Archive for March 17th, 2010
Part One: Complete equal rights in Islam for man and woman; (Written Mar. 18, 2010)
Women visited the spouses of the Prophet Muhammad and said: “Allah in the Koran talked about you (the spouses) but said nothing about us women. Are there nothing in us that merit to be mentioned?”
One of the spouses Umm Salma, a most beautiful matured spouse and an aristocrat from the tribe of Quraich, relayed to Muhammad this question: “Why men are mentioned in the Koran but not women?” Muhammad had to answer.
A few days later, the Prophet recited a verse in the adjacent mosque to the spouses residences which stated: “A man and a woman who have submitted to Allah (the one and only God), who are believers, who are pious, who are sincere, who are patients, who fear Allah, who give charity, who fast, who protect their sexual parts, who invoke Allah frequently, the Allah has prepared forgiveness and limitless recompense” Consequently, Allah sees no differences in genders who have submitted to Allah and are believers in the community.
Muhammad then endeavored to pronounce an entire Sourat called “Women” (Al Nissa2) and then demanded equitable shares in heritage to both gender and to children and orphans. In pre-Islamic Arabia, women were considered chattel as in then Jewish communities. One verse said “remit to men a part of what parents and relatives left in heritage; and remit equitably to women a part of the heritage whether the heritage is little or a lot”
Men in Medina tried their best to resume the pre-Islamic traditions.
Umm Kajja (with 5 daughters) complained to Muhammad saying: “My husband is dead and his brother is demanding to stick to tradition and to ignore the new laws. He is claiming that women do not participate in fights for loots and thus we have claim to heritage” There was a succession of such complaints which required a Sourat on the questions of heritage and legal matters of remarrying.
The verse 19 in Sourat “Women” states: “O you believers! You are not permitted to take away women in heritage against their will; or to forbid them remarrying so that you may capture part of what they received unless they manifestly committed a proven infamy.” Verse 2 said: “Give to orphans what is their due… Do not eat what belong of their shares: This behavior constitutes a great sin.” The Sourat on “Women” goes into great length on details of proportional shares in heritage.
Note 1: This article is extracted from “The Political Harem: The Prophet and the women” by Fatema Mernissi.
Note 2: There are bunches of mindless and rapacious seemingly matured men who plunder other people’s shares by fraudulent interpretations of the Koran; they were labeled “Sufahaa2” in the Koran.
Total denuding process of terminally ill
Posted by: adonis49 on: March 17, 2010
Total denuding process of terminally ill; (Book Review, Mar. 17, 2010)
The hardest part for an incurable dying person is not necessarily being reduced to nothing after death; it is to be consciously reduced to a totally dispossessed non-entity before his death.
Willingly or coerced to, an incurable dying person is forced to undergo total stripping of all his material belonging and his mental and physical potentials.
For example, in the article “Befriending death”, Pierre “the fix it all”, had to finally ask specialized companies to do home repairs and finish off works in progress; he had to desist doing research work at his physics research institution.
Pierre had to find capable replacement researchers to resume his projects; he had to give up positions in associations and organizations.
Pierre had to stop computing from statistics the exact date for his imminent death; he had to teach his wife and grown up children how to fix and repair things at home.
Pierre had to give up reading, listening to music, communicating, surfing the net; he had to forget what he accumulated in tools for home repairs.
Pierre had to accept loosing possession of part of his body, his strength, sensations, taking interminable time to getting out of bed, unable to eat, to talk, to walk.
Pierre had to be resigned to let go controlling and managing his family.
The last phase in dispossession is to let go of praying.
Come what come, the dying person is already “a prayer”. It is not only totally useless to pray by the dying patient’s bed; it is also frankly infuriating to the patient and family members: the dying person is already in another dimension and care less of what’s going around him. Pierre is entering a sort of “no man’s land of the mind” in silence.
It is entirely naïve and insane for friends to tell a dying person “You still can decide for life!”
People usually lack the burning pains of what the terminally ill is experiencing. There is a time when living and dying is same different.
Suppose a person has reached the final phases of total dispossession and then was told “Congratulation, you are cured. You can recapture your former job and get your previous activities back.”
Do you think that this completely denuded person would still have the heart and energy to restart life from scratch like a newborn baby?
Note: this topic was extracted from “When befriending death” by Sylvie Garoche.
Heavenly haven for terminally sick
Posted by: adonis49 on: March 17, 2010
Heavenly haven for terminally sick; (Mar. 17, 2010)
Are you afraid of regular hospitals? You should be. These centers of health care where a patient is a corps to be operated upon and dispatched quickly to make room for other patients. Palliative health care facilities are the opposite of regular hospitals for the terminally ill: the patient is the center of attention; pain and suffering is the target of treatments; the dignity of the patient to die as comfortably as feasible is the goal. Palliative facilities welcome the brave incurable patient who opted for stopgap measures on relentless treatments and experimentation of protocols: he decided to taking charge of his destiny and dying peacefully.
Usually, palliative facilities are associated with mobile network of medical groups managing terminally ill person in their residences. These kinds of network medical care units are constituted of representatives of physicians, nurses, psychologists, and administrators working as a group to catering for the well being of the patient who decided to spend most of his dying days at home. The team notes down the patient’s needs and wishes, tends to the financial, clinical, health insurance, psychological, and social demands and regulations related to the patient; and it can be contacted 24 hours 7 days a week for feedback and critical moments.
