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tawakkull · 9 days

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ISLAM 101: Spirituality in Islam: Part 220

Ibada, Ubudiya, and Ubuda (Worship, Servanthood, and Deep Devotion)

Although some view worship, servanthood, and devotion as synonymous, most Sufi scholars and masters say that these words have different meanings and connotations. ‘Ibada (worship) means fulfilling God’s commands in one’s daily life and fulfilling the obligations of being His servant, while ‘ubuda (servanthood) is interpreted as living in the consciousness of being a servant. Thus one who observes his or her religious duties is called ‘abid (worshipper), while one who lives in consciousness of being a servant of God is usually called ‘abd (servant).

There is another, more subtle difference between worship and servanthood. Acts of worship consist of all financial and bodily duties: those requiring sufficient financial resources and physical ability, and that are accomplished with difficulty, in fear and hope, and with the intention of pleasing God (e.g., the five daily prayers, fasting, alms-giving, pilgrimage to Makka, offering a sacrifice, and mentioning or reciting God’s Names). A servant of God, however, understands these responsibilities or acts of worship in a different manner: each fulfillment of such a duty has a deeper (inner) dimension that require a certain degree of consciousness and awareness on the part of the servant.

The deepest dimension of religious duties and demands is devotion, which requires total care and awareness. Ibn al-Farid states: The acts of worship and duties of servanthood required by every station or rank that I have reached during my spiritual journey have been fulfilled by my devotion.

Some Sufis have defined worship as the servanthood of ordinary people, servanthood as the duty required by being a servant of God and carried out by individuals possessing insight and awareness, and devotion as the responsibility of those distinguished by their nearness to God. The first group contains those striving to advance on the path of God; the second group contains those whose mental and spiritual attitudes allow them to overcome all seemingly insurmountable obstacles and diffi-culties encountered; and the third group contains those whose mental and spiritual states cause them to turn to God whole-heartedly and with a profound feeling of being in His company.

Other Sufis have summed up the above explanations in two terms: worship of the Absolute Divine Essence, and worship of the restricted Divine Attributes. The first term means always being conscious of the relationship between the Creator and created, the Worshipped One and the worshipper, the Overseeing and the overseen, the Sustaining and the sustained, and as thinking, feeling, and acting in the most profound awareness of these relationships. The second term means fulfilling one’s daily duties as required by this awareness, which causes one’s awareness to increase. Those performing these duties can be categorized by their intention, resolution, determination, and sincerity as follows: those who desire to enter Paradise, those who hope to be rescued from Hellfire, those who love and stand in awe of God, and those who feel that they must do so as a requirement of the relationship between God as the Creator (Who alone deserves worship) and human beings (created beings who must worship their Creator).

Each group has another name: traders, slaves, lovers, and the devoted or faithful. These words of Rabi’a al-‘Adawiya, a female Muslim saint who lived during the second century of Islam, are quite appropriate:

O Lord. I swear by the beauty of nearness to You that I have not worshipped You either for fear of Hell or out of the desire for Paradise. I have worshipped You because of You.

Servanthood is a cause of honor and dignity for men and women. Nothing is more esteemed and valuable than being honored with servanthood and devotion to God. Although other, more valuable ranks may be conferred for a limited time, servanthood is constant and continuous, and therefore the most valuable rank. This is why God Almighty mentioned the best of creation, upon him be peace and blessings, in the most beautiful words: There is no deity but God, and Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, as His servant, and crowned his servanthood and these blessed words with his messengership.

Also, while inviting the Prophet, the glory of humanity and the peerless, unique one of time and creation, to honor the heavens by the Ascension, [1] He began His invitation with the complimentary phrase: He carried His servant by night (17:1), thereby referring to the matchless greatness of his servanthood. This is even more meaningful, as on this occasion when space and time were almost transcended and the all-pervasive light of Divine Grace and Beauty welcomed him, God Almighty again stressed his servanthood and declared: He revealed to His servant what He revealed (53:10).

Rumi does not present himself as a saint and an individual of profound spiritual depth, but as a servant:

I have become a servant, become a servant, become a servant; I have bowed and doubled myself up with serving You. Servants or slaves rejoice when they are emancipated; Whereas I rejoice when I become a servant of You.

According to some, the following should also be considered when discussing worship and servanthood. A servant should:

– Be aware of his or her faults and worry about them even if he or she thinks that the acts of worship have been per-formed perfectly.

– Endeavor to worship perfectly, and then attribute to God whatever is achieved in the name of servanthood. Each moment of life should be spent in the awareness of his or her being a servant to the eternal Lordship of God.

– Regard all facets of existence as shadows of the Light of His existence, and never attribute to oneself the existence of anything or any accomplishment. There should be no self-pride concerning the blessings conferred, or despair concerning the withholding all spiritual gifts and radiances.

– Be aware of the honor and dignity of being attached to Him, and never imagine being honored with other kinds of ranks.

No other rank or honor is as great or as greater than servant-hood. If any rank or honor may be considered as such, it may be freedom, but only in the meaning of not setting one’s heart on anything other than God and renouncing whatever is other than Him. Those who have not made much progress on the path to God can only feel freedom, while those who have reached the destination experience it fully. I think that the true freedom to which one must aspire, one that will be appropriate for his or her grade and dignity, is this one. A friend of God draws attention to this fact:

O son! Unchain yourself and become free!

How much longer will you remain a slave of silver and gold?

Junayd al-Baghdadi warns that unless one is freed from slavery to others, one cannot attain true servanthood to God. [2] Another friend of God expresses the meaning of servanthood and freedom by advising that a servant of God should never consider others apart from God in all his or her thoughts, imaginings, feelings, and manners:

If you would like to beat the drum of honor, go beyond the wheel of stars; As this circle filled with rings is a drum of humiliation. O God! Enable us to attain to what is loved by and pleasing to You.

[1] The Ascension (mi’raj) was a miraculous event during which the Prophet journeyed throughout the realms of existence to God. [2] Al-Qushayri, Al-Risala, 201.

#allah #god #islam #muslim #quran #revert #convert #convert islam #revert islam #reverthelp #help #islamhelp #converthelp #how to convert to islam #convert to islam #welcome to islam

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schleierkauz · 2 years

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Cornelia Funke Q&A - 05.09.22

First of all, the audio quality was horrible this time. I tried my best to make out what Cornelia said but it was a struggle.

The Elephant in the Room/Those new Inkworld Covers

- See this post

- No, really, Cornelia hates them a lot and encourages us to complain to the publisher

The Color of Revenge

- The book is finished

- Direct quote from Cornelia:

"I admit, I'm very in love with this book. It will, in many ways, be different from the other Inkworld books since it takes places five years later and the two main characters are definitely Dustfinger and the Black Prince.

That means there will be two story lines, two separate efforts to stop Orpheus' revenge. Dustfinger, Farid and Jehan (Dustfinger's stepson) will travel with the Strong Man.

