PEMBAYARAN HASIL MINYAK NEGERI OLEH KERAJAAN PUSAT- 'ROYALTI ATAU 'WANG IHSAN'

(PERBINCANGAN KHUSUS MENGENAI NEGERI KELANTAN D.N.)

Oleh: Abu Madyan

Mengapa Kerajaan Persekutuan Mesti Mengembalikan Royalti kepada Kerajaan Negeri?

1. Perdana Menteri Malaysia kedua, Tun Razak pada 12hb., November, 1975 (berdasarkan hansard soal jawab Parlimen) ketika menjawab soalan di Parlimen menjelaskan bahawa mengikut perjanjian, tiap-tiap negeri akan menerima 5% secara tunai daripada nilai petroleum yang dijumpai dan diperolehi di negeri masing-masing sama ada yang diperolehi dalam kawasan perairan atau di luar perairan negeri tersebut.

2. Perjanjian yang telah ditandatangani pada 1975 antara Menteri-menteri Besar bagi negeri-negeri di Semenanjung dengan Pengerusi PETRONAS ( ketika itu YM Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah) untuk memberi 5% royaltI kepada negeri-negeri berkaitan masih sah - Perjanjian ini telah mengikat kerajaan Persekutuan untuk memberi royalti kepada kerajaan Kelantan (Perjanjian tersebut telah ditandatangani Menteri Besar ketika itu, Datuk Mohammad Nasir) sebanyak 5% setahun dan dibayar tunai dua kali setahun. Perjanjian ini tidak pernah dibatalkan. (Berdasarkan niat dan amalan, Petronas telahpun membayar dalam bentuk royalti kepada kerajaan negeri Sabah dan Sarawak dan negeri Trengganu ianya telah diberikan mulai 1978 sehinggalah ianya ditukar kepada ‘Wang Ehsan’ pada tahun 2000 apabila PAS mula memerintah Trengganu dan diteruskan hingga kini oleh kerana permasaalah dan pertikaian dalaman UMNO).

3. Akta Kemajuan Petroleum 1974 seksyen 4 telah menetapkan supaya Perbadanan (PETRONAS) hendaklah membuat apa-apa pembayaran wang tunai kepada kerajaan negeri sebagai balasan bagi pemunyaan dan hak bagi negeri tersebut. Berasaskan peruntukan ini, penganugerahan wang tunai kepada negeri-negeri yang perairannya mempunyai minyak telah dibuat sejak dahulu.

4. Berdasarkan pada takrifan kawasan perairan negeri seperti mana perjanjian UNCLOS 3 (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) 1982 yang ditandatangani oleh Malaysia, yang menetapkan negeri mempunyai hak zon eksklusif ekonomi menjangkau jarak 200 batu nautikal. Dalam hal ini pengeluaran minyak adalah dalam perairan Kelantan. (Kenyataan yang menyatakan jarak tiga batu nautikal adalah tidak bersesuaian (relevan) dalam konteks pengeluaran minyak dan pembayaran royalti, kerana Akta Dharurat yang digubal pada tahun 1969 adalah khusus dan ketika itu Akta Kemajuan Petroleum masih tidak wujud).
Dari segi sejarah, pembayaran royalti minyak kepada kerajaan Terengganu telah dibuat walaupun pelantar cari gali minyaknya berada di luar dari tiga batu nautika. Pelantar minyak negeri Terengganu terletak 220 kilometer di Perairan Laut China Selantan sedangkan pelantar minyak di Kelantan terletak 170 kilometer di Zon Ekonomi Eksklusif yang diusahakan antara Petronas dengan kerajaan Thailand di Laut China Selatan / Teluk Siam.

5. Pembayaran yang sepatutnya adalah royalti dan bukan wang ihsan. Perjanjian pada 1975 itu menyebut pembayaran wang tunai dan bukan wang ihsan. Wang ihsan dan royalti adalah berbeza kerana wang ihsan memberi makna pemberian simpati sedang wang royalti adalah wang yang mesti dibayar hasil daripada perjanjian dan perundingan yang telah dipersetujui oleh kedua-dua pihak.
Wang royalti hendaklah dibayar kepada kerajaan yang mentadbir secara sah di sesebuah negeri berkenaan. Sebaliknya, pembayaran wang ihsan kepada jabatan persekutuan yang beroperasi di negeri akan membuka peluang kepada pembaziran, pertindihan dan penggunaan wang secara tidak optimum kerana perancangan dan pembangunan untuk rakyat di negeri adalah dipimpin oleh kerajaan negeri.

6. Kerajaan Persekutuan mestilah secara adil menegakkan dan mengamalkan konsep atau semangat federalisma (Persekutuan) kepada semua negeri di Malaysia. Konsep federalisma menekankan kepentingan hubungan yang harmoni dan berkesan antara kerajaan pusat dengan kerajaan negeri setelah bidang kuasa kerajaan pusat dan kerajaan negeri ditetapkan dalam perlembagaan negara.
Dalam amalan federalisma, negeri yang berada dalam persekutuan diberikan kuasa autonomi untuk membolehkan mereka mentadbir urus di bawah bidang kuasa mereka dengan berkesan. Melalui perhubungan yang jelas, baik dan terjamin inilah pembangunan untuk kepentingan rakyat dapat diusahakan dengan berkesan.
Dalam konteks ini, pemberian wang royalti oleh Kerajaan Persekutuan kepada kerajaan negeri adalah bukti konsep federalisma ditegakkan, kerana kerajaan negeri berhak untuk merancang dan menentukan penggunaan wang royalti untuk kepentingan rakyat negeri berdasarkan bidang kuasa negeri masing-masing.

