Mubarak!
![He it is Who sent His Apostle with the guidance
and the true religion
that He may make it prevail over all the religions;
and Allah is enough for a witness.
Victory [48:28]](smithson02.jpg)
We had a wonderful Didaar and remembered all of you and wish to convey blessings that were showered upon us all to you and your family. Alhamdulillah!
This year, we are celebrating the 45th year of Mowlana Hazar Imam's ascension to the seat of Imamat. I am still filled with joy from the recent Didaar in Houston.
For more of these wonderful verses of above Ginan at Ismaili Net
Hafiz can stand on a blessed peak
And I tell you, dear ones,
048.010
Transliteration:
48:10 Inna allatheena yubayiAAoonaka
innama yubayiAAoona Allaha yadu Allahi
fawqa aydeehim faman nakatha fa-innama yankuthu AAala
nafsihi waman awfa bima AAahada AAalayhu Allaha
fasayu/teehi ajran AAatheeman And per Mowlana Hazar Imam's own words at the recent visit to Houston:
Imamat Day Celebrations are going on all over the Shia Ismaili Muslim world as the Murids (believers) celebrate the Grace that the Lord has bestowed on us! If you browse through my Imamat Day pages of the past six years, it is readily evident that the Quranic verses and the guidance of the Living Imam has influenced the Murids to compose beautiful poetry to express their devotion. We are lucky to have access to this wonderful treasury over the 14-century period where Ismailis from various parts of the world have composed these pieces in their vernacular but the message is the same. That they are trying to merit the Grace from the Lord by staying on the Siraat-al Mustaqeem (right path).
Besides the celebratory aspects of this auspicious day, we as Ismailis, should reflect on the magnamity of this Favor, the Grace, since we have taken the Baiyah (oath of allegiance) at his hand which is equivalent to having taken the oath at the Hand of Allah, and resolve to act upon the guidance of Mowlana Hazar Imam (the Imam of the Time). What does he want? If you have been following my website for the last few years, it is readily evident. I will attempt to highlight a sample of these instructions here and hopefully it will inspire one of you to right action as Allah says: If you save one human being, it is as if you have saved all of humanity!
I cannot think of any time in Islamic history when Muslims have had a greater opportunity to unite, and to ensure that the society in which they live is that which they have defined and chosen for themselves.
Not only are all forms of human communication easier than ever before in history, but rarely, if ever has the Muslim world had such means to ensure its future. Conferences such as this, seeking inspiration from the life of the Holy Prophet could render no greater service to Islam than to assist in defining what steps can be taken, where, and how to ensure that our people can live in the years ahead in greater peace, greater prosperity and in an Islamic Society which will not be overrun or simply taken by surprise, by forces, pressures or concepts which are totally alien and may damage us irretrievably.
They must be drawn forth from under the decades of foreign rule which have accumulated like thick sets of paper that have rested for generations on top of the finest oriental painting making the edges turn yellow, but the center piece remaining as colorful and lively, for us to discover, as when it was originally completed. In all forms of art, painting, calligraphy, architecture, city planning; in all forms of science, medicine, astronomy, engineering; in all expressions of thought, philosophy, ritualism, spiritualism, it is of fundamental importance that our own traditional values and attitudes should
permeate our new society.
It would be dramatic if those pillars of the Islamic way of life, social justice, equality, humility and generosity, enjoined upon us all, were to lose their force or wide application in our young society. It must never be said generations hence that in our greed for the material goods of the rich West we have forsaken our responsibilities to the poor, to the orphans, to the traveler, to the single woman.
The day we no longer know how, nor have the time nor the faith, to bow in prayer to Allah because the human soul that He has told us is eternal, is no longer of sufficient importance to us to be worthy of an hour of our daily working, profit seeking time, will be a sunless day of despair.
To give you an idea of the extent of these institutions, we have some 60 schools in Tanganyika and more than 35 in Kenya and Uganda. They range from nursery to secondary schools which teach up to higher certificate standard. During the next 3 years in Pakistan we are planning to find places for no less than 8000 secondary school pupils.
Such is the Ismaili Community within the Commonwealth today. What are the problems which confront us and how can my Community play its part in solving them? The age in which we live has been called all sorts of names. We speak of the Atomic Age, the Space Age, the Jet Age and, here in England at least, the New Elizabethan Age. All these descriptions convey a strong impression of speed and change. Yet one or two news items I read from time to time make me wonder whether in fact we have really changed to such an extent.
Some say that the fall of communism has brought us to "The End of History". But an even more profound development has been "The End of Geography". The connection between community and geography has been broken. A single community can thrive across immense distances, while a tiny dot of land can be home to many communities.
It is time for all of us to ask: How can we ensure that these innumerable contacts will result in a more peaceful world and a better life?
We should be seeking out and welcoming these encounters and not fearing them. We should be energising them with knowledge, wisdom and shared hope.
But this will be enormously difficult to achieve unless the civilisations and faith of the Islamic world are part of the mainstream of world culture and knowledge, and fully understood by its dominant force which is yours in the West.
