Malik Merchant attends and takes photographs of a special Ismaili breakfast event held on Saturday, July 8, 2022 at Calgary’s Headquarters Jamatkhana. The event shone even more as temperatures reached a high of 27° C (81° F) under sunny blue skies. With spirits running high with the celebration of Eid al-Adha on the same day, the crowd returned home feeling delighted and happy. Click HERE or on the photo below to read the post.
Date posted: July 9, 2022.
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Malik Merchant spontaneously takes off for a drive through the stunning Kananaskis Mountain Range in the Canadian Rockies in Alberta. He meets beautiful people, sees awe inspiring lakes and sunsets as well as has close encounters with wildlife. No doubt, the late Aga Khan regarded the appreciation of nature as among the TEN PRINCIPLES one should have for a happier, richer and more meaningful life. Click HERE or on any of the photos below for Malik’s informative and exciting piece.
Date posted: July 5, 2022.
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Malik Merchant has lived in more than 12 cities around the world. When he was suddenly offered an opportunity to relocate to Calgary he did not hesitate. His motto: Seek to be forward looking and be courageous and hopeful. Armed with a camera, just as he did in Toronto and Ottawa, Malik is pleased to share some of his beautiful moments in Calgary, a city that has recently been named as the third best city in the world to live in. Please click CALGARY or on the photo below.
Date posted: June 26, 2022.
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Malik Merchant drives to Edmonton from his new home in Calgary on the last day of spring, and spends several hours at the Aga Khan Garden. His story, photographs as well as insightful quotes from His Highness the Aga Khan’s speech made on the inauguration day in 2018, bring the Aga Khan Garden alive to readers of Simerg’s sister website, Simergphotos. Please read and share Malik’s beautiful post by clicking on Aga Khan Garden or on the photo below.
Date posted: June 22, 2022
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Introduced by MALIK MERCHANT
Publisher/Editor Simergphotos, Barakah and Simerg
The football matches between great rival teams in East Africa such as Young Africans and Sunderland of Tanzania and Luo (later Gor Mahia) and Nakuru of Kenya caused a great deal of excitement among football fans, but no sporting event could match the mass appeal and interest of the gruelling 3,000 mile East African Safari rally that was held over 4 days during Easter. Weeks before the event, we would wonder how many cars would be entering the race, how many drivers would come from overseas, and the makes of the cars. Once the rally began in Nairobi, tens of thousands people from all walks of life in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania would throng the streets to see the arrival of the rally cars in their villages and towns. We would be listening to the radio for updates, and waiting to read the morning papers. We are pleased to bring to our readers a selection of photos of the 1964 rally from the collections of The Henry Ford. While the focus is on Ford cars — and specifically the Comet — readers will get an appreciation of the preparations that went into making each car “safari ready” to withstand all that the East African roads and weather would throw at the drivers and their cars to push them into early exit from the rally. Please click HERE or on the photo below to read the story.
Date posted: April 15, 2022.
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Before departing this website please take a moment to review Simerg’s Table of Contents for links to hundreds of thought provoking pieces on a vast array of subjects including faith and culture, history and philosophy, and arts and letters to name a few. Also visit Simerg’s sister websites Barakah, dedicated to His Highness the Aga Khan, and Simergphotos. The editor may be reached at mmerchant@simerg.com
The following are referral links to two new posts on Simerg’s sister websites Barakah and Simergphotos. Please click on them, read the posts and share them with your friends and relatives around the world.
Please click: Prince Rahim Aga Khan in Mozambique
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Please click: Navroz Mubarak — Two Beautiful Jamatkhanas in Calgary
Date posted: March 19, 2021.
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Hast thou not seen how that whatsoever is in the heavens and in the earth extols God, and the birds spreading their wings? Each — He knows its prayer and its extolling; and God knows the things they do — Holy Qur’an, 24:41, Sura An-Nur
Date posted: December 23, 2021.
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Hopefully, you did not miss photos of the rich autumn colours at Aga Khan Park, when autumn foliage peaked around November 5, 2021. If you missed the post, please click HERE.
About a week later, as trees started losing their leaves, Malik Merchant happened to be at the grounds of Aga Khan Park at night, and captured the beauty of the heavenly Ismaili Jamatkhana dome through lit-up trees, moments before the lights in the prayer hall went out. See the beautiful photos HERE.
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The face of nature changed once again, as more and more trees shed their leaves and lost much of the autumn foliage. For one last time Malik Merchant visited Morningside Park, and also made his customary pilgrimage to the Aga Khan Park. His story and spectacular photos are HERE.
Date posted: November 18, 2021.
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Before departing this website please take a moment to review Simerg’s Table of Contents for links to hundreds of thought provoking pieces on a vast array of subjects including faith and culture, history and philosophy, and arts and letters to name a few. Please also visit Simerg’s sister websites Barakah and Simergphotos.
Introduced by MALIK MERCHANT
(Publisher-Editor Barakah, Simerg, and Simergphotos)
What truly instilled in me a love for nature? I had taken it for granted in Africa! But on a New Moon Night (Chandraat or Chaand Raat; Bengali, Urdu etc.) in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the 3rd week of November 1979, I looked up at the sky with the Wasatch Mountain range around me. There I spotted the beautiful crescent on a clear evening!
Chandraat as Mawlana Sultan Mahomed Shah, His Highness the Aga Khan III, 48th Hereditary Imam of Ismaili Muslims, said is a night that will generate immense happiness and peace. In anxious moments of arriving in a new city to work as a trainee computer programmer, the sighting of the New Moon is exactly what I needed. I have loved nature ever since that day.
Yesterday, November 5, in Canada and in many other parts of the world, Ismailis marked the Night of the New Moon with special prayers of Salwaat and the prayers of Bibi Fatimah — the beloved daughter of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.S.) and wife of the first Shia Imam Hazrat Ali (A.S.) from whom Ismaili Imams are directly descended. Thousands of Ismailis around the world attended their respective Jamatkhanas while many others prayed at home due to Covid-19 procedures in place. I spent hours during the day time taking photos — I was even more excited and energized, because of the significance of the day.
Please click HERE or on image below to view a small collection from hundreds of nature photographs I took, mostly with my Olympus OM-D EM10, between November 3 and 5, 2021 in Toronto’s forests and parks.
Date posted: November 6, 2021.
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Malik Merchant recently set out to capture pertinent pictures that would be reflective of the writings of Mawlana Sultan Mahomed Shah, His Highness the Aga Khan III, on the glories of nature and the purpose of life. From the joys of watching beautiful moon and sun rises to the struggles that living things have to endure to sustain themselves as well as to multiply, Malik was lucky enough to experience moments he was seeking out for his new piece in Simergphotos.
The photo post has been prepared to mark the 144th birth anniversary of the longest reigning Imam in Ismaili history, Mawlana Sultan Mahomed Shah, His Highness the Aga Khan III. Born on November 2, 1877 in Karachi, he became the 48th Ismaili Imam in August 1885 at the age of 7. He passed away on July 11, 1957 after a reign of 71 years, the longest in Ismaili history, handing the Hereditary Imamat that originated with Hazrat Ali (a.s.), the first Shia Imam, to his grandson Mawlana Shah Karim al Hussaini, His Highness the Aga Khan IV. Prince Karim is now in his 65th year of Imamat. Please click SIMERPHOTOS or on any of the two images on this page for a beautiful collection of nature photos as well as quotes on nature and the realities of life by Aga Khan III.
Date posted: November 1, 2021.
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