"More than a millennium ago, as early as the 8th century, the original Abbasids, ruling as Caliphs in Baghdad, set up academies and libraries where new knowledge was honoured - independent of its source. The Fatimids continued this tradition - reaching out from their base in Cairo - established in the 10th century - to welcome learned figures from distant lands. ...
"Ignition Paradigm Proposals are inspired by Hazar Imam's 1989 guidance where he said: 'Bring forward your ideas. It is only a stupid person who does not listen to ideas. It means he is like a horse ... who lives with blinkers [and] all they can see ahead of them is a little tiny dimension of light.... It is only that sort of a horse that goes straight, straight, straight, straight, straight and it never looks for a new direction, a new idea, something creative. Let's not be a horse with blinkers.... No, that is not for our Jamat. ... Have confidence in your own judgement, confidence in your ability to analyse problems, confidence in your ability to develop solutions to those problems.'"
Speech by His Highness the Aga Khan at the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Madrasa programme, Mombasa, Kenya, 14 August 2007. Read full speech: ...
TKN -- In October 2019, a technology conference, 'Digital Transformation in Central Asia', became the biggest event of its kind in the history of the region. Hosted by the University of Central Asia (UCA), in partnership with the Government of Kyrgyz Republic, the three-day event featured 25 speakers from 12 countries and focused on three areas - digital transformation in government, ...
DAILYSTOIC.COM -- "Summum Bonum" was the expression from Cicero, Rome's greatest orator. It means "the highest good." And what is the highest good? To the Stoics, the answer is virtue. They said that everything we face in life was an opportunity to respond with virtue. Even bad, painful or scary situations. If we act virtuously, they believed, everything else important could follow: Happiness, success, meaning, reputation, honor, love. The Stoics believed there were four virtues: Wisdom. Courage. Temperance. Justice. Let's look at each. Stoic courage: Courage to face misfortune. Courage to face death. Courage to risk yourself for the sake of your fellow man. Courage to hold to your principles. Courage to speak your mind and insist on truth. Stoic wisdom ...
The CEO of CTT (Portugal Postal Services) Francisco Lacerda unveils a special commemorative stamp in honour of the Aga Khan Music Awards. ...
YOUTUBE.COM -- Aaron delivers a funny wedding speech for his brother. ...
On November 7, 2019 from 11:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m, join Toronto-based author Saher Lalani at Indigospirit Mount Sinai Hospital (600 University Ave, Toronto, ON) where she will be signing copies ...
United States -- An Eid Luncheon held at the Ismaili Jamatkhana and Center in Sugar Land, Texas began with a video highlighting the work of landscape architect Nelson Byrd Woltz at the Aga Khan Garden in Alberta, Canada. This firm has also been commissioned to design the landscape at the new Ismaili Center Houston. Keynote speaker Sylvester Turner, Mayor of the ...
JollyGul.com has launched Mohamed (Mac) Virjee's website on its hosting platform. The Jamat can now conveniently play and enjoy Mac's ginans, granths and devotional music all in one place. JollyGul.com audio ...
Theology and Religious Studies ... do you know the difference? Theology differs from religious studies in that it focuses more closely on the study of God and faith rather than in the critical investigation of religions. Theology is often more faith-based, while religious studies is more analytical. ...
TIMESOFISRAEL.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazar Imam, New York, 1983: "Those who are most qualified in scientific subjects today are often the most humble and the most convinced in their attitude to the existence of Allah."] ARTICLE: Nobel Laureate Werner Arber: "Although a biologist I must confess that I do not understand how life came about. [It] remains a mystery to me. The possibility of the existence of a Creator, of God, represents to me a satisfactory solution to this problem." Origin of Life research has failed because basic laws of physics tell us systems tend toward chaos and disorder, not toward order and function. Our argument [for Intelligent Design] is not based on foolish truisms like God of the Gaps but on observed laws of nature and physics. And it is supported by world class scientists. The first thing I would bring to your attention ...
EVOLUTIONNEWS.ORG -- In these 2 videos, Professor Tour, a heralded scientist and nanotechnology researcher at Rice University, delivers a tongue lashing to his fellow scientists laying out his devastating, detailed critique of current origins theories in plain language everyone can understand. "Whether you want to have [life] originate from Earth or from some other planet, you have to have the origin of life. You have to have the origin of that first cell. How does that happen? We have no idea." In this bonus video from the Science Uprising ...