Dengan fakta-fakta dan hujah-hujah diatas maka kerajaan pusat yang menolak pembayaran dalam bentuk royalti, tidak dapat dipertahankan.

PALESTIN YANG DILUPAKAN

KENYATAAN MEDIA

OLEH

SEKRETARIAT MISI CAKNA PALESTIN

DUNIA MENGKHIANATI GAZA

SEKRETARIAT MISI CAKNA PALESTIN yang telah diresmikan penubuhannya oleh Yang Amat Berhormat Tuan Guru Haji Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Menteri Besar Kelantan, merupakan cetusan dari gabungan 35 Badan-Badan Bukan Kerajaan.Tertubuh selepas berlakunya serangan ganas dan zalim terhadap orang awam GAZA, Palestin selama 21hari oleh Rejim Zionis Israel yang bermula pada 27hb Disember, 2008.

Tujuan kempen ini ialah untuk mendapatkan 1juta tandatangan ummat Malaysia dari pelbagai latarbelakang Agama, Bangsa, Etnik, Adat Resam dan Ideologi. Untuk menyatakan sikap sekeras-kerasnya mengutuk, membantah, menolak tanpa syarat oleh Kerajaan Mesir yang:-

1. Mengepung pergerakan keluar-masuk aktiviti harian Rakyat Palestin Gaza seolah-olah telah besama-sama berseju memperkuatkuasakan arahan dan keputusan Rejim Zionis Israel yang dibuat pada Jun,2007 (Apabila HAMAS mengambil alih kuasa pmerintahan Gaza Palestin)
2. Menolak dan membantah pembinaan tembuk dan cerucuk besi keluli sepanjang sempadan Mesir –Gaza yang akan menjadi satu penjara terbuka yang terbesar pernah di bina dalam sejarah manusia.
3. Menghalang kemasukan rombongan bantuan kemanusiaan oleh beberapa pertubuhan bantuan kemanusiaan bukan kerajaan seluruh dunia termasuk ‘Palestine Solidarity Campaign’ dan ‘Viva Palestina’ ke Gaza Palestin.

Tindakan keji dan melampau, biadap, zalim, pencabulan dan pengkhianatan hak nilai-nilai kemanusiaan oleh Kerajaan Mesir amat memalukan ummat Islam khasnya dan masyarakat dunia amnya. Mesir sebuah negara yang di bawah pemerentahan orang Islam telah mengkhianati piagam Muhammad s.a.w yang menjaga hak-hak Umat Islam dengan Umat Islam,  serta saperti apa yang terdapat dalam peristiharan `Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ oleh Persidangan Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu pada 10hb Desember, 1948, mengenai hak-hak asas kemanusiaan.

Perbuatan Mesir ini yang dilihat mendapat cadangan dari Rejim Zionis Yahudi dan Amerika dianggap telah menjadi barua, dan kuda tunggangan kepada Rejim Zionis Israel dan Amerika serta sekutunya.yang mempunyai nafsu sarakah untukmelumpuhkan pembentukan Negara Palestin yang Merdeka

Pembinaan tembuk dan curucuk besi keluli ini sebagai satu jenayah oleh barisan Panel Ulama Jordan

Ia merupakan satu perbuatan keji bermotif sebagai pengepung dan penghadang kepada laluan bantuan pemakanan dan perubatan melalui terowong-terowong yang menjadi punca utama Rakyat Palestin Gaza mendapatkan bekalan asasi.

Meskipun perjalanan setahun telah berlalu sejak serangan zalim Rejim Israel menyerang seluruh penduduk semenanjung Gaza, masyarakat antarabangsa hanya melakukan sedikit sahaja usaha penyelesaian terhadap kesan atau kesan selepasnya hasil kempen ala Nazi oleh Rejim Israel.

Dengan hanya perlindungan dibawah pejuang HAMAS, rakyat Palestin bersama-sama mempertahankan serangan ganas selama 21hari Rejim Israel yang bermula pada 27hb Disember, 2008 yang membanjiri bumi Gaza dengan bom, misil, phosphorus putih dan bermacam-macam lagi senjata kemusnahan terhadap penduduk awam Gaza yang tidak berdosa.

Hasilnya, 14,000 rakyat awam Palestin terkorban, termasuk 350 kematian kenak-kanak dan lebih 50,000 cedera dan cacat kekal. 40,000 buah rumah penduduk ranap sebahagian atau sepenuhnya. Ribuan bangunan awam termasuk masjid dan kemudahan awam seperti hospital dan sekolah dibom sehingga menyembah bumi.

Israel sebuah Negara pengganas lagi haram yang mempunyai kuasa tanpa had dan di cabar oleh pihak antarabangsa dan masih melakukan kemusnahan dan pembunuhan berterusan hingga sekarang terhadap penduduk Palestin yang  seolah-olahnya berunsurkan “Pembersihan Etnik”, mendakwa semua kempen serangan bom tersebut disasarkan kepada pejuang-pejuang HAMAS sebaga pelampau / pengganas yang dikatakan menyerang Israel dengan menggunakan misil buatan sendiri.

