Introducing an Unexplored South Asian Treatise on I‘jāz Al-Qur’an

The present paper explores and introduces a manuscript on i‘jaz al-Qur’ān (inimitability of the Qur’ān) named Nūr al- Īqān bi i‘jaz al-Qur’ān written by a profound South Asian Sindhi Scholar, Maulana Muhammad Ismā‘īl al-Ūdvī. The field of i‘jaz al-Qur’ān has been and is the field of interest of many Muslim as well as non-Muslim theologians and scholars. Many Muslim scholars of the Middle East and the West have written books and research papers from third/ninth Century up to present times. The main and significant reason for this is that the doctrine of i‘jaz al- Qur’ān proves the prophecy of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. This paper argues that Shaikh al-Ūdvī is the first South Asian Sindhi Muslim Scholar, who wrote a separate treatise in Arabic on the doctrine of i‘jaz al-Qur’ān, which is not introduced properly in academic circles of the day. In this treatise, al-Ūdvī has advanced some new and original arguments to support the doctrine and the prophecy of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.

Experimentation of Word Wall Strategy for Capacity Building of Primary Language Teachers and Grade Iv Students Through Vocabulary Development

The aim of this project was to experiment the Word Wall strategy for capacity building of primary teachers and grade IV students for vocabulary development. From needs analysis I came to know that vocabulary development is an urgent need of the school. Keeping in view the school's need, I planned and developed a participatory project to ensure sustainability of the project through equal and active involvement of two immediate stakeholders such as two primary language teachers and grade IV students. This project included three stages; planning, implementation and evaluation. Planning was involved in both pre-intervention and intervention stages. Pre-intervention encompassed development of action plan, orientation of the teachers to the Word Wall strategy and development of resources, and defining roles and responsibilities of project leader and teachers. It also included a pre-test that I conducted in order to evaluate students' current vocabulary knowledge. Setting a clear goal, objectives and activities were also a significant part of planning. Besides grade IV students' two language teachers were the direct beneficiaries of this project, and teachers' involvement throughout the process in planning, implementation and evaluation of Word Wall was significant. My role during the four demonstration lessons and two observations of teachers' teaching presentations remained as a clinical supervisor to facilitate and support teachers in developing Word Wall and its effective implementation in the classroom. The purpose of offering these activities was to enable teachers to provide multiple exposures to students for understanding of contextual meanings and retention of the vocabulary. The experience of experimenting Word Wall in a primary classroom revealed that continual addition of words on the wall ensured students' spelling accuracy and vocabulary retention. Moreover, Word Wall proved to be a motivational element for students' participation in reading, writing, speaking and listening activities. In the light of the project outcomes, it is suggested that the aforesaid strategy can be applied in similar contexts to expand students' vocabulary and develop their language skills and reading comprehension.