90. Al-Balad/The City
I/We begin by the Blessed Name of Allah
The Immensely Merciful to all, The Infinitely Compassionate to everyone.
90:01
a. I swear by this City,
90:02
a. and you – O The Prophet - are a resident of this City,
90:03
a. as well as any parent and anyone born of him.
90:04
a. Indeed, WE created human being in stages of difficulty and hardship.
90:05
a. Now that he is in the midst of blessings,
b. does he think that no one will have power over him to hold him accountable?
90:06
a. For he boasts:
b. ‘I have squandered a great deal of wealth!’
90:07
a. Does he think that no one ever watches him with regard to what he has expended?
b. Indeed, Allah watches him all the time!
90:08
a. Have WE not given two eyes to him,
b. to see and recognize the truth?
90:09
a. And a tongue, and a pair of lips,
b. to speak and advocate the truth?
90:10
a. And have WE not showed him the two ways:
b. virtue and vice; good and evil?
Surah 90 * Al-Balad 737
90:11
a. Yet he makes no attempt to the steep/uphill way, i.e., good, virtue.
90:12
a. And what will enable you to comprehend the steep/uphill way?
90:13
a. The setting free of the neck from the burden of bondage or debt,
90:14
a. or, giving food at the time of one’s hunger/impoverishment,
90:15
There is a dire need of an experienced and authoritative mechanism in the polity of Islām in order to run the affairs of the state in a benefiting manner. This mechanism divides the state into different regions and provinces so as to carry out the affairs of the state in an organized way. These provinces must be founded on some administrative basis, not on racial, lingual or regional grounds. It is necessary that these units are autonomous as far as authority and power is concerned. It will help eradicate parochial differences and strengthen integrity of a country. It is essential to keep up and safeguard the freedom and the rights of these units. We can get our desired objectives, if legal and constitutional safeguards are meted out to these administrative units of the state. According to ‘Allāmah Ibn Khaldūn’s point of view, it is imperative to strengthen a state instead of expanding it. There must be small but integrated autonomous units of the state. Such division helps these units to progress and prosper. The golden principle of power distribution is in vogue in all eras, although its structure has been different and varied. In this article, we are going to view the structure of distribution in the perspective in an Islamic state
Critical Discourse Analysis of BA English Text Book: A Feminist Perspective. Critical Discourse Analysis [CDA] finds out power relation and hegemony in social relations. It identifies social injustices in social relations naturalized through social and discourse practices. Moreover, CDA examines, from feminist perspective, the unequal power relations based on gender disparities and gender inequalities. The feminist CDA investigates the portrayal of female gender in discourse practices in patriarchal roles. The gender biased curriculum has impact on the personalities and cogitative abilities of the students. The gender biased curriculum portrays women either in negative roles or in gender biased roles as housewives engaged in domestic chores. This study investigates whether English text books at BA level in Pakistan portray women in traditional roles as cooking and looking after children. This study examines the construction of female identity, assigning occupational roles on bases of gender, marginalizing female gender and uplifting male gender in English text books at BA level. These aspects are the focus of the present study in order to find out the gender disparities in the textbooks selected for the present study. Power relation is also exercised through language. The present study explores the use of language in constructing identities based on gender. The study focuses the selection of words in the depiction of male and female gender in the textbooks. The analysis takes account of the depiction of patriarchal roles with the help of language for each gender.