Global -- Graduands, faculty, staff, and special guests gathered for an exciting event full of energy and enthusiasm to celebrate the achievements of the Aga Khan University's Class of 2021. The multi-campus convocation brought together AKU's graduating classes in Kenya, Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda, and the UK -- a total of 664 graduands -- who were joined virtually by parents, friends, and ...
Global -- The Imams of the Shia Ismaili Muslims are direct descendants of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family). They trace their lineage through an unbroken line of hereditary male descent from the Prophet's daughter, Bibi Fatima (peace be upon her), and her husband, who was also the Prophet's first cousin, Hazrat Ali (peace be upon him). In ...
FIRSTTHINGS.COM -- Michael Crichton: "The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well.... You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues.... In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know. That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I'd point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies ...
LEARNINGS.SUBSTACK.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazar Imam, 1989: "Knowledge is constantly changing, must ever be challenged and extended." ~~ Hazar Imam, 2003: "The true test [of education] is the ability of students and graduates to engage with what they do not know and to work out a solution."] ARTICLE: In 2019, the WSJ asked senior economists for their 12 month interest rate predictions. And boy, did they turn out to be wrong. All predicted rising rates but rates fell. Although experts are often wrong, we treat their knowledge, when it's outside our fields, as sacrosanct. This is called Gell-Mann Amnesia effect: we can spot flaws in an "expert's" report related to our fields but, when it comes to another field, we treat those "experts" as gurus. Institutions do the same, large ones more so than small ones. Large institutions always an "expert" to which individuals will outsource their thinking. However, it is just as important to try and figure things out for yourself. And if an expert's prediction doesn't make sense to you, ...
By MALIK MERCHANTPublisher/Editor Simerg, Barakah andSimergphotos Simerg's series entitled "Books by Ismaili Authors" continues with Vancouver based Dr. Azim H. Jiwani's book "Humanizing Medicine: Making Health Tangible (Memoirs of Engagement with a Global Development Network)." We follow the same Q/A format as our earlier presentations of books written by Naznin Rahemtulla Hébert, Shairoz Lakhani, Shelina Shariff Zia, Ali Lakhani, Nizar Sultan, ...
News story -- Ismaili Festivals: Stories of Celebration by Dr Shiraz Kabani, the first title in the IIS's Living Ismaili Traditions series, has launched in recent weeks at a series of popular events. The first launch, hosted by the IIS and ITREB UK, took place at the Ismaili Centre, London, on February 10th and was streamed live by The Ismaili TV. It ...
[The Preservation Rover mission] made me internalize the importance of us as humans being stewards of our planet and having to take care of it." - Farah AlibayImage source: NASA.gov Farah ...
Ismaili Digest Exclusive for February 2022 -- Each month enjoy the most popular new articles and videos viewed by the Jamat from over 36 of the best Ismaili websites with just one click! 'Most popular' means most viewed post(s) on each website (excluding duplicate postings, Event Alerts and COVID-19 advice) without social media influence. NOTE: Posts are randomly ordered.
During my first meeting with Mata Salamat, Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan, in Aswan in 1982, she asked me, "Do you know what is the greatest gift of Allah to humankind?" I pleaded ignorance and humbly asked her if she would enlighten me. Her response was, "Yes, the greatest gift of Allah to humankind is intelligence." -- Nizar Harji Mata Salamat, ...
RT.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: While we normally do not post on political matters, we are posting on the situation in Ukraine because it is an invaluable case study about Western media.] ARTICLE: Putin was right, Stoltenberg was wrong: NATO "brazenly deceived" Russia about expansion. A newly discovered British document confirms NATO pledged not to expand eastward towards Russia, proving Moscow right, a top German weekly discovers. The document are the minutes of a March 6, 1991 meeting between political directors of the foreign ministries of the US, UK, France, and Germany. "We had made it clear during the 2+4 negotiations that we would not extend NATO beyond the Elbe [sic]," said West German diplomat Juergen Hrobog. "We could not therefore offer Poland and others membership in NATO." NATO admitted Poland, Hungary, and Czechia in March 1999, just before launching an air war against Yugoslavia without the permission of the UN Security Council. This put NATO directly on the Russian border for the first time ever. The next round of expansion, in 2004, included Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, placing NATO's eastern frontier just ...
