NanoWisdoms - Extend. Quotes

"Trust in people. Trust in people. It's an extraordinary phenomenon of development that the most powerful force is people changing their own environment." His Highness the Aga Khan's 2005 remarks to the press at the inauguration of the Aga Khan Agency For Microfinance (Geneva, Switzerland) [Emphasis added] ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ "Social progress, in the long run, will not be ...

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"The Prophet himself never claimed any miracle of any sort. The only miracle which you have in Islam is the Qur'an." His Highness the Aga Khan's 1986 CBC Interview (1st) with Roy Bonisteel (Canada) ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ Rajiv Mehrotra: Spirituality, or the religion or the faith is frequently threatened by technology. You have a passion and a great interest ...

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"We are all familiar that al-Kindi, even in the 9th century, saw no shame in acknowledging and assimilating the truth, whatever its source. He argued that truth never abases, but only ennobles its seeker. Poetising the Prophet's teaching, Nasir Khusraw, the 11th century Iranian poet-philosopher, also extols the virtue of knowledge. For him, true jihad is the war that must be ...

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"[D]evelopment is only possible when the community is engaged at the grassroots level and is given the ways and the means to take responsibility for its own future." His Highness the Aga Khan's 2006 Address to the Conference on Afghanistan (London, UK) ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ "I have seen situations where there has been an attempt to marginalise the intelligentsia ...

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John Stackhouse/Patrick Martin: Can I just ask you one small question: Your trip to Canada has been very quiet, there wasn't much of a public announcement here. There was a very small press release yesterday, but it was very quiet. Is that how you always plan trips? Aga Khan: That's how I prefer things. I think when you look at the ...

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"For many years, I have felt that traditional music played such a critical role in the cultures of Central Asia that it deserved attention and assistance. The need became all the more apparent after the countries of the region achieved independence and began the process of redefining themselves. For the new countries of Central Asia, the inherent pluralism of their societies ...

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"I am especially honoured to introduce today's lecturer, Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, Nobel Laureate, and global peacemaker. "I believe that in today's world, few individuals have had as brilliant a diplomatic career as him. He is a remarkable diplomat who is not only able to conceive the terms for negotiated solutions to the crises he's ...

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"People who believe in speculation, search for knowledge on the basis of speculations and surmises. These speculations and surmises only take them further away from the truth. The Religion of God has nothing to do with surmises." Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (p) Usul al Kafi, Book 2, Chapter 19, Tradition 7 "One who bases his mind on conjectures will always remain in ...

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"Civil and private institutions have unique capacities for spurring social progress ... [They] provide good laboratories for experimentation. Because they are multiple in nature, they can try a variety of approaches, sometimes failing and sometimes succeeding, but always learning from their experiences. And because these institutions need not make short term accommodations to conventional wisdom or current fashions, they have greater ...

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"Too often we have assumed that voluntary organisations are too limited to serve great public purposes. For some, the very notion of private organisations devoted to public goals seems to be an oxymoron. But this skeptical attitude is changing. The power of civil society is becoming more apparent -- in your coursework here at Sciences Po among other places. This is ...

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"The quality of primary and secondary education here in Pakistan and elsewhere is a profound problem, one that cruelly fetters the development of this country and many others. And the problem of educational quality is one that has engaged the minds of intelligent people around the world, people concerned not just with classroom teaching but also with such fields as human ...

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Aroon Purie: As Imam of your sect, you are also an interpretor of the Qur'an for your followers, but on the other hand, you are a man with a modern education and background. How do you reconcile these two aspects on subject like women's rights, family planning and other related matters? Aga Khan: As Imam of the Ismaili sect, I am ...

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Geoffry Barker: What prospect do you see of Ismailis going back to Uganda now that Amin has gone? Aga Khan: I don't think the thousands [of] Ismailis who went to Canada and who went to the UK will return to Uganda. I, generally speaking, have advised families who have been through a very, very deep crisis not to expose themselves to ...

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Roger Priouret : He [your grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III] was important to you? Aga Khan: Enormously. He was the head of the family and took all important decisions as far as I was concerned more so than my father. He was the true family leader in the Muslim sense. His Highness the Aga Khan's 1975 L'Expansion Interview ...

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Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation: And is that why you have two weddings: The civil wedding and the religious wedding in your community? Aga Khan: No, no, no. That is a form, but in fact marriage is not sacred in Islam. In reality it is a contract between a man and a woman. Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation: But is it because you are in ...

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Philip Jodidio: Although not for a religious building, you are calling on the Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki to create two very contemporary structures in Canada, the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat in Ottawa and the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. Might Dubai not have been a place for an extremely modern design? Aga Khan: Absolutely. The fact is, however, that in ...

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Richard Engel: The American global war on terrorism is often seen as a war against Islam on the popular level. Do you think the wars that have been launched by U.S. administrations over the last decade or so have done more harm than good? Aga Khan: I certainly think the invasion of Iraq was a serious mistake. We had crisis situations ...

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"For Muslims there has been a similar personal influence, and in many ways it resembles the position that St. Thomas Aquinas took in the Catholic Church. First of all as regards the idea of the divinity of God: a great deal of the Qur'an is taken up with God's creation, with God's intimate presence in the world, with the importance of ...

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"In the Occident what I have found challenging and interesting is the concept of change; and the acceptance that the world does evolve, society evolves, man himself evolves. The concept of the static individual in a static society, in a static civilisation is totally in conflict with Western philosophy.... "[The Ummah has] been faced with a historical question: how does government ...

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"There is no limit to the power of God. Even the successes of modern medicine are additional proofs of the unlimited power of Allah. It is He who wishes to give to mankind a chance to prolong their worldly life, in so far as it is not illusory. Landing on the moon shows less the power of man than the power ...

