المحكم والمتشابه وموقف المفسر منهما

The Mohkam and Mutashabeh is a renowned terminology of the Quranic Sciences and commentators of the Holy Quran described it in details, according to root words of Mohkam, it means Stopping and perfecting the things, this basic meaning can be seen in all the types and variations of this word. On the other hand we have the word Mutashabeh which root meaning is complication and unclearness. If we discuss both of the words as a terminology of the Quranic sciences, we can define Mohkam as “one which define itself without any other thing” or “one which has no need to be defined by something else” and Mutashabeh is “one which can’t define itself and need to be explained by someone else”. We will move on to discuss both terms in Holy Quran as a terminology to describe its multiple variations in the Holy Quran, its types and further we will discuss that why the Holy Quran contains both terms, in other words, we can say which are the logics and reasons of including Mutashabeh verses in the Holy Quran. In addition, we will mention the point of views of various renowned commentators and fields experts which give us a clear and sound concept about both of the terms.

Using Portfolios to Formatively Assess the Writing Skills of Undergraduate Esl/Efl Students

This action research aims to trace the development of a model of portfolio for formative assessment in a non-credit, remedial writing skills’ course at a private higher education institute in Karachi. It is aimed to gain holistic insights into the ways portfolio is used, the benefits that emerged and the challenges that arose. At higher education level, writing is mainly assessed through traditional methods, which have several limitations (Sahakian, 2009). A portfolio has the potential to overcome these limitations. Most of the studies on portfolios in ESL/EFL settings employ quantitative methodology (e.g., Moradan & Hedayati, 2011; Öztürk & Çeçen, 2007; Qinghua, 2010; Tabatabaei & Assefi, 2012) and a few of them are action researches. Drawing upon multiple sources for data collection that was subjected to thematic analysis, it was found that portfolios enhanced students’ writing abilities in terms of producing paragraphs with better organisation and clearer sentences, citing evidences for arguments, and demonstrating awareness of metacognitive strategies. For these benefits, the students found the teacher’s feedback particularly useful. Portfolios also allowed focus on critical thinking skills rather than reproducing content knowledge, provided a clear means of monitoring progress, and fostered students’ creativity. These perceived benefits were consistent with previous findings. However, the challenges were that most of the students did not consistently meet the submission deadlines and maintain the portfolio in the prescribed order. Moreover, some students displayed negative attitudes towards revision. Despite these challenges, the educational value of portfolios cannot be denied. The implications of these findings relate to the issue of students’ ownership of work, assessing their work in a formative context, and the difficulty of changing their attitudes towards formative assessment. Pedagogical suggestions for improving the portfolio model are offered for English language teachers of tertiary level students. At the end, recommendations for the stakeholders are presented.