Portugal -- The eminent Muslim scholar al-Shahrastānī, who may have been a crypto-Ismaili, wrote the Majlis-i maktūb in the final years of his life, sometime between 538/1143 and his death in 548/1153. Portuguese No longer in government service and having withdrawn to the village of Shahrastāna, in Khurāsān, it is possible that he felt he could express his personal beliefs more ...
By ANIZA MEGHANI Its just over three months since my papa, Kurbanali Kassamali Mulji, passed away on 14th January 2022. I was aware that Simerg had a Passings category to which one can contribute obituaries or tributes for one's deceased family members, but my emotions had been all over the place and I could not put pen to paper. How could ...
TKN -- Twelve Consultants, Four Continents, A University that serves four Central Asian Countries, and One Mission. In April 2021, recruitment began for a TKN assignment for the University of Central Asia. Twelve Finance Consultants were onboarded to embark on a memorable journey they will never forget. It was a unique initiative whereby within the University's Finance Department, twelve highly successful ...
USA -- Faheem Chunara shared a picture of himself on Christmas Day, 2021, in French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America. He and a team of over 200 professionals worldwide prepared for the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) - the world's largest and most complex space science observatory. Faheem, now a recent engineering graduate of the ...
Pakistan -- The Aga Khan Youth and Sports Board for Pakistan (AKYSB) is excited to welcome back participants and facilitators for an unforgettable summer with the Broadening Horizon Youth Camp (BHYC). BHYC inspires resilience in youth and nurtures their social, physical, cognitive and emotional growth. It is hoped that by the end of this camp, youth are better able to address ...
Portugal -- Ramadan is a special month to show, in a different way, our Love for Allah. So, what is Allah and what is Love? While many definitions and even poetry can be used, below we can find a small reflection. Allah, Arabic Allah ("God"), is the one and only God in Islam. Allah is the standard Arabic word for God ...
Portugal -- In Muslim tradition, Ramadan is a time of heightened commitment to piety and purification through special observances such as fasting, the performance of good deeds - including charitable giving and voluntary service - and through personal sacrifices of material comforts. These observances can lead to spiritual fulfilment and a sense of renewal. Ramadan is the holy month in which ...
Portugal -- Men often ignore health issues and tend to be less likely than women to seek out health information. Yet an unhealthy lifestyle based on poor health choices can result in chronic disease - and have a direct impact on their absenteeism and productivity at work. This article is to increase awareness of major health issues, and how to avoid ...
Prepared and Compiled by MALIK MERCHANT(Publisher/Editor Barakah, Simerg and Simergphotos)Mawlana Hazar Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan, watches as President Mwai Kibaki signs the guest book commemorating the inauguration of the Heart and Cancer Centre at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, July 25, 2011. Photo: AKDN/Aziz Islamshah (The textual material for this piece has been compiled from numerous sources including ...
National Volunteer Week takes place from April 24 to 30 and provides an opportunity to pay tribute to Canada's 24 million volunteers. This year's theme is "Volunteering Is Empathy in Action. ...
#Speech made by His Highness the #AgaKhan at the Global Virtual Convocation of the Aga Khan University on 22 May 2021. Read the full speech here: For more about the Aga Khan Development Network, visit ...
A new Group winner for Siyouni and Classic hope for Sea The Stars. Friday's card at Sandown produced a new Group winner for SIYOUNI when five-year-old Lights On won the Gr.2 Bet365 Mile in the colours of Cheveley Park Stud, defeating three-time Group 1 winner Alcohol Free. She became the first filly or mare to win the race since 1994. Chris ...
"A sound enabling environment must create a favourable framework in which people's energy and creativity can be motivated, mobilized and rewarded." Mawlana Hazar ImamConference on Central Asia and Europe, Berlin, Germany, 13 November 2007Speech "What a sound enabling environment must do is to create a favourable framework in which human creativity can flourish... In the end, human progress must grow out ...
WMBRIGGS.COM -- Until April 2020, WHO COVID-19 guidelines stated that "[c]loth (e.g. cotton or gauze) masks are not recommended under any circumstance." This was updated in June 2020 to state "the widespread use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not yet supported by high quality or direct scientific evidence." But why do surgeons wear them? A paper in the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England studied that question and here's the entire abstract: "No masks were worn in one operating theatre for 6 months. There was no increase in the incidence of wound infection." No difference after thousands of operations compared. Viruses which are lighter and much smaller than bacteria, so go through and around masks much easier, but even bacteria from maskless surgeons aren't causing infections ...
