Content Tagged with Our Community
Music plays a vital role in culture and society alike, not only for expressing ourselves but also for promoting and uplifting physical and mental wellbeing. Music allows people from all different backgrounds to come together to appreciate and engage with their traditions, while also forming connections with one another.
In Uganda, volunteer communities have come together in numerous ways to create positive change — a cornerstone of civil society. In a small township in the northern part of Kampala, more than 50 volunteers between the ages of 11 and 15 put their hands to work repainting the Kyanja Muslim Nursery School in late April.
Recreation plays a key role in the physical and mental wellbeing of everyone, young and old. For seniors especially, involvement in recreation has a number of benefits in enhancing cognitive and motor skills, and provides an opportunity for socializing and developing new talents. For a group of seniors in the USA, a passion for music has shown that age is no limit to composing and performing for themselves and others.
Preservation of a sound mind is among the foundational principles of Islam's ethical code, which strives to ensure the dignity and honour of each individual from day to day, throughout the course of life. In general, it is also important to become more aware of, and to consider integrating holistic wellbeing into our daily routine, as this can have a benefit on the quality of our lives.
It is a rare and historic honor to have an object in space named after an individual. This is usually reserved for someone who first discovers the object, generally after years of painstaking observation of the night sky. So to be recognized in this manner is indeed an occasion worthy of note. This is precisely what happened for Alaudin Bhanji at the end of 2018.
As we sat in a bakery at London’s South Kensington waiting for our tea and cakes, I couldn't help but sense how composed the young woman sitting opposite me was. In Nabila Tejpar’s profession however, I sensed that staying calm under pressure came with the job. It wasn't every day that you met a young Ismaili woman who was taking the UK rally driving scene by storm.
Art has been shown to be of therapeutic value, creating a sense of calm, engaging creative areas of the brain and offsetting depression, especially in older adults, offering a valuable pastime for everyone to consider. Here, we feature the works of four artists, all senior members of the Jamat, who arrived in the US from different countries, and who display their cultural sensibilities in their colorful creations.
Nestled at the base of the Pamir mountain range lies Gorno-Badakhshan (GBAO), a place of immense beauty within a harsh and rugged mountainous region — home of Nasir Khusraw. The population in Badakhshan is predominantly Ismaili and live in small villages along the slopes of the Pamirs or near the tributaries of the Pyanj River that divides Tajikistan from Afghanistan.
World Health Day is commemorated on 7 April all over the world, to raise awareness and draw attention towards the importance of global health. To mark this occasion, The.Ismaili highlights the need to take care of one’s well being in the face of increasing public health concerns.
The Aga Khan Foundation is hosting the “Rays of Light” exhibition at the Serena Hotel Islamabad from 2-3 April 2019.
In 1978, the Canadian Jamat awaited Hazar Imam’s first visit to Canada with excitement. Shamshu Jamal, a talented Vancouver musician, expressed his joy on this blessed occasion by composing “Maara Mawla Canada Padhaarshe,” the devotional music piece that would go on to become an iconic musical tribute in the Canadian Ismaili community for generations.
What is your first memory of music? Can you remember a time when you were so engrossed in a musical compilation that you forgot where you were physically? Many members of the Jamat use music as a connection to their heritage, their upbringing, and their community. In this article we will explore some of their stories.
Renowned artists and composers Salim and Sulaiman Merchant have obtained accolades in the Indian film industry and have performed in a number of prominent spaces including at the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Their memorable songs such as ‘Jubilee Mubarak’, ‘Ali Mawla’, and ‘Shukran Allah’, which were performed on the occasion of Mawlana Hazar Imam’s Diamond Jubilee, still resonate in our minds. To coincide with the upcoming Aga Khan Music Awards, we spoke with the two brothers about their journey.
Films from the Jubilee Arts International Film Festival, which took place in July 2018 during the Diamond Jubilee Celebration in Lisbon, are now available to view online at https://the.ismaili/jubilee-arts/IFF2018.
It is estimated that at the end of 2018, 51.2 per cent of the global population, or 3.9 billion people, were using the Internet. While the Internet has brought about many positive changes, there have also been some undesirable effects of its growth and increased usage.
Late last year, a diverse group of interfaith leaders visited the Aga Khan Museum to explore its exhibitions, architecture, and facilities. As the United Nations has decreed the first week of February World Interfaith Harmony Week, The.Ismaili is pleased to share the experiences of these visitors in an article written by Ruth Broyde Sharone, first published on 15 November 2018 by The Interfaith Observer.
On 15 January 2019, world-renowned public intellectual Professor Mona Siddiqui, OBE, delivered the annual lecture commemorating Milad-un-Nabi, to an audience of over 250 government and community leaders, academics, and members of the Jamat on the topic of “Hospitality, Global Conflicts and Migration: From Divine Imperative to Social Conscience.”
An enthusiastic group of students at the Khorog campus of the University of Central Asia (UCA) have formed an initiative to promote awareness of ecological issues and encourage participation in environmentally sustainable practices.
The digital age has changed our lives in many parts of the world, inextricably tethering them to the Internet for the simplest to the most sophisticated of tasks. In the first of a new series of articles on how to use digital media safely, Altaf Jiwa outlines the role that the Internet and social media have come to play in our daily lives.
