54. Al-Qamar/The Moon
I/We begin by the Blessed Name of Allah
The Immensely Merciful to all, The Infinitely Compassionate to everyone.
54:01
a. The Last Hour has drawn near,
b. and the moon has been split open.
54:02
a. But whenever they see a Sign, they turn away, and mock:
b. Just the ‘same old deception, continuing!’
54:03
a. And they belie it and follow their whims.
b. But every matter will reach its proper end - so they will know the truth.
54:04
a. Certainly enough of the narratives of the fate of the former disbelieving nations would have
already come in which there is deterrence,
54:05
a. narratives full of far reaching wisdom,
b. yet the warnings do not benefit them.
54:06
a. So turn away from them.
b. The Time is going to come when the Caller will call all people to a horrible event;
54:07
a. with their eyes humbled, they will emerge out of their graves as if they were swarms of locust, looking confused and bewildered,
54:08
a. scrambling in a stampede and rushing towards the Caller.
b. The disbelievers will say remorsefully:
c. ‘This is such a difficult time!’
54:09
a. Before them the People of Noah too had belied OUR Messages and Messenger,
b. and they belied OUR servant Noah, and alleged:
c. ‘He is insane!’
d. And he was rebuked and prevented from advocacy.
54:10
a. So he appealed to his Rabb - The Lord in utter helplessness:
b. ‘I have certainly been overpowered.
c. So help’ me!
Christian missionary scholarship on Islam and the Qur’an in Nigeria dates back to the advent of Christianity in the country. The reason was that Islam had become well established and indigenized in most parts of northern Nigeria and south Western Nigeria, and the Qur’an provides Muslims with information on Christianity and its doctrines. Thus, Islam became a serious obstacle to their endeavour. The early 20th century Christian Missionaries therefore, held that they could only get to the Muslims through the learning and research on the Qur’an. This spurred them to produce works on the Qur’an. Joseph Kenny was a Christian Missionary who was sent to Nigeria in 1964 through the directive of the Holy See, to assist the Catholic Church in reaching the Muslims in Nigeria. He underwent trainings in the fields of Arabic and Islamic Studies, and was able to produce more than 170 works on different areas of Islamic Studies. This paper critically examines some of his views on the Qur’an, as compared to the views of other Christian missionary scholars of Qur’an and thus elaborates on the misrepresentations contained in them.
Low anisotropic (Cu 0.5 Tl 0.5 )Ba 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O 10-δ (CuTl-1223) phase of Cu 1-x Tl x Ba 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O 10- δ [CuTl-12(n-1)n]; n=1, 2, 3, ... high temperature superconducting (HTSC) family was synthesized by solid-state reaction method. Nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared separately by different techniques (i.e. co-precipitation, sol-gel, and colloidal solution methods). Different kinds and sizes of NPs such as non-magnetic metallic (Ag, Au), non-magnetic metallic oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) and magnetic ferrite (CoFe 2 O 4 ) were added with different wt.% during the final sintering process of CuTl-1223 superconducting matrix to get the required (NPs) x /CuTl-1223 nanoparticles-superconducting composites. These composites were characterized by different experimental techniques such as x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, resistivity versus temperature measurements, critical current density (J c ) measurements, magnetic ac-susceptibility measurements, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy etc. The experimental data were analyzed by different well established theoretical models such as Aslamazov-Larkin (AL), Lawerence-Doniach (LD) and Maki-Thompson (MT) models. It was observed that tetragonal structure and stoichiometry of the host CuTl-1223 superconducting phase remained unaltered after the addition of these NPs, which indicates about the occupancy of these NPs at the inter-granular spaces. Non-magnetic metallic NPs (Ag, Au) have improved the superconducting transport properties (T c , J c , etc) up to certain optimum concentration of these NPs in CuTl-1223 matrix. The improvement in the superconducting properties can be attributed to an increase in the inter-grains connectivity by healing up the inter-grains voids and pores after the addition of these NPs. The improved inter-grains connections can facilitate the carriers transport processes across the inter-crystallite sites due to their metallic nature. But the superconducting volume fraction starts to be decreased after certain optimum inclusion level of these non-magnetic non-superconducting metallic NPs, which causes the suppression of superconductivity parameters. The effects of highly coercive cobalt ferrite (CoFe 2 O 4 ) nanoparticles addition on superconducting properties of CuTl-1223 matrix were also explored. The magnetic behavior of CoFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles was determined by MH-loops with the help of superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The resistivity versus temperature measurements showed an increase in T c (0), which could be most probably due to improvement of weak-links by the addition of these nanoparticles. The increase of mass density with xxviincreasing content of these NPs can also be an evidence of filling up the voids in the matrix. But the addition of these NPs beyond an optimum level caused the agglomeration and produced additional stresses in material and suppressed the superconductivity. We observed non- monotonic variation of superconducting properties after the inclusion of nano-Al 2 O 3 particles, which can be associated with inhomogeneous distribution of these NPs at the grain-boundaries in CuTl-1223 matrix. But overall suppression of superconducting properties was attributed to a pair-breaking mechanism caused by reflection/scattering of carriers across these insulating nano- Al 2 O 3 particles present at the grain-boundaries of the host CuTl-1223 matrix. The presence of Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles at the grain-boundaries possibly reduced the number of flux pinning centers, which were present in the form of weak-links in pure CuTl-1223 superconducting matrix. The suppression of activation energy {U (eV)} may be due to weak flux pinning in the nano-Al 2 O 3 particles added samples. The superconducting microscopic parameters (i.e. zero temperature coherence length along c-axis {xc (0)}, inter-layer coupling (J), inter-grain coupling (a) etc.) deduced from fluctuation induced conductivity (FIC) analysis with the help of above mentioned theoretical models explained the experimental findings very well. For example, the increase in the values of inter-grain coupling (a) deduced from FIC analysis is a theoretical evidence of improved inter-grain coupling in the host CuTl-1223 matrix with the increased contents of these nanoparticles. We also calculated the activation energy {U (eV)} of (NPs) x /CuTl-1223 nanoparticles-superconducting composites. The increase in T c (0), J c , U (eV) etc and decrease in normal state resistivity {ρ 300 K (Ω-cm)} were observed after the addition Ag, Au and CoFe 2 O 4 NPs in CuTl-1223 superconducting phase. The suppression of superconducting properties (i.e. T c (0), J c , U (eV) etc) after the addition of Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles in host CuTl-1233 superconducting matrix was observed.