A GLORIOUS RECORD
"My grand Father dedicated His life to the Imamate and Islam, both of which for him always came first and above all considerations....My aim in the future will be to continue the vast work of My Grandfather, to do all in My power for the welfare and betterment of our community and its various institutions, maternity homes, boys' and girls' schools, hospitals, trusts, clubs and...... scholarships ....I will do every thing possible for your worldly and spiritual upliftment." Mawlana Hazar Imam July 1957.
THE year was 1957. Against a backdrop of un-nerving world tensions generated by the cold War, the first satellite had been launched into space at an altitude of 560 miles. Most of the countries of Asia had seen the first decade of political independence, while Africa was witnessing the unleashing of strong national sentiments with its attendant clamour for immediate political freedom. The Middle East had also just witnessed a major crisis.
At the Villa Barakat in Geneva, Switzerland. Ismaili leaders from countries of Africa, Asia and the Middle East heard Mowlana Hazar Imam utter the above words of dedication which brought to them and their Jamats not only great comfort but extreme joy. This joy knew no bounds when further news reached the Jamats that Mawlana Hazar Imam had graciously agreed to visit His Murids throughout the world. All, from the oldest to the youngest member in every Jamat, waited eagerly for the moment when they would get their first opportunity to receive Zaheri Didar of their Imam-e-Zaman.
For Mawlana Hazar Imam, that year and the next were going to be extremely busy ones which necessitated taking time off from a very busy academic schedule at Harvard University. Jamats in various countries witnessed the memorable Takht Nashini ceremonies in 1957 and 1958.
The subsequent years saw the "wind of change" which had been blowing over Africa bring political independence to a number of countries hitherto under colonial domination. To meet the exigencies of a changing situation brought about in the wake of massive decolonisation, existing institutions were strengthened in most cases while in others foundation were laid for new institutions.
Many of our schools started in the time of Hazrat Imam Sultan Mohammed Shah were upgraded. New schools were built. The evolving Health institutions of the community were further upgraded, hospitals were built, housing institutions developed, economic institutions strengthened. All of these institutions, the doors of which from inception had been opened to everyone, regardless of race, colour and creed, were now re-appraised by a dynamic Imam who pledged "to devote my life to guiding the community in all the problems which these rapid changes will bring in their wake."
throughout these vicissitudes, we can vividly remember Mawlana Hazar Imam visiting us regularly. Now to lay the foundation stone of a housing scheme or an extra wing to an existing hospital. We would see Hazar Imam meeting Government Ministers, discussing health education, or economic development, followed by meetings with various education administrators and members of hospital boards and economic development institutions.
While ministering to all these needs in one country, Mawlana Hazar Imam would be in constant contact with Jamats everywhere, and in some cases would physically go to another country during a Mulaqat to attend to that Jamat's needs and return to the country He was visiting and continue His work. During all this, also performing religious ceremonies and despite a very heavy schedule, giving the Jamat freely of His time and benign guidance. Throughout all this, Mawlana Hazar Imam constantly exuding inexhaustible energy and extreme happiness and joy at being with His spiritual children. For the Jamats, these were moments of boundless joy.
Exhorting us to live in harmony, to show our loyalty to the countries of our birth or adoption and to play a meaningful role in the process of nation building, Mawlana Hazar Imam guided us in every aspect of our life. He told us to strive hard and work with integrity and devotion. We worked and studied, confident in the belief that if we followed Imam-e-Zaman's timely guidance we would be able to withstand the vagaries of changing conditions. Consequently, Ismaili students from all over the world achieved academic distinction and secured places at some of the best institutions of high learning.
Following Imam's guidance the Jamats prospered in their material and spiritual life. Ismaili manpower, as in the past, continued to play its role in the development of these newly independent countries -- always remembering Hazar Imam's words, that as true Ismailis they have two principal obligations: "The first and paramount of these is your religious obligations to Islam and to your Imam. Your second obligation is a secular one. You must always be loyal to your country of adoption and to whatever government is responsible for your security and well-being."
Our various social institutions, under the constant guidance of Mowlana Hazar Imam, continued to grow. Our school ranked as some of the best in the country, our health institutions thrived, our Nursing School in Kenya, for example, attracted the best students from as far away as Zambia and Zimbabwe. Places for admission in our educational institutions were coveted by all. Our institutions became an important part of the health and social welfare services of the countries where our Jamats had settled. Ismaili professionals in all fields, trained under our scholarship programmes, returned to man these institutions and these institutions thrived.
