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Pir Hasan Kabirdin was the youngest of the 5 sons of Pir Sadardin. He was born on Wednesday 22nd of the month of Shaan 742 A.H. in the state of Bhavalpur in the city of Ucch Sharif in present day Pakistan. The names of his other siblings were Sayyed Zaherdin, Sayyed Salahudin, Pir Tajudin and Sayyed Jamaludin.

But geography as a cushion between cultures has been diminishing in recent years. The communications revolution has meant “the death of distance”. More than that, cultures are now mixing physically to an extent that would once have seemed impossible.

Optimists can point to the Gececondus of Turkey, the Favelas of Peru, the Kampungs of Indonesia, and the Bastees of India as evidence of the inventiveness and vitality of private enterprise. And so they are — the poor tend to know how to build their houses more economically than public authorities. Their success in approaching housing incrementally, improving their homes as family resources permit, reflects a degree of flexibility not found in the large scale formal sector.

As the Imam of a widespread Muslim community, I have long been actively concerned about housing. Members of the Ismaili community are a cross-section of the world: they make their homes in the stone and chalk houses of mountain villages, the housing societies of some of the world’s fastest growing cities, and the most modern dwellings of the West

The architect must not only be a master of form, he has to be a communicator and I hope this seminar has given architects the possibility to communicate at many different levels and on a variety of subjects. In doing so I trust they will be able in the years ahead, more successfully to address one of the greatest challenge facing the human race which is to build for itself in quantity and quality, appropriate shelter.

Unless change takes account of rural life in all its aspects, unless it respects the past and the heritage of rural areas and peoples, unless it recognises the intricate ties between the physical and the social environment, it will fail to achieve planning and developing goals for each nation. It will also fail to provide attractive alternatives to migration and thereby fail to stem the tide of people flooding into the cities adding to the already almost insurmountable social problems the urban areas are facing.

My grandfather was a most gifted person. […] While the past was a book he had read and re-read many times, the future was just one more literary work of art into which he used to immerse himself with deep thought and concentration. Innumerable people since his death have told me how he foresaw the future, and this certainly was one of his great strengths.”

...and I do not believe that it is wealth, or military power, that will bring the Muslim world back to what you and other Muslims and I aspire for it to be. What will bring it back? Only one thing, the quality and the capability of the people of the Muslim world. That is what will bring it back, and if in some small way you and I can contribute to this objective, then I think we, and future generations, will have made a small contribution to bringing the Muslim world back to a position of standing and respect and esteem in the community of nations, which I think we deserve

Furthermore, education must be meaningful to the needs of the nation. There must be a relationship between the kind of education provided and the requirements of the country's economy and demography. This in turn demands control both of the curricula offered and of the quality of teaching, especially in profit-making schools.

If government, through its laws and attitudes, creates a climate of stability, then those professional people will not merely contribute to development, they will of their own volition, seek to improve standards. But if the environment is wrong, if it is disabling, then standards will fall, the quacks and the crooks and the corrupt will flourish and the good men and women will despair and leave.

My Jamat should avoid relying on rumours and speculation and they should not spread information through any channels including on social media which may be interpreted erroneously, as that can create confusion and result in damaging consequences. My Jamat should comfortably rely on information provided by the Jamati institutions.

I have always advised my Jamat to remain true to our tradition of respecting the law of the land in which they live. My Jamat globally, including in Tajikistan, has a tradition of responsible conduct at all times, particularly in facing crises, and I wish that my spiritual children of Tajikistan should continue in this tradition and also support the authorities in restoring peace and order.

It is one of the paradoxes of history that the West and the Islamic world which have so many beliefs and values in common, should have lived in antagonism for centuries. When we consider the great contribution of the Islamic peoples to modern Western civilization, particularly in the realm of scientific enquiry, philosophic thought, and mysticism, wherein the religious spirit is lifted to the sublime, the paradox of conflict becomes all the more striking

Both Moslems and Christians believe in the Unity of God, in the revelations of his Divine Message through his chosen messengers – namely the great prophets, and in the spiritual and ethical foundations of a social order based on the principles of equality, liberty and universal brotherhood.

Prince Aly Muhammad Aga Khan visited the Al-Azhar Park in Cairo this 28 January 2019. Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, a private agency which seeks to revitalize Muslim communities, inaugurated the largest public park built in Cairo in over a century in 2005

In this photo, the Ayyubid Wall is seen in the background. This historic wall lay buried for hundreds of years. It was built in 1176 by Salah al-Din, a Kurd of the Ayubbid clan who came to Cairo from Syria and led the armies which overthrew the reigning Fatimids

The second great historical lesson to be learnt is that the Muslim world has always been wide open to every aspect of human existence. The sciences, society, art, the oceans, the environment and the cosmos have all contributed to the great moments in the history of Muslim civilisations. The Qur’an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God’s creation

I believe that today the Islamic world’s view of its own future is seriously affected by a divergent squint. It is a world split into two tendencies: on the one hand, modernisers and believers in progressive change, on the other, traditionalists who might even be described as hidebound. Both seek to determine future directions to be taken by the Ummah which will reinforce its identity, or rather its identities, while remaining rooted in a truth which is firmly Muslim

As you know, the future of Africa has been one of my central preoccupations over the past five decades. My interest grew partly out of the history of the Ismaili people in Africa - stretching back over a century and a half. And I was also fascinated by the great drama of national independence in those early years of my Imamat, as proud, ancient cultures - after so many years of colonial rule - began the journey toward stability and progress as self-governing countries.

Education, in the past, has too often been a matter of indoctrination - advancing the demands of dogma instead of the disciplines of reason. What is required today, in my view, is an educational approach which is the polar opposite of indoctrination - one that nurtures the spirit of anticipation and agility, adaptability and adventure.

A strong commitment to learning has been at the very root of Ismaili and Islamic culture, going back to the first Imam of the Shia Muslims, the fourth Caliph, Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib, and his emphasis on knowledge. The tradition was renewed over many centuries in many places by the Abbasids, the Fatimids, the Safavids – the Mughals, the Uzbeks and the Ottomans. During his Imamat, my late Grandfather started some 300 schools in this region