Discourse on Modernity and Tradition in Madrassa Education

Despite being the torch bearers of the glorious tradition of Islamic learning and ethical training, the madāris have been the target of Western on slaught in modern times. As immense importance was given to the acquisition of knowledge in Islam, the early centers of Islamic knowledge were imparting education according to the letter and spirit of it, but with the passage of time that tradition could not be upheld. Though Qarawiyīn, Al-Azahar, Niẓāmiyah are a few classical madāris where religious and secular teachings were incorporated into one, the latter madāris separated the religious from the secular (worldly) education. Formation of colonial states made the condition worse. During the Afghan war, the madāris flourished in Pakistan but after 9/11 they were deemed responsible for the attack. The paper aims at producing a discourse on this transition of madrassa education from tradition to modernity and intends to suggest recommendations for the upgradation and revival of the educational system of madāris.

Evaluation of Oxidative Stress Advanced Glycated End Products, Amylase and Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Ib Inhibitory Potential of Selected Medicinal Plants to Target Diahetcs Mellitus

Diabetes is a serious metabolic disorder, and plenty of medicinal plants are used parallel to synthetic drugs having no side effects and many existing medicines are derived from the plants. This study aims to evaluate selected indigenous medicinal plants,Chichoriumintybus,Trigonellafoenumgraecum, Saussaurealappa, Lipidiumsativum, Nigellasativa, their formulations [{S11 (S3:S8),S12(S3:S5:S6:S7:S8)}],and a mushroom Morchellaconica to target diabetes from different aspects, and add in the available treatments with cytotoxicity, in vitro and in vivo especially focusing on formulations and M.conica. The crude methanolic extracts of samples were evaluated for phytochemical determination following invitro assays with optimized protocols. The proximate analysis of the plants show the nutritional facts and the elemental profile show the presence of macro and micro elements have the insulinotropic properties.The compounds in S10 were characterized and identified by LCMS and NIST library.The antioxidant activity was shown that S12 is more active than S11 while the antiglycation activities of both plants are comparable. S11 shows low IC50 value than S12 in amylase as well as in PTP1B inhibition assay S11is 90% active compared to S12. The invivo assays aim at giving an insight at various aspects and the risk factors of this chronic disease and to improve the lives of the diabetic patients who are faced with physical; focuses on epidemiology and the issue of the cost of diabetes by using medicinal plants. The formulation S11 and a mushroom M.conicashow significant results of β-cells regeneration as well as lessen the inflammation and infiltration in the liver with improved physicochemical parameters of serum chemistry of the treated mice with these samples compared with normal and Glibenclamide treated groups serum chemistry and tissues obtained. The active formulations and M.conicacan be subjected to isolation of phytoactive compounds. Theutilization of plants as a potential source to search for a novel antidiabetic drug can be achieved by application of modern scientific technology and recent knowledge on the physiological changes in case of Diabetes. Exploration of novel targets like glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT-2) and dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) for antidiabetic drugs and medicinal plants with emphasis on site specific effectiveness and overcoming problems of resistance, side effects, prolonged usage and high cost, are being investigated for future research. Further investigations are required, and more attention should be drawn to explore the biological activity of hundreds of traditionally used medicinal plants both in vitro and in vivo to assess the claimed activity with the aim of finding potent antidiabetic candidates from the natural resources.