By Mohib Ebrahim

Editor and Publisher, NanoWisdoms

Editor’s note: Mohib Ebrahim has contributed numerous articles to Simerg. We are delighted to inform our readers that he recently launched NanoWisdoms.org. The following piece by him briefly introduces the Website for the benefit of Simerg readers.

A year ago NanoWisdoms launched its Twitter microblog, which publishes a few words of wisdom from our Imams, the Holy Prophet (pbuh) or the Qur’an each day. Several months ago, we launched our Thematic Charts series, publishing a new instalment every two weeks with selected quotes from His Highness the Aga Khan’s speeches in easy-to-digest, one page synopses of some of his key insights and advices related to a particular theme.

The quotes in these publications derive from a comprehensive database of the Aga Khan’s speeches, interviews and writings compiled over the years. Eventually this collection grew to some 600 items and many have hoped for access to it.

NanoWisdoms is now pleased to announce the collection’s public availability with the launch of the NanoWisdoms Archive, the first website dedicated solely to the Ismaili Imamat’s speeches, interviews and writings.

Of the many benefits the Archive offers, efficient, precise searching is perhaps one of its most important. Being a dedicated repository, searches return results only with the Aga Khan’s remarks since it contains no other content, content which otherwise makes searching for his remarks frustrating due to the vast amounts of other material returned. Furthermore, searches are comprehensive as the Archive brings together material scattered across akdn.org, iis.ac.uk, theismaili.org, aku.org, archnet.org, institutional publications, printed materials and other sources.

For abridged overviews of the Aga Khan’s wisdom, also available are a number of NanoWisdoms’ own summary documents, like the attractive thematic charts mentioned above, which also serve as teaching aids, seminar handouts, and general references.

The name NanoWisdoms itself deserves a brief word of explanation. Despite their diminutive size, nano-scale technologies are both powerful and influential. Similarly, the genius with which our Imams elegantly and succinctly articulate profound knowledge was at the forefront of my mind when I started the NanoWisdoms Twitter microblog. This notion is best expressed by Hazrat Ali in one of my favourite quotations: “When wisdom reaches the climax, words become fewer.” Hence the name NanoWisdoms: a reminder that inspired wisdom is succinct, concise.

The NanoWisdoms Archive aims to be a permanent and definitive collection of speeches, interviews, written works, and other public presentations by the Ismaili Imams. To this end we welcome contributions from our visitors as well as assistance in locating speeches and interviews flagged as missing or incomplete in the Archive.

His Highness the Aga Khan is a unique personality of global import and it is indeed a blessing for humanity to have a friend and leader like the Aga Khan, who generously shares his time, resources, and knowledge. With regard to the latter, he has said: “The spirit of Islam is to share knowledge …” The NanoWisdoms Archive — a non-commercial, public service — was conceived in this spirit. Its development has been a labour of love of many years. We hope it becomes a valued and rich resource in the space of Ismaili reference collections not only for the Ismaili community and its institutions, but also for statesmen, development professionals, journalists, and scholars to draw on when studying the Aga Khan’s advice.

NanoWisdoms would like to thank the many individuals who provided valuable feedback during its development, and in particular express its gratitude for the special permission received to reproduce the speeches.

Please click to visit the NanoWisdoms Archive: http://www.nanowisdoms.org

Date this reading posted on Simerg: April 26, 2011

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