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

am grateful to Mr. McPherson for his kind and generous introduction, and I welcome this opportunity to share with a concerned and well-informed audience some thoughts on the Third World today. To do so in the presence of my old friend Brad Morse gives me particular pleasure. To me Mr. Morse is a symbol of a new pragmatism in development thinking that I sense in both the industrialized states and among the heterogeneous group of countries that are confusingly lumped together as the Third World. That term reminds me of a speaker who was explaining the role of UNDP.

Discours prononcé par Son Altesse l’Aga Khan
pour l’installation de M. Dominique Perrault à l’Académie des beaux-arts
le mercredi 22 juin 2016

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

Monsieur Dominique Perrault

Votre premier jour sous la Coupole inspire de grandes joies :

Your Royal Highness,
Honourable Minister,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim

Your Excellencies, Your Worship, Distinguished Scholars and Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Hazar Imam speaking at University of Peshawar 1967-11-30

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson,
The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean,
The Right Honorable Joe Clark,
The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario,
Excellencies,
Friends of the Global Centre for Pluralism,

It is a great pleasure to welcome you this evening to the second Global Pluralism Award ceremony.

Thank you, Meredith, for the warm introduction. On behalf of the Board of Directors, we are delighted that you have joined the Centre as Secretary General.

Hazar Imam speaking at the 2019 Annual Global Pluralism Award ceremony in Ottawa, Canada 2019-11-20

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

Honourable Adviser for Foreign Affairs
Honourable Adviser for Religious Affairs
Excellencies
Your Excellencies
Distinguished Guests

As-Salaam-o-Alaikum

It is a special pleasure to welcome this distinguished and diverse audience to this Foundation Ceremony, as we formally mark the beginning of a new Jamatkhana in Dhaka.

Bismillah-ir-Rahaman-ir-Rahim

As-Salam-Alai-Kum, Peace be upon you

Your Excellency Mintimer Shaimiev,
Your Excellency Eleonora Mitrofanova,
Respected Members of the Government,
Distinguished Guests

What an enormous pleasure it is to welcome all of you to this ceremony.

We gather today with a group of extraordinary people, in an extraordinary place, and for an extraordinary purpose.

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture is organised around a series of three-year cycles - each one culminating in the recognition of our Award recipients.

Mr Talbot, Ladies and Gentlemen, honoured guests and members of the Asia Society

By the Islamic calendar we will in just a few months enter the 1400th year of our faith. In the Christian accounting of time, we stand on the brink of the 21st century. It seems fitting to reflect, to consider what Islam has been and what it is to become in this new age. It is a time to speak about hazards and about visions.

May I thank you first for the honour you have done Me in inviting My wife and Myself to this luncheon and asking Me to speak on a subject which is of great concern to us all. I must say, after such a plentiful luncheon, it is somewhat an arduous task but we are all used to it in the Jute Industry. I am particularly grateful for the generous references you have made to the work of My father and My grandfather for the cause of Pakistan.

Madam Prime Minister,
Your Excellencies,
Your Worship the Mayor,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a very great pleasure for us to welcome you, Madam Prime Minister, and so distinguished a gathering for a ceremony which is a most significant one for the Ismaili community: significant because this is the first cultural and religious centre in the Western world to have been built specifically for the community's requirements.

(During the visit to the Philippines, the Speaker of the Senate, Mr. Protempore Salipada Pendatun held a banquet in honour of His Royal Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan on 23rd November 1963. While proposing a toast to the guest of honour, he praised His Royal Highness’ educational efforts all over the world.

Following is the reply made by Prince Aga Khan)

(On his way to the Philippines, His Royal Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan stopped at Karachi on 21st November 1963.

On 22nd September 1962 at Calcutta (India) an address of welcome was presented to Mowlana Hazar Imam Shah Karim Al-Hussaini Aga Khan by Shri Keshab Chandra Basu, the speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

All Nations Club of Calcutta (India) gave a Dinner in Honour of His Royal Highness Prince Karim Al Hussaini Aga Khan on 22nd of September 1962.

His Excellency Shri Shanker Das Banarji, the Finance Minister of West Bengal (India) welcoming His Royal Highness, paid glowing tributes and said, “Your position, therefore, is that of a world citizen, who can make a large contribution towards creating goodwill among men, understanding and co-operation among nations.

His Royal Highness in his reply said, :

“Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Your Excellency, members of Kamar Education Trust:

Let me begin by saying how very happy I am to be amongst you today and how honoured I am that you should have invited me to lay the Foundation Stone of this Hostel. The kind words which you have spoken about my late Grandfather have touched me deeply as he was not only a great Muslim but the revered head of my family for over three quarters of a century.

(The Ismailia Youth Services Karachi have initiated many projects for the advancement of the community. In Karachi one of these has been the Muhammedi Girls’Academy. Recently a magnificent building has been constructed in the lush green surroundings at Malir on the Karachi-Hyderabad highway.

Never in the history of Mankind has the speed of change been so great. Until some years ago, only the philosophers and astronomers had thought of the other worlds. All our children will have to think of them, for our boys and girls will certainly have the occasion to visit them.

This extraordinary widening of the horizons of mankind is something for which we must prepare our children and if the aim of education is to equip our young generations with the weapons with which to meet the future, then surely your institute is doing the most noble service.

Your Worship, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am most happy indeed that it has been possible for me to make this brief visit to Nairobi on my way back from the Independence celebrations in Tanganyika and to be able to open this fine new Secondary School.