Latest news with #ShiaIsmailiMuslims
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
King grants new Aga Khan title of ‘His Highness'
The King has granted the new Aga Khan the title 'His Highness', Buckingham Palace has announced. Charles is continuing a long-standing royal tradition of bestowing the title on the spiritual leader of the world's millions of Ismaili Muslims. Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini, 53, was named as the Aga Khan V following the death of his father Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV, at the age of 88 last week. Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini Aga Khan V was today named the 50th hereditary Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, following the unsealing of the Will of his late father, Prince Karim Al-Hussaini Aga Khan IV, who died in Lisbon, Portugal yesterday, aged 88. Prince… — Aga Khan Development Network (@akdn) February 5, 2025 The late Aga Khan was given the title of 'His Highness' by Queen Elizabeth II in July 1957, two weeks after his grandfather unexpectedly made him heir to the family's 1,300-year dynasty as leader of the Ismaili Muslim sect. The King was left deeply saddened over the death of the late Aga Khan. The billionaire philanthropist was a personal friend of both Charles and Queen Elizabeth II for many years. He was also a leading owner and breeder of racehorses, sharing a passion for racing with the late Queen and helping her achieve one of her most enjoyable days at the races. The Queen's filly Estimate, which claimed victory in Royal Ascot's 2013 Gold Cup – the first time in the race's 207-year history that it had been won by a reigning monarch, was an 80th birthday present from the late Aga Khan. Buckingham Palace in a statement on the monarchy's official social media accounts said: 'To mark the accession of Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini Aga Khan as the fiftieth hereditary Imam of the Shi'a Ismaili Muslim community, and in accordance with long-standing tradition, it has pleased The King to grant the new Aga Khan the title 'His Highness'. The King is pleased to grant the new Aga Khan the title 'His Highness'. — The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) February 10, 2025 The Aga Khan is considered by his followers to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and is treated as a head of state. The late Aga Khan's funeral was held in Lisbon on Saturday, before a private burial ceremony in Aswan, Egypt, on Sunday.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Aga Khan obituary
Fast cars, yachts and racehorses are not the usual accoutrements of religious leaders, but they fitted the lifestyle of the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the world's 12 million Ismaili Muslims, who has died aged 88. Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the 49th hereditary imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, claimed direct descent from the Prophet Muhammad through his daughter Hazrat Bibi Fatima and his son-in-law Hazrat Ali, the fourth rightly guided caliph of Islam. The Ismaili sect sees no contradiction between spiritual and material wellbeing. As the Aga Khan said: 'It is not an Islamic belief that spiritual life should be totally excluded from our more material everyday activities.' Or, as he told Vanity Fair magazine: 'We have no notion of the accumulation of wealth being evil, it's how you use it … if God has given you the capacity or good fortune to be a privileged individual, you have a moral responsibility to society.' His personal wealth may have topped £13bn and he was probably richer than the British royal family. An international businessman and philanthropist, 'smiling, welcoming, with a receding hairline and slightly overweight figure', according to the former Guardian journalist Hella Pick, who came to know him well, the Aga Khan was a familiar and revered figure to members of the sect scattered in minority communities not only in the Indian subcontinent and Africa, but also in Europe and Canada. They donated tithes of their earnings to him, his foundation and development network and in return his organisation has provided hospitals, clinics, schools and scholarships to their communities. On a trip to Africa with him to visit the Ismaili community in Kenya in the early 1980s, Pick witnessed the reverence with which he was held: 'I felt that between the Aga Khan and his followers there was an extra element. I noticed during the Kenya trip that any cup from which he drank and even the jeep he drove during a safari instantly became treasured museum pieces, probably never to be used again.' Despite the distinguished lineage, the dynasty traces back in its modern form to the expulsion of the then imam from Persia (now Iran) in 1837. Settling in India he became an enthusiastic supporter of the Raj as a spokesman for the Muslim community and was granted tax free status by the British and the title Aga Khan, which means Ruler. On the fourth Aga Khan's accession in 1957 Queen Elizabeth II formally granted him the style of His Highness, 'in view of his succession to the imamate and his position as spiritual head of the Ismaili community, many members of which reside in Her Majesty's territories'. He remained close to the British royal family and was appointed KBE in 2004. Non-Muslims knew him better for what appeared to be a jet set lifestyle: a former Olympic skier, owner of fast racing yachts, a familiar figure at Ascot and other racecourses where his horses, not least the ill-fated Shergar – kidnapped by an armed gang thought to be the Provisional IRA from a stud farm in County Kildare in 1983 and never seen again – won major races. Probably the most famous horse in the world at the time, Shergar had won both the English and Irish Derbies and five of the seven races he had run before being put to stud, but