In this exhilarating new world of unprecedented knowledge, freedom to use it outside worn out dogmas, and immediate global communication, it should be a matter of serious concern to the West and the Islamic world, that such a deep gulf of misinformation and misunderstanding subsists. That gulf conditions the way we perceive each other. Its omnipresence damages our capacity to build a better world for ourselves. And it has no basis in logic. The great Muslim philosopher al-Kindi wrote eleven hundred years ago, "No one is diminished by the truth, rather does the truth ennobles all". That is no less true today.
Islam therefore guides man not only in his spiritual relationship with God, it also guides man in his relationship with his fellow men and his relationship with the material world around him. It encourages enterprise, but warns that enterprise, without a social conscience, is not acceptable. It is in this respect, where Islam's message applies to all aspects of man's life, that he will be judged not just on what he does but the manner in which he does it.
Imamat Day Mubarak Everyone!
ejee karoon srevaa tamaaree Shree ho Qaayam Saamee
to mune sarave budh aave ya Shaah
sohee vachan maaraa mukh maanhey thhee kaaddho
jo Saaheb tuj bhaave.........................................4
O Everliving Lord! I humbly offer my services
to You, by which I may gain all the wisdom O Lord!
Only let those words be said by me
which are liked by You, O Lord!
ejee bhalee bataavo ya Shaah buree tajaavo
har doi haath tamaarey ya Shaah
Terey taraf ko karam hameshaa
paap dosh hamaaraa...........................................5
O Mowlana Hazar Imaam! Help me do the good and avoid the evil.
Both of these are entirely in Your power, O Lord!
Mercy comes always from you,
and the sins and errors are from me.
Just as a normal man can climb
A high mountain
And on a clear day
See for many miles all around,
Inside his heart
And see for hundreds of years
In all directions.
That the Saheb-e Zamaan (Lord of the Age)
The Christ
The Prophet
The Ancient One
Has made a date to Whirl,
To Whirl
With this Earth again!
SHAKIR:
Surely those who swear allegiance to you do but swear
allegiance to Allah; the hand of Allah is above their hands.
Therefore whoever breaks (his faith), he breaks it only to
the injury of his own soul, and whoever fulfills what he has
covenanted with Allah, He will grant him a mighty reward.
As Shia Muslims, the Ismailis are united by their recognition of the Prophet Muhammad’s appointment of his cousin and son-in-law Hazrat Ali as the first Imam and his declaration entrusting his Authority to his progeny through Hazrat Ali and his wife Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter. In 1957, I was still a student at Harvard when I inherited the responsibilities of the Ismaili Imamat from my Grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah.
Seerat Conference Speech - Let me return, now, to the question of what Muslim Society should seek to be in the years ahead. Islam, as even non-Muslims have observed, is a way of life. This means that every aspect of the individual's daily existence is guided by Islam: his family relations, his business relations, his education, his health, the means and manner by which he gains his livelihood, his philanthropy, what he sees and hears around him, what he reads, the way he regulates his time, the buildings in which he lives, learns and earns.
Peshawar University Convocation -
It is here that the East, that Asia, nay that this very University can contribute something of primordial and everlasting value. It is my deepest conviction that if Islamic society is to avoid following blindly the course of Western society without taking the trouble to raise guards against the latter's weaknesses and deficiencies, a thorough rediscovery, revitalization and reintegration of our traditional values must be achieved.
Speech at Royal Commonwealth Society -
I have spoken about the Ismaili Community's banks and insurance companies, but have said nothing about the Imam's personal contribution. A large number of projects apart from the private organisations to which I give grants, are partly financed by the local government, partly by the Community and myself. We apply for government grants for any projects which can serve the country as a whole. If the government cannot help, then the Community and myself divide the cost equally.
Speech at Commonwealth Press Union Conference -
The notion that our planet is shrinking is a commonplace one - but it has recently taken a radical new turn. It is no longer a simple matter of geography, with cultures bumping up against one another - and struggling over borders and territories. Thanks to new methods of communication, cultures now increasingly intermingle - mixing with growing familiarity.
Brown University Address -
As globalisation unfolds, the Islamic world will be there in myriad ways. Multitudinous encounters are inevitable.
MIT Commencement Speech -
Education has been important to my family for a long time. My forefathers founded Al Azhar University in Cairo some 1,000 years ago, at the time of the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt. Discovery of knowledge was seen by those founders as an embodiment of religious faith, and faith as reinforced by knowledge of workings of the Creator's physical world. The form of universities has changed over those 1,000 years, but that reciprocity between faith and knowledge remains a source of strength.
Burnaby Ismaili Center Foundation Ceremony -
Islam is all encompassing in the direction which it gives to man's life. It is perhaps this very concept that the West, more familiar with the Augustinian Christian principle which separates the spiritual and material, finds difficult fully to understand and appreciate. I say this not in any spirit of judgement but rather in clarification.
Asia
Society New York, September 1979 - As we work towards that vision of
the future we will remember the Surah of Light from the Quran. It tells
us that the oil of the blessed olive tree lights the lamp of understanding,
a light that belongs neither to the East nor West. We are to give this
light to all. In that spirit, all that we learn will belong to the world
and that too is part of the vision I share with you.