BROWNSTONE.ORG -- Here are 10 papers (of more than 150) that describe the ineffectiveness of masks and mask mandates, and 14 papers on the harms and potential harms of masks. ~~ New England Journal Of Medicine: "We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection.... It is also clear that masks serve symbolic roles. Masks are talismans that may help increase health care workers' perceived sense of safety." ~~ Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health paper on NIH website: "No evidence was identified that examined a potential role for surgical face masks in protecting staff from infectious material encountered in the operating room" ~~ Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews ...
GOOGLE.COM -- "The happiest week of my life was in 1957 when I travelled with His Highness as his Secretary during his first tour as Imam in East Africa" says Rai Sadaruddin, founder and Editor of Africa Ismaili. ~~ What do you think yourself about your magazine? I think it is full of faults! I would like people to tell me what they find wrong with it instead of only paying compliments. ~~ Almost every magazine from India, Pakistan and East Africa wrote to me that our community did not give the Ismaili journalists due respect. ~~ In 1937 few Ismailis in prominent public positions as members on Government Boards, Municipalities or Legislature. In those days, I continuously supported all Ismailis entering public life. At one of the official parties, while introducing me to the then Governor of Kenya, Sir Philip Mitchell, ...
Global -- An Iftar dinner was hosted at the Ismaili Centre, Lisbon, earlier this week, attended by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Princess Zahra, and Prince Hussain. Representatives of fellow faith communities, diplomats, and government officials were invited to break the fast alongside leaders of the Jamat and the Aga Khan Development Network. As the sun began to set over the ...
BY KARIMA MAGHRABY (Additional material compiled by Simerg)In his Khamsa, Shab-i Qadr (the Night of Power), the renowned Persian poet Amir Khusraw Dihlavi (d. 1325 CE) tells the story of a saint who made a failed attempt to stay awake until the Laylat al-Qadr. This image is taken from a folio in the Aga Khan Museum collection. Laylat al-Qadr is the ...
As part of our series What Ismailis Believe, this short film details the historical origins of the Holy Qur'an, its significance to Muslim societies, and its inspiration in our daily lives. ...
YWCA Moiz and Nadia Place, comprising 27 new homes, was officially opened on April 20, 2022. This complex offers housing to single mothers and their children, single women without dependents, prioritizing ...
Portugal -- O Centro Ismaili acolheu ontem à noite um jantar de Iftar, no qual participaram o Presidente da República Portuguesa, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a Princesa Zahra e o Príncipe Hussain. Representantes de outras comunidades religiosas, diplomatas e funcionários governamentais foram convidados a quebrar o jejum ao lado dos líderes do Jamat, do Imamat Ismaili e da Rede Aga Khan ...
AEI.ORG -- Today is the 52nd Earth Day. Here are 18 spectacularly wrong scientific predictions made around the first Earth Day in 1970. Harvard's George Wald predicted that, if immediate action is not taken, "civilization will end" by 1985 to 2000. In January 1970, Life reported "scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence that in a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution ... and, by 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half." Scientific American published predictions that lead, zinc, tin, gold, and silver would run out before 1990. Kenneth Watt predicted that, by 2000, the world will be about "11 degrees colder," about double needed for an Ice Age. Barry Commoner predicted ...
CEI.ORG -- None of the apocalyptic predictions made with due dates, since the 1960s, have come true ~~ Stanford population biologist in 1967: 'Dire famine by 1975' and in 1970: 'America subject to water rationing by 1974 and food rationing by 1980.' ~~ NCAR scientist in 1970: 'Ice age by 2000' ~~ International team of scientists in 1978: 'No End in Sight to 30-Year Cooling Trend' ~~ UN in 1989: 'Rising seas to obliterate nations by 2000' ~~ Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in 1989: 'New York City's West Side Highway underwater by 2019' ~~ US Defence Chiefs in 2004: 'Britain to have Siberian climate by 2020' ~~ Al Gore in 2008: 'Ice-free Arctic by 2013' ~~ Nature in 2013: 'Arctic ice-free by 2015' ...
[H/T SIMERG] -- NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.CO.UK -- In the heart of Central Asia lie the dramatic Pamir Mountains; while the topography of this lofty region poses unique challenges to daily life, new initiatives have helped to bring fresh opportunities to some of Tajikistan's remotest communities. At over 11,800ft above sea level, very little grows in the Pamir Mountains, in the easternmost reaches of Tajikistan. The ...
From prediction to reconstruction, the #AgaKhan Agency for Habitat works with over 2,500 communities in disaster-prone areas to provide nature-based solutions to their safety and preparedness. #InvestInOurPlanet #WhatWillYouDo #EarthDay2022 For more about the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat: ...