the Aga Khan refused to pay the £2m ransom demanded. Another of his horses, Harzand, subsequently also won both Derbies and a third, Zarkava, won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. He was fascinated by the science of horse breeding but never betted. Prince Karim was born in Genthod, Switzerland, the son of Joan Yarde-Buller, daughter of the British peer Lord Churston, and Prince Aly Khan, an international playboy and son of the third Aga Khan. According to Pick, who was commissioned to write his biography, it was a lonely childhood for the boy and his younger brother, Amyn, shuffled between homes in Paris, Deauville and Gstaad in the charge of an English nanny by parents whom they rarely saw. They spent the war in a dilapidated family house in Nairobi. Both of the boys were sent to an exclusive boarding school, Le Rosey in Switzerland, which at least provided some stability as their parents divorced in 1949: their father went on to marry the Hollywood film star Rita Hayworth and their mother the newspaper proprietor Viscount Camrose. Aly Khan was killed in a Paris car crash in 1960. Karim was studying engineering at Harvard when his grandfather, the third Aga Khan, died in 1957 and unprecedentedly settled the succession on him rather than his father, laying down in his will that, in the fundamentally altered conditions of the world in the atomic age, he was convinced that the community 'should be led by a young man who could bring a new outlook on life to the office of Islam'. Karim toured the Ismaili communities around the world before returning to Harvard to finish his studies in oriental history, receiving a BA degree two days after setting up a development fund for Muslim students at the university. The Aga Khan took all his responsibilities to his co-religionists seriously, as Pick observed during the Kenya trip: 'Certainly for most of the days and also large chunks of the night, I watched a workaholic beavering away at his desk … there were meetings on hospital projects and other planned developments in Kenya. There were other meetings about the major hospital and medical centre being built in Karachi and on and on with still more projects.' Her planned biography was eventually vetoed, she thought, by conservative Ismaili leaders who believed the Aga Khan had opened himself up too much to an outsider. The range of the Aga Khan's business interests, run from his headquarters in Switzerland, encompassed diamonds and marble, tyres and saucepans, real estate and mines and top of the range hotels including the Costa Smeralda beach resort in Sardinia and the Serena hotel in Kabul. Philanthropic initiatives funded through the Aga Khan Development Network included medical facilities in rural areas, higher education scholarships, a rural support programme to improve living conditions in the African bush and a hydro-electric power network in Uganda. The Ismaili Centre in Kensington, London, was set up in 1983 and the 700-year-old Djinguereber mosque in Timbuktu was restored, all part of his attempt to reconcile Islam and the Judeo-Christian world. 'I see it as a clash of ignorance rather than a clash of civilisations,' he told the Sunday Telegraph in 2005. 'There is a remarkable degree of ignorance … I am talking about human society and civilisation. It's not a religious issue.' The Aga Khan was married twice, first in 1969 to the English model Sarah (Sally) Croker Poole, who took the title Princess Salimah. The couple had three children, Zahra, Rahim – who now succeeds as the 50th imam – and Husain, but the marriage was dissolved in 1995. He married, secondly, in 1998, Gabriele Leiningen, a German lawyer and former pop singer, with whom he had a son, Aly. That marriage ended acrimoniously in 2004 with protracted divorce proceedings in British and French courts. The Aga Khan latterly lived in Lisbon, which has an Ismaili community, and was granted Portuguese citizenship. His children survive him. • Prince Karim, Aga Khan IV, spiritual leader and philanthropist,born 13 December 1936; died 4 February 2025
The Guardian
09-02-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The Aga Khan obituary
Fast cars, yachts and racehorses are not the usual accoutrements of religious leaders, but they fitted the lifestyle of the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the world's 12 million Ismaili Muslims, who has died aged 88. Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the 49th hereditary imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, claimed direct descent from the Prophet Muhammad through his daughter Hazrat Bibi Fatima and his son-in-law Hazrat Ali, the fourth rightly guided caliph of Islam. The Ismaili sect sees no contradiction between spiritual and material wellbeing. As the Aga Khan said: 'It is not an Islamic belief that spiritual life should be totally excluded from our more material everyday activities.' Or, as he told Vanity Fair magazine: 'We have no notion of the accumulation of wealth being evil, it's how you use it … if God has given you the capacity or good fortune to be a privileged individual, you have a moral responsibility to society.' His personal wealth may have topped £13bn and he was probably richer than the British royal family. An international businessman and philanthropist, 'smiling, welcoming, with a receding hairline and slightly overweight figure', according to the former Guardian journalist Hella Pick, who came to know him well, the Aga Khan was a familiar and revered figure to members of the sect scattered in minority communities not only in the Indian subcontinent and Africa, but also in Europe and Canada. They donated tithes of their earnings to him, his foundation and development network and in return his organisation has provided hospitals, clinics, schools and scholarships to their communities. On a trip to Africa with him to visit the Ismaili community