About Ismaili Digest
Think of Ismaili Digest as the Front Page of all the best Ismaili websites!
Ismaili Digest automatically and continuously brings together all new articles, photos, videos, etc. from Ismaili websites -- like The Ismaili, Simerg, IIS, NanoWisdoms, AKDN, Ismailimail, etc. -- so you can see them all at once. Direct links to over 15,000 web-pages from the best Ismaili websites already available.
Click here for our guide to the websites we monitor for you. Ismaili Digest saves you (and those who are not tech savvy, such as seniors) the effort of having to visit them one by one to keep up to date, or have your inbox cluttered with emails from each of them when they publish new content.
In a busy world, our sense of belonging to our community sometimes tends to wither and fade (particularly for isolated Jamati members). We hope Ismaili Digest's simplicity and comprehensiveness will help you feel connected as well as feel the local and global pulse of the community.
Like many other non-commercial, public-service thematic website aggregators, Ismaili Digest is just a thematic aggregator. We publish short 50-60 word digests of their content and then provide direct links to the original pages on the source websites. So, like with Google, when you click on a title or feature image for any entry -- weather on the Ismaili Digest website, on our social media pages or in a digest email -- you are taken directly to the source website's original page. In other words, you read the article on the source website, not Ismaili Digest. Taking you to the source website also allows you to continue browsing the source website for other content.
For you, the reader, direct links mean that whether you are reviewing our digests here on the website, in our daily or weekly email newsletters in your mailbox or on line, in our newsletter archive, or RSS feeds, or anywhere else where our digests have been shared, you will see a special isma.li link that goes directly to the source page saving you time, extra page loads and clicks.
For you, the website publishers, direct links ensure you'll get the maximum number of potential visitors reaching your content so your hard work gets the maximum exposure.
With Ismaili Digest, the Jamat learns more and stays better informed with less effort and clutter while website publishers enjoy greater exposure, a larger audience, more actual visitors on site reading their content.
Even though we only display short digests of all content, like Google Search, we have the full content cached for searching, here, on-site. So, if you remember you read something that was from an isma.li link, and want to find it again, you can now, for the first time, search content from just the key Ismaili websites at one go and see all the results in one place.
For more details about Ismaili Digest and an in depth discussion with the team, please read Pulling Back the Curtain on Ismaili Digest & Ismaili Ignition | A Team Interview.
Note that, except for NanoWisdoms.org (the archive of the Imamat speeches, interviews, and writings), Ismaili Digest is not associated with any other private Ismaili website, whether aggregated by Ismaili Digest or not, notwithstanding any aggressive marketing of our content on social media by others. All websites Ismaili Digest aggregates -- such as Simerg, IsmailiMail, Ismaili Gnosis, Amaana -- are independent websites run by their individual owners and we are not responsible for content they publish. Click here for information about how we select the websites and content we publish.
Important Announcement: Ismaili Digest has left all social media. Here's why ...
When Ismaili Digest launched in June 2018, we pushed all the content we aggregated to Facebook and Twitter. However, as of September 1, 2019, we stopped posting to all social media platforms. This major decision was, surprisingly, not as difficult as it seemed once we looked closely at the issue. Given the now virtually irrefutable, frightening psychological and social harm from social media (especially to children) we decided we could not, in good conscience, continue to use it at the expense of the Jamat's well-being. Click here to read our newsflash detailing this and the many other reasons behind our decision. We hope the Jamat and other publishers find it useful in their own review of the value and harm of continuing to use or publishing to social media.
Ismaili Digest automatically brings together content from over 36 of the most important institutional and reliable private Ismaili web sources. Click here for our guide to the Ismaili websites we monitor, listed below.
Note that, except for NanoWisdoms.org (the archive of the Imamat Speeches, Interviews, and Writing), Ismaili Digest is not associated with any other private Ismaili website, whether aggregated by Ismaili Digest or not, notwithstanding any aggressive marketing of our content on social media by others. All websites Ismaili Digest aggregates -- such as Simerg, IsmailiMail, Ismaili Gnosis, Amaana -- are independent websites run by their individual owners and we are not responsible for content they publish. Click here for information about how we select the websites and content we publish.
Officially permitted, private Ismaili websites
Note: Contrary to widespread misconception, official community policy permits Ismailis to officially publish their own community related websites, such as those below.
- Ismaili Ignition (all content) -- Helping to reignite the passion to think for ourselves and encourage each intellect to express itself.
- The NanoWisdoms Archive of Imamat Speeches, Interviews and Writings (all content) -- Launched several years ago, in 2011, upon receiving special permission from Aiglemont to publish Mawlana Hazar Imam's speeches, a unique website dedicated solely to the Ismaili Imamat's speeches, interviews and writings. With over 700 of Mawlana Hazar Imam's speeches, interviews and writings it is, by far, the largest and most comprehensive collection, online.
- NanoWisdoms -- Extended Quotes (all content) -- Unique and most comprehensive collection of related quotes of Mawlana Hazar Imam.
- NanoWisdoms -- YouTube (all content)
- RoundUp Video Series -- Ismaili, Devotional Music, Diamond Jubilee, Islam, Religion -- Aggregates the best video content of interest to the Ismaili community.
- Candid Insights with Sahil Badruddin -- Sahil interviews influencers, leaders, and intellectuals to draw out their candid insights and wisdom on important issues facing society today with thought-provoking questions that hit at the heart of a matter.
- Simerg (all content*) -- Literary works relating to the Ismailis.
- Simerg Photos (all content*) -- Photo blog relating to the Ismailis.
