Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un
“Surely we belong to God and to Him we return” — Holy Qur’an, 2:156.

“Life is a great and noble calling, not a mean and grovelling thing to be shuffled through as best as we can but a lofty and exalted destiny” — Mawlana Sultan Mahomed Shah, His Highness the Aga Khan III (1877-1957), 48th Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims.

By MALIK MERCHANT
Calgary, Alberta

It is with deep sadness that I inform readers that Aitmadi Dr. Aziz Rajabali Kurwa of Mumbai, India, London, England, and Calgary, Canada, passed away peacefully in Calgary on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, at the age of 91. Dr. Kurwa’s wife, Aitmadibanoo Shirin Aziz Kurwa (d. December 2016), and his two brothers, Ramzan and Mohammedally, predeceased him.

Surviving Dr. Kurwa are his three children and their respective spouses, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. They are daughter Khadeeja and her husband Steven Emmerson, and their two children, Adam and Daniel; daughter Laila and her husband Rahim Arstall and their two children, Nadia and Karim; and son Dr. Habib Kurwa and his wife Farzana and their two children, Khalil and Hassan. Laila’s daughter Nadia is Dr. Kurwa’s granddaughter, and with her husband Bob, they have two children, Rohan and Remi, making Dr. Kurwa a great-grandfather. Also surviving Dr. Kurwa is his younger brother, Dr. Badru Kurwa, an ophthalmologist in California.

Aitmadi Dr. Aziz Kurwa’s funeral will take place at Calgary’s South Jamatkhana on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at 11 AM. The funeral will be preceded by a dilsoji (condolences) to family members at the same Jamatkhana on Friday, March 15, after the evening ceremonies.

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Dr. Aziz Kurwa was an exceptional and dedicated Ismaili leader who left an indelible mark on the community by pursuing excellence and implementing transformative programs and ideas in the United Kingdom. As someone who, with my late parents Alwaez Jehangir and Alwaeza Malek Merchant, served under Dr. Kurwa’s leadership as the President of the Ismailia Association for the United Kingdom (now known as the Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Board or ITREB), I have fond and special memories as I think of him. Still, there is one that was extraordinarily special. It is of the day in London, England, when he presented a framed set of 3 Fatimid coins to Mawlana Hazar Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan, at a student gathering in Olympia Hall during his weeklong visit in September 1979 to the Ismaili Jamat (community). Mawlana Hazar Imam looked at the gift with deep interest and admiration and responded as follows:

“Dr. Kurwa earlier, presented to me some coins from the Fatimid Caliphate. This was a period of great glory and great pride, and I would like to express to all my students my very deep gratitude for the gift that you have offered. It is a link to the past, but it is also an ideal to be achieved, an ideal of strength, an ideal of performance, an ideal of happiness.” (Excerpt from Ilm, Volume 4, Number 3).

Following the presentation, Dr. Kurwa brought the gift to the Ismaili Association’s literature counter for display for the benefit of the Jamat. This first-ever presentation of Fatimid coins to Mawlana Hazar Imam during his 22 years of Imamat from 1957 to 1979 raised the Jamat’s interest in the glory of the Fatimid Empire.

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Aziz Rajabali Kurwa was born in Mumbai on December 1, 1932, and studied there until his medical graduation. He became involved with services to the Ismaili community at a very young age. As a college student, he helped revive a student society under the new name of Ismaili Students Education Society (ISES). The committee then undertook several initiatives, including organizing an arts and crafts exhibition in the city. Prince Aly Khan, who was then visiting Mumbai, very graciously accepted the committee’s invitation to inaugurate the exhibition.

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Dr. Kurwa arrived in England in 1958.  With his solid medical background from India, he went on to specialize as a dermatologist, obtaining FRCP(Edinburgh) and FRCP(London). Before Dr. Kurwa relocated to London, where he opened a dermatology clinic in the city’s famous medical district, Harley Street, he pursued his ambition of serving the Ismaili Jamat in Birmingham. He became the Mukhi (leader of the congregation) of the Jamat in 1970 and, together with his counterpart and other members of the Jamat, assisted in settling many Ismailis who arrived in the Midlands area as refugees from Uganda after their 1972 expulsion by Idi Amin.

