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Undergirding these positive responsibilities and moral disciplines is a vision of the integrity and dignity of human life. We can live fulfilled lives by caring for one another. It is a message that the Ismaili Imam has publicly advocated for six decades, and one that informs the work of the Ismaili Imamat through the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), a group of twelve cultural, social, and economic development agencies, engaged in improving the quality of human life in many parts of the world. It serves, in the Aga Khan’s words, ‘as a connector between “East” and “West” in terms of its cultural initiatives, and between “North” and “South,” as far as social and economic development projects are involved.’

Photo by Adam Scotti / ADAM SCOTTI / PMO-CPM

Prince Karim does not view his work, or that of AKDN, as philanthropic or entrepreneurial, but as integral to the faith and ethos of Islam – as ‘enlightened self-fulfillment’, as he explained in a speech to the Canadian Parliament in 2014. AKDN reflects the social conscience of the Ismaili Muslims, of their faith in action, exemplified by the community’s ethic of volunteerism (illustrated by the community pledging to volunteer one million hours of service for Canada to commemorate the nation’s 150th anniversary – a pledge it fulfilled and exceeded in six months). Thus, at the very outset of his Imamat, before the creation of AKDN, he stated:

‘The Ismailis have always prided themselves on their highly developed social conscience. Our faith teaches us that we have obligations far beyond our own or even our family’s interests…. By the way you conduct your daily lives, by the compassion you show to your fellow men and women, and above all by your faith in God, you will ultimately be judged.’

When asked in a 1996 interview how he would wish to be remembered, His Highness replied:

‘Probably not in name or face. I far prefer that certain important things that occurred during my Imamat should continue: relations between the Ismaili community and other parts of the Islamic Ummah; between the Islamic world and the non-Islamic world; certain concepts of the “Unity of Man” — that you don’t serve yourself best by being mean and inward looking and you do not serve your future generations that way.’

It is a message much needed in our troubled world.

– Ali Lakhani, QC