To day it is testimony to the indefatigable dedication of Imame- e- Zaman, that one of the largest projects undertaken by the Aga Khan Foundation, the Aga Khan Hospital and Medical College in Karachi, which has been endowed with University status, is predominantly manned by manpower from within our Jamat, constantly guided in every minute detail of planning by Mowlana Hazar Imam.
Events in the newly emergent countries of Africa and Asia, however, brought in their wake major problems. These problems have made necessary new approaches and new attitudes. Jamats have had to show a great degree of flexibility and resilience and Mowlana Hazar Imam has constantly monitored the evolution of our progress and guided our destiny. It has been Mowlana Hazar Imam's constant and timely guidance that has helped us to survive some of the worst ravages of political upheaval. For some of us, there have been multiple emigrations; while for others, there has been need to adjust to changing political and economic conditions. Jamats in some cases have been uprooted en masse, such as in the case of the Ugandan expulsion in 1972. Despite all these changes in circumstances, every Ismaili has always viewed the future with great hope and courage, remembering those comforting words of Hazar Imam:"I have dedicated my life to the upliftment and progress of the Ismailis all over the world , and I pray for all your happiness and success."
In 1969, Jamats all over the world were once again jubilant to hear the news of Mowlana Hazar Imam and Begum Salimah's marriage . The wedding ceremony which was held in Paris was attended by Jamati leaders from all over the world , and once again on this happy occasion, Mowlana Hazar Imam reiterated his dedication to the upliftment of the Jamats everywhere.
Hazar Imam now had beside him Begum Saheba whose sacrifice, forbearance and solicitude in the years to come were going to make possible the monitoring of many of the social welfare aspects of the Jamat's work. Begum Saheba has shown great devotion and understanding of the various health and education programmes of the Jamats in Africa and Asia Her untiring efforts for the Jamat's welfare are a contribution which has brought solace and joy to not only members of the Jamat worldwide, but to the millions who are the recipients of the services of our education and health institutions everywhere.
The Noorani children, Princess Zahra, Prince Rahim and Prince Hussain, seeing the constant sacrifice that Mowlana Hazar Imam and Begum Saheba make for the Jamat's welfare, are understanding of Mowlana Hazar Imam's work. Their sacrifice and forbearance are a testimony to their commitment to continue this tradition of service.
This contribution is all the more appreciated for, over the past decade, Mowlana Hazar Imam's work has expanded over a much larger geographical area; an area which encompasses not only countries in which the Jamats have settled, or countries over which the Islamic Umma is spread, but cities and villages in which the poor, the deprived and the underprivileged of the developing world live.
On the occasion of Mowlana Hazar Imam's birthday in 1977, he announced the establishment of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, based in the United Kingdom, in order to encourage scholarship and learning in Islam and , particularly, the Shia branch of Islam and its Ismaili Tariqa. The Institute aims to play a central role in the advancement of Islamic-oriented education. Its Scholarship Programme under which it sponsors candidates for higher university degrees in relevant fields of study forms part of its effort in this direction.
The programme serves the dual purpose of developing qualified manpower and simultaneously preparing material through original scholastic research and study. The Institute has a collaboration agreement with McGill University, Montreal, Canada, whereby students pursuing the Master of Arts degree programme in Islamic Studies can spend the first year at the Institute in London and obtain credits towards their degree. In 1978 Mowlana Hazar Imam established the Aga Khan Awards Foundation to encourage exceptional achievements in the arts and sciences. Architecture is the first area of endeavour in which the Awards Foundation is active and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture prize of $500,000 is given every three years. The Architectural Award was established, in Mowlana Hazar Imam's words, "to encourage an understanding and awareness of the strength and diversity of Muslim cultural traditions, which, when combined with the enlightened use of modern technology for contemporary society, will result in buildings more appropriate for the Islamic world of tomorrow."
The Award has held a series of international seminars. These have been held in Turkey, Morocco, Indonesia, Jordan and China, and from an integral part of the Awards process. In October 1980, at a historic ceremony held at the Shalimar Gardens in Lahore, Pakistan, presided over by Mawlana Hazar Imam and His Excellency Mohammed Zia-Ul-Haq, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the first awards were presented. Among leading personalities and dignitaries from the Muslim World who were present at the ceremony was the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr, Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow.
One of the aims of the Awards is to nurture within the architectural profession and related disciplines a heightened awareness of what is appropriate culturally and to encourage suitable architectural expression. The field of emphasis of the Award is the relationship of the people of Islam to their physical environment, and what has been learned about the area is certainly appropriate to other cultural societies.
