Talk of the Nation, October 2, 2008. In this installment of the This American Moment series, Eboo Patel, director of the Interfaith Youth Core, discusses his efforts to promote religious pluralism among young people. Patel believes that this type of mutual respect and understanding is the “big idea of our time.”
Patel is the author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. He writes “The Faith Divide” blog for The Washington Post.
Historically and in accordance with Ismaili tradition, the Imam of the time is concerned with spiritual advancement as well as improvement of the quality of life of his murids. The Imam’s Talim lights the murids’ path to spiritual enlightenment and vision. In temporal matters, the Imam guides the murids, and motivates them to develop their potential. Mawlana Hazar Imam Shah Karim al Hussaini, His Highness Prince Aga Khan, in direct lineal descent from the Holy Prophet (S.A.S.) through Hazrat Mawlana Ali (A.S.) and Hazrat Bibi Fatima (A.S.), is the Forty-Ninth Imam of the Ismaili Muslims.
– The Constitution of The Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims – Preamble (F) and (G)
One of the central elements of the Islamic faith is the inseparable nature of faith and world. The two are so deeply intertwined that one cannot imagine their separation. They constitute a “Way of Life.” The role and responsibility of an Imam, therefore, is both to interpret the faith to the community, and also to do all within his means to improve the quality, and security, of their daily lives.
– His Highness the Aga Khan at Tutzing Evangelical Academy, Tutzing, Germany May 20, 2006
“Islam does not perceive the world as two seperate domains of mind and spirit, science and belief” (Aga Khan IV, McMaster University
Convocation, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, May 15th 1987)
“Discovery of knowledge was seen by those founders [Fatimids] as an embodiment of religious faith, and faith as reinforced by knowledge
of workings of the Creator’s physical world” (Aga Khan IV, 27th May 1994, Cambridge, Massachusets, U.S.A.)
“The Quran itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God’s creation” (Aga Khan IV, Paris, France, Oct 17 2007)
Alas, Islam which is a natural religion in which God’s miracles are the very law and order of nature drifted away and is still drifting away, even in Pakistan, from science which is the study of those very laws and orders of nature (Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952, Karachi, Pakistan)
“……The Quran tells us that signs of Allah’s Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation – in the heavens and the earth, the night and the day, the clouds and the seas, the winds and the waters….” (Aga Khan IV, Kampala, Uganda, August 22 2007)
“…..This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives. Of that I am certain” (Aga Khan IV, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, August 17th 2007)
A thousand years ago, my forefathers, the Fatimid imam-caliphs of Egypt, founded al-Azhar University and the Academy of Knowledge in Cairo. In the Islamic tradition, they viewed the discovery of knowledge as a way to understand, so as to serve better God’s creation, to apply knowledge and reason to build society and shape human aspirations (Aga Khan IV, 25th June 2004, Matola, Mozambique)
In this context, would it not also be relevant to consider how, above all, it has been the Qur’anic notion of the universe as an expression of Allah’s will and creation that has inspired, in diverse Muslim communities, generations of artists, scientists and philosophers? Scientific pursuits, philosophic inquiry and artistic endeavour are all seen as the response of the faithful to the recurring call of the Qur’an to ponder the creation as a way to understand Allah’s benevolent majesty. As Sura al-Baqara proclaims: ‘Wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah’ (Aga Khan IV, 19th October 2003, London, U.K.)
“The Quran very often refers to nature as a reflection of Allah’s power of creation and says: Look at the mountains, look at the rivers, look at the trees, look at the flowers all as evidence of Allah’s love for the people whom He has created….” (Aga Khan IV, Tajikistan, May 27th 1995)
The man of faith, who fails to pursue intellectual search is likely to have only a limited comprehension of Allah’s creation. Indeed, it is man’s intellect that enables him to expand his vision of that creation (Aga Khan IV, 11th November 1985, AKU)
“Muslims believe in an all-encompassing unit of man and nature. To them there is no fundamental division between the spiritual and the material while the whole world, whether it be the earth, sea or air, or the living creatures that inhabit them, is an expression of God’s creation.” (Aga Khan IV, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA 13 April 1984)
In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet (s.a.s.) and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation. (Aga Khan IV, 16 March 1983, AKU)
- courtesy/compilation: Easy Nash
Watch video at the source
By BARBARA KARKABI and KRISTINA HERRNDOBLER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
A Sikh and a Muslim who sat down for dinner at a Jewish home Thursday night agreed on what drew them to the gathering.