Namun begitu, kematian tinggi dan kemusnahan hebat yang dicatitkan tanpa memberi peluang kepada penduduk Gaza mempertahankan diri mereka, memberi petunjuk bahawa Israel berniat untuk membunuh seberapa banyak penduduk awam Gazaselama masyarakat antarabangsa benarkan dan membiarkannya tanpa apa-apa tindakam\n dan bantahan

Natijahnya, bukanlah keterlaluan untuk mengatakan bahawa niat IsraelGaza setahun yang lepas sebenarnya ialah untuk menyempurnakan nafsu serakah Yahudi-Zionist yang kehausan darah Palestin. disebalik pembunuhan beramai-ramai terhadap penduduk

Satu perbuatan sadis yang amat memalukan dimana Israel dengan keselesaannya melihat dengan penuh sukacita membunuh anak-anak kecil dan orang awam Palestin, mati oleh hujan bom dan segala jenis senjata musnah yang diharamkan oleh Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) termasuk bom phosphorus putih yang dijatuhkan dari kedudukan yang tinggi (high altitude).

Rakyat Palestin dipaksa berteduh di khemah-khemah yang tidak selamat atau bergantung ditepi-tepi bangunan atau rumah mereka yang telah separuh ranap atau rosak terus.

Israel dengan bantuan dan kebenaran oleh negara-negara sekutu Amerika termasuk Mesir menafikan dan tidak membenarkan bahan-bahan pembinaan seperti kayu, gergaji, simen, tingkap dan pintu serta kaca masuk ke Gaza.

Pegawai Israel dan Mesir mereka berbagai alasan untuk mewajarkan perbuatan jenayah mereka yang menyebabkan penderitaan dan kesengsaraan sadis yang amat besar terhadap rakyat Palestin yang tidak berdosa seperti alasan dikhuatiri pejuang HAMAS akan menyalahgunakan bahan-bahan tersebut untuk mengukuhkan kekuatan.

Sebenarnya, ‘Jenayah’ adalah perkataan yang sesuai ditafsirkan terhadap sikap Israel, kerana sekatan bahan binaan daripada masuk ke genting Gaza membayangkan sifat berhati batu, kejam dan jenayah.

‘Tamadun Barat’ telah di’kasi’kan sekarang dengan kedatangan musim sejuk. Ribuan penduduk Gaza menderita ‘kedinginan’ yang akan menyebabkan penyakit dan kematian merebak oleh kerana kesejukan.

Menunding jari hanya kepada Israel dengan bentuk jenayah ala Nazi nya yang telah menyebabkan rakyat Gaza daif dan menderita tidak mencukupi. Negara-negara barat yang menjadi punca kelahiran negara jahannam Israel ini juga perlu dipertanggungjawabkan diatas kesengsaraan yang dipaksa keatas penduduk Gaza.

SERUAN:

MESIR, ISRAEL, AMERIKA SERTA SEKUTUNYA: 

HAPUSKAN HUKUMAN TANPA SEBAB TERHADAP GAZA

MASYARAKAT DUNIA:

HAPUSKAN HUKUMAN TERHADAP PERBEZAAN

Where the Crimes Go Unpunished Who Cares About Gaza?

By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY

Gaza? Where’s that? Have you heard about it recently? It doesn’t figure on the list of important matters for consideration by the world’s presidents and prime ministers. It has vanished from the media. Most people couldn’t care less about a generation of Palestinians who are subjected to viciously inflicted privation by an imperialist nation that has lost touch with humanity.

Most countries, most human beings, with predictable exceptions, condemned Israel for indulging in frenzied savagery during its blitzkrieg on Gaza last December and January. There is no doubt that many of its actions were criminal. For example, there are well-documented instances of use of white phosphorus artillery shells against civilians. Poison gas, in other words – if a bit more hi-tech than the venomous vapors that exterminated so many millions of innocent Jewish men, women and children in Nazi concentration camps.

But Israel, propped up as a strutting jackbooted puppet on the global stage by the well-muscled fingers of Washington and some other capitals whose endorsement of violence seems boundless, can get away, quite literally, with murder. Innocent men, women and children can be exterminated by armed forces that have no reason to fear justice or even criticism from the world’s juridical system.

A highly respected international jurist, Mr Richard Goldstone (a South African Jew), produced a report for the UN about Israel’s attempted genocide and Hamas atrocities and was impartial and objective about assessing facts and apportioning responsibility, as would be expected of such a distinguished judge.

His terms of reference were “to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after.”

He investigated thoroughly (although the Israelis refused to cooperate in any way) and reported fairly. His finding was that Palestinian terror groups were culpable of atrocities, as were Israeli armed forces, and for the latter ruling he was promptly attacked by Israel, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and the Financial Times.

And by President Barack Obama.

The Obama administration pronounced the report to be “flawed,” without giving any indication of what the flaws might be. Mr Goldstone, courteous and balanced as ever – if a trifle taken aback at such a reaction – observed gently that “I have yet to hear from the Obama administration what the flaws in the report that they have identified are . . . I would be happy to respond to them, if and when I know what they are . . . Of course I’m concerned and would like to engage with the Obama administration, at least informally.”