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When he opened his dermatology practice in London’s Harley Street, Dr. Kurwa continued to set his sights on serving the Ismaili community. He established a Jamatkhana in Purley, Surrey, and in 1979, he was appointed President of the Ismailia Association for the United Kingdom by Mawlana Hazar Imam. 

As a visionary leader, he introduced the concept of Baitul Ilm, an Ismaili religious education program for children and youth, which continues to shape the U.K. and other worldwide Ismaili communities. He also championed the distribution of high-quality religious material in cassettes to remote Jamats in the U.K. He created a bilingual religious magazine, Al-Misbah, containing easy-to-follow religious material, stories for children, and readings for the Gujarati-speaking members of the Jamat.

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His support for adult education and the growth of the literature and library portfolios further underscored his commitment to the community. Waezin (sermon) activities grew multifold throughout the U.K. as did children’s activities and participation in the Jamatkhanas. Dr. Kurwa also ensured that missionaries in the U.K. would regularly travel to the widespread European Jamats to support their religious activities and interests. The highly acclaimed Ilm magazine, established in 1975, continued to prosper with increasing circulation in the U.K. and abroad. Such was the magazine’s reputation that in 1980, the magazine’s editor, my dad Jehangir, was invited by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture to attend the first Award Ceremony in Lahore. Sadly, he was unable to go.

After completing his two terms as the President of the Ismaili Association, Mawlana Hazar Imam, in 1986, chose him to be one of the resident governors of the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, which Dr. Kurwa proudly served until 1995.

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Dr. Kurwa continued relentlessly to participate in other activities within the community. He contributed in creating the Health Care Professional’s Association and reviving the Ismaili Seniors Club. His passion for the Baitul Ilm religious education program led him to organize poetry sessions for Ismaili children and seniors, the success of which led to the Festival of Poetic Expressions as a Golden Jubilee programme. The event was staged in London, Manchester and Germany. He invited Simerg to publish the poems on the website, which we proudly did. Dr. Kurwa also served as a member of the Executive Committee of  The Association For The Study Of Ginans, a private initiative.

Dr. Kurwa, at the invitation of Simerg, contributed insightful and significant pieces for its three highly acclaimed series: I Wish I’d Been There (click Volunteering at the Dawn of the Age of Imamat), Thanking Ismaili Historical Figures (Thank You Letter to the Person of the Institution of the Ismaili Imamat) and The Jamatkhana (Happy Days in Hasanabad).

In his article on Volunteering at the Dawn of Imamat, Dr. Kurwa wrote: “In whatever position in the Jamat, in my heart, I am devoted to voluntary service, and in this article, I am making an effort to recognise that volunteer services have existed since the inception of Islam and Inshallah will continue to flourish in the Jamat as long as Imam-e-Zaman wishes it to be.”

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Dr. Kurwa moved to Calgary, Canada, in 2017 following the demise of his beloved and wonderful wife, Aitmadibanoo Shirin Aziz Kurwa, in December 2016. He cherished the beautiful moments with his loving son, Dr. Habib Kurwa, and his family. I was honoured to visit my former president and to meet him in Jamatkhanas. My wish to see him on Thursday, March 14, 2024, at 3:30 PM never materialized. A day earlier, on March 13, Habib texted me mid-morning, “Ya Ali Madad – Dad passed away this morning.”

Allah most graciously granted Aitmadi Aziz Kurwa a peaceful, happy and healthy life — a life that was filled with service to the Ismaili community, its institutions and the Imam-of-the-Time

He was an extremely rare Ismaili leader who returned to serve the Jamat at the grassroots level in any capacity as long as it enabled him to contribute to the community’s upliftment.

Aitmadi Aziz Rajabali Kurwa was a gallant, humble leader and a devoted murid of Mawlana Hazar Imam. We pray that his soul may rest in eternal peace. Ameen. We further pray that his family may face this immense loss with great courage and fortitude.

Date posted: March 14, 2024.
Last updated: March 15, 2024 (reformatting and typos.)

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