MAAJIDNAWAZ.SUBSTACK.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: While we normally do not post on political matters, we are posting on the situation in Ukraine because it is an invaluable case study about Western media.] ARTICLE: NATO promised Russia it would not expand Eastwards, however this BBC map depicts NATO's eastward expansion since 1997. It explains why Russian felt threatened by the 2014, Western backed, bloody Maidan uprising that led to a Ukraine regime change and Ukraine's touted and potential NATO membership. This was a red line for Russia. In the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, America feared Soviet nuclear missiles placed 103 miles from the US border. We have now returned to similar tensions, but in reverse. Then there's the eight year war in Donbas, which you would be forgiven for not knowing about due to a media blackout. Perhaps they were ashamed that we directly funded and armed the Azov who were, after all, documented by the UN as having committing war-crimes and atrocities. With this background, and context, it is now possible to understand Russia's interests in Ukraine, and how to ...
From scaling mountains to wearing dungarees, Gul Noori has spent 22 years breaking barriers for women in northern Pakistan as a search and rescue volunteer. Find out about her work with the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat. Disasters including landslides, floods and earthquakes occur frequently in northern Pakistan. The #AgaKhan Agency for Habitat helps communities prevent and prepare for problems, and trains local ...
Global -- Today, more girls attend school than ever before. Yet, despite this progress, women and girls continue to face barriers to education. Jamati and AKDN institutions have long strived to remove these barriers and still believe that investing in girls' education can transform communities and societies around the world. Women's education is a worldwide issue, not restricted to any one ...
News story -- To mark International Women's Day, we have created a list of five essential resources surrounding our recently published book An Anthology of Qur'anic Commentaries, Volume II: On Women, edited by Dr Karen Bauer and Dr Feras Hamza. The Book: On Women On Women comprises extensive introductory material, annotated translations of Qurʾanic commentaries spanning 12 centuries, interviews of contemporary Muslim ...
"If every child could grow up with a father and a mother, both of whom love and care for the child, ours would be a much better world." -- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Imagine a world free of bias. Workplaces free of glass ceilings and pay gaps between men and women, with equal parental leave for new moms and dads alike. ...
Extract by His Highness the #AgaKhan from an interview with Professor #DianaEck at #HarvardUniversity in Cambridge, USA on 12 November 2015 Read the full interview transcript here: For more about the Aga Khan Development Network, visit ...
What is it like to be a search and rescue volunteer during a disaster in Pakistan - particularly as a woman? Fauzia shares her story, and plans a future where girls can fully participate in society. Disasters including landslides, floods and earthquakes occur frequently in northern Pakistan. The #AgaKhan Agency for Habitat helps communities prevent and prepare for problems, and trains local communities ...
As a female search and rescue volunteer in Pakistan, Shamim not only combats hazards such as floods and landslides, but must fight for equality. In this film she discusses how attitudes to women are changing. Disasters including landslides, floods and earthquakes occur frequently in northern Pakistan. The #AgaKhan Agency for Habitat helps communities prevent and prepare for problems, and trains local communities to ...
Street Children's Assistance for Nakuru Networks (SCANN) was founded in 1997 to provide homeless children with an education for a better society in the areas of Kabachia and Kisulisuli near Nakuru, ...
Breaking Taboos: Meet the women of northern #Pakistan working as search and rescue volunteers with #AKAH. From scaling mountains to wearing dungarees, Gul Noori has spent 22 years breaking barriers for women in northern Pakistan as a search/rescue volunteer. #IWD #BreakTheBias #FocusHumanitarianAssistance @akdn ...
