Sunstroke: Prevention and Prevalence:

Don't fall prey to the unrelenting Indian summer heat. Take these
precautions and keep yourself and your loved ones safe from sunstroke.
What is sunstroke?
Sunstroke is a severe form of heat stroke, which if nottreated
quickly, can endanger life. It occurs when the body is unable to
regulate its temperature due to exposure to excessive heat. Much like
a thermostat, our body has a mechanism to control the temperature.
This heatregulating system helps the body stay cool in summer and warm
in winters. The body perspires in summers to stay cool.
Dehydration can lead to sunstroke. The body loses water to excessive
perspiration and if this is not replenished the body takes up water
from the blood stream. This has an impact on the heart and brain.
Sunstroke has to be treated as a medical emergency. Dehydration can
also lead to other complications like difficulty in passing urine,
burning sensation and urinary tract infections.
Prevalence of sunstroke in India
With global temperatures rising, Indian summers aretaking a heavy toll
of life. Temperatures are reachingas high as 48-50 degrees in places
like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, parts of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.
Heat wave conditions are an everyday reality in peak season.
Those unable to withstandsuch high temperatures immediately fall prey
to it.Young children and elderlypeople are high-risk groups that need
to stay protected during the peak of summer.
Symptoms of sunstroke include
*. Dizziness
*. Headache
*. Rapid pulse rate
*. High fever
*. Rise in body temperature
*. Unconsciousness
*. Nausea
*. Hallucinations
*. Convulsion
Treatment of sunstroke
Identify the symptoms as early as possible and treat the condition
like an emergency. Try to lower the body temperature by using ice
packs on the head and covering the body with wet towels. Give fluids
to the patient –electrolyte fluids or fresh lime or coconut water are
recommended. In severe cases IV fluids may be required.
In case of fits and seizures rush the patient to a hospital.
Prevention of sunstroke
*. Schools switch to summer timings after exams but you still need to
take care that on the way back children do notlinger about in the sun
to play and get back home quickly.
*. Adults should try to avoid going out in the heat between noon and 3pm.
*. The elderly at home should be made to drink water at intervals even
ifthey are not thirsty. As the constitution is weak in old age the
body can still develop heat stroke conditions even while at home in
front of the cooler.
*. Wearing loose fitting, light cotton clothes is a good idea.
*. Keep plenty of cool drinking water available for everyone.
*. Avoid excessive physical activity in the mid day. Workouts and
practices should be completed in the cool early morning hours./

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Hijaab: definition and conditions:

Hijaab is an Arabic word that describes the Muslim woman's entire
dress code, which includes a veil and whatever else is needed to cover
everything except the face and hands. It is adopted at puberty - an
age when, according to Islam, people become accountable for their
actions.
This essay will attempt to brieflyenumerate the basic requirements
regarding the Hijaab as stipulated by the Sharee'ah (Islamic Law). The
term Hijaab includes not only dress and the covering of the body, but
also the methods of behaviour that one has before members of the same
and/or opposite sex, promoting privacy for females and prohibiting
loose intermingling between males and females; it is, therefore, an
encouragement of modesty, decency, and chastity.
The following requirements represent the ones agreed uponby the
overwhelming majority ofIslamic scholars and are all solidly backed by
firm evidence taken from the Quran, the Sunnah (Prophetic traditions)
and the practice of the Companions of the Prophet .
1. The Extent of Covering
The dress worn in public must cover the entire body except what has
been specifically excluded, based upon the following verse:
Allaah Says (what means): "And tell the believing women to reduce
[some] of their vision andguard their private parts and not display
their adornment [Zeenah] except only that which [ordinarily] appears
thereof and to draw their headcovers [Khumur] over their chests and
not display their adornment [i.e.,beauty] except to their husbands,
their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands'
sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their sisters' sons, their
female slaves, their women [i.e., their sisters in Islam], or those
male attendants having no physical desire, or children who are not yet
aware of the private aspectsof women. And let them not stamp their
feet to make knownwhat they conceal of their adornment. And turn to
Allaah inrepentance, all of you, O Believers, in order that you might
succeed." [Quran 24:31]
The word Zeenah in the above verse literally means adornment, and includes both:
(a) That which Allaah has adorned (i.e., the woman's natural and/or
physical beauty), and,
(b) That with which they adorn themselves (i.e., jewellery, eye
shadow, attractive clothing, hand dye, etc). The word 'Khumur' (pl. of
'Khimaar') refersto a cloth that covers the head (including the ears),
hair, neck and bosom.
2. Thickness
The garment should be thick andopaque so as not to display the skin
colour and form of the body beneath it. Delicate or transparent
clothing does not constitute a proper covering. Imaam Al-Qurtubi
reported anarration from 'Aa'ishah that some women from the tribe of
Banu Tameem came to see her wearing transparent clothing. 'Aa'ishah
said to them: "If you are believing women, these are not the clothes
of believing women." He also reported that on another occasion, a
bride came to see her wearing a sheer, transparent Khimaar, whereupon
'Aa'ishah remarked: "A woman who wears such clothing does not believe
in Soorah An-Noor (i.e., the chapter in the Quran that contains the
abovementioned verse regarding the Hijaab)." Moreover, the following
Hadeeth makes this point graphically clear. Prophet Muhammad said:
"There will be among the last of my Ummah(Nation), scantily dressed
women; they will wear their hairon top of their heads, like a camel's
hump. Curse them - for verily they are cursed."
3. Looseness
The clothing must hang loosely and not be so tight and fitting asto
show the shape and size of the woman's body. This obviously prohibits
such things as skin-tight body suits and the like. The following
Hadeeth proves this point clearly. Usaamah bin Zayd said: The Prophet
once gave me a gift of thick Coptic cloth that he had received as a
gift from Dahiyyah Al-Kalbee, so I gave it to my wife. Afterwards, he
asked me: "Why haven't you worn the Coptic cloth? I replied: 'I gave
it to my wife.' The Prophet then said: "Tell her to wear a thick gown
under it (i.e., the Coptic garment) for I fear that it may describe
the size of her limbs." [Narrated by Ahmad, Al Bayhaqi & Al-Haakim]
4. Colour, Appearance and Demeanour....