![Indian Express |Sunder Nursery [Delhi]: An illuminating view of the past @AnjaniChadha @NandaRatish](https://ismailidigest.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/f7de916a48-1024x576.jpeg)
18 April 2022, Anjani Chadha, Delhi -- On turning right from the beautifully lit up Sabz Burj located at the intersection of Mathura Road and Lodhi Road, we found ourselves on ...
Join us for this special launch event for "Command and Creation: A Shi'i Cosmological Treatise", with author Dr Daryoush Mohammad Poor in lively conversation with Zohora Pirbhai at the Ismaili Centre Lisbon. ...
When students expressed dissatisfaction about how they were being taught, @Aga Khan University sought solutions to help make faculty teaching more engaging. Today the learning culture is different. The Haile T. Debas Teachers' Academy has put excellence in teaching on par with #excellence in research. Its impact was noted when AKU received the 2022 Award of Excellence for Disruptive Education, a category ...
Portugal -- O ITREB Portugal vai receber o Dr. Daryoush Mohammad Poor no Centro Ismaili, Lisboa, para o lançamento do seu mais recente livro "Command and Creation: A Shi'i Cosmological Treatise", numa sessão a realizar-se no dia 5 de maio, pelas 17h00, no Salão Multiusos. English Conheça mais acerca da interpretação Ismaili sobre cosmologia, onde o tema central é o Comando ...
Portugal -- ITREB Portugal will welcome Dr. Daryoush Mohammad Poor at the Ismaili Centre, Lisbon, for the launch of his latest book "Command and Creation: A Shi'i Cosmological Treatise", in a session that will take place on May 5th, at 5:00pm, in the Multipurpose Hall. Portuguese Learn more about the Ismaili interpretation of cosmology, where the central theme is the Divine ...
Prophet Muhammad frequently sought moments of reflection by retreating to a cave on Mount Hira outside Mecca. During one of his retreats, the Prophet had a spiritual experience, which was his ...
AZQUOTES.COM -- "What exactly is your 'fair share' of what 'someone else' has worked for?" -- Thomas Sowell ...
AREOMAGAZINE.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazar Imam, 2014: "Too often, as the world grows more complex, the temptation for some is to shield themselves from complexity, we seek the comfort of our own simplicities, our own specialities.... Progress is possible when complex issues are subjected to competent, intelligent, nuanced and sophisticated analysis, free from dogmatism."] ARTICLE: Critical Social Justice (CSJ) does not see reality the way the rest of us do. Many of its tenets are bizarre, blatantly false and cartoonish oversimplifications of reality. CSJ scholars and activists believe they have a much more sophisticated understanding of social justice issues than the average person. They do not. CSJ is based on two big falsehoods that perpetuate the idea that CSJ is fundamentally about goodness. CSJ is rooted in postmodern ideas that science, evidence and reason are tools of oppression and these are merely white, male, Western cultural traditions. By rejecting science, evidence and reason, CSJ cannot be falsified. This is a very neat theory and ...
"Leading in a Quantum World" is a brilliant new approach at investing and improving Leaders. In this work, Sahib Karim Khan and Dina AbuLaban use a scientific language to pull together ...
In response to the pandemic lockdowns, the Aga Khan Foundation worked with communities in Bihar through the Schools2030 programme to find innovative ways to keep children learning. The Volunteer Learning Activity Centres were outdoor small classes, staffed by young volunteers from the community. These covid-safe classes allowed children a space to continue learning outside of school, and elevated the self-esteem of the ...
In response to the pandemic lockdowns, the Aga Khan Foundation worked with communities in Bihar through the Schools2030 programme to find innovative ways to keep children learning. The Learning Walls were white boards or paper, set up in community locations. A volunteer would write a new puzzle or riddle daily, and the community would work together to solve it. ...
News story -- Dr Dagikhudo Dagiev is the author of the IIS's most recent book--and first Open Access title--Central Asian Ismailis. In this interview, he reveals how he hopes the book will open up new ground in the study of the Ismailis of Central Asia. What can readers expect from the book? The book is one of the first comprehensive studies of ...
In response to the pandemic lockdowns, the Aga Khan Foundation worked with communities in Bihar through the Schools2030 programme to find innovative ways to keep children learning. The Learning at Home Kit comprised stationary, paper and card, puzzles, word games and more. They were designed for different age groups and were distributed to thousands of families across the region, ensuring that children ...
NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, will award an honorary degree to Zainab Verjee at the 2022 graduation ceremony on May 12. Zainub Verjee ...
