شرعی امور میں آسانی اور سہولت کا تصور، قرآنی احکام کی روشنی میں

Islam is considered to be the religion of nature due to its originality and suitability to human nature for all times or centuries. It continues to be successful in the developed world, and elsewhere, because its call is in accordance with the fitrah or natural inclinations of mankind. Allah, subhanahu wata'aala, is the creator of mankind and therefore knows his nature more intricately than mankind himself. Allah has therefore chosen for us a religion best suited to the nature of mankind, a religion that goes neither to the extremes of hardship nor of laxity, but instead provides a middle path; in other words, a religion of ease. Islam does not lay on people tasks that they cannot do or they will have difficulty in doing. Whenever, there is any difficulty performing any religious obligation faced by Muslims, they have provided an element of ease and comfort. In this regard, the focus of this paper is to throw light on the notion of ease and leniency of Islam.  

The Association Between Asymptomatic and Mild Neurocognitive Impairment and Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy Amongst People Living With Hiv

Background: HIV disease is associated with neurocognitive impairment which is one of the neurological complications of the viral infection. The spectrum of HIV Associated neurocognitive impairment has significantly changed since the advent of ART. The inclusion of the asymptomatic but cognitively impaired population of patients has changed the dynamics of this population, and requires further research to identify the impact it has on the progression of the disease as well as on any other aspects. Poor adherence to ART is one of the main causes of treatment failure and studies done previously point towards the milder forms of Neurocognitive Impairment as being a cause of poor adherence, among other aspects. Primary Objective: To assess the association between the milder forms of neurocognitive impairment and adherence to ART. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional survey, with consecutive sampling, with a total sample size of 218 patients. An association was sought between cognitive status and adherence as measured by objective means, self-reported means and last viral load value as a surrogate marker. The study utilised quantitative primary data on pre-defined baseline characteristics, neurocognitive assessment by MOCA, instrumental activities of daily living by Lawton score and objective and subjective adherence measures by medication possession ratio (MPR) and simplified medication adherence questionnaire (SMAQ) respectively. Univariate and bivariate analysis was conducted to determine the strengths of association between various predictor and the outcome variables. Results: A final sample size of 218 was selected out of all those eligible (500 patients). All study participants underwent a neurocognitive assessment, which revealed 69% minor neurocognitive impairment while 31% had no neurocognitive impairment. No patient was identified with HIV associated dementia on screening. Secondly, all study participants underwent adherence assessment which revealed optimal adherent rates of 66% and 77% by objective (by MPR) and subjective (SMAQ) measures respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in the baseline characteristics (age, gender, education, marital status, living arrangements, employment status, level of income) between the group of participants with cognitive impairment and those without impairment (p-value > 0.05). Similarly, when the same group were compared on characteristics related to their HIV diagnosis and treatment, no statistically significant differences were observed (p-value > 0.05). Discussion: Even though the rate of cognitive impairment in this study was high, it corresponds to some of the studies earlier carried out (CHARTER study = 53%), the majority of which were asymptomatic and Mild Cognitive Disorders, while only