Iqbal’s Inferences from the Qur’an: Educational Objectives for Developing an Individual for Serving Millat

This is the second part of my article published in JoEED, Vol.4, Issue 2, on Iqbal’s educational aims and objectives. In the first part the thrust was on the development of an individual self as a Muslim and the second part caters for Iqbal’s recommendations on how this individual can be developed as an effective instrument for serving the Islamic society and the Ummah. As mentioned in the first part, Pakistan lacks an education system to match the ideological needs of a Muslim society. The need to revive the grand narrative of the golden age of the Islamic world is currently being felt with great intensity. Iqbal being the ideologue of Pakistan has given us sufficient guidelines to draw our education system on the precepts of Islam. While Iqbal’s Persian anthology Asrar-i-Khudi narrates on how to develop an Islamic individual, his second anthology Ramuz-i-Bikhudi deals with how to develop this individual self as an effective member of the Islamic society. In this research qualitative content analysis of Ramuz-i- Bikhudi was carried out under the supervision of a celebrated expert on Iqbal and educational aims, objectives were derived for this purpose. It is sufficient to note that at the end of this anthology, Iqbal vows that his recommendations comply completely with the teachings of the holy Qur’an. The end objective of Iqbal was to prepare an individual who is an effective human being

Iqbal’s Inferences from the Qur’an: Educational Objectives for Developing an Individual for Serving Millat

This is the second part of my article published in JoEED, Vol.4, Issue 2, on Iqbal’s educational aims and objectives. In the first part the thrust was on the development of an individual self as a Muslim and the second part caters for Iqbal’s recommendations on how this individual can be developed as an effective instrument for serving the Islamic society and the Ummah. As mentioned in the first part, Pakistan lacks an education system to match the ideological needs of a Muslim society. The need to revive the grand narrative of the golden age of the Islamic world is currently being felt with great intensity. Iqbal being the ideologue of Pakistan has given us sufficient guidelines to draw our education system on the precepts of Islam. While Iqbal’s Persian anthology Asrar-i-Khudi narrates on how to develop an Islamic individual, his second anthology Ramuz-i-Bikhudi deals with how to develop this individual self as an effective member of the Islamic society. In this research qualitative content analysis of Ramuz-i- Bikhudi was carried out under the supervision of a celebrated expert on Iqbal and educational aims, objectives were derived for this purpose. It is sufficient to note that at the end of this anthology, Iqbal vows that his recommendations comply completely with the teachings of the holy Qur’an. The end objective of Iqbal was to prepare an individual who is an effective human being

Iqbal’s Inferences from the Qur’an: Objectives of Education for Developing the Individual Self

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan won its independence seventy years ago, yet its education system continues to be secular. If one of the main aims of education is to prepare the young generation for achieving national objectives, it is but imperative for Pakistan to design an education system from the Islamic perspective. Since Muhammad Iqbal is considered to be the ideologue of Pakistan and we find quite inclusive guidelines for developing a framework for an Islamic education system in Iqbal’s writing, it is imperative to explore his literature dealing with education. Two of his analogies Asrar e Khudi and Ramuz e Bikhudi are such works where we find Iqbal providing us with exhaustive recommendations for the same. The aims and directives for achieving goals of education were extracted from these two anthologies by employing qualitative method analysis and using hermeneutics approach under the supervision of a specialist on Iqbal. The results reveal that Iqbal’s concept and methodology of the development of self or individuality conformed to the approach of modern critics of contemporary education, who claim that the prevalent system is at odds with the natural human faculty of creativity

EVIDENCE BASED STRATEGIES TO ESTABLISH POPULATION-BASED CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING IN KIRKUK, IRAQ

