Welcome to F.I.E.L.D.- the First Ismaili Electronic Library and Database.

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The recognition of private sector capabilities, which in the past have often been considered politically unacceptable in developing countries, is extending into the sphere of social institutions. More and more countries are questioning why it was ever necessary to nationalise competent private schools and medical facilities. In Pakistan, for example, private schools are now being returned to their former owners.

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In the Third World we are not talking about saving for refrigerators or cars. We are talking about the ability to buy proper clothing and to send children to primary school, to live in a house - however primitive - not in a hovel. We are talking about improvements which do not require large amounts of money but do require a genuine understanding of the impediments to improving the quality of life of rural people.

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Oh yes. He is always with me, He doesn't leave me. I am thinking of him all the time. As long as you live and you are thinking of someone he is alive. When you die, he will die. Because he is in me, he lives with me. Now it's 35 years (since his death) and I am very grateful that he left me the possibility to build this mausoleum. I am very proud.

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And I am happy to tell you that it is My intention to develop a permanent base here in Singapore. And that is also the reflection of the success of the Jamat. Your standing, your leadership, your credibility, the relations that you have built. This is what makes these constructs a reality for Me to work with.

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People are much more interested in war than in peace. It is always so much easier for the media to focus on conflict, suffering, bombs, mines, struggle and resistance, than on reconstruction and relief. They only highlight these subjects when things go wrong, when food stocks lie rotting in ports, or when they arrive too late. Rarely do we hear about the positive aspects of reconstruction. This is precisely why my job

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Polar bears are as good as gone now. Tigers, too. African Elephants have 10 years left if poaching continues at the present rate – 36 thousand elephants a year or one killed every 15 minutes. Orangutans are nearly gone – all the trees they live in are being cut down and palm oil prioritized. They may survive another decade if things don’t change. One to two hundred million sharks are being killed every year.

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Recent events oblige us to reflect on how environmental pollution and the resulting climate change are heavily affecting the ecosystem of our lives. I am referring to the latest fiery hurricanes, including Irma, who also hit our winter office at Virgin Gorda and had a devastating impact on the Caribbean populations.

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The fundamental role of the university is to be at the forefront of knowledge and to disseminate knowledge within the community. When the transfer of knowledge to the wider community and practitioner happens, then the university indirectly improves the care that is being provided to the peopl

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In these troubled times, it is my prayer that Navroz will herald a new beginning, with greater resilience, strength and unity in my Jamat to overcome all forms of difficulty. While the Jamatkhanas will continue to be re-opened as the situation improves, I wish my Jamat to keep in mind the importance I attach to our historic tradition of personal, private prayer.

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You may know how, in ancient times, the common view was that nature had separated humankind into distinctive peoples. Aristotle was among the first to reject such arbitrary distinctions, and to conceptualize the human race as a single whole. It is interesting to note that his young pupil, on whom he impressed this notion, turned out to be Alexander the Great - whose international empire was animated by this new intellectual outlook

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From a global perspective, it is here, in Central Asia, that one of the most unusual water situations exists. I am referring to Lake Sarez. It is some 60 kilometres in length, containing some 17 cubic kilometres of water, is at 3200 meters altitude and has a natural dam of 550 meters, the highest of any dam in the world. For years it has been seen as a major hazard to millions of lives in this country and in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan

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The Quran, makes several references to the pen and to writing, in particular pointing out that Allah teaches by the pen (and teaches man) that which he does not know. The reference is simultaneously to revelation and the specific religious knowledge of faith that is passed on by revelation, as also to knowledge in general.

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The written word thus has from the outset, a symbolic content for Muslims which underlines and inspires the aesthetic significance that it developed as calligraphy grew to be a genuine art form. The written word as a symbol with both religious and aesthetic significance, is pervasive and is as important as it was several thousand years ago.

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In Islam, the divine message was passed through the Prophet, first orally and subsequently written down as the Quran. Mohammed (pbuh) is Allah's Prophet, a Messenger who transmits faithfully to humanity Allah's words addressed directly to him. Mohammed being not divine but a Messenger, it is his message, the Word of Allah, that is all-important and the Quran is the direct visual embodiment of Allah's Message.

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Just as the Quran and its message pervade every aspect of a Muslim's life, secular or religious, material or philosophic and abstract, almost any physical object can bear calligraphy, whether sacred or secular, whatever its size and use.

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Just as the Quran and its message pervade every aspect of a Muslim's life, secular or religious, material or philosophic and abstract, almost any physical object can bear calligraphy, whether sacred or secular, whatever its size and use.

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Nations, be they in the developed or Third World, will underestimate only at their own peril the role that tourism, and the leisure industry in general can and will play in their economies and in their overall growth in the years to come.

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Human genius is found in its variety which is the work of Allah. Harnessing that genius to the fullest should be one of the goals of all modern societies and nations in addition to mobilizing creative capacity from all segments of society. It is essential to nurture it, by providing a variety of educational opportunities suited to the talents of different individuals and the demands of a rapidly changing world.

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First of all you are a Moslem, from that you have gone higher up and are an Ismaili. Now Islam has many forms of prayers. Ismailis in prayers go to a higher and higher spiritual life till the supreme spiritual life is immediately reached after death by union as soon as the day comes when the real calls the apparent to itself. But Islam first and Ismailism much more so insists on action.

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The Qur’an is not a body of law, and that, I think, is a statement that every Muslim will make. What is referred to today as Islamic law is a compilation of views expressed by law makers who lived well after the revelation of the Qur’an, well after the time of the Prophet. The interesting thing is that in the Qu’ran, for example, a lot of the things which I would refer to as punishment, are punishment as deterrent.


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