The first time my father put me on a horse, I fell off and I haven't been much interested in horses since. The 23 years-old spiritual leader of 20 million Muslims (Ismailis) talked as earnestly yesterday about hospitals as his father does about horses. Aga Khan IV, the son of Prince Aly Khan, told a National Press Club luncheon audience in ...
Most of [the Ismailis in Iran] are farmers and craftsmen for whose welfare some steps must be taken. The government has done much work and I hope to give the necessary assistance which is possible for me. The number of Ismailis in Iran is about forty thousands. On 1st November there took place a Press Conference at the Officers Club where ...
October 24, 1959 (Tehran): Receives the title of His Royal Highness from His Imperial Majesty the Shah of Iran.November 1, 1959 (Tehran): Offered donation of £50,000 to Tehran University for hostel construction and scholarships, and £2,000 per year for five years to Red Lion and Sun Society of Iran for hospital and health work.October 24 to November 3, 1959 (Tehran, Ishfahan, ...
From the Ismaili teachings, what is there that could be of value to the peoples of East Africa - living in harmony perhaps? I think perhaps the greatest asset, which the community has proved so often here in East Africa, and in other parts of the world, is self-help. The people who are well-off help the people who are poor. The ...
Ismaili students in Tanganyika should always consider the territory as their home, (His Royal Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan told pupils of the Aga Khan Boys' School) He said that in choosing a career they should not only consider the present situation, but should look ten or twenty years to the future. He was pleased to hear that many of the ...
His Highness the Aga Khan IV delivers a speech at the Students' Conference in Bombay. SOURCESismaili.net POSSIBLY RELATED READINGS (GENERATED AUTOMATICALLY) ...
Speaking at a Civic Luncheon in his honour at Nairobi City Hall on Saturday, the Aga Khan said he had been struck forcibly on this visit by the powerful role newspapers could play in providing the means of communication between the different peoples who lived in the territories. Many distinguished Africans whom he had met, both in Kenya and Uganda, had ...
His Royal Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan paid a tribute to the "gallant gesture" of the Governor of Kenya, Sir Evelyn Baring, in saving the life of an Asian girl who was in danger of drowning at Malindi early this month. In a speech at the opening ceremony of the new swimming pool at the Aga Khan Primary School in Nairobi, ...
The message I will always give is that humanity cannot deal with present day problems without a basis of religion. At a press conference in Kampala, His Royal Highness, reiterated that he would not give advice of a political nature to his followers other than that they should identify themselves with the development of the countries of their adoption and be ...
As spiritual leader of the Ismailis I have neither the wish nor the means to dabble in politics. Twenty million of my community are scattered throughout the world living peaceably and quietly beneath the flags of many nations. The only political advice I shall ever offer to them is that they should remain absolutely loyal to the countries of their adoption, ...
September 23, 1959 (Kisumu, Kenya): Aga Khan Nursery School, Kisumu, Opening Ceremony.October 2, 1959 (Mombasa, Kenya): Nursery school at Mombasa Foundation Stone Ceremony. SOURCESSpeeches II, pp. 8-11 [Text verified and/or corrected from this source by NanoWisdoms]ismaili.net POSSIBLY RELATED READINGS (GENERATED AUTOMATICALLY) ...
The New York Herald Tribune reported His Highness the Aga Khan as saying in response to a question, "The primary function is the Imamat itself. That is the link which holds together our people, who live in so many different kinds of cultures and speak so many different languages." SOURCESismaili.net POSSIBLY RELATED READINGS (GENERATED AUTOMATICALLY) ...
[F]rom the initial phase of the project would come a major contribution to the medical services of East Africa, but it is from the improvement of the communities health, the training of nurses and doctors that my spiritual children will find their greatest reward. Reporter Many people asked why the Ismaili community should have committed themselves to such a large undertaking ...
Tell us how this money is collected? I mean is it a system of taxation or is it really entirely voluntary? No -- it is entirely voluntary and the Imam uses the money either to grant scholarships to students, to grant capital to a school or a hospital. We have got on hospital in Nairobi at the moment which will have ...
Of course the picture is not completely sunny; there is a certain amount of political frustration in all the three territories [of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika], and it is the Asian businessmen who suffer most. They hesitate, therefore, to invest large sums in concerns whose future depends to a certain extent on the vagaries of government policies. Also there is the ...
The Ismailis have always prided themselves on their highly developed social conscience. Our faith teaches us that we have obligations far beyond our own or even our family's interests.... By the way you conduct your daily lives, by the compassion you show to your fellow men and women, and above all by your faith in God, you will ultimately be judged. ...
Certainly no Muslim nation can endure unless its leaders, its teachers, its parents and its youth hold fast to the faith which should inspire their whole outlook. This has been said to you before -- and by men who are more experienced and better qualified to speak than I. As a young man, however, perhaps I may be permitted to add ...
And on top of everything else, you have been beset by the seemingly intractable problem of the refugees. Since 1954, I have observed that you have made some progress in re-settling these unfortunate people. But you must know, far better than I know, much remains to be done. I feel sure that this is a social priority of the highest importance. ...
If Islam aspires, as I believe she must, to recapture the glories of the past, she must be ready to adapt I do not say abandon her own traditions -- to the entirely different circumstances of today. If we fail to do this, not only shall we fail to progress ourselves, but the younger generation will become disillusioned and fall prey ...
In the sphere of international trade, your name -- the name of the businessmen in Pakistan -should be synonymous with sound commercial dealings. I hope you will build up a world-wide reputation for fair dealing, and thereby not only help yourselves but also create a fund of goodwill for your homeland. I am saying this only to lay added stress on ...