“In my vocabulary, there is no such thing as coincidence. We are here for a reason,” Bindu Malhotra, the Sikh, said of the interfaith dinner.
“I feel God is making all this happen,” agreed Nasru Rupani, an Ismaili Muslim who said he wanted to give a face to Islam.
The two were among more than 800 Houstonians to attend Amazing Faiths Dinner Dialogues held simultaneously at 73 homes around the city.
Their host, Ann Nunes, was delighted with the religious diversity of the nine guests at her Meyerland-area home. “I just feel it’s important for all of us to know and appreciate each other and how much wisdom and beauty we all have to offer,” she said.
“It’s very important to create a space for Muslims to come forward and express what it means to be Muslim,” said Tazim Kassam, chairman of the department of religion at Syracuse University. “It doesn’t mean opposition to modernity, or opposition to the West. There’s an enormously rich musical tradition in Islam, and this is not always appreciated or known.”
By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
Tribune staff reporter
November 9, 2007
The tiny community of Ismaili Muslims in Chicago numbers just 5,000 or so, but last month the Ismailis’ annual Partnership Walk, which raises money to fight global poverty, drew 3,000 people to Millennium Park.
On Friday, the little-known community will hold another high-profile event, a Symphony Center concert of traditional musicians from the predominantly Muslim nations of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in central Asia.
Ismailis, Shia Muslims who focus on esoteric interpretations of the Quran, number about 15 million out of an estimated 1 billion Muslims worldwide. For centuries, they have been a minority in most places where they have lived.
As minorities, sometimes persecuted, Ismailis have developed a long history of trying to reach beyond the boundaries of their community and learn to live with dominant majorities, whether it is other Muslim societies in Africa and Asia or the predominantly Christian and secular United States.
With the help of Prince Aga Khan, the Ismailis’ spiritual leader and one of the richest men in the world, they’ve been able to take on ambitious endeavors across the globe, establishing schools and hospitals and restoring prized Islamic monuments. The $500,000 Aga Khan Award for Architecture is now recognized as the world’s most lucrative prize in that field.
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture is co-sponsoring Friday’s event, called “Mystics, Nomads, and Troubadours in Central Asian Music.” For the Ismailis, culture is key to finding common ground.
The Aga Khan has emphasised the view of Islam as a thinking, spiritual faith: one that teaches compassion and tolerance and that upholds the dignity of man, Allah’s noblest creation. In the Shia tradition of Islam, it is the mandate of the Imam of the time to safeguard the individual’s right to personal intellectual search and to give practical expression to the ethical vision of society that the Islamic message inspires. Addressing as Chairman, the International Conference on the Example (Seerat) of the Prophet Muhammad in Karachi in 1976, the Aga Khan said that the wisdom of Allah’s final Prophet in seeking new solutions for problems which could not be solved by traditional methods, provides the inspiration for Muslims to conceive a truly modern and dynamic society without affecting the fundamental concepts of Islam.
– From the biography of His Highness the Aga Khan at community portal, theismaili.org
We are all aware that we live in a world where diversity is often evoked as a threat and, more particularly, where diversity in the interpretation of a faith can be seen as a sign of disloyalty. This phenomenon is sometimes perceived to apply principally to Muslims, but it also exists in other societies. Absolutist, exclusivist, and rejectionist claims to the truth, especially to religious truth, are increasingly heard from all quarters. Rather than seeing religion as a humble process of growth in faith, some people presume to claim that they have arrived at the end of that journey and can therefore speak with near-divine authority.
Unfortunately, in some parts of the Muslim world today, hostility to diverse interpretations of Islam, and lack of religious tolerance, have become chronic, and worsening, problems. Sometimes these attitudes have led to hatred and violence. At the root of the problem is an artificial notion amongst some Muslims, and other people, that there is, or could ever be, a restricted, monolithic reality called Islam.
Our Ismaili tradition, however, has always accepted the spirit of pluralism among schools of interpretation of the faith, and seen this not as a negative value, but as a true reflection of divine plenitude. Indeed, pluralism is seen as essential to the very survival of humanity. Through your studies you have known the many Qur’anic verses and hadiths of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that acknowledge and extol the value of diversity within human societies. You all know, I am sure, the hadith to the effect that differences of interpretation between Muslim traditions should be seen as a sign of the mercy of Allah.
- Excerpt from a speech by Prince Rahim Aga Khan at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in 2007.
- Referred from Jalaledin.blogspot.com
