68. Al-Qalam/The Pen
I/We begin by the Blessed Name of Allah
The Immensely Merciful to all, The Infinitely Compassionate to everyone.
68:01
a. Nun.
b. By the pen and
c. that which they write with it write.
68:02
a. O The Prophet!
b. You are not insane by the Grace of your Rabb - The Lord,
68:03
a. and, indeed, for you will be a reward never ending, never diminishing,
68:04
a. for, indeed, you are of an exalted status of moral excellence.
68:05
a. Soon you will see, and they – disbelievers – too will see,
68:06
a. which of you is insane.
68:07
a. Indeed, your Rabb - The Lord is Fully Aware of whoever strays off HIS Path,
b. as HE is also Fully Aware of those who are guided aright.
68:08
a. So do not yield to the pressures of those who persistently belie your Mission and the Divine Message.
68:09
a. They wish that you should compromise in your advocacy, so they too would compromise
on their attitude.
68:10
a. And do not yield to the pressure of any imprudent habitual oath-swearer,
68:11
a. to any slanderer, back biter,
b. going around spreading gossip to cause mischief among people,
68:12
a. who will hinder people from doing good, and
b. a defiant sinner, transgressor,
68:13
a. rude and moreover low-born,
68:14
a. who would so act merely because he possess wealth and children/sons and family influence.
68:15
a. Whenever OUR Messages...
Muslims across the world memorize the Quran in Arabic for verbatim recall. Memorizers can be native speakers of Arabic, non-native speakers of Arabic, or non-Arabic speakers. The purpose of this study is to investigate expert Quran memorizers on their memorization practices including what they brought to the act of memorization and what, according to them, underlay their success in memorization. Ten memorizers were interviewed about their reflections on their memorization practices. The analysis reveals that while some practices of the Quran memorizers are in line with findings from research literature on memory, there are others which are peculiar to them. The conclusion drawn is that Quran memorizers recite accurately because they do not learn the language. It is further concluded that Quran memorization is a special case, in which a range of extra linguistic factors such as identity, motivation and intention play an important role.
Chronic viral hepatitis is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the present day world [Goldstein et al, 2005; Baldo et al, 2008] 1,2 . The situation is particularly precarious in the developing countries [Jafri et al, 2006] 3 . It is estimated that by the year 2020-5, there will be three fold rise in cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma from HBV and HCV [Nguyen et al, 2008; Law et al, 2003] 4,5 . In chronic viral hepatitis the prognosis and management are highly dependent on the extent of liver fibrosis [Sebastiani et al, 2006] 6 . Though classically considered the “gold standard”; the liver biopsy is far from perfect, and has significant limitations [Poynard et al, 2004] 7 . This has led researchers to look for other methods to assess the stage of liver fibrosis [Afdhal et al, 2004] 8 .The noninvasive markers are the most widely used alternative to liver biopsy [ Manning et al, 2008; Castera et al, 2007; Morra et al, 2007] 9,10,11 . In the study presented, the association between serum markers, platelet parameters and liver fibrosis was investigated taking liver biopsy as the reference standard. A set of 5 serum markers, Fibroscore, consisting of: bilirubin, gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT), hyaluronic acid (HA), alpha 2 macroglobulin (A2M), and platelets; has shown very high diagnostic accuracy for the near absence of fibrosis, and cirrhosis. The area under the ROC for F2 (stage 2) fibrosis was 0.808, for F3 the ROC was 0.938, and for F4 the ROC was 0.959. A central cut off point of > 0.5, in the model, predicted clinically significant fibrosis, (F2, F3 and F4) with a sensitivity of 82%, specificity of 92%, and overall diagnostic accuracy of 89%. By increasing the cut off to 0.65, for stages F2-F4, the PPV was 95%. Lowering the cut off to < 0.08 for the exclusion of stages F2-F4 provided 98% NPV, thus almost certainly ruling out stages F2-F4. The PDW index consists of platelet distribution width (PDW), mean platelet volume (MPV), and platelet count. The area under the ROC for advanced fibrosis (F3-F4) for PDW index was 0.840, compares with the well known AST to Platelet Ratio Index (APRI) with area under ROC of 0.888. It is concluded that, Fibroscore has a high diagnostic accuracy for stages F2-F4, and PDW Index reliably predicts advanced fibrosis. The noninvasive markers will be helpful in the screening and management of fibrotic liver disease [Morra et al, 2007] 11 , and will replace liver biopsy in most patients with chronic liver disease from viral related causes [Castera et al, 2007; Morra et al, 2007] 10,11 .