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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
[The] Qur'an and the Tradition [have both insisted] that nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well being of humanity. Islam is essentially a natural religion, the miracles quoted in the Qur'an are the great phenomena surrounding us and we are often told that all these manifestations can be used and ...
Ladies and Gentlemen, believe me, true Islam was and is dynamic and not static. It was dynamic, simple, clear during the glorious Ommaiad period when the foundations of Islam were laid wide and deep -- so wide and deep that in spite of all its later weaknesses it survived the terrible Mongolian invasions and the far more terrible enemy of Europe ...
As the first World War drew to its close and Allied victory seemed inevitable, leading thinkers and the governing classes among the victorious powers, led by Wilson, saw that only a world government, overshadowing all states and guarding peace, could prevent future risks of wholesale destruction. For this, many eminent men, headed by Wilson, Smuts, and others, set to work. The ...
[Peace and goodwill] were the dreams, the teachings of the outstanding figures of the past. Such have been the yearnings of most ordinary mortals from time immemorial, and yet what is history except on rare occasions one long, long story of war and warfare? In Islam during the greater part of the golden age of Omiyyas [Umayyads] in Syria and Spain ...
The greatest danger to every Muslim citizen -- I have not the least hesitation in saying it -- is alcohol. Time has shown that it is an injury to you; an injury to your person; an injury to your health. It is forbidden because it carries greater evil than good. Believe me, in a community like yours, alcohol is a very ...
It must not be forgotten that, according to the principle of Ijma already mentioned, the interpretation of the precepts and laws which regulate the lives of the Faithful, as laid down in the Qur'an and in the Traditions of the Prophet, can be done at any time and for any generation. Such an interpretation, by means of the Ijtihad which is ...
Were I asked how I myself conceive the League's mission in the world I should answer in the words of the great Saadi: "The children of Adam, created of the self-same clay, are members of one body. When one member suffers, all members suffer likewise. O thou who art indifferent to the sufferings of thy fellow, thou art unworthy to be ...
Anwari, Nizami, Mawlana Rumi, Saadi, Qa'ani and a host of others ... each in his own way gave a message to mankind. But the fundamental point of each message if carefully studied is that man's greatest of all treasures, the greatest of all his possessions, was the inherent, ineffaceable, everlasting nobility of his own soul. In it there was for ever ...
Is religion different from Science or Philosophy? Is the former so interpreted and understood? No, there is possibility of bringing about the greatest intellectual reconciliation not only with modern philosophy and science but even with other subjects. Gentlemen, only a few months ago, or a couple of years ago, a well-known English paper, "Spectator," asked some leading persons to give a ...
The world of Islam today is at a turning point of its history. The middle-ages are over and either Islam must now go forward or be added to the other might-have-beens of history.... Formalism and verbal interpretation of the teaching of the great Arabian are in absolute contradiction with the whole history of the Prophet. We must accept his Divine Message ...
You will see that the broad general principles of the exercise of my dictatorship would be to secure the prevention of war, to break down the animosities and barriers to goodwill, to provide scope for both national and individual self-expression, and to seek to give each citizen capacity and opportunity to share in the rich heritage which the human race as ...
First I would place spiritual happiness. A man must be at one with God. This may sound old-fashioned to some people.... That is the fundamental question: Are you in harmony with God? If you are -- you are happy. Next I would place appreciation and enjoyment of the glories of nature. All those sunrises and sunsets -- all the intricate miracle ...
For years I played golf and tennis, but I find that neither of these games is adequate [as exercise]; nor is hunting. The majority are only able to indulge these sports once or twice a week, which is contrary to the body's requirements. The average English gentleman does practically nothing in the way of sport for five days a week, and ...
