Preface
Each time one reads the Quran his or her understanding deepens. One may be blessed to have a command of the Arabic language and read the Quran in the language exactly as revealed from Allah to the Prophet through the Angel Gabriel. However, for most Muslims around the world, even if we know Arabic, the beauty and depth of the Quran eludes us. Therefore, we often rely on the tafseer (explanation) and translations to help us gain an understanding to guide us in our lives. Brother Hashemi continues from his previous works to carefully delineate in the translated text which words or phrases are a mere translation and which few words or phrases were added for easier reading and understanding.
As a revert to Islam, and a humble but imperfect follower of the teachings of Prophet Mohamed, I tried to learn from authenticated sources: The Quran, The Hadiths (substantiated sayings of the Prophet), and Sunnah (practices of the Prophet as witnessed from endorsed sources). Having information does not make someone knowledgeable. Even with authentic sources readily available, it takes a lifetime of study to consolidate the information into knowledge. And, being knowledgeable does not necessarily mean one uses this knowledge to guide one’s life. However, with works like those produced by Brother Badr Hashemi, we can become that much closer to understanding the body of knowledge and incorporating that knowledge in our daily lives.
Allah used his messengers to relay His message to humans and jinn (unseen creation) in order to guide us. The last messenger, Prophet Mohamed was given the final and irrevocable message to mankind, the Quran. It was revealed in the language spoken by the Prophet and the people of Arabia. The Quran confirms...
Abstract The religious seminaries (Madaris) 1 of Pakistan have been a hot topic of discussion in the national and international media. These Madaris are reminiscent of the ancient education system of Islam. They attracted people’s attention during the last two decades and especially after the 11th September 2001 incident of New York. Another aspect of interest was their role in the Islamic insurgence (Jihad) waged in various parts of the world particularly in Afghanistan and Kashmir. These institutions impart orthodox education based on centuries old syllabus called Dars-i Nizami. The administrators are disinclined to any slight change in the contents of the syllabus thus bringing them to an open conflict with the modem education system and western culture. The Madaris have been divided on the basis of religious sects i. e. Shia, Sunni and Ahl-i-Hadith. Of them Sunnis are further splintered into many sub-sects such as Deobandis, Brelvis, etc. But their adherence to the primitive education, Jihad and abhorrence for the western civilization is almost the same. Despite repeated reference to these Madaris, there are many misconceptions or disinformation about them In the present paper, an attempt has been made to remove these misconceptions and present a true picture. Besides, historical perspective, vital statistics, curricula and problems and prospects have discussed in the paper in hand
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.