Saudi man dies at 120

                                                                    Image Credit: Sabq

A Saudi, believed to be the oldest man in the country, has died, his family said.
Shaikh Awadh Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saifi, 120, was born in 1893 and lived in three different centuries, the 19th, 20th and 21st, local news site Gulf news reported.
He is survived by 24 sons and daughters and had 447 grandchildren and great grand-children.His oldest son is 98 years old while the youngest is 22. His oldest grandson is 65 years old. Earlier on this year,a Saudi man who was dubbed “the dean of centenarians” died in the Kingdom at the age of 154 years. Nearly four years ago his name was listed in the Guinness World Record for being the oldest living man in the world, Arab news reported. Mohammed bin Zarei died of old age at a hospital in the small village of Sadr Ayad near the southern town of Nammas, leaving behind more than 180 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
He had 10 wives and the age of 150, he told a local TV station that he was looking for a new wife after all his wives died. “Bin Zarei (…) had seen all the kings that ruled Saudi Arabia,” one newspaper said. Bin Zarei hit headlines when the Saudi satellite TV news channel Alarabiya broadcast a film about him a few years ago, during which he said he was in a good health.The program presenter, Saud Al-Khalaf, called him “the dean of centenarians.” 

                                                                    Mohammed bin Zarei

This story reminds me of a patient of mine who use to frequent the hospital on a monthly basis. He is 112 years old and doesn't really have any medical history apart from pain in the joints. I use to always tell him that he is a walking, talking history book. I use to spend hours conversing with him. He related stories to me about the Ottoman empire and also the fascination he experienced at seeing a car in the city of Makkah driven by the founding king, King Abdulaziz al Saud. In fact it was the first car that Saudi Arabia ever had and not only him, but everyone in Makkah were astonished at the sight of the vehicle. He mentioned to me that the Saudi military in the past wore thobes along with shemagh and iqals ( the black double rings worn on top of the checkered scarf), the only difference being that their iqals were broad and huge. This is what differentiated them from the general public. He also told me about King Abdulaziz's generosity. During the month of ramadhaan, he was sitting in the company of King Abdulaziz in the haram area in Makkah. Just before the sunset, the king took out money from his thobe and sent him to buy food to break the fast with. He also insisted that the food should be distributed to as many poor people as possible. The king broke his fast with zam zam water and dates and only after everyone around him ate to their hearts content did he partake of the food. I miss this patient of mine dearly as I use to look forward to his monthly visits to the hospital. His knowledge and experience in life is priceless and I feel blessed and honoured to have been a part of his life. May Allah give him an even longer life of good health and bless him with the highest stages of Jannah. Ameen.

The newly developed and revamped Jeddah Corniche

This latest development project in Jeddah was inaugurated by the governor of Makkah, Prince Khalid Al Faisal a few weeks ago, with a smaller inauguration ceremony held on Wednesday night in what was said to be a glitterati event. Close friends of ours residing in Jeddah attended the event and also made their way to the Corniche yesterday afternoon to get a glimpse of the area during the day.Jeddah has always been my favourite city in the Kingdom and I certainly can not wait to hop onto a flight and see this latest Saudi development project and of course meet all my friends who are near and dear to me especially my best friend Faraz and the Najdi family.