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For Afghanistan's women, Islam is the answer

After 20 years of ceaseless war and famine, the women of Afghanistan
must heal themselves, and ultimately their nation, by rediscovering
their identityas empowered, dignified Muslim women.
To many, such an assertion seems like an exact reversal of the truth.
After so much suffering, some think, the last thing these women need
is more of what apparently caused it. However, a brief look at history
and women's rightsthrough a correct understanding of Islam paints
quite a different picture.
It was Islam, in the 7th century, that established women's spiritual
and intellectual equality with men. Muslim women were granted the
right to vote, own property, inherit, receive a higher education and
even run a business in which men were subordinates.
These teachings were immediately put into practice, where 1,400
yearsago women played an active political role, not only voting for
their leader,but also advising him. The Prophet Mohammed's
wife,Khadijah, was one of the most successful businesswomen in Mecca,
employing many men, including at one point the Prophet himself. Aisha,
whom the Prophet marriedsome years after the death of Khadijah, became
a scholar of Islam. A man of the time described her by saying, "I have
not seen a greater scholar than Aisha in the learning of the Koran,
shares of inheritance, lawful and unlawful matters, poetry,
literature, Arab history and genealogy." It was not surprising, then,
when the world's first institution of higher education -- Al-Azhar
Islamic University, founded in Cairo in 969 A.D.-- was named after a
woman, Fatima al-Zahraa.
In fact, Islam gave women rights centuries ago not enjoyed by them in
our country today. For example, a Muslim woman is a totally separate
entity from her husband, not onlykeeping her family name as well as
all property she owned before marriage, but also maintaining total
ownership of any money or property she acquires after marriage. In
contrast, the general law in most states considers any wealtha woman
obtains during marriage as jointly owned by her and her husband.
Since Afghanis are predominantly Muslim, onewould expect their customs
to already reflect Islam's reverence of women. However, 20 yearsof war
has created a culture of force, where the physically weaker sex is
abused and seen as inferior, and where Islamic teachings are
superseded by tribal traditions.
The suppression of women's rights in Muslim countries is, of course,
not unique to Afghanistan, and neither are the reasons for it. Women's
oppression in many parts of the Muslim world is actually just one
symptom of a widespread decay of Islamic ideals and the subsequent
regression to pre-Islamic tribal culture.
This spiritual cancer has also resulted in the rise of corrupt
tyrannical rulers, the proliferation of usury inMuslim economies, the
growing gap between rich and poor and the emergence of nationalism.
Due to this misrepresentation of Islam,some have dismissed it as a
solution to the problems of women in Afghanistan. Instead, they argue
that this country is a hundred years overdue for a healthyhelping of
Western feminism. Many are under the impression that women's
liberation was a 20th-century Western development, and that gains in
women's status in other parts of the world are primarily as a result
of Western influence.
Certainly no one can deny the progress Western women have made since
the days of the English Common Law, which regarded a woman as the
legal property of her husband, barring her from owning property,
entering into contracts or even keeping her name. After centuries of
struggle, American women gained the right to vote in 1920 and British
married womengained the right to own property in 1935. Laws for equal
access to education and the workplace followed.
This relatively recent change in laws makes it quite clear that far
from being the pioneer of women's liberation, the West was actually a
thousand-years-late newcomer to this Islamic movement. What's more,
when laws in the West were finally corrected to give women their
equality, society was late to follow. It took generations to
alterpeople's beliefs about the status of women and affecttrue social
change.

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Do Islam, Christianity, and Judaism have different Origins?

No. The original, unchanged revelations given to Abrahamic and other
prophets reaching back to Adam all came from the One True God. This
common origin explains their similarities inmany beliefs and values.
Abraham is mentioned in the Qur'an as one of the great Prophets and
was honored with the title,"Friend of God." Abraham and his eldest
son, Ishmael,were commanded by God to build a place of worship,the
Ka'bah, in what is today the city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
The Ka'bah is a simple stone construction erected as a sanctuary for
the worship of the One God. The Qur'an states that God commanded
Abraham to summon all humankind to visit this place, and when pilgrims
go there today they say "At your service, OLord," in response to
Abraham's call. The Ka'bah is the central place of worship toward
which all Muslims face in prayer to God, Almighty.

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