News story -- For International Women's Day, seven women from across the IIS spoke to us about the joys and challenges of their jobs, their paths to the Institute, and the women who inspired them along the way. Interviewees: Remi Adebiyi (Human Resources Advisor); Shola Ajilore (Project Manager, Department of Curriculum Studies); Rosa Barugh (Academic Support Programmes Manager, Department of Graduate Studies); ...
New Stakes winners Down Under for Siyouni and Sea The Stars. Both SIYOUNI and SEA THE STARS posted new Stakes winners in Australia over the weekend. In Perth, SIYOUNI two-year-old Amelia's Jewel lived up to her pre-race hype by winning the Listed Supremacy Stakes in decisive fashion on her racecourse debut. The exciting filly is out of Irish Stakes winner Bumbasina ...
Piano composition by contemporary multi-instrumentalist Afraaz Mulji is inspired by a 16th-century music manuscript in the exhibition Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk Roads at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. ...
News story -- Rehana Hafeez is a second-year Secondary Teacher Education Programme (STEP) student. In a blog written for International Women's Day, she explores the ways in which STEP has allowed her to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher while being a mother, and her desire to "ignite the spark of motivation and confidence in young girls who want to pursue ...
The #AKDN is committed to raising the competence and confidence of women and changing the mindsets of communities so that women and girls are not overlooked or forgotten. Watch this 1-minute video and join us as we #breakthebias to create a fairer world for our daughters and sons. #InternationalWomensDay2022 ...
#breakingthebias: "If every child could grow up with a father and a mother, both of whom love and care for the child, ours would be a much better world." - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. ...
Introduced, compiled and prepared by MALIK MERCHANTPublisher-Editor, Barakah, Simerg and SimergphotosThis beautiful rendition of Prince Aly Muhammad's painting by Azeez Khanbhai is based on two events: The facial features are rendered from a photo of the Prince taken at the World Partnership Walk in Toronto in June 2018 (see photo below) and the suit is based on the white outfit (or ...
MIDDLEEASTEYE.NET -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: Hazar Imam, 1996: "For centuries, the press has cast itself as the champion of understanding and enlightenment. And yet, even as the press has become more international, it has often left a trail of misunderstanding in its wake." ~~ Hazar Imam: 2015: "Is that message clear? You listen to people you don't like!"] ARTICLE: The double standards are glaring and everywhere. Suddenly it's sexy to make improvised explosives. Western journalists' support for Ukraine's civilian "resistance" must be maddening to Palestinians in tiny Gaza, confined to a cage by a military occupier for decades. Russia's intervention in Ukraine has gotten much more coverage, in just 24 hours, than the US-Saudi war on Yemen in 7 years despite 377,000 dead. In the midst of this rampant, often unhinged western war propaganda, especially from the BBC, the British state broadcaster, Europe has banned Russia's state broadcaster, RT. Obviously RT's editorial line is generally sympathetic to Moscow's positions, just as the BBC's is generally sympathetic to Britain's positions. But the problem for western audiences is not exposure to Russian state propaganda, it is constant exposure to relentless western state propaganda. We need voices from Russia to understand what Putin thinks and wants, not what the BBC's "chief international correspondents" think he wants. And most of all we need ...
Nasir Khusraw (1004- ca.1077) was born in Qobadiyan in the district of Marv in the eastern Iranian province of Khurasan. He did well at school, learning Persian and Arabic as well as sciences, literature, mathematics, philosophy, religious sciences, and history. Following his family's tradition, Nasir joined the government bureaucracy in a financial capacity, perhaps as tax collector. He enjoyed to travel ...
GOOGLE.COM -- Rai Sadaruddin said Ismailis ought not be ashamed of digging out from original sources things which are in their favour. While it was all very well to say that research had to be objective and impartial, most researchers in Ismailism seemed to have prejudiced views, and the "objectivity" and "impartiality" now lay in attempts to remove these prejudices. Ismaili scholars alone could do this ... This did not mean, however, that Ismaili scholars should twist points in their favour. All they needed to do was to discover more facts. Research students were led away by academic sentiments about being objective, which had been hammered into them, and no doubt quite correctly by their instructors. Rai Sadaruddin had no quarrel with that, but felt the time had come when Ismaili researchers should pause to think how they could, through no less objective research, remove the ...