Background: Cervical cancer may be fatal to women if not identified and treated early. In Iraq, cervical cancer ranks as the 10th most frequent cancer among women between 15-44 years of age, with about 291 new cervical cancer cases diagnosed annually. Cervical cancer can be prevented in two ways: primary prevention aimed at preventing HPV infection through prophylactic HPV vaccinations; and secondary prevention aimed at preventing precancerous lesions from progressing into invasive lesions through screening. Cervical cancer screening is under researched in Iraq. It is clear that Iraq’s years of isolation and disorder has resulted in a loss of research capacity. Aim: To provide evidence–based strategies to establish population based cervical cancer screening services in Iraq. Methods: A mixed methods sequential exploratory design was used; an iterative mixed method approach which included the triangulation of qualitative, quantitative and systematic review methods. Results of all phases were used to develop an emergent theory around the barriers for establishing cervical screening programme and to provide evidence to enhance cervical cancer screening services to be established in Iraq. Findings: The findings from the systematic review indicated significant health inequalities for Arab Muslim women, in that no population-based cervical cancer screening programmes have been implemented in most of Western Asian and Middle Eastern Arab countries. Findings from the qualitative phase revealed gap in theoretical and practical knowledge among the health care professionals regarding cervical cancer screening programmes with a lack of the capacity and infrastructure to establish population based cervical screening programme in Kirkuk, Iraq. Also, results suggest that the health behaviour of women living in Kirkuk is influenced by cultural ‘stigma’ around the word ‘cancer’, in addition to women’s lack of awareness in relation to smear test and cervical screening. Conclusion: Women in Iraq are more likely to be diagnosed at an advanced, rather than early stage of cervical cancer. These women should be targeted by cervical cancer screening and health education programmes. Policy makers need to improve the cervical screening infrastructure and make the cervical screening service more accessible to women. The current opportunistic cervical screening services are insufficient; there is an urgent need to developing cervical cancer intervention programmes.Iraqi Ministry of Higher Educatio

Iqbal and modern Islamic educationists, part 1: The perceived aims and objectives of education – A comparative analysis.

Iqbal views the schooling as well as the Madrassah systems devoid of developing a dynamic Muslim required for the renaissance of Ummah. With this realization, many Islamic educationists in Pakistan have established. Islamic schools in Pakistan. The question is whether their models are dynamic enough to create such Muslims? This research probes into the perceptions and practices of ten Islamic school educationists in Pakistan. It also probes and clearly elaborates Iqbal’s educational directives, and finally does a comparative analysis of Iqbal’s directives with the Islamic educationists’ perceptions and practices. Exploring Iqbal’s educational thought includes qualitatively drawing hermeneutical interpretations from Iqbal’s two Persian anthologies of Asrar i khudi (Secrets of the Self), and Ramooz i bikhudi (Mysteries of Selflessness). Thematic data analysis was used to draw the aims and objectives for education from Iqbal’s said works. It was discovered that though the Islamic educationists carried some visions of education from Islamic perspective, they were largely following contemporary secular frame work of education in attempting to achieve these objectives. The contemporary schooling framework has been severely critiqued by Iqbal and is deplored by many educationists in the west as well for its ineptness to confirm with child’s learning psychology. This project was undertaken as my doctoral research and is presented in two parts. The first part elaborates the aims and objectives as conceived by these Islamic educationists, and as derived from Iqbal’s educational philosophy. The second part of this paper will elaborate the practices of these educationists with Iqbal’s educational directives

Bacterial community shift as potential bioindicator to indicate the river water contamination due to palm oil mill effluent final discharge

A thorough outlook on the effect of palm oil mill effluent (POME) final discharge towards the composition and functional status of bacterial community in the receiving river is provided in this study by using high-throughput MiSeq and flow cytometry, respectively. The shift of bacterial community dynamics could be used to determine the potential bacterial indicators to indicate contamination caused by POME. This study showed that the POME final discharge did not only alter the natural physicochemical properties of the river water but also caused the reduction of bacterial diversity in the receiving river. The Chromatiaceae and Alcaligenaceae which were not detected in the upstream but were detected in the downstream part of the river are proposed as the indicator bacteria to indicate the river water contamination caused by POME final discharge. The emergence of the potential indicator bacteria in the downstream part of the river was shown to be carried over by the effluent. Moreover, the functional status of the bacterial community at single-cell level is determined with regards to their abundance, viability and nucleic acid content to monitor the effect of POME final discharge in the affected river. The shift of low nucleic acid (LNA) to high nucleic acid (HNA) bacterial cells in the affected river suggests the transformation of dormant to active cells due to POME final discharge which may serves as potential bioindicator in the screening of anthropogenic effect due to POME final discharge in the river water with originally high LNA proportions. Monitoring the effluent discharge at low trophic level using MiSeq and flow cytometry is considered as an accurate pollution monitoring approach which can be used to complement the conventional POME pollution assessment method

