As Prince Irfan Aga Khan celebrates his 6th birthday on April 11, 2021, we adapt a previously published piece that also explains the meaning of his name and the name of his younger brother Prince Sinan Aga Khan…..MORE
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Nurin Merchant braves a 4,500 km road trip from Vancouver to Ottawa in the year of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the 3,300 km, mark she and her mom reach the iconic memorial to Canadian cancer hero Terry Fox, overlooking Lake Superior. As ever, she is ready with her camera and comes up with a diverse collection of photos of the memorial and some beautiful Canadian landscape. She is also reminded of Mawlana Hazar Imam His Highness the Aga Khan’s quote on life and includes it in her piece with a unique depiction of Hazar Imam at a Canadian Museum….MORE
Date posted: April 11, 2021.
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“The Prophet Muhammad taught: ‘The doors of goodness are many…..enjoining good, forbidding evil, removing harm from the road, listening to the deaf, leading the blind, guiding one to the object of his need, hurrying with the strength of one’s legs to one in sorrow who is asking for help, and supporting the feeble with the strength of one’s arms — all these are charity prescribed for you. Your smile for your brother is charity’. And the Aga Khan has accepted this hadith as a personal job description”….
“It was an unforgettable scene and took place in one of the state rooms of Government House where the Aga Khan was guest of the Colonial Governor at that time. The Ismaili leaders were seated, as is their custom, cross-legged in a semi-circle around their young Imam and the two factions elaborated their different points of view. To a non-Muslim the arguments were difficult to follow, but it was clear to me that a strong difference of opinion existed and that the Aga Khan would be called upon to resolve a ticklish point of theological doctrine.”
“Clearly, if any person or entity can restore Islam to its rightful place, it would be AKDN under the enlightened, visionary, and revolutionary, global leadership of the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and his successors. The Aga Khan has been called a “Prince without a Princedom,” yet he has been treated by dozens of nations as a “visiting head of state” with his red and green Imamat flag flying on his car and beside the host countries’ flags at official functions.” ….
“In this vast tapestry of the interaction of Muslims with each other, and with other cultures and faiths, there is one tradition that unfailingly continues the progressive heritage of classical Islam — profoundly intellectual, open, tolerant, pacific — and in particular one leader who has made it especially attuned to the many difficulties of the world today. That would be Ismailism and its revered Imam, the current Aga Khan IV”
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