As part of a new series entitled What Ismailis Believe, Professor Ali Asani explains the significance of the recently observed festival of Mi'raj - the night journey of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family). ...
[H/T SIMERG] -- THEGUARDIAN.COM -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: While we normally do not post on political matters, we are posting on the situation in Ukraine because it is an invaluable case study about Western media.] Western media outlets, including CBS (USA), the BBC and ITV (UK), BFM TV (France), the Telgraph (UK), have been roundly criticisted for racist media coverage of the Ukrainian situation. Their coverage is peppered with remarks such as: "[unlike] Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades Ukraine is a relatively civilized, relatively European" or "We're not talking here about Syrians fleeing [bombs] ... We're talking about Europeans" or "They seem so like us. Ukraine is a European country. ... War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations." The implication is clear: war is a natural state for people of color, while white people naturally gravitate toward peace. If we decide to help Ukrainians because they happen to look like "us" or dress like "us" or pray like "us," then we have shown ourselves as giving up on civilization and opting for barbarism instead. ...
Compiled and prepared by MALIK MERCHANT Publisher/Editor Simergphotos, Simerg and Barakah 1. Video and Text of Speech by Princess Zahra Aga Khan, Trustee, Aga Khan University "....the hope we feel today is warranted by you, the graduands. By your hunger for knowledge. Your compassion for your patients. Your joy in sparking curiosity in your students. And your zeal to find the ...
"What all these petty, superficial differences -- from owning cars and clothes to having Netflix and Instagram accounts -- add up to is not real human solidarity for an oppressed people. In fact, it's the opposite. It's tribalism. These comments point to a pernicious racism that permeates today's war coverage and seeps into its fabric like a stain that won't go away. The implication is clear: war is a natural state for people of color, while white people naturally gravitate toward peace. More troubling still is that this kind of slanted and racist media coverage extends beyond our screens and newspapers and easily bleeds and blends into ..." -- Moustafa Bayoumi, The Guardian
By: Sadruddin Noorani, Chicago, USA What is civil society? This phrase was uncommon in Western discourse before the 1980s, and so it may still be unfamiliar to many people. In simple ...
USA -- How might we prepare for al-Akhira or the Hereafter? Perhaps one way is to remember the promise we made to our Lord at the time of creation-that we will remain obedient and worship Allah. Over the course of the past several months, we have discussed the notion of covenants in the Quran, whereby humankind promised its obedience to Allah ...
News story -- To celebrate World Book Day, Naureen Ali, Cataloguer and Adlib Officer in the Ismaili Special Collections Unit, showcases some of the unique and beautiful manuscripts and printed material housed at the IIS. Featured below is a selection including manuscripts, a rare book and a bookmark, ranging from the 14th to the 20th century, which gives a taste of the ...
#Speech made by His Highness the #AgaKhan at the Leadership and #Diversity Conference in Gatineau, Canada on 19 May 2004. Read the full speech here: For more about the Aga Khan Development Network, visit ...
"Given the great moral authority of His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan over the Ismaili population of Badakhshan, Special Envoy Piriz-Ballon [of UN Secretary General Boutro Boutro Ghali], and Special Representative Gerd Merrem [of Germany] consulted him on issues related to the peace process. His visits to the country, informal mediating role and moderating influence significantly contributed to the success of ...
Events -- 25th March 2022 -- About the event: This event is the closing keynote address of the IIS-Cambridge workshop on the study of Islam at the end of empire. The workshop brings together scholars of Muslim thought in order to reassess and reconsider a critical moment in the making of modern Islam: the transition from orientalism to "Islamic Studies". It foregrounds ...
