Role of Islamic System of Education in Moral Behavior and Spiritual Identity of Muslims

Humans have always had the curiosity to know themselves, to know the world around them, and to know their place in the world. Morality, spirituality and religion are closely intertwined, ‘certain moral ideas became united with certain religious and spiritual ideas to such an extent as to become indistinct from them’. The role of religion in educational institutions is one of the most sensitive and volatile topics on the political and legal landscape now a days especially in country like Pakistan which has been created on religious ideology. The Islamic Way of Life is based on this unique approach to life and a peculiar concept of man's place in the Universe. Islam has provided mankind with the highest possible standard of morality. This moral code, which is both straightforward and practical, provides the individual with innumerable ways to embark upon and then continues the path of moral evolution. By making divine revelation the primary source of knowledge, moral standards are made permanent and stable. The first part of the paper is about the relationship between education and its role as spiritual and moral tool of training. Second part deals with the concept of education in Islam and third part will present types of knowledge in Islam and their application as moral and spiritual tool of education. Last part will give moral and spiritual training methodology in Islamic education. The relationships between ‘moral’, ‘spiritual’ and ‘religious’ seem to be akin to the relationships between the cluster ‘social’, ‘human’ and ‘political’. In each of these clusters, only beings of the kind appropriately described by the middle term can engage in activities which could be properly described by the first and third terms. Islam as religion of spirituality and morality gives a frame work to educate and train the students in modeling their life as more moral and spiritual with practical application in this life and success in the hereafter. The chief characteristic of the Islamic Concept of Life is that it does not admit a conflict, nay, not even a significant separation between life-spiritual and life-mundane. It does not confine itself merely in purifying the spiritual and the moral life of man in the limited sense of the word. Its domain extends to the entire gamut of life. It wants to would individual life as well as the social order in healthy patterns, so that the Kingdom of God may really be established on the earth and so that peace contentment and well-being may fill the world as water f ills the oceans.  

Evaluating the Maize Productivity under Different Irrigation and Nutrient Management Practices

Pakistan is water stressed country in which agriculture is major consumer of fresh water supplies. The competition among agriculture, industry and domestic use leads us to acquire alternate source for crop production. However, the quality of alternate water source may result in deterioration of soil in general, particularly crops for human and animal consumption. The objective of present study was to evaluate the use of canal, domestic and municipal wastewater along with press mud application as alternate and improved farm management practices for sustainable food production. To explore the impact of wastewater and press mud on maize, one pot and two field experiments were conducted. The irrigation sources used in the study were municipal wastewater, domestic wastewater and canal water. While the nutrient sources were press mud and inorganic fertilizers. In the pot study different combinations of water qualities and nutrient sources were studied. The results showed that wastewater had adverse effects on the emergence parameters, whereas, press mud mitigated these effects. Seedling growth was good with more plant length and dry weight with municipal wastewater along with press mud followed by the domestic wastewater with press mud. Among the field experiments in first experiment, effect of press mud application under different irrigation waters (municipal wastewater, domestic wastewater and canal water) in comparison with inorganic fertilizers on yield and quality of hybrid maize was studied. In second field experiment, productivity of hybrid maize was tested under different irrigation treatments (T1=canal water, T2=domestic wastewater, T3=municipal wastewater, T4=alternate canal-domestic-canal, T5=alternate canal-municipal-canal, T6=mixed canal & domestic and T7=mixed canal & municipal). All the agronomic traits, plant height (cm), cob diameter, number of grain rows per cob, number of grains per cob, 1000-grain weight (g), biological yield (t ha-1) and grain yield (t ha-1) gave higher values with an increase of 22-27 % in grain yield under municipal wastewater irrigation with press mud in the first experiment over both the years. In second experiment municipal wastewater was best with statistically similar or followed by mixed canal & municipal and alternate canal-municipal-canal regarding the growth and yield components and the highest yield in both the years 2012 and 2013. Municipal wastewater irrigation along with press mud in first field experiment while, municipal wastewater as such or mixed with canal water significantly gave higher seed oil content (%), seed starch content (%) and seed protein content (%) in both the years of study. Seed heavy metal (Cd, Pb, Ni, Cu and Zn) contents were found to be within the limits proposed by international food quality standards in maize under all treatments.