Meanwhile the Black Prince, along with Battista, will be with a young witch named Driope... who will... hm... probably explain why Fox has a fox pelt. So the fox will be mentioned but not- not in the way the cover seems to imply. The story will be about witches, good ones and evil ones, it will... I had so much fun finally getting more into the Prince's story, I wanted to do that since I wrote Inkspell. And now Nyame, which is his first name I hadn't revealed so far, will really be in the spotlight this time. Colors, too- are pictures more powerful than words? We will see... and I think the answer will surprise us all.

Part of the story will take place around Ombra, which looks a lot like Tuskany, where I live right now. Other parts will take place in South Tyrol, which we already know from Reckless.

I let the story surprise me. It went completely differently than how I initially imagined, that's always a good sign. There were plottwist I couldn't have predicted, I learned a lot, met characters I didn't know very well before... And I hope that I have another book in me because after this, there are still a thousand stories to tell. But that's how all my stories end, so... We'll see. I definitely wrote it with so so so much joy and I hope some of that joy will infect the readers once they have the book in their hands.

Of course (unintelligible) but there's also a lot of beauty and light... and many characters that we love."

(Translator’s note: I’m guessing she said something like “Of course the story will have dark moments”- but everyone talked over each other so I can’t hear her exact wording)

Reckless

- She is preparing Reckless 5, which she calls a huge challenge

- It will involve African fairy tales and Cornelia is realising how little she knows about African history so she's been doing a lot of research. Since she explored the Black Prince's roots in TCoR, she is looking forward to see possible parallels between the Inkworld and the Mirrorworld again

The Wild Chicks

- Cornelia has recently been made aware that The Wild Chicks are trending on Tiktok. She obviously had no idea. She heard that they are seen as idols because even 30 years ago they were growing their own food, saving chickens and featured lesbians

- The idea is to do something with those characters and environmentalism because it would fit very well but there are no concrete plans yet

- Of course there are also those scripts about the characters at 30. Plans have been changed - instead of a movie, Cornelia wants to turn it into a six part TV show. This would give every character room to breathe. Of course, there would be a book to go along with this

Misc.

- Cornelia wishes she was ginger. She doesn't want to dye her hair, she just wants to naturally be ginger. Maybe in the next life

- Cornelia talks about her Christmas project again. She wants all her artists to draw christmas trees which the writer's will then tell little stories about

- One of Cornelia’s next plans is to get environmentalists and artists together and come up with more hopeful narratives about the future of the planet. She is tired of apocalypse stories

- "The Green Kingdom" is finished and will be released next spring

- Cornelia's Italian is getting better and she hopes she will be able to do a few readings in Italian next year. She will be on stage in Germany next month for the first time since covid hit and is very excited about it

- If Cornelia had the chance to sit down and talk to any fictional character, she would like to choose the three musketeers or Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride

- Despite all the wonderful Italian food she's been eating, Cornelia remains loyal to the potato

- In Cornelia's experience, publishers often try to stop authors and illustrators from communicating directly because they don't want them to unionize. She encourages everyone to ignore this and talk to each other

#info #cornelia funke #reckless #inkworld #the color of revenge #tcor #i never remember which tags i use lmao #the wild chicks #die wilden hühner #inkheart #VERY interesting news this time #i was so excited to hear her mention battista.... my beloved....#also YES i am SO ready to learn more about the prince let's GO #i realise that this is kinda short but they spent most of their time complaining about the cover designs hfdjkghfggf #it's so nice to hear cornelia speak #like about anything #u can tell that she really believes in everything she does and is so excited about it all i love her #and her little 'nech' every other sentence. we get it you're from hamburg #ok im gonna go outside now have a good day everyone

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a-vamp-and-a-half · 3 months

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“Ah I was just about to text Farid inside but this makes my job a lot easier. We just need to finish the candles and glitter canon” Mary says upon seeing them help out, chuckling

“I don’t know how to set up Wilford’s cannon though. Is it really a real one? Farid mentioned Wilford insisting on the replica” she says, sounding mildly concerned

"The Host asks what Mary considers a 'real' canon to be."

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mozart-the-meerkitten · 6 months

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Leeli's kittens names!

So I said I'd make a separate post for introducing Leeli's babies and here it is! If you haven't seen the one introducing Maraly's babies you can find it here!

If you're just joining this adventure now and you'd like to find out how I rescued fourteen Bengal kittens the story starts here!

Now, without further ado, Leeli's six babies have names! They only just turned a month old, but they've been all doing so well that we named them last week along with Maraly's. So, behold the kittens! (P.S. no tumblr's not destroying the quality for once, the kittens are in perpetual motion it's only through decades of practice that I can manage to get any decent pictures of them at all xD)

So if you remember from the post introducing Maraly's kittens we've named most of them after characters from Inkheart. So this cute little bugger is Dustfinger! He started off his life screaming at everything and being a fightsy little bugger, but ever since his eyes/ears opened he's been much calmer and friendlier. He was the first of Leeli's kittens to start eating wet food and he is VORACIOUS about it! He's a playful, wiggly little guy but he's also very sweet.

This is Farid! He has the same purrsonality as his uncle Kalmar which is happy go lucky and sweet as can be! He LOVES to climb up onto the lap of the nearest human and snuggle- he'll snuggle even if you scoop him up from playing. He'll also climb your leg if given the chance, he and Dustfinger teamed up and attacked my leg earlier today. xD He's the only kitten I've been able to consistently identify since birth because of his black nose!

And here we have Violet who is a struggle to get a decent picture of- which is ironic because she has some incredibly striking markings! She wants so badly to be the leader of her siblings, but she does not have the presence yet. She cries a lot to try and get their attention and is always eager to join in activities with her littermates. She likes to perch (often on my knees) and watch the other kittens before joining in.

This sweet little bean is Meggie. She likes to wander off on her own adventures and sometimes gets distressed when she loses track of her siblings. She's very calm in nature and doesn't tussle as much as her littermates. I often see her hanging out with one of her sisters- when she's not off on her own that is. I'm not sure why she looks perpetually worried, but she was smiling when I was cuddling her earlier. <3

So I mentioned in my post introducing Maraly's kittens that I had one special little kitten with a Wingfeather name. This is Madia. For those who don't know, Madia Wingfeather is the Wingfeather kids' great great grandmother, I believe, and it's her whistleharp that Leeli uses after the end of book one. To make a long story short, Madia looks like Mozart, the kitten I got my username from who also sparked my 4 book original series, The Restoration Saga. Mozart's litter was a tragedy for me, and Mozart herself died when she was only 3 weeks old. Madia looks so, so much like her, and Madia sounds a bit like Mozart so this is my compromise for not naming the kitten "Mozart 2". Madia is an adventurous little soul! She likes to investigate everything and she might actually be the leader of her siblings. She is so, so sweet and she loves to be held and cuddled. She was the runt for a while, and I was worried about her, but she now weighs over a pound and has passed the title of runt on to...

