Importance of Evidence of DNA in Perspective of Islamic Jurisprudence

DNA or Genetic fingerprinting technology is the topic of the day. It has revolutionized the forensic science. Islamic Jurisprudence has its own procedure and priorities of evidences, which mainly depend upon eyewitness, personal evidence and testimony. It was introduced in 1984. It is used in the identification of parentage, forensic sciences, treatment and diagnosis of diseases. The sequence of base pairs varies from person to person and the relativity of persons is identified by identifying the matching of base pairs. The Contemporary International Institutions of Collective Ijtih฀d have launched heavy discussions on this new evidence and reviewed relevant serious law making efforts based on it, which results in very valuable Fat฀w฀ and resolutions, regarding the use of DNA techniques, as evidence in criminal cases and its limitations and scope in Islamic Jurisprudence. This article discusses and concludes that the genetic fingerprinting technique should be used for the attestation of the cases related to it, along with the traditional way to acquire evidences, even though, it does not have self-sustaining priority, but depends upon other evidences for making a judicial verdict. Like other forensic evidences, it has also errors and intervening factors that limit its accuracy. Therefore, the decisions of crimes liable to ฀ud฀d, Qi฀฀฀ and Diyyat should not depend only upon DNA fingerprinting. Thus, we can say that in the absence of stipulated evidences, rebuking punishment may be sentenced on the basis the evidence of DNA.

Synthesis, Characterization and Application of Polymer Based Membranes by Using Modified Zeolite Particles

Membrane technology has been extensively explored as fascinating separation technique due to its energy efficient nature. This work concerns with the synthesis of five series of polymer membranes namely Polysulfone/Polyimide/Modified Zeolite mixed matrix membrane (MMM), Polysulfone/Polyimide/Silica nanocomposite membranes (NCM), Polysulfone/Polyimide-Silica- Modified Zeolite NCM, PIM-1/Modified Zeolite MMM and PIM-1/Modified zeolite thin-film composite membranes by solution casting method. Modified zeolite (MZ) filler was added to polymer matrix for tight packing of polymer layers. By adding silica (SiO2) and MZ filler to polymer matrix, the membranes exhibit properties of both organic and inorganic membranes. Polyimide and Polymer of intrinsic microporosity-1 (PIM-1) were synthesized by condensation reactions. Morphology and structure of fabricated samples were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). Mechanical and thermal properties of nanocomposite membranes were also investigated. Polysulfone based membranes were investigated for antibacterial properties while PIM-1/Modified Zeolite MMMs were investigated for CO2/N2 separation. Thermal and mechanical properties of fabricated membranes were enhanced by filler addition due to fine compatibility and strong interaction of polymer and filler. Diffrential scanning calorimetry analysis (DSC) indicated increase in glass transition temperature (Tg) with increasing filler concentration. Better DSC specifications were evaluated for 10 wt% MZ content. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) complimented DSC results. Combining effects of Polysulfone (PSf), Polyimide (PI), SiO2 and MZ enhanced the antibacterial properties however, better antibacterial results were observed for 10 wt% nanocomposite in all cases. Integration of MZ filler in PIM-1 improved the CO2 permeability.Moreover, considerable increase in CO2 permeability was evaluated for alcohol treated PIM-1/MZ MMM as alcohol wash opens up the free volume.Effect of membrane’s thickness on gaseous flux was evaluated by fabrication of thin-film composite membrane (TFC) which improved the aging properties for TFC membranes as significant arrest was observed in permeability loss for TFC membranes. In all cases, CO2 permeability was observed to increase with increasing MZ concentration.Thus, we speculate that the permeation properties are adequately enhanced due to strong interaction and fine compatibility of MZ filler in PIM-1 matrix.