Fat chance of that happening, unless Mr Obama is prepared to risk the wrath of Israel.

But Mr Obama, like his predecessors, isn’t in favor of anything that is critical of Israel. He wants a second presidential term, after all, and must not offend the rich and dominant Israel Lobby. And his country’s legislators, who are equally beholden to that Lobby and have to follow the Tel Aviv line, “overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning a report by a United Nations fact-finding panel that criticized Israel as part of an assessment of the conflict in Gaza in 2008 between Israel and Hamas.” They voted against the report by 344 to 36, thereby showing, like the White House, their contempt for impartial analysis, the UN, the eminent Justice Goldstone, international law, and almost everything that remains civilized in this horrible world. (And you wonder how many of them read the report before voting.)

Hundreds of legislators in the US and Britain have sold their souls to Israel and will support Tel Aviv in any circumstances.

Britain’s governing Labor Party is right behind Israel, and it is recorded that “The Labor Friends of Israel (LFI), ‘a Westminster based lobby group working within the British Labor Party to promote the State of Israel’ fostered close ties with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who joined the society upon his premiership.”

After his catastrophic decade as prime minister, Blair, a squalid, greedy and unprincipled man, and a proven liar, was appointed “Middle East envoy working on behalf of the US, Russia, the UN and the EU,” as which he achieved precisely nothing. The selection of Blair as a representative to the Middle East was absurd. Nobody could imagine for an instant that his activities would be regarded as impartial – unlike Mr Goldstone – but this didn’t matter, because he had the seal of Israeli approval.

Just as in the US, Israel knows no political borders in Britain, whose present prime minister, an uninspiring and petulant dullard called Brown, declared that :

“it is one of the great privileges I have to be able to address the Labour Friends of Israel, to be able to thank you for everything that you do to promote the cause of justice . . . I count myself not only a friend of Israel but someone who wants to support the future of Israel.”

“The cause of justice”?

As Judge Goldstone recorded, Israel “committed actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity” by intentionally killing civilians during its Gaza blitzkrieg.

But Britain’s prime minister imagines that Israel’s slaughter of over 300 children will “promote the cause of justice.”

And the leader of Britain’s Conservative Party was equally toadying in June when he told the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) fundraising dinner at the Dorchester Hotel that he supported Israel unequivocally, “Not simply because of my party’s unstinting support for Israel through the decades, but also because it's something I feel very deep inside of me.”

What drivel. This little man, whose name escapes me, has jumped on the Israeli bandwagon because it means money. 80 per cent of Conservative legislators are members of the CFI, and subsidies for political campaigns from Israel-supporting business organizations are discreetly disguised and happily grasped.

There is hardly a word of criticism of Israel by politicians in the US and the UK, and it’s not at all surprising that this is so, because so many of them couldn’t exist without cash from the Israel Lobby, passed on in one way or another. All the lavish expenses-paid holiday trips to the land of “the cause of justice” are simply confirmation that legislators are out to get whatever they can for free.

And Peace Prize-winning Mr Obama, of whom so many of us had high hopes of even-handedness, has a Secretary of State who told the Israel Lobby “It is wonderful being here with all of you among so many friends and I feel like this is a giant family reunion . . . and I feel like I am among family . . . I have a bedrock commitment to Israel’s security . . . God bless Israel . . .”

With servile, bootlicking friends like these, Israel can continue to defy UN Security Council resolutions, it can build scores of illegal settlements on land stolen from Palestinians, it can condemn the people of Gaza – and especially countless thousands of children – to indefinite and hideous hardship. The state of Israel exists in a wicked and vicious parallel world, bolstered by smug and sleazy western politicians.

Ten years ago Justice Goldstone declared that “bringing war criminals to justice stems from the lessons of the Holocaust.”

Indeed it does.

But when so many politicians and so much of the media in the US and Britain are intent on supporting Zion and ignoring Israel’s repulsive human rights violations, you wonder if the lessons of the Holocaust are perhaps a bit one-sided. The people of Gaza are suffering from the effects of an illegal and malevolent Israeli blockade. Its people are enduring horrible privation. The crimes against them go unpunished.

And nobody cares. For it would be very difficult to admit that war crimes have been committed by people who come to your giant family reunions, promoting “the cause of justice.”

Ten Major Signs Of The Last Day Has One Just Occurred

LAST DAY MEANS LAST AGE

The term ‘Last Day’ in reality stands for the ‘Last Age’, or the age which would culminate in the end of history—when the true Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary (not son of God), would return to rule the world from Jerusalem with justice and ‘eternal’ rule. It would be ‘eternal’ in the sense that history would end with that event. Life on earth beyond that event, and after Jesus dies a human death and is buried next to Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon them both) in Madinah, would not qualify as history. This would be so since the modern secular rope would have reached its predictable end in total godlessness, and with such a consequent collapse of morals, and of moral consciousness, that people would forget their human status and “would engage in sexual intercourse in public like donkeys”. Already it is quite clear (particularly at the time of Trinidad’s Carnival) that we are quite close to the fulfillment of that ominous prophecy made by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

So much so then, for the spurious claims of the one-eyed Judeo-Christian western civilization and its ‘colored house slaves’ around the world. They claim that mankind is witnessing unprecedented progress, that the present is the best of all ages, that the world keeps on growing better and better, and that modern western civilization has rendered all previous civilizations, including Islam, moribund and obsolete!