Tulip! Tiny Tulip is the littlest of all the kittens and I absolutely adore her. I love, love, LOVE tiny things, ESPECIALLY tiny kittens, and all runts have a special place in my heart. Tulip is a little fluffball and I named her Tulip because it suited her. She has a very Bengal attitude, wanting to see everything and be anywhere something is going on. She is NOT intimidated by her bigger siblings and cousins! In fact, she often attacks Ellie, the biggest of all the kittens, to playfight with her! That being said though, she does often take refuge hiding by my feet or on my knees and I frequently scoop her out of situations that are getting out of her control. She doesn't mind some cuddles but she wants to run around and be fiesty too! She is the only kitten still under a pound but she's consistently gaining weight and I'm so proud of her. <3 Oh, and she and Madia are besties! I often see them playing and cuddling together, so we're going to try and get them a home together.

So there's your introduction to Leeli's six kittens! I love all these babies so much and it is going to be very hard for me to give them up, especially Madia and Tulip (they're my favorites, I'm not even going to try and hide that xD). They're getting so big and busy and they're so much fun!

Bonus pictures of Leeli's kittens!

Madia, Farid and Violet posing and being adorable!

Leeli's babies get to meet uncle Kalmar too! He's so sweet and good with the babies! ;-; This is him with Farid.

Would you even believe me if I told you Madia and Tulip posed like this on their own!? And then sat and waited for me to take pictures of them?! They're just the cutest things I can't ;-;

Dustfinger and Tulip are twins, Dustfinger's just a lot bigger!

Alright, that's all the pictures tumblr will let me post for now. I hope you enjoyed! And now that I've made the second name post I can post randomly about the babies! And so I shall. :D

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adarkrainbow · 10 months

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The Ultimate Fables Catalogue (C)

I know, I know, I haven’t released part “B” yet. But as it turns out, I finished the part C long before the part B, so I will release this one first.

In this continuation of the “Ultimate Fables Catalogue”, I will cover a part of the spin-offs. To be precise I will take a look at the two Cinderella spin-offs (Cinderella: From Fabletown, with love ; and its sequel Cinderella: Fables are Forever), and the entirety of the Fairest series (including its graphic novel, Fairest: In All the Land).

SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Cinderella spin-offs

Cinderella: From Fabletown, with love

# The title of the series is an homage to the James Bond novel “From Russia, with love”. Cinderella’s own adventures as Fabletown’s spy evoke those of James Bond and of the Bond girls. The writer of this series, Chris Roberson, evoked the two main influences of the plot by describing the comic as “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service meets Sex and the City”.

# Crispin Cordwainer is the shoemaker from the Grimm fairytale “The Elves and the Shoemaker”. His name comes from saint Crispin, patron of cobblers and leather-workers.

# Cinderella mentions “an ogre and a talking cat”, referencing Charles Perrault’s “Puss in Boots”.

# Among the magical items found among the Mundies, Beast mentions the “seven-league boots” (from Charles Perrault’s Little Thumbling), a “horn of plenty” (the Cornucopia), a magical flute (I don’t have any specific reference for this one) and a “singing sword” (I don’t have any clear reference, though the “singing sword” concept appears here and there - it is the name of an Arthurian novel by Jack Whyte, and an episode of the cartoon “The Legend of Prince Valiant”, among many other things).

# The silhouette of the tourists are seen, and while we already know of Mowgli and Cinderella, we will discover the other two to be Feathertop (see later) and the... what was originally planned to be the Huntsman and then became a Woodsman apparently (it is one of those unclear points). Cinderella in turn has her group of three spies: Puss in Boots (who likes to be known as the “Marquis of Carabas”), from Charles Perrault’s fairytale of the same name ; Dickory, the mouse that ran up the clock, from the nursery rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock, and finally Jenny Wren, whose lover Robin Redbreast was murdered - from the cycle of nursery rhymes surrounding Cock Robin (”Cock Robin Got Up Early ; Who killed Cock Robin? ; Jenny Wren Fell Sick).

# Aladdin, and the djinn of the ring, are both from the “Aladdin” story of the One Thousand and One Nights. I suspect his driver, Farid, to be the prince Farid from the One Thousand and One Nights story “Farizad of the Rose’s Smile” - given it is the only Farid character in the Arabian Nights I know of.

# The ghuls are creatures of Arabian folklore.

# Ultima Thule (named after the legendary island of Thule that cartographers of Antiquity believed to exist north of England) is the realm of Scandinavian fairytales, especially Norwegian, filled with trolls and talking polar bears and giant elks. Its former ruler was king Valemon, from the fairytale “White-Bear-King-Valemon”. Other inhabitants of Thule include the widow Gudbrand (wife of Gudbrand from “Gudbrand on the Hill-Side”), Askelädden (the famous Norwegian folktale character known as “Ashlad” in English), Little Freddy (from “Little Freddy with his fiddle”), Little Annie the goose-girl (from the fairytale of the same name), Butterball (from the Norwegian fairytale of the same name), as well as the ram and the pig, from “The Ram and the Pig who went to live in the woods by themselves”.

# The Fairy Godmother is here another “archetype character” in the likes of Frau Totenkinder, Prince Charming or Jack of All Tales. She was the fairy godmother of Cinderella, but also alongside her sisters the “good fairies” of the Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty fairytale, and she secretly worked to help Rapunzel by sending the prince rescue her. The Fairy Godmother’s perpetual fight against Frau Totenkinder has notably been the source of numerous of the fairytales: it seems to have started out by Frau Totenkinder “ruining” the fate of Briar Rose by playing the role of the “wicked fairy/angered wise woman” in the tale, only for the Fairy Godmother to retaliate by sending the prince of Rapunzel (whose witch-adoptive motive was Frau Totenkinder). The evolution of her role throughout the fairy tales is also explained by this perpetual duel: after sending Prince Charming to save Briar Rose from Frau Totenkinder’s curse, the witch fought back by killing the Fairy Godmother’s two sisters with poisoned apples (evoking Snow-White), which is why she was alone when helping Cinderella ; and the reason her spells only last to midnight is because her powers were weakened due to her actions in the Rapunzel story, all of her efforts exhausting her spells so that they could only work for a day and no more. It is also confirmed that the prince of Rapunzel is NOT prince Charming, as the Fairy Godmother “reused” the same prince to save both Briar Rose and Cinderella.

The Fairy Godmother is also very clearly an homage, or rather a dark parody, of the fairy godmothers of Disney movies. Her being part of a trio of benevolent fairies looking like little grandmothers at the times of Briar Rose’s birth is a nod to Fauna, Flora and Merryweather, the three fairy godmothers of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, while her being the kind, elderly, grey-haired, plump godmother of Cinderella is an obvious nod to Disney’s interpretation of the fairy godmother of Cinderella.

# The palace being made of glass is of course a nod to the glass slippers of “Cinderella”, but I wonder if it isn’t a reference to the Norwegian fairytale “The Princess on the Glass-Hill”, or something similar...

