Polemic Views about the Source of Qur’ān in Medieval Christian Writings with a Reflection upon Contemporary Orientalists: A Critical Review

Before the advent of Islam, there was a strong tradition of polemic writings both among the Jews and the Christians to prove the errors of adversary. But, after the advent of Islam in general, and the conquering of Roman / Byzantine empire by the Muslims in the era of Righteous Califate in specific, due to embracing Islam by a large number of local populace, the flux of Christian polemic writing was directed towards Islam. A number of polemic writings surfaced as a resort to keep their religion alive. These writings tried to belittle all basic concepts, beliefs, and creeds of Islam, and even the personality of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and the Holy Qur’ān. The contemporary orientalist polemic writers have claimed that there are several accounts originating from Jewish and Christian sources which tried to allegedly prove that the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was instructed by Jewish or Christian scholars in the composition of Holy Qur’ān, and to support this claim, they not only point out to certain Jewish or Christian sources, but have parroted their arguments as well, with the similar motives. With this, they have attempted to discredit Islam by raising doubts about the origin of Qur’ān. But despite of their efforts the fact remains firm that the Qur’ān has a Divine origin and was revealed by Allah Ta‘ālā unto Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). In this regard, the purpose of this article is to analyze the medieval polemic writings, their motives, and their rumination by the orientalists of the contemporary age. A critical approach is adopted in this analytical, and historical study, using published authentic data and literature including academic books, research papers, periodicals, dictionaries and reliable web sites also.

Alleviation of Salt Stress With Potassium Application and Role of Antioxidant Enzymes in Maize

Environmental stresses are among the most limiting factors to plant productivity. Among these, salinity is one of the biggest problems of Pakistan due to its arid to semi-arid climate. A rapid increase in demand for food due to increasing population, there is need to have salt tolerant crop genotypes in saline land for proper cultivation to meet this increasing demand. To investigate the effect of salinity on plant morphological, physiological and biochemical attributes and role of potassium in alleviating harmful effects of salinity in maize hybrids, two solution culture and one pot experiment were conducted. Initially, 9 maize hybrids were grown for four weeks in solution culture using three salinity levels (control, 50 and 100 mM NaCl). On the basis of biomass accumulation and K+/Na+ ratio, maize hybrids (26204, Hysun 33) and (8441, 33H25) emerged as salt tolerant and salt sensitive respectively. Subsequently, physiology and biochemistry of salt tolerant and salt sensitive maize hybrids were evaluated in solution culture and pot experiment under various levels of potassium and salinity. Results revealed that plant growth, RWC, MSI, chlorophyll contents and photosynthetic parameters of all maize hybrids decreased under salinity stress. But salt tolerant maize hybrids show significantly better plant growth relative to salt sensitive maize hybrids. Addition of potassium significantly alleviates the harmful effects of salinity by improving plant morphological, physiological attributes and enhancing antioxidant enzymes activities. The beneficial effects of potassium were more pronounced in salt tolerant maize hybrids than salt sensitive maize hybrids. Furthermore, salt tolerant and salt sensitive maize hybrids were grown in solution culture under salinity and heavy metal (Cd) stress. The results confirmed that salt tolerant maize hybrid 26204 is also Cd stress tolerant by showing better growth under both stress condition relative to maize hybrid 8441. Keyword: maize hybrid, salinity, potassium, antioxidant enzymes