Scientific Study of Balance (Al-Mīzān) in the Light of Sūrah Al-Rahmān

This article is an attempt to elaborate the phenomenon of equilibrium prevailing everywhere in the microcosmic and macrocosmic systems associated with universal stability and rhythm. It has been accentuated what is beautifully illuminated in the beginning verses of Sūrah Al-Rahmān successively regarding balance that invites one’s thought towards the well controlled cosmic system as well as with the concept of balance by means of different manners as identified by exegetes and scholars concerning daily life i.e. From simple and common to that of complex issues and intricacies. Qualitative method has been employed for this research while some aspects have also been handled in accordance with quantitative approach. Article also emphasized the series of cause and effect nexus may be declared as self explanatory episode an indication towards a Supreme Force whose widespread control and interference can’t be denied rationally. Sūrah beautifully pictured the physical and metaphysical sketch of balance having many dimensions from man to universe and vice versa as well as from both towards Ultimate Reality whose dominion is limitless where one has to follow peaceful living and to put oneself aside indulging any disruption from ordinary clash to that of nuclear war to be waged.

Cultural and Ideological Representations Through Pakistanization of English: A Linguistic Critique of Pakistani-American Fiction

This study investigates the nature, scope and implications of and reasons for Pakistanization of English in Pakistani-American fiction. It draws upon the conceptual frameworks developed by Fowler (1996) and Muthiah (2009), and employs earlier models offered by Kachru (1983), Baumgardner, Kennedy and Shamim (1993), Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffins (2002), and the recent ones by Chelliah (2006), and Muthiah (2009) from the fields of linguistic criticism, sociocultural linguistics, world Englishes and postcolonial studies. Three Pakistani-American fiction works, namely, An American Brat by Bapsi Sidhwa, Home Boy by H. M. Naqvi and In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin, are selected for separate analyses under these models that are then converged into a three-dimensional model for postcolonial linguistic critique. It was found that all the texts under study follow postcolonial language ideology. This is where the findings of this research diverge from those given by Muthiah (2009) who asserts that fiction writers of the works under her study adopt colonial language ideology by constructing Indian English as substandard variety. However the texts under this study, by employing the strategies of abrogation and appropriation, and techniques of hybrid innovations and lexical borrowings, etc., ‘Pakistanize’ English, and represent and counter-represent a variety of cultural and ideological beliefs, norms and practices. This study also demonstrates that Pakistanization of English in Pakistani-American fictional works is indicative of the ongoing process of linguistic hybridity where English is negotiating with indigenous linguistic insurgency to accelerate the emergence of ‘Urdish.’ This thesis acknowledges Pakistani English as a variety of English as sixteen characteristic linguistic features of its own are found employed in the texts under study. This acknowledgment reinforces the findings of some of the previous studies in the area such as Mahboob (2009), Uzair (2011), Khan (2012), etc. However, the frequency of Pakistani expressions used in each of the texts under study remains formulaic, and is below 0.50%.