For the birth anniversary of Hazrat Ali (a.s.), Simerg’s new post has images, quotes as well links to a selection of diverse articles to appeal young and adult readers alike. The selections are educational, inspiring and informative.
All related at Ismailimail: http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/category/imam-ali/
TheIsmaili.org message: http://www.theismaili.org/cms/1213/Yawme-Ali
If you are a parent or a teacher and say to your child or your students that you have a story to tell, they will gaze at you intensely, and listen to you with rapt attention as you tell them the story. They will want to hear more.
Simerg has been publishing parables and stories from time to time and the latest is about a young girl selling oranges, who through her actions teaches us about honesty in its true sense. Please click on Honesty – A Story by a Young Writer.
I also invite you to click on the following links for other illuminating, and in some cases funny, parables and stories on the website:
Malik Merchant, Publisher-Editor
http://www.simerg.com - www.simergphotos.com
CANADA
His Highness the Aga Khan, second from right, gave the keynote address at the International Conference on “Culture: Key to Sustainable Development” in Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang Province, May 15, 2013. Photo: Xinhua/Xu Yu.
Sparkle of 31 bandhanis on the steps of Mombasa Jamatkhana, 1963. Photo Credit: Ameer Bhai Janmohamed.
Click here or above photograph to read at SIMERG – Insights from Around the World.
His Highness the Aga Khan was a member of an International Jury which announced the first Business Leader’s Award on ending human trafficking. A piece that was originally published by Simerg.com about the Forum that took place in Luxor in 2010 has been updated with remarks made by the Ismaili Imam.
To read the remarks as well as some background information about the forum please click Remarks by Highness the Aga Khan at the International Forum Against Human Trafficking Held in Luxor, Egypt
All related at Ismailimail: Luxor International Forum.
Also watch: Faridoun Hemani at TEDx SugarLand: Human Trafficking – 21st Century Slavery
By Navyn Naran
there is an expectant joy in the air
as we welcome the news our Mawla has shared
and He is happy for a love of two
a new beginning for all, here paired.
this joy paralleled e’en by the spring
the breeze gently caressing the face of each
we share in their love and welcome the new
an understanding and acknowledgement in this niche.
Simerg and Simergphotos invites Ismailimail readers to visit the following two posts containing the same poem and photos but in vastly different style formats.
For Simergphotos please click “Mubarak…Khushamadeed”: A Poem for Prince Rahim
While visiting these 2 blogs please click on other recent informative and interesting photo essays, literary readings and stories,
This latest addition to the expanding frontier of Gujarati studies offers eleven masterly chapters written by thirteen scholars representing several disciplines.
Though this is not a publication of the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London (IIS), it has a disproportionate Ismaili presence: both the editors are lecturers at IIS and one of the contributors is a member of the board of governors of IIS.
Out of the eleven chapters three of them focus on the current Ismaili Imam’s leadership style and the geet and ginanic traditions of his followers of Gujarati origin.
Earlier related:
The story has been adapted from Green Leaves which appeared in the March 1986 issue of Al-Misbah, a publication of the Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Board for the United Kingdom.
His Highness the Aga Khan, 49th Ismaili Imam and direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, warmly greeting Baroness Margaret Thatcher at the banquet hosted by His Highness in London on July 3, 2008 during his Golden Jubilee Celebrations. Photo: Mawlana Hazar Imam Shah Karim Al Hussaini Aga Khan, Golden Jubilee Souvenir, published by Islamic Publications Limited. 2012. Simerg.com Copyright.
Compiled by Iqbal Motani, Ottawa
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, now 94 years old, was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. He was educated at University College of Fort Hare, and in 1943 enrolled to study law at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Due to his political involvement and being jailed he only graduated in law in the 1980s – some 40 years later! Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party’s apartheid policies. He spent 27 years in prison before emerging in 1990 and becoming president of the ANC. He served as president of South Africa from 1994 – 1999.
“…Islam has become part of Africa in a process as complex as the history of the continent itself….If the language of Islam in Africa has been Arabic, it has also been indigenous African Languages. The coming of Islam sometimes meant the imposition of new political and social order, but also the absorption of Islam into an existing order…” –Nelson Mandela, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, July 11, 1997
Click here to read SIMERG – Insights from Around the World.
