Life of Shāh Walī Allāh
Shāh Walī Allāh has written an article titled “al- Juz’ al- Laṭīf fī tarjamat al- ‘Abd al-Ẓa‘īf” in his book “Anfās al ‘Ārifīn” in which he has described his life history. Following are the events of his life as narrated by him:
“I was born on Wednesday 4thShawwāl, 1114 A. H at sunrise… Parents and other saints had received the intuitions about me even before and after my birth. I was sent to Maktab at the age of five and when I was about seven my father made me offer prayers and commanded me to observe fast. In the same year, circumcision was done and after having finished the Qur’ān I took up studying books in Arabic and Persian. At the age of ten, I was going through “Sharaḥ Mullā” and during that time the field of studies opened up for me. I was married at fourteen as my father had desired an early wedding…. I gave my hand to my father’s hand at the age of fifteen and got busy taking up Ashghāl-e-Ṣufīah, especially the Mashā’ikh-e-Naqshband. I set up my spiritual discourse after having sought their attention and motivation to acquire the grooming about norms of religious practices and spiritual uplift through Sufiism. In the same year, I studied a part of Beḍāvī Sharīf and then my father arranged a general feast where he accorded me permission to deliver dars. In short, I learned all the disciplines of that area (‘Ulūm-e-Mutadāwalah) at the age of fifteen and went through all the books linked with these fields in chronological order. In the field of Ḥadīth, leaving aside its part from Kitāb al-bay‘ upto Kitāb al-ādāb, I went through the remaining complete Mishkāt, Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī upto Kitāb al-ṭahārah...
There are several points which illustrate Qur’ānic I‘jāz and probably rely on Islamic Theologians -Mutakallimin’s- efforts as well as exertions regarding Qur’ānic I‘jāz. Mutakallimin for having good command over Arabic rhetorical structures have demonstrated Qur’ānic I‘jāz in two contexts: theoretically and empirically. They actually validated, that Qur’ān is the book of Allah Almighty, through comparing both standard Arabic texts: prose and poetry into face of Qur’ānic text. All these cherished efforts of Mutakallimin are rooted in Arabic rhetoric which stands for that Arabic Rhetoric and ‘ilm al-Kalām; both have very primary relation resulting in that cannot be ignored while analyzing I‘jāz phenomenon.
Hypodermosis, caused by warble fly Przhevalskiana silenus (Order: Diptera, Family: Oestridae), is an endemic parasitic infestation of goats in Pakistan. The larvae of this fly, obligatory parasite of their hosts, are economically very important causing severe losses to leather industry. This infestation is also responsible for growth retardation, carcass depreciation and production losses in milk and meat. Keeping in view the importance of this infestation, studies were designed on serodiagnosis, epidemiology and economic importance of hypodermosis in goats in northern uplands of Balochistan, Pakistan, with the objectives to diagnose warble fly infestation at early stages through serology for better control and eradication strategies, to study different epidemiological factors (age, sex, breed, temperature, humidity and rain fall) contributing goat warble fly infestation, to compare seroprevalence over the prevalence based on clinical examination and to study the economic importance of hypodermosis in the study area. The duration of the study was one year (April 2011 to March 2012) and the most prevalent breed of goat i.e. khurasani breed in uplands of Balochistan was involved in the study which was compared with the non-descriptive breed of goat. In the first experiment, a total of 1440 sera samples were processed by commercial ELISA kit (IDEXX hypodermosis serum antibody test) method. The infestation was detected in May (summer) while the infestation is usually detected in the months of October until February (winter) by clinical palpation method when warbles appear on the backs of the animals. ELISA based seroprevalence showed the highest mean percentage (48.45 % ± 16.14) of goat hypodermosis. In the second experiment on epidemiology, the mean percentage was 15.94 % ± 5.65 by clinical palpation method in the field. In the slaughter house and skin market studies, the mean percentages were 9.07 % ± 3.90 and 7.16 % ± 3.39, respectively, while the mean intensity was 16.19 ± 3.04 holes per skin. Analysis 1of data by Pearson Chi-square test (χ2), revealed highly significant differences (P<0.05) in the overall prevalence of hypodermosis in the fields, slaughter houses and skin markets district-wise. The prevalence was significantly higher in the field animals than the slaughtered animals. Month-wise highest prevalence was noted in January and lowest in October in the field animals. Age-wise prevalence was highest (P<0.05) in the age group of 1-2 years as compared to < 1 year and > 2 years of age groups whereas no significant difference (P<0.05) was observed sex-wise and breed-wise. The life cycle of warble fly in naturally infested goats was studied from April 2011 to March 2012. First instars larvae (L1) were observed in subcutaneous tissues from mid of May to mid of July in slaughter houses of the study areas, second instars larvae (L2) from mid of July to November and third instars larvae (L3) were palpated in the field animals from December until the end of February. The pupal period was observed in early spring in the months from March to mid April while the adult fly activity season (Oviposition period) was observed in early summer from mid April to mid May. In the third experiment, the overall loss due to skin damages by warble fly infestation was calculated as Pak. Rupees 7578625.49 (Pak. Rs. 7.57 million = US$ 77530.69, US$ 1= Rs. 97.75) annually. Based on the early detection studies, it is concluded and recommended that the best time for the treatment of goat warble fly infestation in uplands of Balochistan is in the months of June and July when first larval instars are still in migratory stage and not yet have caused damage to the skin while the farmers usually treat their animals against warble fly in the winter season when they observe the warbles on the back of the animals but at that stage the larvae have damaged the skins of the animals.