So much so, then, for the local one-eyed ‘house slave’ here in my native island of Trinidad who insists that Muslims must remain a part of ‘mainstream society’ -even when that mainstream is heading for the hell-fire.

When a ship is sinking and you cannot prevent it from sinking, you have to get off that ship, and urge others as well to do so. The ship of the world is now sinking! The evidence is all around us as plainly visible as daylight! But those who are blind cannot see that the ship is sinking. They use their checkbooks, or the barrels of their guns, to impose themselves around the world as leaders. The blind then lead the blind until all are lost and will be drowned like the people of Noah (peace be upon him).

Prophet Muhammad prophesied many more signs of the Last Day other than public ‘donkey sex’. Most of these are known as the ‘minor’ signs. Let us describe some of them (randomly selected) before we turn to the ten ‘major’ signs in which we venture to include the major underwater earthquake and resultant Tsunami in South East Asia that occurred in late December 2004.

MINOR SIGNS

Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) prophesied of the Last Age that:

• “People would follow a way of life other than mine, and give guidance other than mine”…“I fear for my people only the leaders who lead men astray”…“Before the Last Hour there will be great liars, so beware of them”…“When the most wicked member of a tribe becomes its ruler, and the most worthless member of a community becomes its leader, and a man is respected through fear of the evil he may do, and leadership is given to people who are unworthy of it, expect the Last Hour”. All of these warnings have already been dramatically and ominously fulfilled. Around the world today, with but few exceptions, and even here in my native Caribbean island of Trinidad, people, including Muslims, now have the worst leaders. This ominous sign of the Last Day has come to pass, yet there are so many who do not, or cannot see, and they blindly rush as dumb cattle to endorse or to follow such leaders for personal gain, or fear, or due to sheer ignorance; • “Women would arrange their hair to look like the hump of a camel”, and this sign has already occurred, we see it everyday;

• “Women would dress like men”, and we already see them today with trousers, jacket and, perhaps, a tie; and “women would be dressed and yet be naked”, and this prophecy, also, is now fulfilled. When women parade in public “dressed, yet naked”, as they do today, and when Muslims cannot prevent such, they should then seek to flee from such mainstream society rather than to remain a part of it until the women are fully naked and “donkey-like” sexual intercourse is on public display. If they foolishly choose to remain a part of such corrupt and decadent society then they or their children would eventually be ruined by such a society.

• “Men would dress like women”, and already this sign also has come to pass. Almost no one can tell that ‘she’, the so-called ‘crossdresser’, is really a man;

• Homosexuality (and lesbianism) would become commonplace, and that is now happening before our very eyes. Social acceptance and legal protection for this abominable sexual perversion is gaining ground. Indeed those who hold fast to the divine prohibition of such sexual perversion are now demonized as a people who suffer from a disease called ‘homophobia’;

• Children born outside of marriage would become commonplace, in fact marriage itself now seems destined to become obsolete;

• Fornication and adultery would become commonplace, that, also, appears to have already been fulfilled in a modern world in which virginity and marital fidelity are becoming old-fashioned;

• Disproportion in balance of men and women to such an extent that “one man would have to maintain (not marry) fifty women”, that is yet to occur but could be linked to the impact on male sperm production of such things as environmental pollution and genetically modified food;

• Universal consumption of alcoholic beverages, this “mother of all evils” has already become a horrendous plague in which no one is safe from the drunk driver; the unborn baby drinks when his mother drinks and suffers unimaginably for such; people, including Prime Ministers, drink and become drunk, and then behave in public like asses;

• “Religious knowledge would disappear”, since the rightly-guided scholars of Islam are demonized, marginalized, “banned”, or declared to be “great security risks”. Only those scholars who can skillfully skip and dance to the tunes of those who control power are allowed the unfettered freedom to preach a sanitized cosmetic version of Islam acceptable to the godless rulers of the world. Institutions of Islamic learning are forced to submit to the control of those waging war on Islam. If they do not submit, they are shut down. Foreign students are prohibited from studying Islam in certain so-called Islamic Republics;

• “Time would move swiftly—a year passing like a month—a month like a week—a week like a day” etc., and already the perception of swiftly moving time is a universal experience;

• Such prevalence of random killing, murder and violence that “a killer would not know why he is killing and the one who is killed would not know why he is being killed”, and “every age is followed by one which would be worse”—already around the world senseless random killing has arrived and is constantly escalating;

• “Nothing would remain of Islam but the name, and nothing would remain of the Qur’an but the traces (of its writing) (i.e., the Qur’an would not be studied, no one would follow its guidance, it would be recited mechanically etc.); the Masajid (mosques) would be grand structures but would be devoid of guidance; and the Ulama (religious scholars of Islam who represent such people) would be the worst people beneath the sky. From them would emerge Fitnah (trials) and they would be the centers of Fitnah (since they betray Islam)” — there are many distinguished scholars of Islam who declare that this prophesy, also, has today found fulfillment. The evidence of such is overwhelming. The Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) has been long destroyed, Zakat is no longer collected and distributed by the state, money itself is now corrupted, the universal Shirk of the modern state has corrupted all of mankind, Riba is universally prevalent, the Hajj would probably soon be abandoned;