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever

# The title of the series is again a James Bond reference, this time to “Diamonds are forever”.

# The “Shadow Fabletown”, the Soviet community of Fables living beyond the Iron Curtain and opposing the American Fabletown, is composed of Ivan Durak (Ivan the Fool, a folk character of Russian fairytales), Tugarin Zmeyevich (the Slavic character known as Tugarin or Zmey Tugarin), Meng Chiang-Nu (the character of the Chinese folktale Lady Meng Jiang), the Seven Chinese Brothers (see below), and Anansi the spider (a folkloric character from West African tales and legends)

About Tugarin Zmeyevich, the Fables Encyclopedia explains a bit more the process behind choosing this character that turns into a dragon: they explain Tugarin Zmeyevich started out as the antagonist of a folktale where he was opposed to the Rusian folkloric hero Alyosha Popovich - and in the oldest/”first” version of this folktale Tugarin Zmeyevich was “merely” a man as tall as a giant, riding a horse that had fire coming out of its nostrils and smoke from its ears. However, throughout adaptations and expansions of the tale, Zmeyevich inherited the “breathe fire and smoke” traits of his horse, and then from a fire-breathing man became a dragon. So, for the Fables comics, they decided to have Zmeyevich look like a man at first, but be able to turn into a dragon at will.

As for the Seven Chinese Brothers, the Fables Encyclopedia also brings more information: they are actually part of a popular Chinese folktale merely known as “The Five Brothers” - which became well-known in the West thanks to Claire Huchet Bishop’s “Five Chinese Brothers” in the 30s ; but there are several variations of the story where the number of brothers change, up to seven or ten. And the idea of the five brothers being actually seven was also popularized in the English-speaking world thanks to Margaret Mahy’s “Seven Chinese Brothers” at the end of the 19th century.

# Dorothy Gale, aka “Silverslipper” is from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, by L. Frank Baum. Beyond her first nickname (evoking the magical “silver slippers” of the book), she is also called “The wicked bitch of the east” (a nod to the Wicked Witch of the East from the book). Numerous other characters and entities from the Oz books appear: the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion (from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”), the Chiss, Bungle the Glass Cat (”The Patchwork Girl of Oz”) and the Spoon Brigade (”The Emerald City of Oz”). We also see in the flashbacks all four witches of Oz (Good witches of the North and South, Wicked witches of the East and West), alongside the Munchkins and the Scarecrow.

# Other pop culture references include the line “Cheshire cat got your tongue” (referencing “Alice in Wonderland”), “Are you done quoting Donny and Marie?” (the television series of the same name) and Cindy describing the relationship of Bigby and Snow White as “That whole Cheers things”, paralleling the couple with the characters of Sam and Diane from the “Cheers” show

FAIREST

Wide Awake

# The main character is Ali Baba, from the One Thousand and One Nights story “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”. Morgiana of the same story is briefly mentionned in flashbacks. Interestingly, in the Fables universe Ali Baba went from a thief killer to the “prince of thieves” himself, something pointed out as weird in-universe. I believe it is a reference to how in American culture at the time of the comic’s release, the name of Ali Baba was so strongly associated with thieves you often saw it being reused for a thief character.

# The many modern USA culture references made by the Bottle Imp are too many for me to record them all.

# The fact of having the two “Sleeping Beauties” be a red-clad Briar Rose and the white Snow Queen isn’t just some fancy aesthetic choice. This plays on a common duality in fairytales between white and red that the comics itself already illustrated throughout the duo of Snow-White and Rose-Red. More interestingly, Ali Baba describing one as “the color of winter snow” and the other with “the color and heat of the first days of autumn” seems to be a play on the “seasonal” reading of the fairytale “Sleeping Beauty”, this analysis and belief that the fairytale actually depicts a metaphor for the cycle of seasons, Sleeping Beauty herself embodying nature falling asleep during the winter, and her awakening symbolizing spring.

# The version of Sleeping Beauty’s backstory here is quite interesting because it clashes with the one presented by the Cinderella spin-offs - a “retcon” here that is present inside the main series itself, since it began with the implications that Frau Totenkinder was the one who cast the curse, being the “evil witch” against the “three good fairies” (a la Disney), but then switched to make this new backstory canon. In this version of the story, we are more faithful to Charles Perrault’s version of the tale, since we have seven fairies gifting the child and the evil fairy being the eighth. The fairies here are actually a mix between the actual “fairytale fairies”, as in French fairytale fairies, and British fairies of folklore and legends. The seven gifts here are as such: beauty (for Katrya the Pure), wit (for Sofiya the wise - though it is the “wit of an angel”, so it is actually naivity), elegance/grace for Nyura the Graceful (which is extended to being graceful and elegant in all things... including the bedroom), walth for Ionna the Gifted, the talent of singing for Alyas the Noble (though it is “singing like a nightingale”, quite literaly, so singing like a bird), the talent of writing good songs and playing music perfectly for Yeva the Lively. The last gift of not dying but falling into an eternal sleep is given by Leysa the Defender against the curse of the evil fairy, Hadeon the Destroyer - and here, as with all magic process, we receive an explanation for the why: as it turns out, Leysa could only “split” the death curse across so many people the death became a “mere” endless sleep.

Beyond this, each of the fairy embodies a specific concept associated with fairies in general, or magic beings. Katrya the Pure is focused on purity and chastity (since her magical waters heal all knights chaste and noble) ; Sofiya the Wise is noted to have written a very famous grimoire ; Ionna the Gifted represents the “benevolent” fairies associated with darkness, since she is a daughter of the night who tames and traps nightmares (as opposed to Hadeon the Destroyer who is an “evil” fairy of darkness, shadow and fogs that rules over a typical “evil, nightmarish forest”), Yeva is strongly associated with music, merriment and parties, etc... The habit of Hadeon of turning her former lovers into objects she uses later (like into a boat) is also a very typical trope of fairy tales.

# In a flashback, Ali Baba is seen stealing from Abd al Quadir. He is a character from the One Thousand and One Nights story “Ala al-Din Abu al-Samat” (253rd night).

Lamia

# Lamia is of course the legendary monster/bogey-woman of Greco-Roman culture.

# Saint George, his sword Ascalon and the village of Silene are from the legend of “Saint George and the Dragon”. Saint George seems to embody here the archetype of the “dragon slayer-hero” since he lists other famous dragons among his list of kills: the Chimaera (not an actual dragon, but the fire-breathing Chimera of Greek mythology, killed by the hero Bellerophon), Illuyanka (a Hittite dragon killed by the god Tarhunz), Tiamat (the Mesopotamian goddess-dragon killed by Marduk) and finally Vritra (the Indian reptilian demon slain by the god Indra).

# When Beast lists the various fictional characters he becomes “like” during his various hunts for the Lamia, he mentions in order Auguste Dupin (created by Edgar Allan Poe), Sherlock Holmes (created by Arthur Conan Dole), Hercule Poirot (created by Agatha Christie), Sam Spade (from “The Maltese Falcon”) and Philip Marlowe (created by Raymond Chandler).

The Hidden Kingdom

# The three movies seen at the theater at the beginning are “Bunny Lake is Missing” ; “Don’t Look Now” and “Picnic at Hanging Rock”. Rapunzel later compares the flying origami attack to Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”.

# This is I think the first time paintings are hidden around in the background. In Rapunzel’s flat there are two pictures on the walls: one is the poster for Kubrick’s “Clockwork Orange”, another is a reproduction of “The Lady of Shalott” by Waterhouse. Frau Totenkinder rather has in her flat Fuseli’s “The Three Witches”.