To my own community I would say this. We may be relatively small in numbers, but our influence is great. It is your duty to use that influence, not simply for the advancement of yourselves as individuals, nor even for the whole of Ismailis, but you must use it also for the benefit of Pakistan. As a community, our faith will ...
In 1957, his junior year, two impressive things happened to Karim. He made the dean's list and became the Aga Khan. He decided he would have to interrupt his studies, but in the fall of 1958 he returned to Harvard accompanied, because of his new political and religious functions, by a "public relations representative." Karim badly needed someone to arrange things ...
Interviewer: Unknown On one U.S. nationwide television show Karim was asked by a sceptical journalist how long he could go on being the Imam of millions of Muslims, a student and athlete at Harvard, and continue to give interviews. Not for very long (,replied Karim,) and this will be one of my last interviews. (It was.) SOURCES POSSIBLY RELATED READINGS (GENERATED ...
Your Highness that you are celebrating your 21st birthday on Friday -- first of all wish you every success in the future -- but now is there any significance about the 21st, any significance at all about coming of age in your religion? No. It will be a private party. A Muslim boy is of age when he's 16 and so ...
I do not believe that human relations are of sufficient interest, nor of sufficient permanence to keep a man happy all through his life. He must have something else to turn to. This need may express itself in this [sic, the?] form of art, of [sic, or?] scientific studies or mysticism, but more often it takes the form of a search ...
While I am speaking to you about education, I would like to add that I do not think it is sufficient that Muslim children should be taught Islamic theology without corresponding secular education, [or secular education] without religious training. Both of these must go hand in hand, and I see no reason why they should not do so in the schools ...
Uganda is a predominantly African state and when it becomes autonomous, the government will, I understand, be mainly African. If this is accepted by the other races, and provided they in their turn are given a legitimate role in the development of the country they seek to serve, Uganda will prosper as never before. If, on the other hand, the different ...
[R]emember above all how important it is to encourage and promote good relations among the different races who live here together. Let me give you a practical example - behind, you can see the structure of a great new hospital which is almost completed. It will be one of the best equipped hospitals in East Africa. Half of it has been ...
Well the [installation] ceremony is a public installation of the Imam. The Ismailis pay homage to the Imam and that is when you are recognised by the world at large as the Imam. Officially as soon as one Imam passes away, his successor takes on from the very minute the Imam has passed away. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 ...
The faith by which we live is the only sure guarantee that our problems will be surmounted. The younger people among you must be especially aware of this. Only the faith of your fathers will enable you to live in peace. Your Excellencies Your Highness, Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen, My Spiritual Children: I would like to begin this reply to ...
EVER since the time of my ancestor ALI, the first IMAM, that is to say over a period of thirteen hundred years, it has always been the tradition of our family that each Imam chooses his successor at his absolute and unfettered discretion from amongst any of his descendants whether they be sons or remoter male issue ... Appointment of Successor ...
The world of spiritual enlightenment is fundamentally different from the world of material intellectualism and it is the pride of the Ismailis that we firmly believe that the world of spiritual enlightenment has come as a truth from the inception of Islam to this day with the Imamat and carries with it as one of its necessary consequences love, tenderness, kindliness ...
First Edition (Karachi, 1955) A different version was simultaneously published in Mombasa, 1955 Pan-IslamismThe Spirit of PakistanWhy Not Now?"I implore you ...""Allah has given this leadership to Pakistan"Aga Khan Greets PakistanQuaid-e-Azam - Man of Iron Will and Lion CouragePromote Research in ScienceUnion between Muslim people"This life is but a bridge towards eternity ..."Build up that free Islamic stateFuture Economic and Political ...
I should, first of all, advise my heirs to learn to desire the thing that happens, and not try to mould events to their desires.... I say that you should endeavour to suit your desire to the event, and not the event to your desire.... I would counsel my heirs to seek satisfaction, not in the flux of circumstances, but within ...
Society consists of individuals and when we find civil societies that were once upon a time vigorously their own and indeed with obvious superiority amongst other organised social bodies, and are then left behind while others progress far beyond even the imagination, leave alone the knowledge of their former supervisors, then indeed, unless we want to commit suicide, it is necessary ...
What has been my own policy with my followers? Our religion is our religion, you either believe in it or you do not. You can leave a faith but you cannot, if you do not accept its tenets, remain within it and claim to "reform" it. You can abandon those tenets, but you cannot try to change them and still protest ...
Oh my sisters, agitate. Leave no peace to the men till they give you religious freedom by opening mosques for prayers not side by side with men but in reserved quarters attached to all the mosques, so that the habit of praying in public and self respect and self-confidence becomes general amongst women. On that foundation of religious equality, you can ...
Islam is fundamentally in its very nature a natural religion. Throughout the Qur'an God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as ...
[I]f there has been violent reaction against the West in some of the Muslim countries, the reason is to be found in the attitude and behaviour of the Westerners, their ignorance and want of respect for the faith and culture of Islam, of which the reference to that faith in your leading article is a typical and usual example.... [I]f the ...
Every Muslim child of a certain economic standard learns the Qur'an in Arabic, whether he is from Dacca or Quetta. He learns his Alif-Bey to read the Qur'an. Arabic is the language of Islam. The Qur'an is in Arabic. The Prophet's hadith are in Arabic. The highest form of Islamic culture in Spain was in Arabic. Your children must learn Arabic ...
