Islamic philosophy; Sufism; mysticism; Islam.

Mobile app stores provide an extremely rich source of information on app descriptions, characteristics, and usage, and analyzing these data provides insights and a deeper understanding of the nature of apps. However, manual analysis of this vast amount of information on mobile apps is not a simple and straightforward task; it is costly in terms of human effort and time. Computational methods such as topic modeling can provide an efficient and satisfactory approach to mobile app information analysis. Topic modeling is (...) a type of statistical modeling technique for discovering abstract topics that occur in a set of documents. This study explores the relationship between features of Arabic apps and investigates how well the current predefined Google Play app categories represent the type and genre of Arabic mobile apps. Based on the textual app description analysis, we aim to design and develop a sustainable classification system using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation method of topic modeling in order to cover the Arabic apps classification in Google Play app store. Our study supports the hypothesis that the textual app descriptions are effective in suggesting new categories for Arabic mobile apps in Google Play app store. Also, the results indicated that the current classification on Google Play app store is not suitable for our case study “Arabic apps,” as well as it is not sustainable, as it can not cover the new app types including Arabic apps. This study offers an important contribution to Arabic app analysis and design, to improve app search and exploration in several domains such as business, marketing, and technical development. Furthermore, it provides insights for the future of Arabic app research and provides guidance for the development of an Arabic app dashboard that will support users on how to select an app based on their specific needs. (shrink)

Ideological and political tensions have impeded paying attention to human rights violations against North Koreans. By describing the substantial connection between human rights and nuclear weapons issues in North Korea, this book urges a wide audience, including human rights activists, scholars, and educators, to show leadership in helping North Korean defectors seek freedom.

PurposeWithin a larger mandate of reviewing the key global trends concerning consumer protection in the electronic commerce (e-commerce) literature, this study aims to study the legal framework concerning e-commerce and consumer protection in the Sultanate of Oman and to analyse the current regulations concerning e-commerce and consumer protection.Design/methodology/approachThis study followed the normative legal research approach and resorted to the desk research process to facilitate content analysis of literature containing consumer protection legislation and regulatory provisions in Oman in particular and the (...) rest of the world in general.FindingsThe study reveals that consumer protection initiatives in Oman are well entrenched for offline transactions, but are relatively new and limited for e-commerce. In spite of the promulgation of consumer protection laws, electronic transaction law and cybercrime law, consumer protection measures for e-commerce in Oman do not address a large number of the global concerns necessary to build consumer confidence and trust in the online environment.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a dearth of information concerning Oman on this topic in the extant literature. The research also witnessed the lack of empirical data on the issue of consumer protection and e-commerce in Oman that offer a detailed database of consumer complaints and associated outcomes.Practical implicationsThe mechanism of consumer protection in electronic transactions is not robust in many countries. Because of the lack of comprehensive and robust legislation, consumers remain vulnerable in the online contractual purchase process. Moving beyond the fragmented legislation, many countries are currently mulling an all-comprehensive e-commerce law, implications of this paper will help the policymakers in identifying the focus areas.Social implicationsConsumer protection is a burning global issue in this era of consumerism. It is important to build consumer trust, transparency and integrity of transactions to reduce the risk and uncertainties of purchase.Originality/valueConsumer protection studies conducted in the context of Oman, hitherto, deal more with data protection and dispute resolution mechanisms, and less with legal provisions, regulations and consumer confidence. The study shares newer insights based on a systematic review of legal and business databases. It is the first study of its kind in the context of Oman and the Middle East in general. (shrink)

Higher education institutions in the Arabian Gulf region today, which have mushroomed and proliferated in the past ten to fifteen years, have been constructing themselves along models of Western universities at the levels of governance, programs, and structure. At the outset of the twenty-first century, universities have globally experienced a drastic shift in their governance from ‘republics of scholars’ to stakeholder organizations. In this paper, we discuss and deconstruct some of the consequences of that drastic shift, paramount among which is (...) the downsizing and neglect of some sciences/fields. We discuss some of the major problems that the Market Model of the University is facing in the West through a literature review. We also explore the academic view on some problems and challenges facing University governance today in the globe at large and specifically in the Arabian Gulf Region. We believe that universities in this region in their present state face the serious challenge of generating indigenous knowledge that fulfills the needs of citizens within this region, knowledge that draws upon the culture, history, and geography of the area and responds to the specific needs of citizens in this area. (shrink)