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"Most noble actions are bearing the debts of others, and entertaining one's guests." "Do not be ashamed if the amount of charity is small because to return the needy empty-handed is an act of greater shame." "A man without faith lacks generosity." "One who will give nothing, loses praise." "The better part of generosity is speedy giving." "Give to a poor ...

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"[W]e must ask ourselves why this final and consummate appearance of the Divine Will was granted to mankind, and what were its causes. All Islamic schools of thought accept it as a fundamental principle that for centuries, for thousands of years before the advent of Muhammad, there arose from time to time messengers, illumined by Divine Grace, for and among those ...

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"I told our [hospital] architect ... that his idiom should reflect the spirit of Islam. How was this to be done? I did not want him to succumb, through nostalgia, to mimicry of the past, adding minarets and domes to his renderings -- the sort of bogus orientalism that has produced Alhambra hotels and Taj Mahal bars around the world. Surely, ...

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"The past cannot be repeated. By copying it, it proves that one cannot do better. By repeating the past, by designing the same thing is not the solution. Modernity cannot be denied. How do we merge the two? That is continuity. We can't ask people to live in mud houses. We have to come up with new solutions." His Highness the ...

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Aga Khan: we're also trying to work with young people in various areas -- just tell to them 'Create according to your own value system.' You don't have to have to copy other people's value systems. Modernisation does not mean occidentalisation.... Reem Haddad: And just at the end, Your Highness, is there a message that you would like to leave the ...

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"[It] is not a simple matter for any human society with a concern and appreciation of its history to relate its heritage to its contemporary conditions. Traditions evolve in a context, and the context always changes, thus demanding a new understanding of essential principles. For us Muslims, this is one of the pressing challenges we face." His Highness the Aga Khan's ...

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"In Islam right from the time of Prophet Muhammad, there has been a compatibility between the faith and the world in which the faith is practised at any given time. And I am not willing to make any compromise on that compatibility ... I would never accept that the concept of Islam, the practice of Islam, cannot be fulfilled in the ...

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Nuno Rogerio: When you talk about the present state of affairs -- you travel a lot, you talk to all kinds of people -- are you worried with the so called Clash of Civilisations scenario and do you think you could do something to contradict that scenario? Aga Khan: I'm very worried. I don't think since 1957 I have been ever ...

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"When I began publishing a newspaper in Kenya in 1960, I suggested that management should conduct a readership survey in which we asked the readers what they like best in the paper. The high proportion of expatriates we still had in those days training the African staff were surprised to discover that foreign news, especially news of other countries in Africa, ...

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Geoffry Barker: It is often suggested that your affluent lifestyle is very different from that of most Ismailis who live mostly in the poverty of the Third World. Do you think that is a fair comment? Aga Khan: I think that affluence is perhaps the wrong terminology. I do not seek to do things, in fact I have stayed away from ...

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"The superiority of man-made structures over natural environment is a concept alien to Islamic belief." His Highness the Aga Khan's 1979 Address to the Asia Society (New York, USA) ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ "The famous verse of 'light' in the Qur'an, the Ayat al-Nur, whose first line is rendered here in the mural behind me, inspires among Muslims a reflection ...

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"My grandfather was born in Karachi, lived most of his lifetime in India and was the first member of the family, I think, to ever visit Europe. During the whole of his lifetime he studied Western techniques as a means of improving the standards of living of his own community.... "Ever since I was old enough to understand a little bit ...

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"[I]n the Qu'ran it very clearly says no Muslim may judge the strength of another Muslim's beliefs." His Highness the Aga Khan's 1965 The London Sunday Times Interview, Part II, with Nicholas Tomalin (London, United Kingdom) ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ "Faith is not, is not something which you can quantify. People practice, they don't practice. Sometimes they do, more in ...

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"Too often, those who set the media agenda see it primarily as a business agenda. Too often the measure of media success is simply financial profit. I think this attitude is wrong -- it often makes for manipulative media, distorting and misleading in a narrow pursuit of readers and ratings. It means that journalism is subordinated to entertainment, and that the ...

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"If we judge from Islamic history, there is much to encourage us. For century after century, the Arabs, the Persians, the Turks and many other Islamic societies achieved powerful leadership roles in the world -- not only politically and economically but also intellectually. Some ill-informed historians and biased commentators have tried to argue that these successes were essentially produced by military ...

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"There is an often quoted ayat [of the Qur'an] which says that you should leave the world in a better environment than you found it. You have a responsibility of legacy of God's creation of the world, to improve that legacy from generation to generation. So there's an ethical premise to it." His Highness the Aga Khan's 2008 PBS/E2 programme interview ...

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Antonio Marujo / Faranaz Keshavjee: Are we looking at powerful businessman or a religious Muslim leader? Aga Khan: No, I have nothing to do with entrepreneurship; in Islam, an Imam, whether Shia or Suni, has responsibilities, firstly for the safety of the community; secondly, he is responsible for the quality of material life, for the daily lives. The nature of Imamat ...

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"[A] healthy sense of public integrity, in my view, will be difficult to nurture over time without a strong religious underpinning. In the Islamic tradition, the conduct of one's worldly life is inseparably intertwined with the concerns of one's spiritual life and one cannot talk about integrity without also talking about faith. For Islam, the importance of this intersection is an ...

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Don Cayo: You've become in many ways a bridge between the Muslim and the non-Muslim world. Can we talk about the relationships between those two large groups, and the difficulties and the prospects for improvement? Aga Khan: I think there are real prospects for improvement. But I think it's a question of the two groups knowing each other better than they ...

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