26. Al-Shu’ara’/The Poets
I/We begin by the Blessed Name of Allah
The Immensely Merciful to all, The Infinitely Compassionate to everyone.
26:01
a. Ta. Sin. Mim.
26:02
a. These are the Messages of the Clear Book - The Qur’an.
26:03
a. O The Prophet!
b. Perhaps you are going to destroy yourself with worry and grief just because they are not becoming believers.
26:04
a. If WE are to wish, WE can send down on them an Overpowering Sign from the heaven,
b. so that their necks/heads – pride and arrogance - will be forced to bow before it in
absolute humility and submission.
26:05
a. But WE have not wished it to be so,
b. thus whenever a new Message would come to them from the Immensely Merciful,
c. they would turn away in aversion from it.
26:06
a. Thus, indeed, they deny and belie it – The Qur’an;
b. but the truth of what they ridicule will come to haunt them in due course.
26:07
a. They demand a miracle while ignoring numerous miraculous signs of nature Allah has placed all around them; for example,
b. do they not observe the earth, how many of the beautiful pairs of useful vegetation, WE have made to grow on it?
26:08
a. Surely in this is a miracle,
b. yet most of them do not believe in these miracles.
26:09
a. And, your Rabb -The Lord – HE indeed is the Almighty to punish anyone for arrogance against the Truth, and yet the Compassionate especially to the reverent.
26:10
a. And remember when your Rabb - The Lord called out to Moses saying:
b. ‘Go to the people who are unjust ….
The crime of theft if committed in unavoidable circumstances like extreme hunger or famine, Hadd punishment shall remain suspended. A crime of Zina if committed in a situation where the life of a woman is in danger because of hunger or thirst and she committed Zina to acquire food items or drinking water to save her life, she will be exonerated from the charges of Zina. In the light of Quranic injunctions, the punishment of a slave girl, if she committed Zina, is half as compare to independent women and the punishment for the wives of the Holy Prophet for committing the crime of fawahish or disobedience (Nushuz), is double as compare to other women. 4. Contrary to this principle, if a respectable person committed crimes under Tazir, he deserves lesser punishment or mere admonition in the light of tradition of the Holy Prophet: (Pardon the wrong done by the nobles of the society”.5. For awarding the punishment of Rajm, if the condition of Ihsan is fulfilled, he/she will be killed by stoning. According to Shiah Imamiah, Allama Rasheed Raza and others, when a person who is once married but due to divorce or separation, is living alone or miles away from his wife and not in a position to enjoy her company. If such person committed Zin┐, he or she will not be awarded the punishment of stoning.6. In the light of tradition, it is not allowed to award death punishment except the following three circumstances. Firstly, if a person, being a Mohsan, committed Zina, . Secondly, after accepting Islam, if a person converted to other religion. Thirdly, death punishment can be awarded in retaliation of murder committed
Evaluating the effectiveness of public participation in terms of its influence on EIA related decisions has been increasingly suggested in the literature. In Pakistan, public is involved during EIA of projects likely to cause adverse environmental and socio- economic impacts. Empirical evidence to establish the extent to which it is achieving its objectives of making widely acceptable decisions and promoting sustainable development in the country is scant. This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of public participation in EIA in the Punjab province by adopting a pragmatic combination of qualitative and quantitative research strategy. The methodology involved reviewing the literature, developing an evaluation framework incorporating the country context, investigating four EIA cases of transport infrastructure and industrial development projects through content analysis of related documents, and in-depth interviews of the stakeholders. Several inadequacies and prospects are discovered. EIA and Public participation are not integrated into project planning cycle due to a legal lacuna of requiring EIA before start of construction rather than before procurement of site and detailed design. The case studies demonstrated a weak influence of public concerns on decisions, since consultations were held after taking irreversible decisions. Lack of information about participation opportunities, poor accessibility and quality of EIA reports, lack of communication and transparency in the decision making process were some of the other barriers, which also exist elsewhere even in well established EIA regimes. Provision of an egalitarian environment during public hearings, sufficient time for submitting concerns, and a high degree of willingness and availability of public to participate were some of the attributes in contrast with what the literature generally suggests. Furthermore, this study revealed that involving technical experts and NGOs can influence more positively on the public hearing outcome than the directly affected public. Thus, the theoretical connotations of public participation in EIA may not be generalized and there is a need to revisit the theory, particularly in the context of developing countries. Overall, it is concluded that despite certain impediments public participation in EIA is gradually gaining ground in Pakistan. Useful recommendations have been made to enhance the effectiveness of EIA. In particular, a new model for proactive but represented public participation has been suggested to take place before EIA and selection of site for a development project.