ENVY A PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER: AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE

A negative feeling that creates displeasure and anger is known as envy. It is produced by the negative attitude towards others, having assets, greater characteristics and fair potential than him. It is a psychological disorder that creates a nuisance in society and leads to social discontent. Such kind of psychological disorder gives rise to hatred and creates an environment of enmity and mistrust. Its magnitude and impact are very high and result in conflicts and jealousy. Such a situation is disliked in Islam and is taken very seriously and rejected at all levels. It is a mental disorder that disturbs the human psyche at local and international levels, resulting in chaos and disorder. Islam guides its followers in particular but humans, in general, to remain away from it to save humanity from anarchy and psychological sickness. Islam respects humanity and guides us to preserve human dignity and values of life. It prescribes detailed solutions to such a problem to preserve human beings. In this paper, an attempt is made and a detailed analysis is provided about its occurrence within the Islamic context and methods of safety are provided to safeguard humans from the malice of envy.

Molecular Markers of Susceptibility to Prion Diseases in Local Humans and Domesticated Bovids

This thesis presents the lacking information on genetic susceptibility of Pakistani population to human prion disease variants and of local domesticated bovids to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). In study 1, a total of 909 unrelated individuals including 221 hemophiliacs representing all 4 major provinces of Pakistan were screened for M129V polymorphism and insertions or deletions of octapeptide repeats (OPRIs/OPRDs) using Polymerase Chain Reaction coupled with Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Concordance of the results of some PCR-RFLP reactions was also confirmed by dideoxy automated Sanger sequencing. The frequencies of M129V alleles (129M and 129V) and genotypes (129MM, 129MV and 129VV) were found in all 909 individuals to be 0.7101, 0.2899, 0.5270, 0.3663 and 0.1067, respectively. Deletion of 1 octapeptide repeat (1-OPRD) was detected in heterozygous state in PRNP of 10 individuals and in homozygous state in 1 individual. An insertion of 3 octapeptide repeats (3-OPRI) was found in 1 individual and an insertion of 1 octapeptide repeat (1-OPRI) in two individuals. Both 3-OPRI and 1-OPRI were present in heterozygous state and were linked to 129M allele. There were no significant χ2 differences between M129V allelic and genotypic frequencies of healthy individuals and hemophiliacs. However, M129V allelic and genotypic frequencies differed significantly between Pakistani population and East Asian and Western populations. Non-significant χ2 differences between M129V frequencies of healthy individuals and hemophiliacs suggest that individuals manifesting single gene disorders may provide naturally randomized samples for studies aiming at surveying the genetic variation. The combined excess of 129MM and 129VV homozygosity and the presence of 3-OPRI in 1 individual imply that Pakistani population may be susceptible to prion disorders. In study 2, a total of 236 cattle from 7 breeds and 281 buffaloes from 5 breeds were screened for E211K polymorphism and 23 bp and 12 bp indels employing triplex PCR. The E211K polymorphism was not detected in any of the animals studied. The 23 bp insertion allele was underrepresented in studied cattle breeds while the 12 bp insertion allele was overrepresented. Both 23 bp and 12 bp insertion alleles were overrepresented in studied buffalo breeds. Almost 90% of alleles were insertion alleles across all studied buffalo breeds. The average frequency of 23 bp and 12 bp insertion alleles across all studied cattle breeds was found to be 0.1822 and 0.9407, respectively. There were significant differences between Pakistani and worldwide cattle in terms of allele, genotype and haplotype frequencies of 23 bp and 12 bp indels. The higher observed frequency of 12 bp insertion allele suggests that Pakistani cattle are relatively more resistant to classical BSE than European cattle.