Almighty Allah revealed the Holy Qur’an for guidance of the mankind. This guidance cannot be acquired without pondering over the meanings of this book. Different scholars dedicated their lives for understanding and then spreading the message of the Almighty Allah. This book is a study of the work on translations and tafasīr of Holy Qur’an. In Sub-Continent, a large number of religious scholars dedicated themselves for the service of Holy Qur’an. Their vision was broad and they elaborated meanings of the Holy Qur’an according to their own mental approach They were appreciated and criticized by scholars of different sects of the society. There is a dire need to understand and spread the teachings of the Holy book. Hopefully this work will encourage the readers to be aware of the research of theologians. Shāh Walī Allāh is the most important religious figure of Sub-Continent. He and his sons played very important role in spreading the message of Qur’an. Brief services of this family are elaborated in this book. Scholars of Sindh have contributed in writing translations and commentaries of Holy Qur’an. Some of their contributions are highlighted. The reader will also find introduction of well-known translations and tafasīr of the 20th century. But this introduction is restricted to the Sub-continent. Through this book. the writer wants only to motivate people for learning the Holy Book. It is not claimed that services of all the Qur’anic theologians of Sub-continent are highlighted. This is a matter of pride for the author that things are discussed without any prejudice. The readers are the best judges. Suggestions regarding the improvement will be welcomed. I am thankful to Prof. Dr. Shams-ul-Basar and Dr. Zohaib Ahmad for guidance and Co-operation regarding the publication of this work. May Allah Almighty shower blessings on them. If...
The rise of Islam, which emerged as a panacea for the world problems is seen as a problem itself by the west today. The reason for this blame is the rise of extremism and Islam phobia in the western societies. This has serious implicat-ions for personal, communal, national and international security. The involve-ment of youth in extremist exertions is very high. They are being more action-oriented, easy to be influenced by radical ideologies and as an agent for thrus-ting social change. Keeping in consideration the role of youth in adopting to or combatting extremism, it is imperative to find the perception of this important population about the problem under investigation. The research study was conducted in six universities in the federal capital Islamabad to reach to the youth’s population. The research was guided by research questions that aimed at exploring students’ perception about extremism and its various dimensions. The researcher collected data through an open-ended questionnaire from 1840 students to seek an in-depth understanding of the problem. In order to increase credibility in the findings, the researcher conducted focused group interview with 12 young faculty members. The data from the questionnaires were conver-ted into percentages based on common themes. The interview data set were thematically analyzed to understand the causes of extremism and its suggested solutions. Recommendations were suggested to tackle the menace of extremism in Pakistan.
This thesis is a collection of studies focusing on absorption characteristics of aerosol particles using satellite and ground data as well as model simulations at an urban environment in Karachi. First of all, identification of absorbing aerosols through various aerosol optical properties was performed. After that, a study of temporal variation of absorbing Black Carbon (BC) aerosol and their impact on meteorological parameters and surface reflectance was carried out. Finally, the radiative effect of absorbing BC aerosols was investigated. In order to seasonally characterize the absorbing aerosols into different types, the optical properties of aerosol retrieved from AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) were utilized. Firstly, the OMI Absorption Aerosol Optical Depth (AODabs) was validated with AERONET AODabs and was found to have a high degree of correlation. Then, based on this validation, characterization was conducted by analyzing aerosol Fine Mode Fraction (FMF), Angstrom Exponent (AE), Absorption Angstrom Exponent (AAE), Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) and Aerosol Index (AI) and their mutual correlation, to identify the absorbing aerosol types and also to examine the variability in seasonal distribution. The absorbing aerosols were characterized into Mostly Black Carbon (BC), Mostly Dust and Mixed BC & Dust. The results revealed that Mostly BC aerosols contributed dominantly during winter and postmonsoon whereas, Mostly Dust was dominant during summer and premonsoon. These types of absorbing aerosol were also confirmed with the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) observations. Furthermore, BC mass concentration was measured continuously for every five-minute interval with ground-based Aethalometer at an urban site in Karachi. In this study, the temporal (diurnal, monthly and seasonal) variations of BC and its relationship with meteorological variables were analyzed. Monthly averaged concentrations of BC ranged from 2.2 to 12.5 μg/m3, with maximum in the month of January, 2007 and minimum in the month of June, 2006. BC showed higher concentrations during the months of January, February and November while lower during the months of May, June, July and August throughout the years. It also displayed comparatively high concentrations during winter and postmonsoon, while moderate during premonsoon and low during summer. Diurnal analysis of BC concentration showed sharp peaks between 07:00 and 09:00 LST and again around 22:00 during all the months. Moreover, the relationship between BC concentration and meteorological variables such as Temperature (Temp), Relative Humidity (RH), Wind Speed (WS), Wind Direction (WD), VISibility (VIS) and RainFall (RF) was found and it was observed that BC concentration showed an inverse relationship with all these meteorological variables. The results revealed that BC aerosol concentration showed significant inverse relationship with surface reflectance with correlation coefficient (R) of -0.77 which implies that rise in BC aerosol concentration strongly reduces the surface reflectance. In contrast, the lower the BC aerosol concentration, the higher the surface reflectance. In addition, a significant negative correlation was recorded during all seasons showing that increase in BC aerosol concentration was accompanied with reduction in surface reflectance. The opposite relation between BC aerosol concentration and surface reflectance is relatively higher during the premonsoon and winter followed by postmonsoon, while it is lower during summer. With observations of BC aerosol concentrations, optical and radiative properties were obtained over the urban city of Karachi during the period of March 2006-December 2008. BC concentrations were continuously measured using an Aethalometer, whereas optical and radiative properties were estimated through the Optical Properties of Aerosols and Clouds (OPAC) and Santa Barbra DISORT Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (SBDART) models, respectively. The measured BC concentrations were higher during January, February and November, while these were found to be lower during May, June, July and August throughout the duration of the study. A maximum peak value was observed during January 2007 while the minimum value was observed during June 2006. The Short Wave (SW) BC Aerosol Radiative Forcing (ARF) at Top of the Atmosphere (ToA) and within the ATMOSphere (ATMOS) were positive during all the months, whereas negative BC ARF values were found at the SurFaCe (SFC). Overall, all three RF components at SW indicated that the heating by absorption of BC aerosols is higher during January, February and November mostly due to their enhanced presence, higher BC Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) in combination with low SSA, though the surface reflectance was low. While relatively lower values of ARF were found during May, June, July and August, these were attributed to lower BC concentrations and BC AOD coupled with higher SSA even though surface reflectance was much higher in these months as compared to other months. Conversely, the Long Wave (LW) BC ARF at ToA remained positive, and BC ARF at SFC was positive whereas, BC ARF in ATMOS shifted towards positive values (heating effect) during June-August when an increase in water vapor content was found. Finally, the net (SW + LW) BC ARF at ToA and in ATMOS were found to be positive while BC ARF at SFC were found to be negative. It should be noted that a systematic increase in Atmospheric Heating Rate (AHR) was found during October to January underlining the significant effect of absorbing BC aerosols. Moreover, we found the highest correlation between AODabs and BC ARF in ATMOS followed by correlation with SFC and then with ToA. Similar to BC ARF, the values of all the three BC Absorption Forcing Efficiency (AFE) were found to be at a minimum during June 2006 while these were maximum during January 2007. On an average, the contribution of BC to the total ARF was found to greater than 80% for the whole observational period and contribute up to 99 % during January 2007.