The Origin and Evolution of Sufism

The early Sufis believed that there were two dimensions to the revelations received by the Prophet, words of the Qur’an in their appearance, and the divine inspiration in his heart. This divinely inspired knowledge in the heart, Sufis claim, was gifted to only a chosen few, who contemplated and longedfor nearness with the creator. The early Sufis also laid emphasis on one of the basic tenets of Islam i. e. ihsan. Ihsan is that level of devotion where the devotee is completely absorbed in the worship of God. The ultimate aim of the Sufis is to raise the level of ihsan to experience the presence ofGod. Since the Last Prophet (s. a. w.) was paragon of virtues including ihsan, it was assumed that Sufism or Tasawwuf originatedfrom the Prophet himself. This paper aims to focus on the point of origin of tasawwuf, on the one hand and the need for its revival, on the other.

A Study to Investigate the Causes of English Speaking Anxiety Among the 8Th Grade Students of Elementary Schools in District Sialkot

English language enjoys its glory as an official language of Pakistan. It is used widely as a medium of instruction in educational organizations. The main focus of this investigation is to explore the causes of anxiety in speaking English as a second language at elementary level in district Sialkot. This investigation also aimed at determining the difference in speaking English as second language among eighth grade students at elementary level, if any across gender, school type and qualification. The design of the study was quantitative. Population of this study was comprised on all 110 publics (76 boys and 34 girls) and 20 private elementary schools of tehsil Sialkot. As far as sample of study is concerned 300 students of 8th grade was the sample of the study, out of which 150 students (75 girls and 75 boys) were from public and 150 students (75 boys and 75 girls) were from private elementary schools. Data were collected from 12 elementary schools (6 public elementary schools and 6 private elementary schools) of tehsil Sialkot, with the help of simple random sampling technique. Research tool used for data collection was ?Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale? (FLCAS) questionnaire which was presented by Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope?s (1986). This adopted instrument was consisted on 33 Likert type statements having 5 sub-scales. Mean and standard deviation was applied in the SPSS on the factors of FLCAS to find out the causes of anxiety in speaking English among the 8th grade students at elementary level in district Sialkot. Inferential statistics like t-test was applied in the SPSS to determine the difference of anxiety scores between gender (male/female) and school type (public/private) while ANOVA was done in SPSS to determine the anxiety scores of students taught by teachers having different academic background. The findings revealed that majority of the elementary students were having fear of speaking English in English language classroom and this factor is the main cause of anxiety among elementary students. Results revealed that negative relationship was found between school type and gender while having anxiety in speaking English among 8th grade students. Results also showed significant difference with regard to qualification of teachers. Considering the English language anxiety issues among 8th grade students of elementary schools in district Sialkot, it is recommended that in both public and private elementary schools, language teachers create a stress free, informal, friendly, and mastering environment. Little communicative activities like drama, role-play and motivation provoking techniques in a studying environment should be utilized. In public elementary schools, a language teacher should assign some task as homework for the preparation of next class so that students may prepare well and creates such an environment in language class in which all students participate in ongoing discussion without any hesitation. Private schools should not appoint less qualified and untrained teachers as they are also the main cause of creating anxiety in speaking English among students. Male and female 8th grade students of both sectors should constantly be prompted to practice English language speaking activities inside and outside the classroom without bothering little grammatical mistakes.