• Universal consumption of Riba (i.e, money lent on interest, and transactions which ‘rip off’ people through deception in business, etc.) Around the world today Riba in modern banking and insurance, as well as in the monetary system, has already taken total control over the market and over economic life. There are some minor signs which have been couched inenigmatic language such as,

• “A slave woman would give birth to her mistress”, made possible through a combination of Riba and the modern feminist revolution, and; • “Naked barefooted shepherds would vie with one another in the construction of high-rise buildings”. This is already being fulfilled when wealth is wasted in grandiose and expensive public relations construction projects commissioned by people who hanker for visible symbols of status in a modern world which recognizes the rich as a ‘somebody’ and the poor as a ‘nobody’ (see story of the rich man and the poor man in Surah al-Kahf of the Qur’an).

And then there are minor signs which have not as yet occurred such as:

• “The Last Hour would not come until there issues from the land of the Hejaz (which is in Saudi Arabia) a fire which will illuminate the backs of the camels in Busra”. But for the exchange of Basra for Hejaz, this prophecy perhaps, anticipates a nuclear attack in or around Iran which would formally launch Israel into the club of nuclear powers. So many of these minor Signs of the Last Day, and so many more not here mentioned, have already occurred, that we can now turn to the major Signs with a clear recognition that we are already living in that Last Age.

MAJOR SIGNS

Hudhayfah ibn Usayd Ghifari, the companion of the Prophet, said,

“Allah’s Messenger came to us all of a sudden as we were (busy in a discussion). He asked: What are you discussing? (The Companions) replied: We are discussing (the subject of) the Last Hour. Thereupon he said: It will not come until you see ten signs. And (in this connection) he made a mention of the ‘smoke’, ‘Dajjal’, the ‘beast’, the ‘rising of the sun from the west’, the ‘descent of Jesus son of Mary’, ‘Gog and Magog’, ‘sinkings of the earth in three places, one in the east, one in the west and one in Arabia’ at the end of which ‘fire would burn forth from Yemen, and would drive people to the place of their assembly’ (i.e., the place where mankind will be assembled for judgment).”

(Sahih Muslim)

Here, then, are the ten major Signs of the Last Day as prophesied by Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him):

• Dajjal — the false Messiah or Anti-Christ,

• Gog and Magog,

• Smoke,

• The beast of the earth or land (most likely the holy land),

• The sun would rise from the west,

• Three sinkings of the earth

• one in the east

• One in the west

• and One in Arabia,

• A fire would come out of Yemen and would drive people to their place of assembly (for judgement),

• The son of Mary would descend. Although these signs were not given by the blessed Prophet (peace and blessings of

Allah Most High be upon him) in their chronological order of occurrence I have made an effort to put them in that order, with the ones that have not as yet occurred at the bottom of the list. How did I arrive at the above order? We know from the prophecies of the blessed Prophet that the third major ‘sinking of the earth’, i.e., the one that would occur in Arabia, would swallow an army that would be heading south to Makkah. That army would be on its way to attack Imam al-Mahdi, the descendent of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him). It was prophesied that he would restore the Islamic Caliphate (or Islamic model of a state) in the Arabian peninsula. It is after that sign has occurred (i.e., the third major earthquake) that the son of Mary would descend from the sky with his hands resting on the wings of two angels, and would kill Dajjal the False Messiah or Anti-Christ. The Qur’an itself has described Jesus (i.e., the return of Jesus) as the ‘ilm (which here means the very key to the subject) of the Last Hour:

“And he (i.e., Jesus) shall be a Sign (for the coming of) the Hour (of Judgment): therefore have no doubt about the (Hour), but follow Me: this is a Straight Way.”

(Qur’an, Zukhruf, 43:61)

It follows that his return must come chronologically at the end of the list. We also know that the ‘fire’ from Yemen would follow the third earthquake. And so now that it appears that the major earthquake in the East has occurred, we await four more major signs that still remain to occur. When did the first six ‘major’ signs occur?

DAJJAL

I have argued in my book, ‘Jerusalem in the Qur’an – An Islamic View of the Destiny of Jerusalem’, that Dajjal the False Messiah or Antichrist was released into the world in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him). He has already completed the first stage of his mission that lasted for “a day like a year”, and is about to complete the second stage that lasts for “a day like a month”. The third and last stage of his mission (of impersonation of the true Messiah) that would last for just “a day like a week” would, I believe, commence when Israel replaces USA as the ruling state of the world. And that would occur when Israel wages a big war that would result in dramatic territorial expansion “from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates”. Israel would then seize control of the Suez Canal and all the oil of the Arabian Gulf.

By the end of that third stage, Dajjal the false Messiah or Antichrist would have been born into the world of Jewish parents, would have risen to become ruler of Israel and, hence, would have completed his mission to rule the world from Jerusalem. And Allah Knows best!

An entire chapter of the book is devoted to explaining the subject of Dajjal. I am now writing a quartet of books on Surah al-Kahf of the Qur’an, and one of the four books would be entirely devoted to a comprehensive explanation of the subject of Dajjal, the false Messiah or Anti-Christ in Islam Insha Allah.