In Ismali tariqa (persuasion) of Islam, which is also a tariqa of jannat-bil-quwwat (potential paradise), anyone who truly offers his bay’at (allegiance) to Imami waqt (Imam-e-Zaman, Imam of the Time) is ushered into this jannah (paradise). In this tariqa, a mu’min (believer), in his search for haqq (Reality) and wasl (union) with haqq, has to come to understand consciously the meaning of death and accept it as an event of the exit of the soul from this world into the next, which is spiritual. His spiritual progress depends on this understanding.
Click here to read at SIMERG – Insights from Around the World.
In Islam, while the word tasbih refers to a form of supererogatory prayer it is also a name given to a number of beads strung together in the form of a circle. There is a loop at one point of this circular object and the two ends are passed through a bigger, decorative bead where they are tied or woven into a knot. This is the starting point of a tasbih (rosary).
Almost all the religions in the world today possess some form of this object which differ a little in size, number and arrangement of beads. Calling it by different names, they make use of it for the purpose of reciting the Name of Allah or for recalling the name of the deity in whom they believe.
The United Nations General Assembly on 23 February 2010 recognized 21 March as the International Day of Nowruz, a spring festival of Persian origin, as it continued its sixty-fourth session.
A few weeks later in the same year, the US House of Representatives approved a resolution recognizing that Nowruz embodies the tradition that each individual’s thinking, speaking, and conduct should always be virtuous. The resolution also expressed appreciation to Iranian Americans for their contributions to society, and wishing Iranian Americans and the people of Iran a good new year.
Literary Reading: Sayyid Shamsi Seeks Out His Master in Devotional Ginan “Eji Navroz na Din Sohamna”
By Sadrudin K. Hassam - INTRODUCTION
An attempt is made in this article to give an interpretation of the devotional Ginan Navroz na din Sohamna, which is recited by Ismaili Jamats in many parts of the world on the occasion of the celebration of the Persian New Year which falls on March 21st.
A poor struggling Ismaili couple selling grams and parched rice on a little moveable stall had for a long time cherished a desire to carry some mangoes to Mawlana Sultan Mahomed Shah at his Walkeshwar residence in Bombay. Who would let them enter the bungalow? They took a tram to Chowpati, whence they climbed the Malabar Hill on foot until they reached their destination. Holding their hands against their eyes to keep sway the burning sun from their faces, they were gazing intently toward the bungalow. A guard in rather a spiteful and scornful manner, summoned the man to him: “Whom do you want and what do you want?” and asked them to leave…..What happened next is rather quite remarkable in this true story from the life of Mukhi Megji Mulji (1861 – 1933).
Click here to read: The Remarkable and True Story of Mukhi Megji Mulji: An Example of Faith, Piety and Service to the Imam of the Time
Click here to read complete letter at the source: http://simerg.com/thanking-ismaili-historical-figures
The association of body and soul constitutes human physical life. The body is visible, since by its nature it cannot be invisible. On the other hand, the soul manifests itself through the body, because by itself, it cannot be visible due to its non-physical nature. The soul, therefore, can be known without experiencing it through sense-perception. The soul cannot be apparent to our senses because it belongs to a different level of existence which is not material. On the other hand, the physical body cannot exist without being visible because it belongs to the physical realm. However both body and soul “exist”.
Click here to read SIMERG – Insights from Around the World.
Multiple English translations of the Qur’an, Islam’s scripture, line shelves at book stores….Because of the growing Muslim communities in English-speaking countries, as well as greater academic interest in Islam, there has been a blossoming in recent years of English translations….Since fewer than 20 percent of Muslims speak Arabic, this means that most Muslims study the text only in translation. So how accurate are the Qur’an’s renderings into English? The record is mixed….
Read more http://simerg.com/
“In the twelfth century the gold dinars of the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt were so highly valued throughout the Middle East, especially by Syrian merchants, that the Christian kingdoms founded in Palestine by the Crusaders began to issue imitations of them. These imitations, the so-called “Saracenic besants”, were clumsily produced at first, but their design was gradually improved until they were such faithful copies of the dinar that the horrified papal legate who accompanied King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis) on the Crusades in 1250 threatened those responsible with excommunication for daring to issue coins to the glory of Allah for commercial profit. A compromise was reached. The Saracenic besant was replaced by another issue which was almost identical to its predecessor but bore a cross and Arabic inscriptions to the glory of the Holy Trinity and the Lord Jesus Christ”
