الأصول الجامعة بين كبرى الفرق الإسلامية

The Muslim nation shows great diversity in many ways: Ethnical, lingual, tribal, racial, colour, cultural, etc. Nevertheless, such differences have never been supposed to impede their way to their unity. The Muslim nation has far more reasons and mutual foundations to be united. But unfortunately, the Muslim history witnesses squabbles and skirmishes between different sects of this otherwise one Ummah. These disputes led us to the recesses of ignorance and intolerance, which in turn left us lagging behind the world and advancement, and now, we are called the third world, which is not an honour any way. We need to work on the similarities between different sects of the Muslim nation and let them learn how to live together keeping their differences. So that they may get united. All the Muslims sects fundamentally believe in the same set of beliefs, practices, and rituals. The differences in these areas are the differences of diversity and extensions, not of contradiction. This diversity is the beauty of deliberation and discussion, hence a reason for knowledge to grow, it should not be a matter of contentions. We need to highlight the mutual common grounds of Islamic beliefs and religiosity among the sects to unite this nation. We need to teach how to tolerate and respect each other with difference of opinions. We should encourage constructive dialogues between the Muslims sects and let them understand point of views of each other and thus remove the misconception about; each other. We should curb the contentious and discordant voices and build up an atmosphere where a healthy, tolerant and heterogeneous society may emerge and pave the way to Muslim unity and thence to success in this life and the life to come after death. In this perspective, the author of his present study explores to find the teachings and guidance of Islam. This is the theme of the present study.

Molecular Characterization of Inharited Retinitis Pigmentosum

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of inherited retinal eye diseases caused by the gradual loss of the photoreceptor cells. The present study was initiated to elucidate the molecular characterization of inherited retinitis pigmentosum in Pakistani population. The relatively high degree of consanguinity in Pakistani families makes the population a valuable resource to investigate the genetic basis of autosomal recessive RP (arRP). To explore the pathogenic mutations responsible for arRP, 50 consanguineous families affected with arRP were identified and enrolled through Eye hospitals from Punjab and Sind provinces of Pakistan. After genomic DNA extraction from the white blood cells, an exclusion linkage analysis of 25 families for reported genes/loci were completed by short tandem repeat markers labeled with fluorescence. During exclusion analysis, seven families were found linked to reported genes and loci. Two families PKRP259 and PKRP268 were found linked with TULP1, one family PKRP262 was found linked with RP1, one family PKRP264 was linked with PDE6B, one family PKRP235 was found linked with RPE65 and two families PKRP031 and PKRP224 were found linked to chromosome 1p21.3-p13.3 harboring RP32 locus. Mutational analysis of these four genes identified a novel missense mutation (c.1561C>T; p.Pro521Ser) in PKRP259, a splice site mutation (c.1495+4A>C; p.Pro499Argfs104*) in PKRP268, a splice site mutation (c.787+1G>A; p.Ile263Asnfs8*) in PKRP262, a novel deletion mutation (c.243delG; p.Arg82Alafs68*) in PKRP264 and a novel deletion mutation (c.361delT; p.Ser121Leufs6*) in PKRP235. The next-generation whole-exome sequencing (WES) is a powerful technique for gene discovery and identification of pathogenic mutation. The WES of one affected member from family PKRP030 identified a missense mutation (c.75C>A; p.Asp25Glu) in the CLCC1 gene. Bi-directional Sanger sequencing of CLCC1 gene in two additional families (PKRP031 and PKRP224) identified the same missense mutation (c.75C>A; p.Asp25Glu) which was identified in family PKRP030 by WES.