![[Nov]This month in history: Imam Khalil Allah II succeeded to the Imamat](https://ismailidigest.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/054cc7c06c.jpeg)
The thirty-ninth Nizari Ismaili Imam Khalil Allah II (d. 1680) succeeded his father to the Imamat in November 1671 in Anjundan, central Persia (modern-day Iran). Imam Khalil Allah II was the last Imam to reside in Anjundan, a town associated with the revival of Nizari Ismaili activities in the post-Alamut period. The post-Alamut period comprises two phases: the first two centuries ...
Short-listed for the 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. ...
GOOGLE.COM -- Imam al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah was the first Fatimid Imam born on Egyptian soil and ascended to the throne at the age 11. He had a good command of Arabic tongue, and a fine knowledge of poetry at an early age. Imam al-Hakim is described as generous and brave by the chroniclers. Generally historians have portrayed Imam al-Hakim as a tyrant. However, P.J. Vatikiotis writes in "The Fatimid Theory of State" that, "These presentations have been hastily arrayed without a genuine investigation of al-Hakim's reign." Imam al-Hakim was extremely engaged in a deadly struggle of retaining the Fatimid Caliphate. He was not fighting only the secular tendencies of political power groups, but also ...
YOUTUBE.COM -- KARACHI STREET VIEW -- See, hear and feel the Aga Khan Hospital, Karachi, from the street. Notice the large amount of ongoing construction in 2018. ...
Canada -- The VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation recognised the Ismaili community of British Columbia for its support of mental health initiatives and its contribution to the broader provincial community with the 2019 Leadership Award at the Telus Night of a Thousand Stars Gala in Vancouver on 26 October. The award, which recognises contributions to the advancement of world-class healthcare in ...
In June 1999, in Aiglemont, Mawlana Hazar Imam said: "You cannot know this, but I watch other immigrant communities. I don't just watch my Jamat, I watch others, and I watch what they are doing, and I draw lessons from that ..." And so, as a faith community, we decided to look at other faith communities to see what lessons ...
Five-minute video covering the exhibition Seeing Through Babel, installed at the newly re-opened Zamana Space at the Ismaili Centre, London. ...
"The drawing room in which His Highness received me looked more like the work-room of a busy philosopher....On a table were piled documents and books, and at the moment of my hesitating entrance, I noticed His Highness busy with his correspondence....Not more than a minute had elapsed before I was at my ease and talking to him with a freedom of ...
THEFEDERALIST.COM -- The class of 2019, the first to experience all four high school years under Common Core, is the worst-prepared for college in 15 years, according to a new report. "The results are, frankly, devastating," said the U.S. Education Secretary said about the 2019 results. "Over the past decade [student achievement] has continued to worsen. Two out of three of our nation's children aren't proficient readers. Fourth grade reading declined in 17 states and eighth grade reading declined in 31." Common Core is a set of national instruction and testing mandates implemented [by President Obama] starting in 2010, over waves of bipartisan citizen protests. Experts said they thought it would improve student achievement but all were wrong, wrong, wrong. ...
Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 29-31 October 2019 - The Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH) hosted a Conference entitled "Snow Leopard Conservation through Effective Habitat Management", bringing together over fifty snow leopard experts, scientists, government and non-government organisations According to the World Wild Fund for Nature, there are about 4,000 snow leopards left in the world and the numbers are declining due to ...
Pakistan -- The Aga Khan Youth and Sports Board for Pakistan (AKYSBP) held the 6th Guides Commissioner's Conference from the 18th to 20th of October 2019, primarily aiming to discuss the milestones achieved in the past year. Catering to 42 Ismaili Guide Commissioners from Pakistan, the annual conference not only established the leaders' strategic direction but also conducted various capacity-building sessions ...
JollyGul.com has now released Mohamed (Mac) Virjee's Preamble (Introduction) to his latest album Satgurna Shaloka in a podcast format for easy access for the Jamat. Mohamed (Mac) Virjee gives a fascinating ...