GOG AND MAGOG

I have also argued in my book that Gog and Magog were released into the world in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him). The Qur’an itself has made mention (Qur’an, al-Anbiyah, 21:94-5) of a ‘town’ which was destroyed by Allah Most High, and the people of the town expelled, and then banned from returning to reclaim their town until Gog and Magog were not only released but, also, had spread out (around the world) in all directions.

“But there is a ban on a town which We have destroyed: that they (the people of the town) shall not return (to reclaim that town as their own); until Gog and Magog are let through (their barrier), and they swiftly spread out in every direction (replicating themselves amongst all the peoples of the world).”

(Qur’an, al-Anbiyah, 21:95-96)

I identified that ‘town’ to be Jerusalem. And since the Jews have already returned to Jerusalem to reclaim it as their own, it follows that Gog and Magog, like Dajjal, are also close to the end of their mission. And Allah Knows best!

Another entire chapter of ‘Jerusalem in the Qur’an’ is devoted to explaining the subject of Gog and Magog. In addition, the fourth of the quartet of books on Surah al-Kahf will be devoted to a comprehensive explanation of this subject Insha Allah.

DUKHAN (SMOKE)

This appears to be totality of environmental pollution (not just smog and haze) that is already wreaking havoc on the earth itself and is bringing about global warming with the consequent impact of earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding etc. The modern industrial economy that Dajjal has authored, appears to be the greatest culprit of environmental pollution in the world today. In other words, we have been tricked into causing Dukhan (smoke) which in turn spawns global warming and eventual climatic disaster. And Allah Knows best! However, it is important that we note that there are several Ahadith in Sahih Bukhari that declare the sign of Dukhan (smoke) already appeared in the lifetime of the blessed Prophet.

D’ABBATUL ARD (THE BEAST OF THE LAND OR EARTH)

I have argued in ‘Jerusalem in the Qur’an’ that the beast of the earth’ is, in fact, the imposter State of Israel that now occupies the Holy Land. The learned Shaikh, Safar al-Hawali, holds the view that the ‘beast’ is the Zionist Movement. And Allah Knows best!

THE SUN WOULD RISE FROM THE WEST

Those who interpret this sign literally assume that the order of nature would be reversed despite the Qur’anic declaration that there can be no change in Allah’s creation (of that natural order):

“So set thou thy face steadily and truly to the faith: (establish) Allah’s handiwork according to the pattern on which He has made mankind: no change (can there be) in Allah’s creation: that is the standard religion: but most among mankind understand not.”

(Qur’an, al-Rum, 30:30)

They also do so despite the specific declaration of Prophet Abraham (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) that his Lord-God causes the sun to rise from the East. Abraham then proceeded to challenge the King to cause the sun to rise from the West if he possessed power greater than Allah’s:

Hast thou not turned thy vision to one who disputed with Abraham about his Lord, because Allah had granted him power? Abraham said:

“My Lord is He Who giveth life and death.” He said: “I give life and death.” Said Abraham: “But it is Allah that causeth the sun to rise from the East do thou then cause it to rise from the West!” Thus was he confounded who (in arrogance) rejected Faith. Nor doth Allah give guidance to a people unjust.

(Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:258)

And so they wait for that western sunrise as an event that would literally occur, while ignoring the basic rule that no Hadith can contradict the Qur’an.

But this sign has provoked numerous other non-literal interpretations, all of which agree that it has already occurred. Our view is that the rising of the sun from the West symbolizes an upside– down world in which mankind is led by their noses to a way of life which would be the very opposite of that natural way ordained by Allah. Natural money, for example, so identified in the Qur’an, is derived from precious metals. When such money is in short supply in a market such as Madina’s, then a substitute in the form of commodities such as wheat, barley, dates, salt, etc., can temporarily take its place. Around the world today that natural money with intrinsic value has been displaced by artificial money with no intrinsic value and it is used as an instrument of oppression. That upside-down unnatural way of life has already been accepted by most of mankind. In this sense, therefore, the sun is already rising from the West. And Allah Knows best!

THREE SINKINGS OF THE EARTH

Many terrible earthquakes have already occurred in history. They have no relevance to our subject. We are concerned with three major ‘sinkings of the earth’ that would occur at a specific moment in history, i.e., they would occur at a time that would herald the return of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of Mary, and Messenger of Allah Most High. One would occur in the East, the second in the West, and the third in Arabia. When the third one takes place, the world of Islam would suddenly and dazzlingly reenter the affairs of the Arabian peninsular, as well as of the world, in the same revolutionary way that it did in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him). This appears to be the meaning of the last of the major signs (prior to the return of Jesus) mentioned by the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him), i.e., that a fire would come out of Yemen and drive people to their place of assembly (i.e., for judgment) which is Arafat in Arabia.

