The Role of Values in Social Change: An Analysis from The Qur’ānic Perspective

In the post-industrial revolution world, social change is often studied and understood in the context of change in means of production, mobility, urbanization and change in the constitution of workforce. Role of ethical values is generally confined to personal conduct and manners. Industrial society is supposed to have its own work ethics which may or may not agree with personal ethics and morality. Ethics and morality are generally considered, in the Western thought, as a social construct. Therefore, with the change in means of production or political system, values and morality are also expected to be re-adjusted in order to cope with the changed environment. Sometimes a totally new set of values emerges as a consequence of the change in economic, political, or legal set up. The present research tries to understand the meaning and place of these values in a global socio-cultural framework. Relying essentially on the divine principles of the Qur'ān it makes an effort to understand relevance of these universal and ultimate principles with human conduct and behavior in society.  It indicates that essentially it is the core values, principles, or norms which guide human beings in their interpersonal, social, economic and political matters. Islam being a major civilizing force, culture, and the way of life, provides values which guide both in individual and social matters. The values given by the Qur’ān and the Sunnah are not monopoly of the Muslim. These values are universal and are relevant in a technological society.

The Ecology of Algal Flora from Kalar Kahar Lake and its Associated Tributaries

Algae are thaloid organisms comprising of simple photosynthetic organism having unicellular to multicellular organization. Being lower organism, little attention has been paid to document algal resources across the lakes in particular and country in general. The present study was aimed to collect, identify and ecology of the algal flora of Kalar Kahar Lake and its Tributaries. A total of 341 species distributed across 89 genera, 53 families, 29 order, 11 classes and 7 phyla were identified from the study area. Highest number of families were contributed by phylum Bacillariophyta (24), followed by phylum Chlorophyta (13 families), Cyanophyta (11 families). Overall, 32 new taxa were recorded from the study area, out of which, 29 belonged to Bacillariophyta, 02 Cyanophyta and one Chlorophyta. Species richness (SR) was highest in the Lake in July during both the years, followed by August. While in the Tributaries, maximum SR was recorded in August and July during 2010 and 2011 respectively. Overall, 2011 was rich in algal diversity in both the Lake and the Tributaries. Similarly, cell density (D) was higher in 2011 than 2010. Bacillariophyta and Cyanophyta were constantly present in all months in the Lake and the Tributaries. Chlorophyta was present in all months except November in the Lake while in the Tributaries it was absent in January, February and November. Charophyta was present in October, November 2010 and May to July and October during 2011. 12 The highest number of species (α-diversity) was recorded during 2011 from both the Lake and the Tributaries (193 and 175 respectively), followed by the Tributaries (161 spp.) and the Lake (159 spp.) in 2010. There was opposite trend in the case of beta diversity (β) in which highest value was recorded during 2010. Maximum β-diversity was recorded from the Lake (2.14), followed by the Tributaries (2.12). Highest species were shared by Lake 2010-Lake 2011 pair (122 species), followed by Tributaries 2010-Tributaries 2011 (106 species), Tributaries 2010- Lake 2010 (83) and Tributaries 2011- Lake 2011(67 species). Amongst habitat pairs, Lake 2010-Lake 2011 possessed highest similarity Index (0.69) with least β-diversity followed by Tributaries 2010-Tributaries 2011 (0.63), Tributaries 2010-Lake 2010 (0.52) and Tributaries 2011- Lake 2011 (0.36). The Shannon–Weaver index in the Lake and the Tributaries varied from 2.14 to 3.42 and from 2.47 to 3.49 respectively suggesting that the water quality is moderately polluted to clean. Based on Importance Value Index (IVI), Microcystis–Nitzschia-Cyclotella formed algal community in the Lake during 2010, while Microcystis-Cladophora- Chara in 2011. In the Tributaries, Chara-Nitzschia-Microcystis and Microcystis- Phormidium-Nitzschia constructed dominant communities during 2010 and 2011 respectively. Water quality parameters viz., temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solids , conductivity, total hardness, nitrates, phosphate, sulphate, light transparency, turbidity, iron, copper, zinc, lead and nickel varied significantly (P3 <0.05) amongst all the months during 2010 and 2011. Environmental variables such as dissolved oxygen, turbidity, phosphate, nitrate and total hardness significantly affected cell density (P <0.05) in the Lake, while water temperature, turbidity, phosphate and lead significantly (P <0.05) affected density in the Tributaries. The relationship of algal species with environmental data set was determined by Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) using CANOCO software (version 4.2). Overall, environmental data sets such as nitrate, turbidity, copper, transparency, dissolved oxygen (DO) and zinc were found positively correlated in the distribution of specific taxa, while total hardness, water temperature, conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), and pH were negatively correlated for distribution of various taxa in the Lake during 2010-2011. In the Tributaries, environmental variables such as phosphate, total hardness, zinc, nickel, transparency, chlorophyll a, sulphate, lead, conductivity, TDS, copper and pH had positive relationship with algal composition during both years. DO in 2010 while nitrate and iron during 2011 exhibited negative correlation for algal distribution.