- Barakah (all content*) -- Dedicated to Hazar Imam’s Diamond Jubilee.
- Nimira's Blog - On Faith (all content) -- Short articles on Ismaili history and Muslim civilisations.
- Ismaili Gnosis (selected content) -- Dedicated to the gnosis of Shia Ismaili Islam and other wisdom traditions.
- Amaana (selected content*) -- A collection of articles about Ismaili history and personalities.
- Ismailimail (all content since 11 July 2017*) -- News, photos, videos and more, related to the Ismaili Muslim Community.
* Content cross-posted from other sites is removed to avoid duplication and ensure the original source enjoys full exposure and traffic.
Institutional websites
- The Ismaili (all content) -- The official website of the Ismaili Muslim Community.
- The Ismaili -- YouTube (all content)
- The Ismaili USA -- YouTube (all content)
- The Ismaili India -- YouTube (all content)
- The Ismaili -- Nutrition Centre (all content)
- IIS (news, videos, articles, events) -- IIS promotes scholarship and learning of Muslim cultures and societies, historical as well as contemporary, with a focus on Ismailism.
- AKDN (news, press releases, galleries) -- AKDN is a group of development agencies dedicated to improving living conditions and opportunities for the poor.
- AKDN -- YouTube (all content)
- AKF UK -- YouTube (all content)
- AKF USA -- YouTube (all content)
- AKRSP India -- YouTube
- AKDN -- Aga Khan Museum -- YouTube (all content) -- The AKM showcases the artistic, intellectual, and scientific contributions of Muslim civilisations to world heritage
- AKDN -- Aga Khan Award for Architecture -- YouTube (all content) -- The AKAA is Awarded every three years to projects that set new standards of excellence in architecture, planning practices, historic preservation and landscape architecture
- AKDN -- AKTC Music Initiative -- YouTube (all content) -- The AKTCMI is an inter-regional music and arts education programme with worldwide performance, outreach, mentoring, and artistic production activities.
- Recipes and More -- YouTube (all content)
- Aga Khan Studs (news) -- News from Aga Khan Studs.
- GCP -- Global Centre for Pluralism: Lectures, Forums, Partnership, Interviews -- YouTube (all content) -- The GCP is a global platform for comparative analysis, education and dialogue about the choices and actions that advance and sustain pluralism
Other content
Ismaili Digest monitors all these sources every four hours to help keep you informed in near real-time. The only exception is that in the mornings (North America) we monitor Ismailimail more frequently during their usual posting period.
Link shorterners like bit.ly, goo.gl, ow.ly and others condense long links for convenience and appearance. isma.li is our own dedicated, shortener domain to which we shorten all links to the original content on the source websites we aggregate content from.
All of our links -- on site, in our digest emails, in our RSS feed or wherever others have shared our our links -- are isma.li links that go directly to the source pages we aggregate.
When you see an isma.li link anywhere on the web, it's your assurance that it goes to quality content for the Ismaili community.
Why is the "i" missing in isma.li?
The domain ismai.li was already registered. If the owners of this unused domain would like to donate it to this project, we would be grateful.
Ismaili Digest and the Ismaili Digest Partnership Programme are inspired by the following guidance Mawlana Hazar Imam gave in 1987, in Washington DC, where he said
The time has come to evolve ... the links between individuals and institutions and the rules of the game that encourage mutual trust, promote co-operation, unleash human potentials and make possible a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. (1987, USA)
Ismaili Digest Partners are Ismaili website publishers -- institutional or private -- who display, on their websites, the Partner logo and subscription form, shown on the right/below, and offer Ismaili Digest as a subscription option to their visitors. They choose to become our Partners for several reasons:
- Consolidation
By pooling subscribers, each Partner helps grow the audience for all other Partners, and vice versa -- creating the "whole that is greater than the sum of the parts". This increases the exposure of each individual Partner's content while, at the same time, making it more convenient and easier for the subscribers to stay upto date from more sources.
- Simplicity
Developing and administering the infrastructure to reliably capture subscribers and send thousands of emails, correctly formatted for all kinds of devices and email clients, is technically very challenging for individual web publishers and commercial options that provide these services are expensive. Consequently, we offer our robust email infrastructure free of charge to Ismaili web publishers so they can focus their limited time producing better content for you, instead of each one grappling with the technical issues involved with reaching the community via email. Essentially they outsource the job to us.
- Subscriber satisfaction and stability
Even if a website publisher's hosting service provides managed email for them, their subscribers are more likely to remain subscribers of Ismaili Digest because of the variety of additional content we offer. And so, without the irritation of extra emails, the publisher's content still reaches those who might otherwise have unsubscribed from an individual website. In the future, they may regain interest in that content or, in the mean time, forward to others they know who are.
- Reciprocal appreciation
Since we publish content from Ismaili websites freely -- without reciprocal expectations, demands or conditions, Ismaili website publishers benefit from this wider exposure we bring to their content and they show their appreciation by providing Ismaili Digest as a subscription option to their visitors.
If you are an Ismaili website publisher -- institutional or private -- and wish to become an Ismaili Digest Partner, or if we do not currently carry your content, and you would like us to, please contact us here. Click here for information about how we select the websites and content we publish.
As an Official Ismaili Digest Partner, we give our visitors the option to subscribe to our content through Ismaili Digest. Ismaili Digest aggregates, in one place, content from both officially permitted private Ismaili websites, like ours, and institutional websites and broadcasts it in attractive, mobile friendly, daily, weekly or monthly email newsletters with direct links to all content, saving you the effort and inbox clutter from subscribing to all the websites individually.
