The Life and Works of Ahmad Deedat: A Muslim Scholar of Christian Bible

Deedat. He debated with Christian scholars on very sensitive topics (from the point of view of Christianity) like ‘Is the Bible God’s Word?’ ‘Was Christ crucified?’ ‘The Quran or the Bible, which is God’s word?’ ‘Is Jesus God?’ and so on and proved almost all the basic doctrines of their faith from their own scriptures to be baseless. Throughout his life, deedat, faced a lot of criticism from non-Muslim scholars as well as from many Muslim scholars but he remained steadfast in his mission, and continuously struggled for preaching Islam through arguments and debates. He is best known as Muslim preacher who remained engaged in numerous intellectual inter-religious open debates with evangelical Christians, as well as video lectures, most of which relates to Islam, Christianity, Judaism & the Bible.

Effect of Osmopriming Sources and Moisture Stress on Wheat

Wheat yield in Pakistan is low due to poor germination; poor stand establishment and lack of optimum quantity of water availability at critical growth stages. The objectives of this study were to study and evaluate various osmopriming sources effects under optimum and limited soil moisture at critical growth stages of wheat for improved stand establishment and yield components. The experiment was conducted during 2008-09 and repeated in 2009-10 at new developmental farm, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan. The experiments were laid out in randomized complete block design with split plot arrangement replicated three times. Moisture stress levels (M) were allotted to main plots and osmopriming sources (OPS) to subplots. Before field experiment a laboratory experiment was conducted for the selection of optimum concentration of osmopriming sources per liter of water. The selected concentrations per liter of water of ten osmopriming sources from the laboratory were PEG (100 g), KCl (37.25 g), KNO 3 (101 g), NaCl (58.5 g), NH 4 Cl (53.5 g), CaCl 2 (55.5 g), mannitol (20 g), Na 2 SO 4 (71 g), hydropriming and control. In field experiments these were studied at three moisture stresses of 60, 70, and 80% MAD (management allowed depletion). Moisture stress and osmopriming sources significantly affected phenological development, agronomic characteristics and physiological parameters of the wheat. Lowest days to maturity (157) were noted for 80% MAD. While 70% MAD produced maximum spikes m -2 (294), grain yield (3348 kg ha -1 ), biological yield (10487 kg ha -1 ), absolute growth rate from heading-maturity (1.18 g day - 1 ), crop growth rate from heading-maturity (7.86 g m -2 day -1 ), and specific leaf area (300.66 cm 2 g -1 ). Largest leaf area (82.32 cm 2 ) and relative growth rate from tillering- heading were observed for 60% MAD. For osmopriming sources minimum days to emergence (8) were noted for PEG. While KNO 3 osmoprimed seeds took lowest days to heading (113) and days to maturity (155). higher emergence m -2 (82), spikes m -2 (313), spikelets spike -1 (17), 1000 grains weight (39.97 g), grain yield (3481 kg ha -1 ), biological ivyield (10877 kg ha -1 ), absolute growth rate from tillering-heading (1.88 g day -1 ), absolute growth rate from heading-maturity (1.33 g day -1 ), crop growth rate from tillering-heading (12.52 g m -2 day -1 ), crop growth rate from heading-maturity (8.87 g m -2 day -1 ), relative growth rate from tillering-heading, relative growth rate from heading-maturity, leaf area (84 cm 2 ), and specific leaf area (305 cm 2 g -1 ) were recorded for PEG (100 g L -1 of water). Likewise KNO 3 (101 g L -1 of water) osmoprimed seeds attained highest plant height (93 cm), grains spike -1 (51) and harvest index (32.53%). In the light of economical analysis hydropriming proved best among other osmopriming sources in lowering input cost of priming, and maximizing net benefit and income.