# Frau Totenkinder here appears mostly in her role of “the witch/adoptive-mother of Rapunzel”. Interestingly however, while Totenkinder is the witch that locked Rapunzel in a tower, and banished her after she slept with the prince, in the Fables continuity of the role of the witch in the Grimm fairytale got split with... the Fairy Godmother, who is revealed to have been the one preventing Rapunzel’s prince from returning to her.

# In the Japanese realm of Fables, the main characters include Mayumi (who is the Kuchisake-onna of Japanese ghost stories), Tomoko (a kitsune), a bakeneko (that just goes by “Neko”) and Katagiri (a kappa). Other supernatural beings coming from “The Hidden Kingdom”, the Japanese Homeland, include: funayûrey (ghosts of the drowned at sea), tanukis, a noppera-bo, a rokurokubi, an oni, an hitotsume-kozo, several kirin...

# When Neko first appears to Rapunzel, he imitates Totoro, from “My Neighbor Totoro”.

# Rapunzel briefly prays to the Jizo Bosatsu.

# Rapunzel, in her numerous travels throughout the Homelands searching for her missing babies, adopted several different identities. In the Hidden Kingdom she was Okiku, the famous Japanese “ghost” in the well. In the Ancient Greece equivalent in the Homelands she also played the role of Theseus, by slaying the Minotaur. And she is noted to have assisted to the “birth of an empire” by seeing twins by a she-wolf: they are Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of the Roman Empire.

# The treacherous shogun Ryogan actually fulfills the role of both the jealous samurai who mutilated the Kuchisake-onna and the samurai that killed Okiku.

# When the Hyakki Yagyo, the “Night Parade of the One Hundred Demons” is invoked, we also see among the numerous yokai tengus, chochin’obakes, an hebi, the wanyudo, and a nue.

# Jack ends up thrown into the claws of the famous Japanese movie monster, Gdozilla.

# Lauren Beukes, the writer of this arc, listed her several inspirations as: the manga Tekkonkintreet, “The Pillow Book” ; the movies of Kurosawa, Miyazaki and Miike ; the work of the three Murakami (Haruki Murakami, Ryu Murakami and Takashi Murakami) ; “The Tale of Genji”, “Tokyo Vice” (no, not the television series, but the memoir of Jake Adelstein), and “The Illustrated Night Parade of the Hundred Demons”.

Aldered States

# The various suitors of Princess Alder include Mr. Pickles (from “The Magic Fishbone” by Charles Dickens), Trotty Veck (from “The Chimes” by Charles Dickens) as well as Farmer Giles (from Tokkien’s “Farmer Giles of Ham”).

The Return of the Maharaja

# Nalayani is actually the past life of Draupadi, from the Indian epic “Mahabharata”.

# There is a LOT of characters from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book here: Tabaqui the jackal ; the dholes ; Nathoo ; Buldeo ; Pudmini...

# Prince Charming makes a reference to the “golden ticket”, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

# Among beings from Indian folklore, beliefs, folktales and Hindu mythology/religion we have the asuras, the pishachas, as well as a host of Hindu gods - Rama, Ganesha, Manasa, Kamadhenu, Nandini... The Trishula trident is also important for the ending of the story.

Of Men and Mice

# The very title is a reference to the story “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck.

# The cubs are being read one of the Harry Potter books - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to be precise.

# At Cinderella’s ball, the transformed mouse ends up seducing Lady Isabelle du Lac, daughter of Lord and Lady du Lac. I wonder if it is a reference to Edmund Dulac...

# I also believe the giant sentient humanoid rat-ninjas might be a reference to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”.

# The “King’s men” are the same from the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty”.

# Rama is the divine hero of Hindu mythology/religion, while Varuna is... I am a bit confused because to my knowledge Varuna is an Hindu god, not a tiger-headed fish... The only tiger-headed fish I know of is the Japanese Shachihoko... This leaves me confused.

# The Rodgers and Hammerstein’s version of Cinderella is explicitely referenced here.

Clamour for Glamour

# Lady Maeve of Dunhollow seems to be Maeve/Mebd of Irish mythology.

# Mary, after losing her little lamb, took up gardening - and thus became the Mary from the nursery rhyme “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary”.

# There is an entire section of the Farm called André’s Garden, where the Mean Sunflower Kid/Mister Sunflower lives, and we see here five other Fables living in this area: Snapdragon, Old Maid Hollyhock, the Dormouse Juggler, Alderman Poppy, and a woodpecker. Given this is the living area of the Sunflower, and named “André’s garden” I am pretty sure they are meant to be part of this same Victorian book of nursery rhymes written and illustrated by R. André/R. Andre from which the nursery rhyme “Mister Sunflower” comes. The problem is that I cannot have access to this specific book, which seems to not be easily available anywhere, so I cannot actually check...

In case you want to know, I will place here the Mister Sunflower nursery rhyme as it was revealed in the Fables Encyclopedia:

In your dress of brown and yellow

What a stiff-necked

Long legged fellow!

Must you stare, although the bees,

Settle on your face and tease?

Can’t you turn your big flat head

Till the sun has gone to bed?

Fairest in All the Land

# This is where Mrs. Ford was confirmed to be “the old woman at the ford in a river”, the deadly and ghostly “washing woman” from Irish beliefs and folklore.

# While not an exact reference, the seven magical swords kept in the office named after concepts (Mercy, Justice, Regret, Rage, Judgement, Love and Wisdom) are part of a long tradition in fantasy of magical swords with meaningful names (for example, take Tad William’s trilogy “Memory, Sorrow and Thorn”). The powers and nature of Maerorgladi, the Sword of Regret, is especially interesting, as its “hunger” forcing it to take a second life for each kill is clearly inspired by a famous trend of “sentient, soul-hungering swords” in fiction which was started by Poul Anderson’s “The Broken Sword” and Elric of Melniboe’s famous sword, Stormbringer.

# Hautboy/Cendrée, the wizard that created the seven magical sword, is confirmed to have lived in the Dark Tower, from “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came”, before Roland actually arrived to said tower. The fact his main feats were creating buildings, magical chariots and magical weapons, makes him part of a long line of legendary magical smiths - in Fables, the main series, we already saw Weyland Smith and Daedalus appear, but I can also mention the Greek Hephaestus or the Finnish Ilmarinen. The Ilmarinen comparison is especially interesting, since the mythical ancestor of the evil swords I talked about (Moorcock’s Stormbringer, or Tolkien’s Gurthang) is a sentient, talking sword from the Kalevala. I have however very curious about the names chosen for him, both very French in nature... I think they might have been chosen at random (especially since “Cendrée” is actually the FEMALE form of the adjective “Ashen”/”Cindered”, the proper male form would have been Cendré), but maybe there is some obscure reference I am missing... though I slightly doubt it.

# The topic of “swords that must kill” is also very frequent in Norse sagas: to quote TV Tropes, “Tyrfing of the Saga of Hervor and Heidrek, the sword of Bodvar Bjarki in the Saga of Hrolf Kraki, and Dainsleif from the Prose Edda”. Which brings me to the hero the Sword of Regret was built for, Turgo of Nor, who is the stereotypical “Norse barbarian”. He likes in a world shaped after Ancient Norse society, and he is a muscular, bearded warrior always eating and drinking, but going berserk every time he drinks too much (which is often, since he is a drunkard). However, the fact that he keeps flying into mad rages he then regrets, and that he wears a hood made of animal pelts, make him VERY similar to Herakles of Greek mythology.