The Aga Khan Foundation, founded in 1967 by Mawlana Hazar Imam, with its headquarters in Geneva, has become the primary agency of the Imamat's social welfare activities, especially in the field of health care, education and housing. It owns, for example, three hospitals in Kenya, 110 health care centres in Pakistan and has funded a series of village schools and low-cost housing projects in India.
The Foundation is presently building a 721 bed hospital and medical college in Karachi which has been endowed with University status and constitutes part of a new private university called the Aga Khan University. This university is likely to have faculties in Western world as well in the Third World countries.
The Foundation, which has officially been recognised by United Nations Development Programme as a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), recently, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, organised a major international conference in Karachi on the "Role of Hospital in Primary Health Care." In addition, the Aga Khan Foundation provides each year, a growing number of scholarship to students in developing countries to continue their education at institutions of higher learning. The Foundation is non-communal and programmes are open to all races and religions.
Just as Mawlana Hazar Imam is intimately involved in social welfare and cultural issues, He is equally committed to the field of economic development in the Third World Countries. It is within this context that Mawlana Hazar Imam created Industrial Promotion Services (IPS) in 1963. IPS now operates in Kenya, Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Zaire and Pakistan.
As a catalyst to development in partnership with state and international agencies, IPS promotes industrial, financial and tourism projects by bringing together modern management, advanced technology, as well as local know-how, applied to suitable packages. With the participation of private investors, both foreign and local, and of governmental and international bodies, IPS has launched over 100 enterprises in this way, ranging from building materials and textiles to mining and tourism.
IPS also Promotion and Development Corporation (IPDC) in Bangladesh in October 1981, where IPS joined with the International Finance Corporation (CDC), the Deutsche Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) and the Government of Bangladesh, to establish a new national development agency.
Mowlana Hazar Imam has also for many years taken a deep interest in the media. The publishing group he established in 1958, Nation Printers and Publishers Ltd; through its subsidiary, Nation Newspapers Ltd; based in Nairobi, owns the largest newspaper covering the region. Nation Newspapers Ltd; is one of the few independent publishing groups in Africa.
In 1981, as an offspring of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Mowlana Hazar Imam established new international architectural magazine Mimar, covering design problems unique to the developing world. Published in Singapore, Mimar was launched as a direct result of a need identified during the various seminars organised by the Award. It aims to fill a gap which exists in the understanding and coverage of design related issues relevant to the Third World.
Today the Jamat is spread over many countries of the world with political and economics situtaions changing daily. Mowlana Hazar Imam's activities have greatly expanded and diversified. To enable Mowlana Hazar Imam to follow events in various fields of activity on an ongoing basis, Mowlana Hazar Imam established his Secretariat, "Aiglemont", in the tranquil forests of Chantilly.
This increased activity has rendered necessary more constant co-ordination through appropriate professional in put. It is at Mowlana Hazar Imam's Secretariat that leaders of the Jamat and heads of various health, education and economic development institutions from all over Third World meet with the respective departments established by Hazar Imam to liaise with these institutions. Decisions affecting the future of our various institutions are made in close consultation with the leaders, who also meet Mowlana Hazar Imam regularly to review development programmes of their respective Jamats.
These significant achievements have been made possible because of Mowlana Hazar Imam's relentless efforts to improve the quality of life every where. At Aiglemont, Hazar Imam's crammed daily schedule includes meetings on subjects which range from the ravages of iodine deficiency in the Northern Areas of Pakistan, to decisions relating to the equipment of a modern teaching hospital; from the architectural ramifications of a prototype school, to a Charter for the Aga Khan University, from the constructive methods available to bridge the ever-widening gap between the industrial North and the developing south, to educational outreach from the various institutions of higher learning to the remote areas of the Muslim world.
Every subject is given the minutest attention. Nothing that could promote the Jamat's-welfare is overlooked. Nor are the Jamats the only recipients of Hazar Imam's efforts. The whole of humanity is Mowlana Hazar Imam's constituency.
1982, then. Is a year of reflection. We have come a long way from 1957, but a lot remains to be done. We as recipients of the Imam's immeasurable bounty, dedication and relentless endeavours, are truly debtors of humanity of large. Whatever we may aspire to do materially will never requite an iota of what we have received.
What is required of us to give of ourselves. To provide intangible values such as understanding, hard work, devotion and efficiency (Particularly in management techniques) to all our institutions. To work in unity and to aspire for and maintain the highest standards possible in all our institutions, so as to enable us to play a meaningful role in this whole process that the Imam is leading. It is what our Faith enjoins upon us . Therefore, let us live up to that creed. Source: Africa Ismaili 820711
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