Preface
Each time one reads the Quran his or her understanding deepens. One may be blessed to have a command of the Arabic language and read the Quran in the language exactly as revealed from Allah to the Prophet through the Angel Gabriel. However, for most Muslims around the world, even if we know Arabic, the beauty and depth of the Quran eludes us. Therefore, we often rely on the tafseer (explanation) and translations to help us gain an understanding to guide us in our lives. Brother Hashemi continues from his previous works to carefully delineate in the translated text which words or phrases are a mere translation and which few words or phrases were added for easier reading and understanding.
As a revert to Islam, and a humble but imperfect follower of the teachings of Prophet Mohamed, I tried to learn from authenticated sources: The Quran, The Hadiths (substantiated sayings of the Prophet), and Sunnah (practices of the Prophet as witnessed from endorsed sources). Having information does not make someone knowledgeable. Even with authentic sources readily available, it takes a lifetime of study to consolidate the information into knowledge. And, being knowledgeable does not necessarily mean one uses this knowledge to guide one’s life. However, with works like those produced by Brother Badr Hashemi, we can become that much closer to understanding the body of knowledge and incorporating that knowledge in our daily lives.
Allah used his messengers to relay His message to humans and jinn (unseen creation) in order to guide us. The last messenger, Prophet Mohamed was given the final and irrevocable message to mankind, the Quran. It was revealed in the language spoken by the Prophet and the people of Arabia. The Quran confirms...
To understand the commentary of the Holy Qurân is a complex matter. Since the time of Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) till date the commentators have come to interpret the Holy Qurân for general public so that they should not face any difficulty to understand it. The Muhadithen made a separate chapter for Tafseer. In 19th century Imam Alusi (R.A) wrote a detailed commentary of the Holy Qurân. In this article I will produce a brief introduction of Imâm Alūsī (R.A) and his Tafseer. This paper touches the methodology of tafseer of Imam Alūsī (R.A) and the principles adopted by him.
This qualitative case study aimed to explore teachers' experiences and practices of developing teaching portfolio (TP) in a private, primary school where teachers were engaged in this practice for five years after implementation of a new teacher evaluation system called Performance and Management Reward System (PMRS). TP was introduced in the school because it has gained a significant value internationally as one of the authentic sources of teacher evaluation and continuous learning. TP is considered as a vehicle that promotes reflective practices and provides avenues of self-analysis through which one can assess own strengths and weaknesses and plan a way forward. It was significant to investigate teachers' perspectives in this regard to facilitate them in accordance with literature. Using purposive sampling approach, four female participants and the vice principal were interviewed. Furthermore, teachers' portfolios were reviewed and the PMRS guidebook was studied for the triangulation of data collected through interviews. The study reveals that teachers' have dualistic perspectives about portfolio. They feel that developing teaching portfolio is assisting them in their professional growth in multiple ways such as through self-reflection on their lessons, by documenting their professional development (PD) log and thinking of their professional goals for future. Simultaneously, they also consider it as a mandatory task to be done for the appraisal evaluation. Moreover, during the process various challenges were encountered by teachers. These include difficulty in writing reflection, time constrain, thinking of future goals, and getting coloured printouts for the portfolio file. Hence, the need for continuous assistance to teachers merged. Moreover, development of portfolio appeared as a product and one time activity that take place towards the end of the academic year for the appraisal evaluation. Therefore, it is recommended that a structured mechanism of mentoring should be established in the school to facilitate teachers throughout the process of developing portfolios. This will also facilitate teachers to improve their reflective practices. This study contributes to the body of knowledge about TP particularly in Pakistani context.