# The coat of Padarn Beisrudd is one of the “Thirteen Treasures of Britain”, part of Welsh folklore.

# The Blue Fairy mentions the “Unseelie Midwinter Ball”. The Unseelie Court is one of the two fairy “courts” or fairy “hosts” of Scottish legends, alongside the Seelie.

# I can’t help but wonder if Hadeon’s role as a sentient, magical but malevolent red car isn’t meant to be a nod to Stephen King’s Christine.

#fables #the ultimate catalogue #fairest #cinderella #cinderella from fabletown with love #comic #cultural references #fairytales #myths #folklore #cinderella fables are forever

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mad-rdr · 1 year

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A Psalm of Storms and Silence (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin #2) - Roseanne Brown

★ ★ ★ ★ ★/5

Bring back breathtaking duologies!! I mean it when I say that I've yet to meet a duology I haven't liked. Sometimes two books are all you need and three just stretches it too much. This book, this ending, isn't quite a conclusion, and yet I'm happy with it. I didn't get the closure I necessarily wanted but it was written so well that I can live with it. This book starts off with Karina on the run and Malik acting as the apprentice for the very man who betrayed his foster family to bring back his unrequited love from the dead. Yeah, needless to say, there's a lot going on. I, for one, am still not going to forgive Farid's betrayal. I liked him in book one and I cannot believe what a manipulative asshole he is in the book, not to mention abusive. I feel so bad for Hanane, poor girl did not ask to be brought back from the dead to be at Farid's beck and call. Her backstory is so sad, she was essentially groomed by him because she pitied him and now she has to live with being in a weird state of not dead but not alive. Which makes sense as to why she sacrificed herself in the end. I'm glad we got to see some healing between the two sisters, and a glimpse of what it would've been like if Hanane lived and became Empress. Karine and Malik on the other hand, wow the sexual tension was through the roof. I can't believe they let their ancestor's quarels dictate their relationship for so long. SO what if your "kinds" hate each other?? It's been like a thousand years, c'mon. I'm glad they got over the miscommunication in the end, because things were so messy. I think my favorite part of the duology was Hyenas random appearance to cause chaos- definitely a fan of that mentality. And since Hyena is the one telling the story in the end, that's why we get an ending that's kind of up in the air, we will never truly know if Malik and Karina found each other again, but I'd like to believe that they do, because I'm not entirely heartless. Overall, I really liked this duology and I would definitely recommend to any YA fantasy lovers out there, this series is like a breath of fresh air to the genre.

#a psalm of storms and silence #a song of wraiths and ruin #roseanne brown #ya fantasy #ya fiction #young adult #fantasy books #young adult fantasy #fantasy #2023 tbr #5 stars #book review #booklr #books #reader #reading #books and reading #duology

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anamoon63 · 2 years

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Like I already mentioned, I've started this new tag called My Sims Family Album, in it I'll be posting photos that have been in my archives for years that I never had the chance to share. These photos must have taken them around 2012-2013, it's been a while since then! I'd like to clarify that these are memories from very old games, so most of these sims are now seniors with grandchildren. To distinguish them from my current gameplay I've put a frame on them like the ones used in those old family photo albums, and I used a filter to make them look 'old'.

Anyway, I'll start with one of the sims I played with the most back in the day, Amin Kamel, son of Karim, grandson of Farid and father of one of my super favorite sims, Sandy Kamel. The following photos belong to his years as a child, teenager and young adult. As it is a long post, I will split it in three parts. Here we go, down memory lane!

My Sims Family Album: Amin Kamel - Part 1/3

This is Amin as a child.

Here doing homework with his mother, Bella Goth-Kamel.

With his brother Anwar and half-sister Tanya.

Even with his parents' divorce, (Karim's second divorce), Amin had a happy childhood.

#the sims 3 #sims 3 gameplay #ts3 gameplay #sims 3 simblr #my sims family album #the kamels of hidden springs #third generation #amin kamel #tanya kamel #anwar kamel #bella goth-kamel #los sims de ana

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carewyncromwell · 2 years

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Oc Asks Game: 2 and 23 for all of your MCs? If that's ok?

Whew! Okay, let's see...

Tea, coffee, hot chocolate or other?

Carewyn: Coffee! Like her good friend Talbott, she's a coffee addict to the extent her other half Orion tries to wean her off of it. Her favorite blend is a caramel macchiato, but she'll also drink it black in a pinch.

Jacob: Hot chocolate. Jacob is a chocoholic and he'll never pass up a good hot chocolate.

Lane: English Breakfast tea.

Erik: Coffee, black as his soul. LMAO just kidding. 🤣

Ana: Good old-fashioned milk, specifically skim, since it's what her mum raised her with in a misguided attempt to help "curb" her weight. She also loves orange and (thanks to her boo Charlie Copper's influence) lemon mimosas.

Farid: Juice!! This boy loves juice, especially orange juice, though he also becomes very fond of pumpkin juice while staying at Hogwarts. Also green tea and almond milk.

Ru: They'll drink most anything that isn't too sweet (they really don't like chocolate, for instance), but in the mornings they tend to like apple juice best.

Ed: Any kind of sweet coffee brew, especially if it's got lots of foam. He actually becomes rather fond of trying out new brews at Muggle coffee shops just for kicks, though one of his favorites so far is the white chocolate mocha. He also loves hot chocolate, especially white hot chocolate.

Desi: Tea! Earl Gray tea is her absolute favorite thing to have in the morning, alongside a French croissant.

Eli: Butterbeer, though after moving to the States and living as a Muggle, he also became very fond of root beer and Coca Cola. (Eli honestly has never had much respect for what drinks/foods belong to which times of the day, especially given how bonkers his schedule can be with rehearsals and the parties he'll stay up all night for, so yes, he will drink soda "for breakfast," so to speak.)

(And Jackson and Bat are here!)

What is your character’s favourite food and who cooks it best?

Carewyn: Potato crisps! Walkers makes good ones.

Jacob: As mentioned before, chocolate! As a kid he loved Cadbury eggs and Yorkie Bars, but as an adult traveling the world, he falls in love with Richart and Ghirardelli chocolate.

Lane: Pikelets! She learned how to make them at home early on and she's always loved making them for her bairns Carewyn and Jacob.

Erik: Cinnamon coffee cake! He also likes Red Hot candies.

Ana: Fresh bread, right out of the oven. Her favorite kind is German brown bread.

Farid: Curry! All kinds. One of his favorite recipes to make himself is a lamb curry with chopped apple, onion, potatoes, and golden raisins, as well as a bunch of spices.

Jackson: Crepes, specifically with strawberries and powdered sugar! He's become very fond of making them in the mornings for both himself and Monty.

Bat: This is going to sound so cliche if you know about Bat's love of Christmas...but figgy pudding. No one can make it like his mum used to!