The first meeting is done in the presence of the treating or family physician that must agree with the team and also be part of the association. They cooperate for the kinds of treatments, medicines, approaches, and methods. The mobile team does not deliver medical care but coordinate with health insurance, the appropriate specialized physicians, nurses, and pharmacies ready to rush on call for emergency needs of the patient. The patient is the center of the activities in the team system; the patient can stay at home as long as his health conditions permit. For example, when the person is in terrible pain then the wife or a member of the family can call at 2 am, say what was given to the patient so far, and the mobile team would give the proper feedback of what to do next or just pay an emergency visit.
In periods of relative acalmy when the patient is feeling fine then the team would call or just pay a visit: the team is like this brick wall patients and family members can lean on. Mobile teams charge double a visiting physician but they take the time by the patient and meet with him to synthesize and evaluate the progress of the illness. This mobile system save a lot to health care institutions and State health budget since the patient is taken care of in his home. I think these mobile palliative teams are suited to gather the most complete relevant data in a timely manner for the progress of an illness for health researchers.
Hospitals dedicated to palliative health services are very different from regular hospitals. These specialized hospitals are concerned with the terrible pain and suffering of a terminally ill patient; they tend to his physical, emotional, and mental requirements as the patient gradually feels dispossessed of life belonging, control, and management of others. The patient comes to these centers because he decided to stop treatments for his ill and just wish to be relieved of the pain, suffering, and indignity.
As you enter a palliative facility you hear “Here we take charge of your suffering. Suffering less is feasible” There are no limiting visiting hours; you may bring kids and even pet animals to visit the patient; a private kitchen is completely equipped for family cooking or heating of plates; there are furnished spaces for an entire family to feel comfortably at home. Family members and friends can sleep over. Patients are allowed to redecorate their rooms with pictures, paintings, and special furniture. Patients can go outside in their rolling chairs and wander in the park, watching farm animals in total liberty, or taking naps in the sun. Medical personnel do not wake up a patient to eat but wait and reheat plates. Quality of life in the last days of a patient is the name of the game.
In “Intimate death”, Marie de Hennezel writes “I learned three things from life: first, I will not avoid my death or any member of my family; second, man is not reduced to what we think we are seeing: he is far larger, far deeper than our judgments; and third, man has not said his last word yet: he is capable of transforming to a mighty person throughout a series of crisis and life’s trials”
France passed the Leonetti Law in 2005 which says: First, relentless therapy is illegal; second, patient has the right to refusing treatment, including forced artificial feeding; third, physician must use all of what is available to reducing pain and suffering of the patient; and fourth, patient has the right to write his final wills as anticipatory directives and to designate the person in charge of respecting and enforcing the final directives.
Note: I got aware of this topic from the book of Sylvie Garoche in “Quand la vie tutoie la mort”
Their mind is not crippled
Posted by: adonis49 on: March 17, 2010
They are not stupid; their mind is not crippled; (Mar. 16, 2010)
The new French author Sylvie Garoche wrote in “When we befriend death” that her father was in a convalescence home and she was convinced that he was no longer aware of anything since he kept his silence and his eyes were kind of looking in a void. “I brought my father a CD of an opera he loved and then I asked him a simple question just for conversation sake “Do you recall the tune?” He replied “I constantly sing in my mind all the operas that I memorized and the concerts that I attended. I sing the old ballads related to wild trails that I used to walk summer times” This erudite old man, fond of literature, music, and trekking, was still reviewing the trails, the wild passages, the majestic views from mountain tops, the wild flowers on the way; he was assisting to his favorite concerts; he was walking in his mind his favorite wild trails by torrents and streams, dense forests; he was feeling the warmth of the sun and the ticklish wind.
Most of old persons that look vegetables, who fail to react, who can no longer talk or communicate efficiently, are reliving their internal lives made of emotions, sound, and visual sceneries; they are recalling of what they weaved during a life time.
Most of these old persons would be recalling far greater events, richer sounds, more vivid sceneries if they could enjoy beautiful facilities where care is centered on the person and where location is made as home.
It is never too late to train your memory and get hooked to a hobby: you might need them in old age.
They are not stupid; their mind is not crippled; (Mar. 16, 2010)
The new French author Sylvie Garoche wrote in “When we befriend death” that her father was in a convalescence home and she was convinced that he was no longer aware of anything since he kept his silence and his eyes were kind of looking in a void. “I brought my father a CD of an opera he loved and then I asked him a simple question just for conversation sake “Do you recall the tune?” He replied “I constantly sing in my mind all the operas that I memorized and the concerts that I attended. I sing the old ballads related to wild trails that I used to walk summer times” This erudite old man, fond of literature, music, and trekking, was still reviewing the trails, the wild passages, the majestic views from mountain tops, the wild flowers on the way; he was assisting to his favorite concerts; he was walking in his mind his favorite wild trails by torrents and streams, dense forests; he was feeling the warmth of the sun and the ticklish wind.
Most of old persons that look vegetables, who fail to react, who can no longer talk or communicate efficiently, are reliving their internal lives made of emotions, sound, and visual sceneries; they are recalling of what they weaved during a life time.
Most of these old persons would be recalling far greater events, richer sounds, more vivid sceneries if they could enjoy beautiful facilities where care is centered on the person and where location is made as home.
It is never too late to train your memory and get hooked to a hobby: you might need them in old age.
Adonis Diaries 