THEGOSPELCOALITION.ORG -- Named a top 100 and top 30 global thinker by Foreign Policy and British Prospect Magazine, respectively, Jonathan Haidt, professor of social psychology, has been writing about morality and religion since graduate school. His 2012 book "The Righteous Mind" debuted at number six on The New York Times bestseller list. Everyone loved it.... "I started realizing that the scientific community was really underestimating and misunderstanding religion." Haidt's book outlines his moral foundations theory. The six values he believes are common across time and cultures. Haidt found political liberals don't give much credence to the three of the six (loyality to ingroup/community, respect for authority, and sanctity) but conservatives value all six equally.... Haidt said his Christian students "radiated a kind of ...
Global -- Camp Mosaic is about lifelong relationships, built piece by piece, through meaningful conversations and interactions -- a place where Ismaili youth in regions across the USA create bonds with each other and find their calling. There you are, a 14-year-old Guide waiting with your fellow Counselors, Guides, and Staff (CGS) for the first bus to come around the corner. ...
Global -- In September 2019, 40 new students joined The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) for post-graduate study, arriving from Canada, India, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and the USA. They have embarked on a journey that will expand their horizons, create lifelong friendships, and become part of a global network of alumni that share the unique experience of studying at the IIS. ...
Portugal -- Na semana passada foram realizadas atividades Tai-Chi, no Seixal, e de Yoga, em Lisboa, para a 3ª idade. Por serem atividades de baixo impacto, o Tai-chi e o Yoga estão aconselhadas para os seniores, tendo efeitos positivos na melhoria dos efeitos de algumas doenças. É bastante recomendado em casos de osteoporose, aumentando o equilíbrio e fortalecendo a estrutura óssea. ...
Compiled and prepared by MALIK MERCHANT (Publisher-Editor, Barakah, Simerg and Simergphotos)"It was from him, Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan, that I inherited my present role in 1957. I also inherited from him a deep concern for the advancement of education." - His Highness the Aga Khan speaking on April 18, 2008 at the annual meeting of the International Baccalaureate. Photo: ...
Portugal -- O cancro da mama é o segundo tipo de cancro mais comum entre as mulheres, sendo apenas ultrapassado pelo cancro da pele. De acordo com os dados da Liga Portuguesa Contra o Cancro (LPCC), em Portugal são detetados, anualmente, cerca de 6.000 novos casos de cancro da mama (sendo que apenas 1% acontece nos homens) e 1.500 mulheres morrem ...
Portugal -- O Institute of Ismaili Studies encontra-se a organizar o GPISH, um curso com a duração de 3 anos. Nos dois primeiros anos, os participantes terão acesso a um programa conducente ao Mestrado em Estudos Islâmicos e Humanidades, reconhecido pela SOAS University, em Londres. O 3º ano será dedicado ao Mestrado numa universidade britânica. GPISH trains students to use the ...
Most tourists visiting East Africa might transit through Nairobi on their way to the expansive Masai Mara game reserve, to see elephants gliding across the grasslands, giraffes stripping leaves from acacia trees, and water buffalo standing sentry at a watering hole. But some visitors are more interested in the animals you can find in Kenya's capital city: Francis Wachira's rabbits. "People ...
AZQUOTES.COM -- "Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. The person sitting in the shade now should be grateful for the person who planted and tended that tree. That includes all those benefactors of humanity throughout history that created, invented, financed, produced, maintained and improved all that we enjoy today." -- Warren Buffett ...
By Shahzadi Devje (award-winning dietitian, TV show nutrition expert & mompreneur) If coffee is your regular brew, why not take it up a notch and enjoy this creative twist - with ...
So what do you get by coming by on an "Illuminated Tours" to Morocco instead of going on your own?The buildings are still just as beautiful, and the people are just ...
By Sultan Somjee When my long lost third cousin, Arif Rawji, brought back the wall plaque of our great grandfather Rajan Bapa (1853 -1929), carrying it in his rucksack from Juno ...
The alarming prevalence of vitamin and mineral deficiencies in children across the country is undermining Pakistan's ability to achieve its development potential, said speakers at Aga Khan University's Conference on Nutrition and Early Human Development. Vitamins and minerals, or micronutrients, are vital components of good nutrition and health which promote physical and intellectual development in many important ways. A lack of ...