Ru: Aaaaaaapples. This water horse will eat most anything, but they love apples. Apple pie and apple turnovers are their friend -- it doesn't take long for their other half Estrid @thatravenpuffwitch to figure this out, so she'll sometimes surprise them by going to the market and picking some up from time to time.

Ed: Cheesecake. Ed loves most pastries, but cheesecake is his OTL and it doesn't matter how cheap it is, he will always indulge in some. When he first tried Mrs. Weasley's cheesecake, he went very quiet as he ate the whole thing without stopping and he was grinning and flushed like a happy schoolboy for the entire rest of the day, he was so happy.

Desi: Croissants! Though while traveling she also tries and takes a liking to cornish pasties.

Eli: Custard. He also takes a liking to Jello, pudding, and meatballs, while living in the States.

OC Ask!

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tawakkull · 9 months

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ISLAM 101: Spirituality in Islam: Part 104

Ibada, Ubudiya, and Ubuda (Worship, Servanthood, and Deep Devotion)

O Lord. I swear by the beauty of nearness to You that I have not worshipped You either for fear of Hell or out of the desire for Paradise. I have worshipped You because of You.

Rumi does not present himself as a saint and an individual of profound spiritual depth, but as a servant:

According to some, the following should also be considered when discussing worship and servanthood. A servant should:

– Be aware of his or her faults and worry about them even if he or she thinks that the acts of worship have been per-formed perfectly.

– Be aware of the honor and dignity of being attached to Him, and never imagine being honored with other kinds of ranks.

O son! Unchain yourself and become free!

How much longer will you remain a slave of silver and gold?

[1] The Ascension (mi’raj) was a miraculous event during which the Prophet journeyed throughout the realms of existence to God. [2] Al-Qushayri, Al-Risala, 201.

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thinkatoryprocess · 2 years

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SHAKING SCREAMING CRYING they're engaged! and talking kids! and caroline and logan might be shit but farid likes rome and is happy for them! 💗 would kill to know the gossip about them tho

I want to mention that Stewy was supposed to propose in chapter 16, but it just clicked in that moment instead. It would've almost maybe have been a sane amount of time in which to get engaged, but when have these two ever done "sane amount of time" before?

Farid is incredibly amused at Stewy picking Roman, because to him, after watching them together, they make perfect sense. He's not super stoked about Roman being a guy just because he wants grandkids, but as long as kids happen he's more than fine with it.

(BTW, Caroline secretly thinks Stewy's using Roman because he wants Kendall and can't have him, and has pulled Roman down into being queer in the process, which is cool.)

Re: gossip: what Roman and Stewy don't know is that they've caught the attention of the internet. More on that later.

#asks #dywgu #my fic

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a-vamp-and-a-half · 10 months

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“Ah, I see. Mary mentioned, somewhat. And Lucas was in all states during the search” he chuckles with a sympathetic wince

“Are you, aware, of their situation Mr. Farid?” Neora asks, seeing the man snort

“Please, just Farid. You make me feel so old young lady”

Neora laughs “And you make me feel too young” she grins, seeing the man snort and laugh in turn

“I have got to stop assuming, it’s impossible in this city” he jokes “Same condition as Dark?”

“Quiet the opposite” she jokes, smiling a bit more genuinely as Farid snorts

“That narrows it down by zero. But I’m glad to hear it’s better this time. It’s been different since boss has left the business to us. I mean, it’s going good don’t get me wrong. But it’s different you know? We three really were a team” he says with a slight sigh

Dark nods. "You know... if you're looking for someone to somewhat take her place, I know a few people from some of the interior design classes I'm taking who would be a great fit with this business."

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xtruss · 7 days

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Houston, Texas: Where Asylum Cases Come To Die! Some Immigration Lawyers Relish A Challenge

— By Dan Halpern | April 14, 2024 | 1843 Magazine

So this is what I want you to say: that you fear you would be killed.” It was early March and Laure Dachelet, a lawyer based in Houston, Texas, was preparing a client who was about to present his asylum case before a judge. “I mean, they threatened to kill you several times. They put a bomb in front of your house. So the intention to kill you was pretty clear. You need to say so.”

The client, a 30-year-old man called Farid, nodded gently. It had been a long wait to get to this point. Farid had fled Afghanistan in 2014 and, after a perilous three-year journey to America that took him through a dozen countries, applied for asylum in 2017; he had yet to see a judge, seven years later. Until 2014 he had worked as a translator for the British Army and the Afghan national police at a military base outside Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province. Driving home one night, after his last day at work, he was stopped by Taliban forces.

“The Taliban beat me and then let me go,” was how Farid had initially described the incident. With Dachelet’s prodding, a longer narrative emerged. The Taliban had accused him of working with the enemy. Farid insisted that he was coming back from a doctor’s appointment. They beat him and interrogated him, but Farid stuck to his story and finally they let him go. Days later the Taliban found proof that he had worked with the British. They told Farid’s father that they would kill his son when they found him, then they bombed Farid’s home.

The Taliban Found Proof That Farid Had Worked With The British. They Told His Father That They Would Kill His Son When They Found Him, Then They Bombed Farid’s Home

Dachelet, who had previously been a judge in the French family courts, explained that the judge would try to suss out whether Farid was telling the truth. She would evaluate his demeanour, watch for whether he answered or avoided questions, check whether his story was consistent with his written declaration and documents. That was always the danger for an asylum-seeker: an applicant could have all the boxes ticked, but a judge was free to decide he was lying. The more detailed your story, the more likely a judge is to believe it. But asylum lawyers need to weigh up carefully how much information their clients provide. The more they offer, the greater the possibility that under examination they will confuse or misremember events.

Farid mentioned that before they took him to be interrogated, the Taliban had covered his face with a scarf. Why had they done that, asked Dachelet?

“In Islam, in the religion, if your clothes are bloody, you cannot pray on that day, you will need to change your clothes,” said Farid. “So they didn’t want to get blood on their—”

Dachelet interrupted. “Why were you bleeding?”

“Oh, because they hit me with the back of the gun.”

“OK, this is why we need to be more detailed,” said Dachelet. “You need to say, one of them hit me in the face with the butt of the AK-47 and I started bleeding. You talk about the scarf, and the blood, and we don’t really make the connection. I know your story, you know your story. Let’s pretend the judge and the attorney for the government don’t know your story.”

She asked Farid what date he arrived in America. He thought about it before replying: “2017. August, or September.”

“July,” Dachelet said.

“July? I don’t think it was July,” Farid said.

“July is what we said on your declaration,” Dachelet said.

This mistake was concerning. A judge is on the lookout for inconsistencies in an applicant’s story – the de facto rule is that three mistakes like this can be grounds for rejection. One judge may have some sympathy for the argument that no one can remember every date and detail of their life story perfectly accurately; another may have none.

In this case, Farid’s mistake might have resulted from his confusion over how dates are formatted in America – with the month before the day – which is different from how other countries do it. But it’s exactly the kind of thing some judges could use to deny his claim. He would need to stick to July.

Dachelet explained that, in order to grant asylum, the judge would need to be convinced that Farid was likely to face persecution if he returned home. “What makes you think you might be in danger if you went home?” she asked. “This all happened ten years ago, don’t you think they’ll have just forgotten about it?

