Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

living in the context of the moral discipline of Islam, I think, is important. Because living in a society where freedom eventually becomes equated with license, is not what I would want.

Go back to the origins of Islam. It was a Faith practiced in a land with no physical frontiers. The concept of the modern state is not really an Islamic concept. Islam was a brotherhood, is a brotherhood.

The Seljuks proved unable to create a strong, durable and centralized Empire or to destroy the Fatimid Anti-Caliphate in Egypt. Their conceptions of government were primitive, and despite the efforts of Nizam al-Mulk to instruct them in the principles of ancient Persian despotism, which he regarded as the only satisfactory form of rule, they treated their realm as family property..

Countless cycles of manifestation and concealment succeed each other until the Great Resurrection (qiyamat al-qiyamat) which consummates the megacycle (al-kawr al-a'zam), sometimes specified to last 360,000 times 360,000 years.

It is from Islam that we in the West can extend a lot of gratitude towards, for preserving works of antiquity from being completely lost to us. This is not something to be passed over lightly, as so many people might tend to do, when considering the past. The implications here are great. Outside of the surviving schools of the Thebaid brethren, and the Jewish schools in France, Spain, and Southern Germany, intellectual culture did not exist, in the West during the so-called Dark Ages. The degradation brought upon society by the Church lasted until...

UNESCO has classified the hundred most important cities in the world. More than one-third of those one hundred cities around the world are within the Ummah.

How can credible leadership be nurtured in rural environments when rural children have nowhere to go after primary school? The experience of the Aga Khan Development Network is that secondary education for rural youth is a condition sine qua non for sustainable progress.

The essential goal of global development has been to create and sustain effective nation states – coherent societies that are well governed, economically self-sustaining, equitable in treating their peoples, peaceful amongst themselves, and sensitive to their impact on planetary sustainability.

People come together around competence, around ability, around knowledge. They don't like mediocrity.

I would like the non-Muslim societies to accept the values of Islam. If Islam says that we do not separate the world from faith, the Western world should accept that. I would go further and say: it is a wonderful way to live! It is an extraordinary blessing to be able to live our faith everyday! Making ethic the way in which you live your daily life, and not only in occasions such as death, a marriage or a birth.

In your heart the Lord resides, and in the heart He bestows His Vision.

Of whatever quality your soul is, you will percieve the others as that quality. Whoever regards others as evil will himself become evil

The mouth that you use to recite the name of the Lord, and know it as the name of the Exalted. If you falsely accuse someone with the same mouth, how will you attain salvation.

You may have recited the Holy Name many a time and not have brought any tears of love. It is as futile as plastering smoky fire with cow dung or playing music on a broken instrument.

By drinking nectar, poison is reduced and by drinking water, thirst is quenched. By having a meal, hunger is broken. In the same manner, by remembering the Lord all sins disappear.

The deserted village will rehabitate and the poor will become rich. However, there is one astonishing sight: Brother, nobody can come to life after dying.

Real pilgrimage takes place in the heart and in the heart is the abode of religion. Worship the Lord in the heart and in the heart is the salvation and spiritual vision.

The five causes of spiritual death are carnal desire,anger, greed, attracion of the world and pride.

Trust in God, But tie it your camel.

When the sun rises, go about your worldly affairs, acting honestly. When the sun sets, devote yourselves to the worship of God.