Mawlana Hazar Imam commences his Far East visit in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, 29 March 2012 — Mawlana Hazar Imam arrived in Malaysia today for the start of his visit to the Far East. In the country’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, he will officially inaugurate the exhibition titled Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Architecture in Islamic Arts at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia.

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Speech by Mawlana Hazar ImamAt the Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony ofThe Ismaili Jamatkhana and Centre, KhorogMonday

, 3 November 2008

Bismillahir Rahamanir Rahim
Your Excellency Deputy Prime Minister Asadullo Ghulomov,Your Excellency Governor Qodiri Qosim,Your Excellency Governor Munshi Abdul Majeed,Distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman
I would like to begin these comments this morning by welcoming you to this most happy occasion, this historic event, to celebrate the laying of the Foundation Stone of this first Ismaili Jamatkhana and Centre in Tajik-Badakhshan.
I would like to say how deeply happy I am, that this Foundation Stone ceremony will occur during the 50th year of my Imamat. I can think of few events in this year which will have given me the happiness which this one today will bring me and inshallah all the people who will participate in this event.
At the beginning of these comments, it is appropriate to situate here, one of the functions of the Ismaili Centre in the tradition of Muslim piety. For many centuries, a prominent feature of the Muslim religious landscape has been the variety of spaces of gathering co-existing harmoniously with the masjid, which in itself has accommodated a range of diverse institutional spaces for educational, social and reflective purposes.
Historically serving communities of different interpretations and spiritual affiliations, these spaces have retained their cultural nomenclatures and characteristics, from ribat and zawiyya to khanaqa and jamatkhana.
The congregational space incorporated within the Ismaili Centre belongs to the historic category of jamatkhana, an institutional category that also serves a number of sister Sunni and Shia communities, in their respective contexts, in many parts of the world. Here, the Jamatkhana will be reserved for traditions and practices specific to the Shia Ismaili tariqah of Islam. The Centre on the other hand, will be a symbol of confluence between the spiritual and the secular in Islam.
I would like today to situate what the Centre and the Jamatkhana aspires to be in the town of Khorog. It is my hope that the town of Khorog will become the Jewel of the Pamir. The gem cutter, the person who prepares the jewel, cuts it and cuts it and polishes it and cuts it and polishes it until he has fashioned the gem stone in to a stone of absolute purity with no clouding, absolute purity. And the gem cutter has to do his work very carefully with a lot of time, because if he makes a mistake, he can not bring back the part of the stone that he cut away by mistake. And this is what I hope, with the President of the Republic, His Excellency the Governor, we will be able to do over the years ahead, to improve the town of Khorog, to make it the Jewel of the Pamir.
And we will seek to improve, all of us together, the quality of the environment in which we live, bringing clean water to everywhere where the people live, bringing energy to all the places where people live, improving the schools and health facilities, improving and restoring our historic buildings which are representations today of our cultural history, and thanks to the Governor Niyozmamadov and his gift of land, we today have a new park in Khorog, inshallah we will build the University of Central Asia, we will build this Centre, and while working together, step by step, we will make Khorog the Jewel of the Pamir.
And I want to thank again His Excellency the President, the Deputy Prime Minister, His Excellency the Governor, the Governor of Afghan-Badakshan who has done us the honour of being here today, I want to thank everyone who has made this event possible today. But more than that, who is making new things happen in partnership and in friendship. Like the University of Central Asia, which is a very complex exercise, but inshallah, we will do it properly.
And every time I come back to Khorog, I will ask myself: Are we moving towards making Khorog the Jewel of the Pamir?
Thank you.

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The Significance of Didaar - the Vision of the Imam

Mubarak! We are overjoyed at the prospect of Didaar in a few days. Alhamdulillah! The Jamaat is very fortunate to receive the news of this blessing and as we await the event, we are preparing ourselves for this momentous event in the life of an Ismaili.
We are very fortunate to be receiving the Didaar in our lifetimes. The Tajikistan and Central Asian Jamaat had to wait over 600 years for the physical Didaar of the Imam and when it happened, it was an electrically charged event for both the Imam and the Jamaat.
Al Muayyad, our famous Dai in Fatimid times, was finally able to pay his respects to the Imam after much resistance from the ministers and courtiers who would not allow any man of learning to see the Imam personally until they submitted to their dicates. After many tries, he was successful in receiving the Didaar. Describing this experience, he writes:
"I was taken near the place wherefrom I saw the bright Light of the Prophethood. My eyes were dazzled by the Light. I shed tears of joy and felt as if I was looking at the face of the Prophet of Allah and of the Commander of the Faithful, Hazrat Ali. I prostrated myself before the one who is the fittest person to bow to. I wanted to say something, but 1 was awe-struck... I tried to speak but my tongue refused to move. People asked me to say what I wished to say. I could say nothing. The Imam said, 'Leave him. Let his fear and awe subside.' After this, I rose. I took the holy hand of the Imam, placed it on my eyes and on my chest and then kissed it. I left the place with immense joy."
Al Muayyad was the teacher of Nasir Khusraw who converted to Ismailism by Al Muayyad's teachings. Nasir Khusraw's teachings were responsible for the immense love the Ismailis of Central Asia preserved in their lives for over 6 centuries. When Mowlana Hazar Imam gave Didaar in 1995, the Jamaat symbolically presented Nasir Khusraw's book "Wahj-i Deen," 'The Face of Faith' alluding to the verse in the Quran - "the Face of Allah is everywhere."


More @ http://www.amaana.org/imam/didaararticle.htm