The Book of Genesis: the first book in the Bible contains one of the most popular stories known to humankind about the creation of the earth and heavens, the first man and woman: Adam and Eve and a deceiver, Satan. This story is not just known to Christians, but also to millions of Muslims around the world through the Qur’an which also contains information about the early days of the world and humankind in various places of the book. However, when comparing both accounts of the story, one can find numerous differences as well, which continues to provide a debating ground for Muslims and Christians.

               The early chapters of the Genesis narrates that God created the world in six days and then took a rest on the seventh day. First, God created the earth and the heavens and then separated the light from darkness which is how He formed day and night. Then the oceans and the sky were created. On the third day the earth was given life and then in the days to follow the sun and the moon and the various life forms was created. Finally, God created the first man and woman (Genesis 1). The Qur’anic account, however, has a slight difference on the act of creationism. Firstly, although the Qur’an states that the world was created in six days, it never says that God rested on the seventh day (Surah Al-Sajda: 4). Moreover, the order in which the world was created is not mentioned in the Qur’an.

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               The article ‘Diogenes andAlexander’, written by Gilbert Highet, is a concise life account of two of the most intellectual personalities of ancient times, Diogenes and Alexander. In the beginning, Highet sheds some light on Diogenes; a philosopher, founder of the Cynic philosophy. The article further describes his life in the rich city of Corinth and his interaction with its citizens. Later in the passage, the author describes Alexander, the Macedonian King, not just as a conqueror but as a thinker, as a student of another great philosopher Aristotle. The author then goes on to illustrate an interesting encounter between the two and how both treated each other. The author gives an interesting account as an admirer of the two personalities and the language used describes that feeling, however, the organization of the article is confusing and inconsistent.

             The article describes Diogenes as a man indifferent to the worldly pleasures like wealth that most humans lust for. He believed humankind’s greed for an extravagant lifestyle is going to bring them no good except make them go astray from nature. He wrote essays, poems and plays to edify his philosophy that the goods bought from wealth are not going to last forever and they only threaten a man’s independence from worry and anxiety of losing them. He tried to give this message to the people by setting an example when he chose to live a life out on the streets with no possessions except a cask to sleep in and a piece of cloth to cover him. His ideology was targeted for people from all walks of life and not a chosen few. The article then focuses on Alexander, the Macedonian King, a student of Aristotle, another great Greek philosopher. The article describes Alexander as a great commander and a thinker which was mainly due to the influence of Aristotle’s teachings. As the article unfolds, Alexander was sent to Corinth as Commander-in-chief and was congratulated by everyone including the poets and philosophers of the city except Diogenes so Alexander decided to pay him a visit. When they meet, instead of greeting him, Diogenes publicly mocked Alexander. But, Alexander only walked away leaving the crowds stand in awe because he thought highly of Diogenes which and even took one of his students to India as a philosophical interpreter.

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“Man is a complex being:  he makes deserts bloom - and lakes die. “ ~Gil Stern. It’s an incessant part of every human being to beautify, Improve or progress in life. It is this human that created fire out of rocks and paper out of trees. It is therefore this innate quality that distinguishes human race from all other species. Technology is one of the greatest achievements of man today. Today everything is accessible with a mere click of a button. Technology is an outcome of man’s own genius. Hence it is a man made phenomenon to facilitate a human being in making his life easier, but this is where man made things fall short of godlike perfection. Like every man made thing technology too has certain drawbacks.

            Technology is a tool to shape the world according to our convenience, and it has helped us in the development of civilization. Technology has made our lives convenient, but simultaneously it has replaced human touch, solving a few of our problems but giving birth to even more complications, consequently making life more complex.“The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.”(Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand, and Stars, 1939).

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Hawala is Arabic for transfer. A person (remitter) in country A sends some money denominated in country A’s currency to a person in country B without the use of normal mode of remittance i.e. banks and financial institutions is called “Hawala”. Hawala is often defined as a process of movement of money without actually moving it. In under developed countries, like Pakistan, where the foreign exchange difference is pretty large, Hawala system has grown itself as an institution running parallel to banks and other financial institutions. Although it is illegal to involve in remittance through Hawala, the pros of using hawala far exceed the cost and there is also a rare chance of getting caught. The very foundation of Hawala is trust that people show in the brokers of Hawala and these hawaladars have maintained their image which has helped it in becoming such a large network in Pakistan. The money remitted through Hawala never finds its way to the central bank and thus never shows up in the foreign exchange reserves of the country to which the money is remitted.

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