A Judge Is On The Lookout For Inconsistencies In An Applicant’s Story – The de Facto Rule Is That Three Mistakes Like This Can Be Grounds For Rejection

“When the Taliban took over, they announced that they were forgiving all the people, wherever you worked…[They said] we are forgiving them, they can come, they come and be peaceful,” Farid said. “A lot of people went back. Most of them disappeared.”

Farid’s case seemed undeniable. He had a terrible story, a credible fear that he would be persecuted if he were deported, both for who he was and what he had done; he had documents proving what he said was true. He had been in the country for seven years, working long hours as a truck driver, a lawful contributor to society, if not yet a full member of it. But Houston is where asylum cases come to die.

Nationally, immigration courts grant asylum in about four out of ten cases. Houston’s courts, in common with those in Charlotte, Atlanta, Kansas City and a few other places, grant asylum in one out of ten. San Francisco’s courts, by contrast, approve seven out of ten asylum claims, while New York’s courts approve six out of ten.

These disparities can be partly explained by the fact that different kinds of migrants tend to settle in different cities. More Central Americans, for instance, come to Texas; more Asians come to California. Their cases for asylum tend to be very different.

Whether or not a case is successful can also depend on the judge. A national study of disparities in asylum adjudications found, for example, that Colombian applicants who brought their cases in Miami were granted asylum by one judge in 88% of cases, whereas another – in the same building – granted it only 5% of the time.

On the one hand Farid was unlucky. According to his lawyers, the judge who would be presiding over his case had previously rejected nine out of ten asylum applications (although the huge majority of her cases had come from Central America and Mexico, whose citizens have very low rates of successful applications across the court systems).

On the other hand, he was lucky that his case had been taken on by a law firm with an impressive record in asylum cases. Dachelet works for Political Asylum Lawyers, which was founded in 2020 by Brian Manning (above), a former asylum officer. It is unusual among immigration law firms: although most take on asylum cases, very few are dedicated to them. Manning told me that out of the 39 cases the firm has seen to conclusion over the past two years, only eight have resulted in deportation.

Manning grew up in Oklahoma and came from a background much like everyone he knew: white, Christian and conservative. He played high-school football and went to church on Sundays. Most of his contemporaries stayed in their home state. But in his third year at university, Manning spent a semester in St Petersburg, Russia, and felt the world open up. He finished law school, got married and joined the foreign service, working in Croatia, Bulgaria and Chile. He and his wife adopted two boys from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although the couple loved living abroad, they wanted to raise their children in America, near their families. Early in 2017, as Donald Trump took office, they returned home.

Asylum-Seekers Typically Have No More Than An Hour To Convince An Asylum Officer That They Face A Significant Risk Of Persecution If They Return Home

Manning yearned for a career where he was “actually helping people and doing a good thing”. In Bulgaria, he had visited a camp for Syrian refugees, which had given him the idea to specialise in asylum law. He got a job as an asylum officer, working for the immigration service in Houston. He spent his days conducting “credible fear” interviews: one of the first steps in the asylum process. Asylum-seekers typically have no more than an hour to convince an asylum officer that they face a significant risk of persecution if they return home. If they pass, they can apply for asylum. If they fail, they have a right to appeal against the decision before a judge.

It was a tough job. “You’re hearing stories all day about torture and terrible things happening to people,” he said, “and you either think that they’re lying to you, which is frustrating, or you believe it, and you’re like, this is how this person had to live? This is what this person had to go through? My God.” Asylum officers typically burnt out around a year and a half in, Manning said, many of them suffering from a sort of secondary ptsd.

Most of the people he interviewed were from Central America, and described terrible poverty and violence: “You won’t join my gang? We’re going to kill you. You can’t pay my extortion fee for your shop? We’re going to kill you.” But as tragic as their stories were, most of the applicants were unlikely to satisfy the authorities handling their claims. People seeking asylum in America must demonstrate that they have suffered or were likely to suffer persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group.

During the two years he worked as an asylum officer, Manning was depressed by the quality of asylum lawyers he met, most of whom, he said, were lousy, lazy and ineffective. Not that he encountered them that often. Asylum hearings are civil not criminal proceedings, so the government is not required to provide a lawyer, and few applicants can afford one. Sometimes asylum-seekers were helped by lawyers from non-profit organisations, who were generally excellent, said Manning, although there weren’t enough of them.

It was this feeling – that there were deserving applicants who were being let down by the system – that drove him to start his own firm. Manning felt that his experience playing for the other side, so to speak, could help his clients navigate a system of Byzantine complexity. He reckons that specialising in asylum law makes it easier to stay on top of the frequent changes to the law, something that a firm with a wider range of immigration issues might find challenging.

One piece of advice he gives his clients is knowing when it’s OK to admit you’ve lied. Because you can apply for asylum only once you are in America, and can’t get a visa to ask for asylum, many refugees claim they are coming for a holiday, even though they fully intend to overstay their tourist visa. “This kind of lie is not held against you at an asylum hearing,” Manning said. “But it is a problem if you say at your asylum interview that you’ve never lied in connection with a us immigration matter.” That is, you can lie to get here, but not lie about having lied. This is a favourite technique, he said, of asylum officers looking for excuses to reject applicants.

Manning Shares His Tips On Social Media, Including TikTok And Instagram. He’s Doing It To Attract Business, But Also To Help Those Who Can’t Afford His Services

Manning shares his tips on social media, including TikTok and Instagram. He’s doing it to attract business, but also to help those who can’t afford his services. The videos are professionally made, with choppy, attention-grabbing edits. “What if I told you you can pretty much win your asylum case before you ever set foot in the asylum office for your interview?” he says in one video, which takes viewers through creating an “asylum roadmap”. Most asylum officers are overworked and stressed, said Manning. They appreciate being presented with a package containing all the necessary information and legal reasoning: a written narrative, evidence to support it, and a description of the political conditions in the applicant’s homeland. It works, says Manning, “because you’ve done much of their work for them”.

Farad’s hearing took place on a Monday morning. He had the dates right this time, told his story clearly, and addressed the questions from the government lawyer directly and honestly. But there’s no such thing as an open-and-shut case, especially in asylum law. “I still get nervous, I’m certainly emotionally invested,” Manning said. “That’s natural for anyone working with these kinds of high stakes, or working with so much trauma. Did I cover everything I need to cover? Did I prepare enough for any surprises? I’ll go over it and over it.”

The hearing lasted just under an hour. “I’m inclined to grant the application,” the judge told Farid. The lawyer for the government said they would not appeal. It seemed done and dusted. Except it wasn’t, quite. Farid’s biometric information (including his fingerprints and photographs) were missing from the government’s file. Somehow, in the seven years he had been waiting, they had been misplaced. The judge couldn’t grant asylum until Farid made an appointment to have his biometric information recorded again. To get an appointment, he was told, he would have to wait only another few months. ■

— Dan Halpern is a Feature Writer ✍️ For 1843 Magazine | Illustrations: James Wilson | Images: Getty, Reuters

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