction, and kept the Rafah crossing largely closed, preventing wounded civilians, students, and families from traveling. Dr. Naim explains how these systematic violations were reported to mediators without consequence. Because the first phase has not been implemented as agreed, Dr. Naim argues that discussion of a second phase is premature and problematic. He rejects the framing that Hamas alone would determine the next phase, stating that decisions about Gaza’s future, resistance, and governance must involve all factions inside the Palestinian polity. He slams international proposals that marginalize Palestinians from decision-making structures, including a proposed international “boards of peace,” which he likens to an occupation imposed from outside. Asked about the role of the international community, Dr. Naim says Hamas would accept a limited international role strictly confined to supervising the ceasefire, facilitating aid, and supporting reconstruction. He supports the deployment of an international stabilization force only along Gaza’s borders to separate Israeli forces from Palestinians, not inside Palestinian cities or in daily governance, noting the consensus among Arab and Muslim countries for this position. Asked about demands that Hamas unilaterally give up its weapons, Dr. Naim strongly rejects unconditional disarmament, arguing that Palestinians remain under occupation and retain the right under international law to resist, including through armed struggle. History did not begin on October 7, he argues, explaining how Palestinians have endured decades of killings, dispossession, and siege. While rejecting disarmament, he leaves open the possibility of long-term ceasefires lasting five to ten years, during which weapons could be frozen or stored – but only if tied to a credible political process leading to a sovereign Palestinian state with clear timelines and guarantees against renewed Israeli attacks. Dr. Naim blasts the UN resolution for being vague, selectively enforced, and lacking enforceable commitments to Palestinian self-determination. He argues that international law and UN resolutions must be treated as a package, not selectively applied to serve Israeli interests while ignoring Palestinian rights such as statehood and the right of return. Asked by Mate about Hamas’ support for a two-state solution, Dr. Naim restates the Movement’s longstanding position that Hamas would cooperate with a consensus Palestinian position supporting a fully sovereign state on the 1967 borders, provided it includes East Jerusalem and guarantees the right of return for refugees. He emphasizes that this would represent a historic compromise and insists that such a state is not a concession from Israel, but a Palestinian right under international law. Recognition of Israel, he argues, would be a decision for a future Palestinian state and society, not one imposed amid ongoing violence. On the issue of continuing Palestinian divisions, Dr. Naim acknowledges deep fragmentation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, describing decades of failed reconciliation efforts despite repeated agreements. He argues that the Oslo process has failed catastrophically, citing massive settlement expansion and annexation. He attributes continued division partly to external pressure from Israel and the United States, which he says have conditioned Palestinian leadership choices. He explains Hamas’s efforts to secure the release of prisoners from all factions, particularly Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah-aligned longtime political prisoner with street credibility across Palestine. According to Dr. Naim, Hamas views Barghouti as one of the only figures capable of reshaping Palestinian politics and advancing unity. Dr. Naim closes by addressing Palestinian criticism of Hamas and its October 7 operation, particularly those who argue that the unbelievable levels of civilian suffering were not worth it. While acknowledging dissent, he argues that Palestinians faced no viable alternative under siege and occupation. He frames Hamas’s actions as resistance born of desperation and insists that the root problem is the “prison” of occupation itself, and that resistance is inevitable under such unjust conditions.

The Grayzone

172,461 Aufrufe • vor 9 Monaten