فعالية الواقع المعزز على التحصيل الدراسي لدى الطلبة في مادة العلوم في سلطنة عُمان

This study aimed to discover the effect of teaching based on augmented reality technology on academic achievement in science for fourth grade students in the Sultanate of Oman. The study adopted a quasi-experimental approach to find out the effect of augmented reality on the educational process. The study sample consisted of 66 male and female students from two semesters from Al-Afiah Primary School; one of them, consisting of 33 students selected as a control group, while the other class, consisting of 33 students appointed as an experimental group. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher re-designed the third unit of the science textbook in the Sultanate of Oman using augmented reality technology, where the new science book designed using augmented reality (Ulum AR Book), based on the needs of the teacher and student to learn the science. The new science book (Ulum AR Book) taught to the students in the experimental group, while the students in the control group taught the same subject in the textbook in the traditional way. Two tests designed to measure academic achievement, a pre-, post- test. The validity and reliability of the academic achievement exams tested by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, Couder-Richardson equation (21) and equivalence established between them. The validity and reliability of the student direction scale tested using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. As for the analysis of the study data, it was done by using a two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures (Repeated Measures ANOVA). Results of the study showed a significant impact of the use of augmented reality technology on academic achievement. In addition, it also revealed the students’ perspectives, their desires, and their directions regarding the application of augmented reality technology in the educational process. The study was included with a set of recommendations

Climate Change and Mental Health: A Scoping Review.

Climate change is negatively impacting the mental health of populations. This scoping review aims to assess the available literature related to climate change and mental health across the World Health Organisation's (WHO) five global research priorities for protecting human health from climate change. We conducted a scoping review to identify original research studies related to mental health and climate change using online academic databases. We assessed the quality of studies where appropriate assessment tools were available. We identified 120 original studies published between 2001 and 2020. Most studies were quantitative (n = 67), cross-sectional (n = 42), conducted in high-income countries (n = 87), and concerned with the first of the WHO global research priorities-assessing the mental health risks associated with climate change (n = 101). Several climate-related exposures, including heat, humidity, rainfall, drought, wildfires, and floods were associated with psychological distress, worsened mental health, and higher mortality among people with pre-existing mental health conditions, increased psychiatric hospitalisations, and heightened suicide rates. Few studies (n = 19) addressed the other four global research priorities of protecting health from climate change (effective interventions (n = 8); mitigation and adaptation (n = 7); improving decision-support (n = 3); and cost estimations (n = 1)). While climate change and mental health represents a rapidly growing area of research, it needs to accelerate and broaden in scope to respond with evidence-based mitigation and adaptation strategies

A Review of Current and Emerging Approaches for Water Pollution Monitoring

The aquatic ecosystem is continuously threatened by the infiltration and discharge of anthropogenic wastewaters. This issue requires the unending improvement of monitoring systems to become more comprehensive and specific to targeted pollutants. This review intended to elucidate the overall aspects explored by researchers in developing better water pollution monitoring tools in recent years. The discussion is encircled around three main elements that have been extensively used as the basis for the development of monitoring methods, namely the dissolved compounds, bacterial indicator, and nucleic acids. The latest technologies applied in wastewater and surface water mapped from these key players were reviewed and categorized into physicochemical and compound characterizations, biomonitoring, and molecular approaches in taxonomical and functional analyses. Overall, researchers are continuously rallying to enhance the detection of causal source for water pollution through either conventional or mostly advanced approaches focusing on spectrometry, high-throughput sequencing, and flow cytometry technology among others. From this review’s perspective, each pollution evaluation technology has its own advantages and it would be beneficial for several aspects of pollutants assessments to be combined and established as a complementary package for better aquatic environmental management in the long run