THE EARTHQUAKE IN THE EAST

I believe that the recent massive earthquake and resultant Tsunami in South East Asia which has claimed many more than 100,000 lives, is the earthquake of the East mentioned by Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) in the ten major Signs of the Last Day. It could thus be the first of three such earthquakes heralding the return of Jesus (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him). I came to this conclusion because of the following reasons:

Firstly, the prophecy of the blessed Prophet is that a ‘khasf’ would occur in the East, i.e., the earth sinks down or caves in. A ‘Tsunami’ is defined as a sea wave of local or distant origin that results from large-scale seafloor displacements associated with large earthquakes, major submarine slides, or exploding volcanic islands. When this recent displacement of the earth occurred under the sea, and consequently resulted in the massive Tsunami, it ensured that those who have maliciously concealed the Truth time and again in history could not conceal this major Sign of the Last Day. The magnitude of the event, i.e., the severity of the earthquake (9 on the Richter scale) and, more importantly, the massive damage already done and still unfolding, makes it absolutely unique for mankind today.

Secondly, I am impressed by the location of the event - it occurred in that East which is clearly east of Madinah.

Thirdly, and most important of all, I would like to direct attention to the time that it occurred. This was after the liberation of the Holy Land (1917), and return of the Jews to reclaim the Holy Land as their own (1918-1948). It was also after the restoration of a State of Israel in the Holy Land (1948) and the growth of Israel to become a superpower in the world (i.e., the present). Finally it occurred at precisely that time when Israel is about to wage her big war of massive territorial expansion after which Israel would replace USA as the ruling state in the world. Jesus cannot return until all these things have occurred. It has also occurred at that time when the prophecy of the Prophet concerning the abandonment of the Hajj seems about to be fulfilled. The Hajj would pose a gigantic security threat to the present Saudi ruling elite whenever Israel wages its big war and assumes rule over the world. And it has occurred at just that time when the US dollar has begun its perhaps irreversible decline that might culminate in its collapse. Such a collapse would also bring down all the paper-money in the world and electronic money, controlled by the Jewish-controlled banking system, would then control all the money in the money-system of the world.

This momentous Sign in the East that occurred at the end of December 2004 appears, therefore, to be a sign to mankind warning that dangerous change in the world will soon take place.

It appears to be the first of the three major earthquakes, or ‘sinkings of the earth’, as prophesied by Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him), which would herald the return of the true Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah Most High. If we are correct, and Allah Knows best, then the world has to await only two more such major events before the son of Mary returns to liberate us from the oppressors who now rule the world.

THE SECOND EARTHQUAKE IN THE WEST

When a second massive earthquake (with a sinking down, caving in, or displacement of the earth) eventually occurs in the west, after the recent one in the east, that would further confirm the analysis presented in this essay. All that would then remain to occur for Jesus to descend from the clouds would be the third earthquake in Arabia that would swallow an entire army, and the fire that would come out of Yemen. We are so close to that event that we can already feel the heat of that fire. Although what appears to be the first of the three major earthquakes occurred underwater and resulted in the massive Tsunami in South East Asia, it is not necessary that the second that would occur in the west would be similar. After all, we know that the third and last major earthquake would have its epicenter on land just north of Makkah in Arabia. But it would seem that the mid-Atlantic (rather than the Pacific) may be the location of the major earthquake of the west that is to come. In case the second major earthqake occurs in the mid-Atlantic, the islands of the Caribbean and the eastern coast of USA and Canada as well as South America would be likely to be affected. It could also be a big earthquake in California along the fault.

THE THIRD EARTHQUAKE IN ARABIA

Narrated Aisha: Allah’s Apostle said, “An army would invade the Ka’aba and when the invaders reach Al-Baida’, all the ground would sink and swallow the whole army.” I said, “O Allah’s Apostle! How would they sink into the ground while amongst them would be their markets (the people who worked in business and not invaders) and the people not belonging to them?” The Prophet replied, “All of those people would sink but they would be resurrected and judged according to their intentions.”

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

Narrated Umm Salamah, Ummul Mu’minin: The Prophet said: “Disagreement will occur at the death of a Caliph and a man of the people of Madina would come flying forth to Makkah. Some of the people of Makkah would come to him, bring him out against his will, and swear allegiance to him between the Corner and the Maqam. An expeditionary force would then be sent against him from Syria but would be swallowed up in the desert between Makkah and Madina.”

(Sunan Abu Daud)

It is quite clear from the above prophecy of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) that the third earthquake would take place at the time of the advent of Imam al-Mahdi. But the Imam cannot emerge to liberate the Arabian heartland of Islam until Israel has become the ruling state in the world. And Allah knows best!

THE RETURN OF THE TRUE MESSIAH, JESUS, THE SON OF MARY

Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) has spoken extensively and in minute details about the event of the return of Jesus (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him). But that event is so rich and complex that it lies beyond the scope of this paper. However, my book, ‘Jerusalem in the Qur’an’ has dealt with the subject in some detail, and it is to that book that I now refer the gentle reader.

ONE FINAL WORD

The destiny of Jerusalem is such as to give to Muslims the greatest confidence and hope that Truth will triumph over falsehood and oppression. ‘Jerusalem in the Qur’an’ was written for precisely this purpose — i.e., to explain to Muslims the strange world in which we live today. It is a world in which the cause of Islam appears to be a lost cause. But having read the book the reader would know, if he or she had not already known it, that the reality is quite different. When they know for certain that it is the destiny of Jerusalem to give a spectacular validation of Islam’s claim to truth, Muslims should be able to summon the strength to resist the present war on Islam in which the godless world is making the greatest possible effort to destroy their faith in Allah Most High.