An American woman's perspective on the Boston Marathon Bombings

It is quite ironical that after having a lengthy discussion with regards to the Boston marathon bombings on a friends facebook page, I landed up having guests from the USA for lunch on Sunday afternoon. One of the woman in the group was highly qualified with a masters in higher education. Whilst discussing various topics, the subject about the Boston marathon came up and without voicing my opinion, this is what the lady said ( I wish I taped it), ' I am an American citizen but I'm sorry to say that what happened at the Marathon was definitely staged. The American people do not trust the government and the media any longer. The fact that they implicated Americans of Cechnyan origin is just ludicrous for the following reason. The young Chechnyan men who were apprehended for the blasts came into the USA under refugee status fleeing the war in Bosnia years ago. They were very young when they left Bosnia and hence their mindset and ideologies are that of a typical American child. Why would you bomb people that have granted you a place to stay. As a refugee in the USA your moves and daily activities are traced and tracked. Are you a productive member of society, are you working, studying etc. If these young men were involved with Chechnyan militants as the news reports claim why were their activities not picked up earlier. She further mentioned quite correctly that whilst all the mainstream news channels reported about the incident throughout the week over and over again, none of the news channels reported about the USA army "mistakenly" bombing a wedding gathering in Afghanistan on April 17th killing 30 innocent civilians. The idiotic soldiers without gathering the correct information supposedly thought that the celebratory gunfire which usually occurs at all Afghani weddings was in actual fact a gathering for a military operation and bombed the wedding killing 30 people. Why wasn't this reported in the mainstream media? North Korea has been threatening the USA for some time now and so over the last few months the American people are questioning their government about their safety. Will the government be able to defend its people if Korea strikes.. In order to divert the peoples attention, they staged a terror attack and within a few hours, voila the criminals are caught. Well done boys.. We can defend the country thereby reinforcing the idea that the government can protect its people thereby allowing harsher laws and policies to be imposed onto the American people thereby stripping American citizens of their independence and autonomy." She further mentioned that being a Muslim in America is difficult. During her trip to South Africa out of a whole long queue of people only she and her mom were asked to step aside for a full body pat search simply because she wore a hijaab and was a Muslim. She said America talks about discrimination, racism to other countries, yet as a Muslim you are being discriminated against on a daily basis. I was shocked at a story she related to us. She said that if you are a Muslim don't be surprised if the FBI or the CIA knock at your door without a search warrant, arrest you and torture you to confess to crimes you did not commit. A community doctor residing in her neighourhood was an American citizen. He was however, a Muslim too. The FBI raided his home without a search warrant, took him away for over a year without his family knowing where he was. They had no evidence or proof to charge him against anything. So finally they charged him with providing money to a terrorist organization on the grounds that they found three thousand dollars in his home. After one and half years they released him but also stripped him of his professional licence.

Islam has always been a religion of peace. It does not condone the killing of innocent people at the hands of suicide bombers. Sadly though the majority of people in the world have no idea how the intelligence agencies work. These agencies are dogged with carrying out undercover operations that have affected the lives of thousands of people whilst shifting the blame onto someone else in order to enhance a political objective. I knew of people involved in the intelligence who are no more. There was a Syrian man who is actually a school friend of a colleague of mine. He was the head of a military operation in Syria a good few years ago. Whilst in Moscow he was introduced to a Jewish woman and within a period of time she became his wife. As a member of the Syrian military, he is not allowed to marry a non Syrian woman due to security reasons. Hence he built a home in Moscow and traveled between Syria and Russia. He also told his wife that he will only accept her if she became a Muslim. He was married to the woman for 20 years and had two kids with her. One day when he returned to Moscow, he found that his house was empty. He found a note from his wife saying that she has returned to Israel and that she was in fact a spy for Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. She was assigned to access information about Syria's military operations and also be involved with planting bombs at strategic places which was not mentioned. She was not a Muslim but rather a devout Jew and her kids were also roped into the Mossad at a later stage. After realizing that his wife had betrayed him, and knowing that he has indirectly betrayed his own country, the man committed suicide...

I suggest to all my blog readers, to please view this brilliant video below by Anthony Lawson for those of you who wish to understand the dynamics of the world we are living in today. Why is there war, loss of life, why are innocent people being killed and murdered by the thousands? Who is behind all of this? I urge all of you to please watch this video and share it with all your friends....TO HELL WITH ZIONISM..

Homemade Oven Fresh Bread Rolls

A step by step pictorial recipe

                                1. Add 4 cups flour to the mixing bowl

                                2. Add 1 tsp salt

                                3. Add 1 egg

                               4. Add 2 tablespoons sugar

                               5. Add 2 ounces butter

                               6. Add 1 sachet of  dry anchor yeast

                               7. Then take 250 ml of water and add it to 250 ml of milk.
                                Heat the mixture in the microwave until hot. Pour in the mixture
                                and knead into a soft dough, OR        
                             

                                If you have an electric mixer, add the milk/water mixture
                                slowly whilst the machine kneads the dough

                                8. The end result of the dough after kneading.

                                9. Cover the dough with a cloth. Wait for it to rise until it is
                                    double in size.

                                          10. The above two videos will illustrate a step by step
                                           method on how to fold the dough into dainty bread
                                           rolls

11. Brush a beaten egg over the individual rolls

12. Sprinkle til seeds over the rolls and allow the rolls to rise for a 

                                few minutes. Then bake rolls at 220 degrees until golden brown.

                                 13. VOILA!!! The end result.. Freshly baked homemade rolls.

                                 Enjoy it plain with a cup of tea or have it with butter and cheese or 

                                 stack them up in a beautiful bread basket to impress your guests 

                                 at the dinner table :))))))