Nimira's Blog - On Faith

The term 'Islamic art' generally refers to the arts of all Islamic cultures and not necessarily created by or for Muslims. The term does not refer to a particular style or period, but covers a broad scope, encompassing the arts produced in Muslim regions from Spain to India during the past fourteen centuries. In the medieval Muslim regions, ceramic production achieved ...

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From the earliest period of Islam, its educational system was originally religious in nature. It began with the mosque as its centre, from which other educational institutions developed such as the maktab (elementary education), the bayt al-hikma (the house of wisdom), the majlis (the gathering of scholars and students), the madaris (sing. madrasah - school or college) as well as hospitals ...

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"Despite the advances we have witnessed through improved technology and through globalisation, a knowledge gap continues to exist and perhaps even grow, and the result of that gap is a vacuum within which myths and stereotypes can so easily fester, fed by the amplification of extreme minority voices. Symbols become confused with emblems. Images of demagoguery or despotism, of intolerance and ...

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On September 4, 1090 Hasan-i Sabbah acquired Alamut, a remote mountain-fortress in the Rudbur region of Daylam in northern Persia (modern-day Iran), marking the founding of the Nizari Ismaili state. According to the Persian chronicles, Hasan gave the owner of the fortress a draft of 3,000 gold dinars as the price of the castle. A 17th-century copy of the first six ...

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"Life is a great and noble calling, not a mean and grovelling thing to be shuffled through as best as we can but a lofty and exalted destiny." Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III, Memoirs of Aga Khan: World Enough and TimeImage: Daftary, The Ismaili Imams Mawlana Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III was born on November 2, 1877 ...

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The term 'Islamic art' refers to visual arts produced in Islamic regions by a variety of artists and for diverse consumers, not necessarily by and for Muslims. Sheila Blair explains that "while some types of Islamic art, such as Qur'an manuscripts, mosque lamps or carved wooden minbars (pulpits), are directly concerned with the faith and practice of Islam, the majority of ...

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During Mawlana Hazar Imam's Imamat, there were rapid political, economic, and technological changes in newly-emerging nations from colonial rule that required bold initiatives and new programmes to reflect the developing national aspirations. Mawlana Hazar Imam strengthened and expanded the work of his grandfather in the fields of health care, education, and poverty alleviation in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia ...

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Following the Diamond Jubilee commemoration year, Mawlana Hazar Imam met his Excellency President Michael Higgins of Ireland and his wife Sabina Mary Coyne, at their official residence Áras an Uachtaráin (August 11, 2018). Accompanied by Princess Zahra, Mawlana Hazar Imam joined world leaders at the funeral of former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan in Accra, Ghana (September 13, ...

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When Mawlana Hazar Imam acceded to the Imamat, the jamat was living in a few countries under colonial rule, behind the Iron Curtain, or under tensions of Cold War. As colonial flags were replaced on flagposts, nations began to re-build. During the early years of his Imamat, Mawlana Hazar Imam visited many jamats, examining our situations and assessing our challenges. As ...

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O mankind! Verily There hath come to you A convincing proof From your Lord: For we have sent unto you A light (that is) manifest (4:174) The Prophet's descendant has taken up the seat of his ancestor in majestic glory, the tip of his crown stretching all the way to Saturn. The Chosen One is the one whom God has chosen; ...

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Imam Ali b. al-Husayn, the third Imam of the Ismailis and the fourth in the line of the Twelver community, was born around 658. He was present at the massacre of his family at Karbala in 680 and survived the event because he was ill at the time and confined to his tent. Upon returning to Medina, he refrained from political ...

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Abu Abd Allah Ja'far b. Muhammad, better known by his title al-Sadiq, 'the Trustworthy,' was born around 702 in Medina. He succeeded his father to the Imamate around 732 during a politically turbulent time in Islamic history when the Abbasids (r.750-1258) succeeded the Umayyads (r.661-750), and opposition movements were initiated by Imam's uncle. However, Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq refrained from political activities ...

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"O Messenger, deliver [to the people] what has been revealed to you from your Lord, and if you do not do so, then you will not have delivered His message; and Allah will protect you from the people" (5:67). Upon the Prophet's death, a successor was needed to lead the Muslim community (ummah) and state. Prophet Muhammad was the "seal of ...

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"Students of world history remind us how Central Asia, a thousand years ago, "led the world" in trade and investment, in urban development, in cultural and intellectual achievement. This was the place that leading thinkers from around the known world would look to for leadership. What were the latest breakthroughs in astronomy or mathematics, in chemistry or medicine, in philosophy or ...

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The Fatimids, descendants of Prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima and her husband Hazrat Ali b. Abi Talib and named after the Prophet's daughter, were a major Ismaili dynasty who ruled various parts of the Muslim regions from 909 until 1171. Fatimid rule was founded in Ifriqiya (Tunisia and eastern Algeria), through the efforts of the Ismaili da'i Abu Abd Allah al-Shi'i, who ...

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Muhammad b. Ismail, the seventh Imam of the Ismailis and the eldest son of Isma'il b. Ja'far al-Sadiq, succeeded his father to the Imamat during a turbulent time in Medina, due to the dispute over the successors of his grandfather and father as well as anti-Alid Abbasid policies. Shortly after 766, Imam left Medina for the east in order to escape ...

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These are they who purchase error at the price of guidance, so their commerce doth not prosper, neither are they guided (Qur'an 2:16) Such are those who buy the life of the world at the price of the Hereafter. Their punishment will not be lightened, neither will they have support (Qur'an 2:86). Ginans are a vast collection comprising several hundred poetic ...

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Born in 1004 in Marv in the eastern Iranian province of Khurasan, Nasir Khusraw followed the family tradition and worked for the government in a financial capacity. During his adulthood, he began to search for answers to his inner discontent - "some answer to the question of why all this exists. This restless searching and inner discontent lasted until it all ...

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Abu-Muhammad Muslih al-Din bin Abdallah Shirazi (ca. 1210-1291/2), better known by his pen-name Sa'di, after the local prince Sa'd ibn Zangi, was born in Shiraz in Persia (modern-day Iran). At a young age, he went to the Nezamiyeh College in Baghdad to study. Shortly thereafter, the unrest caused by the Mongol invasions forced him to leave the region and travel to ...

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