سیرت طیبہ پر قسِیس زکریا بطرس کی تنقیدات کا تجزیاتی مطالعہ

The Critiques of Zakaria Boutros on the Noble Seerah of the Holy Prophet Muhammad: An Analytical Study Islam is not only a true divine religion but an all-embracing way of life. Prophet Muhammadﷺ is the perfect and ideal role model for the whole mankind. Hisﷺ holy life is open to all in each and every aspect. Hisﷺ noble footsteps and teachings give complete guidance in every walk of life. It has been observed that Jews and Christians’ religious scholars and Orientalist study the Quran, Hadῑth, Islamic History, Culture and Civilization, generally, to deduce negative and subjective conclusions, pretending that they are studying objectively. Father Zakaria Boutros is one such priest from the Middle East. Basically, he is an Egyptian Coptic priest and an active Evangelist. He is a controversial figure in that country for his scriptural studies of Islamic texts. For the last sixty years, he has misguided hundreds of people especially Muslims through his missionary activities and maligning campaign against Islam in the form of booklets, Television programs, Internet services such as Paltalk and personal official websites etc. He has tried to distort facts and to present Prophet Muhammadﷺ in such a way that the attraction of Islam be decreased in the eyes of non-Muslims and doubts be produced among the simple-minded Muslims. In the article under reference, some selected critiques and objections on Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) related to the birth period (pregnancy duration), lineage, sources of knowledge and accusation of worshipping the black stone, are thoroughly analyzed and responded in a scholarly way.

Students’ Questioning in a Primary Science Classroom

Asking questions is central to intellectual effort. The questions which one asks play a significant role in bridging the gap between the known and unknown. Teachers in Pakistan use questioning as a major strategy to teach science in the primary classroom. However, most of these questions check the memory of their students, keep them on task, or check the instructions the teachers have given usually for class work or homework. Science teachers are the sole owners of questions and therefore students in Pakistani science classrooms have been positioned as the people who answer questions which have been posed by the teacher. The growing dominance of active learning environments in the developed world has done much to challenge this positioning but in our context, still, there remains an immensely strong institutional presumption that being a successful student is tested by the capacity to answer questions. This study was conducted to try out different strategies a teacher can use in a primary science classroom to promote students' questioning skills. The study revealed that a variety of 'hands-on, minds- on' activities with an appropriate level of difficulty can help to promote students' questioning skills. A gradual increase in the level of difficulty of stimulating activities, a friendly environment and acceptance of students' ideas helped them to overcome their fear of 'being wrong' and instead nurtured their innate curiosity. This resulted in the students' ability to create their own learning strategies which were all used as part of the science lesson. Several challenges to this approach in the learning of science were identified. They include completion of syllabus, time allocated for science lessons, product oriented assessment, school culture, individual accountability in the classroom and creativity on the part of teacher. Growing evidence from existing literature and my study seem to suggest that, primary science teachers in Pakistan need to review their role in the teaching/learning process. Any attempt to change the educational policy regarding the teaching of science would be useless if the implementers (teachers) of the policy do not realise their changing role. They are on the cutting edge and responsible for promoting students' curiosity, to help students to be autonomous learners.