In several experiments of survival analysis, the cause of death or failure of any subject may be characterized by more than one cause. Since the cause of failure may be dependent or independent, in this work, we discuss the competing risk lifetime model under progressive type-II censored where the removal follows a binomial distribution. We consider the Akshaya lifetime failure model under independent causes and the number of subjects removed at every failure time when the removal follows the binomial distribution (...) with known parameters. The classical and Bayesian approaches are used to account for the point and interval estimation procedures for parameters and parametric functions. The Bayes estimate is obtained by using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method under symmetric and asymmetric loss functions. We apply the Metropolis–Hasting algorithm to generate MCMC samples from the posterior density function. A simulated data set is applied to diagnose the performance of the two techniques applied here. The data represented the survival times of mice kept in a conventional germ-free environment, all of which were exposed to a fixed dose of radiation at the age of 5 to 6 weeks, which was used as a practice for the model discussed. There are 3 causes of death. In group 1, we considered thymic lymphoma to be the first cause and other causes to be the second. On the base of mice data, the survival mean time of mice of the second cause is higher than the first cause. (shrink)

Following their violent suppression of the Indian Revolution of1857, the British founded and consolidated their secular empire in the IndianSubcontinent, which marginalized and bypassed religion as far as possible,particularly Islam, which had been the official religion of the Mughal ancienrégime. Contemporaneous Ottoman efforts to counter European imperialism ledto Sultan Abdul Hamid II’s policy of pan-Islamism, particularlythe call for Islamic unity against the Russian aggression against Turkey in1877. It was at this critical juncture that some Indian Muslim scholars gallantlyvolunteered to counter (...) this threat, and to preserve the Islamic faith and heritageworldwide, despite the severe problems faced by the Muslims in India itself.This study highlights the role of an eminent scholar in this movement, namelyAllama Shibli Nu’mani, who in 1914 conceived the idea offounding the world-famous Islamic research institute Darul Musannefin ShibliAcademy in his home town of Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. Shibli was veryactive and instrumental in collecting donations from the wealthy landowners among the Muslim elite in his hometown of Azamgarh for theOttoman cause, raising 3,000 rupees, which was handed to Husain HasibAfendi, the Ottoman Consul in Bombay in 1877. Furthermore, his eloquentpoetry rallied Muslims across India to support the valour and heroism displayedin the jihad by Ghazi Usman Pasha against the Russians. Shibli travelled toIstanbul in 1892 and met with the Pasha, on whose efforts Tamgha-i Majidi was granted to Shibli on 13th Muharram, 1310/7th August, 1892.This article is based on Shibli’s major works in Urdu, particularly his arousingeulogies, Turkish archival reports, newspapers and magazines, andsecondary sources in Urdu and English. (shrink)

Since the writings of Shiblī Nuʿmānī and A. J. Wensinck in the early twentieth century, scholarship has often questioned the ascription of the creed al-Fiqh al-akbar II to the well-known theologian and jurist Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 150/767). But there has hitherto been little attempt to determine how and when this text entered the Hanafi theological tradition and who its true author was. In this article I show that until the early eighth/fourteenth century, theological and biographical works referring to al-Fiqh (...) al-akbar consistently mean the text written by Abū Muṭīʿ al-Balkhī (d. 199/814), which was later renamed al-Fiqh al-absaṭ. I then trace the entry of al-Fiqh al-akbar II into the mainstream tradition, showing that the key figure in its popularization was the legal theorist ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Bukhārī (d. 730/1329), who extensively quotes from the creed and attributes it to Abū Ḥanīfa. Finally, I propose that clues in the reception history and content of al-Fiqh al-akbar II corroborate the claim recorded in some texts that it was instead likely written by an obscure late fourth/tenth-century Hanafi scholar named Abū Ḥanīfa Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Bukhārī. (shrink)

En arabe la poésie reste le genre adopté par le plus grand nombre d’écrivains, avec de nombreuses publications (recueils de poésie et surtout dans les journaux et revues, créneaux d’expression plus accessibles que les maisons d’édition). Il est vraiment difficile de citer tous les noms, surtout pour la nouvelle génération. Une des novatrices fut la poétesse Ahlam Mostaghanemi qui a frayé la voie pour cette forme d’expression qui était presque tabou jusqu’au début des années quatre vingt. Mais...

En arabe la poésie reste le genre adopté par le plus grand nombre d’écrivains, avec de nombreuses publications (recueils de poésie et surtout dans les journaux et revues, créneaux d’expression plus accessibles que les maisons d’édition). Il est vraiment difficile de citer tous les noms, surtout pour la nouvelle génération. Une des novatrices fut la poétesse Ahlam Mostaghanemi qui a frayé la voie pour cette forme d’expression qui était presque tabou jusqu’au début des années quatre vingt. Mais...