in Kenya in the early 1980s, Pick witnessed the reverence with which he was held: 'I felt that between the Aga Khan and his followers there was an extra element. I noticed during the Kenya trip that any cup from which he drank and even the jeep he drove during a safari instantly became treasured museum pieces, probably never to be used again.' Despite the distinguished lineage, the dynasty traces back in its modern form to the expulsion of the then imam from Persia (now Iran) in 1837. Settling in India he became an enthusiastic supporter of the Raj as a spokesman for the Muslim community and was granted tax free status by the British and the title Aga Khan, which means Ruler. On the fourth Aga Khan's accession in 1957 Queen Elizabeth II formally granted him the style of His Highness, 'in view of his succession to the imamate and his position as spiritual head of the Ismaili community, many members of which reside in Her Majesty's territories'. He remained close to the British royal family and was appointed KBE in 2004. Non-Muslims knew him better for what appeared to be a jet set lifestyle: a former Olympic skier, owner of fast racing yachts, a familiar figure at Ascot and other racecourses where his horses, not least the ill-fated Shergar – kidnapped by an armed gang thought to be the Provisional IRA from a stud farm in County Kildare in 1983 and never seen again – won major races. Probably the most famous horse in the world at the time, Shergar had won both the English and Irish Derbies and five of the seven races he had run before being put to stud, but the Aga Khan refused to pay the £2m ransom demanded. Another of his horses, Harzand, subsequently also won both Derbies and a third, Zarkava, won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. He was fascinated by the science of horse breeding but never betted. Prince Karim was born in Genthod, Switzerland, the son of Joan Yarde-Buller, daughter of the British peer Lord Churston, and Prince Aly Khan, an international playboy and son of the third Aga Khan. According to Pick, who was commissioned to write his biography, it was a lonely childhood for the boy and his younger brother, Amyn, shuffled between homes in Paris, Deauville and Gstaad in the charge of an English nanny by parents whom they rarely saw. They spent the war in a dilapidated family house in Nairobi. Both of the boys were sent to an exclusive boarding school, Le Rosey in Switzerland, which at least provided some stability as their parents divorced in 1949: their father went on to marry the Hollywood film star Rita Hayworth and their mother the newspaper proprietor Viscount Camrose. Aly Khan was killed in a Paris car crash in 1960. Karim was studying engineering at Harvard when his grandfather, the third Aga Khan, died in 1957 and unprecedentedly settled the succession on him rather than his father, laying down in his will that, in the fundamentally altered conditions of the world in the atomic age, he was convinced that the community 'should be led by a young man who could bring a new outlook on life to the office of Islam'. Karim toured the Ismaili communities around the world before returning to Harvard to finish his studies in oriental history, receiving a BA degree two days after setting up a development fund for Muslim students at the university. The Aga Khan took all his responsibilities to his co-religionists seriously, as Pick observed during the Kenya trip: 'Certainly for most of the days and also large chunks of the night, I watched a workaholic beavering away at his desk … there were meetings on hospital projects and other planned developments in Kenya. There were other meetings about the major hospital and medical centre being built in Karachi and on and on with still more projects.' Her planned biography was eventually vetoed, she thought, by conservative Ismaili leaders who believed the Aga Khan had opened himself up too much to an outsider. The range of the Aga Khan's business interests, run from his headquarters in Switzerland, encompassed diamonds and marble, tyres and saucepans, real estate and mines and top of the range hotels including the Costa Smeralda beach resort in Sardinia and the Serena hotel in Kabul. Philanthropic initiatives funded through the Aga Khan Development Network included medical facilities in rural areas, higher education scholarships, a rural support programme to improve living conditions in the African bush and a hydro-electric power network in Uganda. The Ismaili Centre in Kensington, London, was set up in 1983 and the 700-year-old Djinguereber mosque in Timbuktu was restored, all part of his attempt to reconcile Islam and the Judeo-Christian world. 'I see it as a clash of ignorance rather than a clash of civilisations,' he told the Sunday Telegraph in 2005. 'There is a remarkable degree of ignorance … I am talking about human society and civilisation. It's not a religious issue.' The Aga Khan was married twice, first in 1969 to the English model Sarah (Sally) Croker Poole, who took the title Princess Salimah. The couple had three children, Zahra, Rahim – who now succeeds as the 50th imam – and Husain, but the marriage was dissolved in 1995. He married, secondly, in 1998, Gabriele Leiningen, a German lawyer and former pop singer, with whom he had a son, Aly. That marriage ended acrimoniously in 2004 with protracted divorce proceedings in British and French courts. The Aga Khan latterly lived in Lisbon, which has an Ismaili community, and was granted Portuguese citizenship. His children survive him. Prince Karim, Aga Khan IV, spiritual leader and philanthropist,born 13 December 1936; died 4 February 2025
Al-Ahram Weekly
09-02-2025
- Politics
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Ismaili community leader Prince Karim Aga Khan buried in Egypt's Aswan
Following Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly's official approval on Saturday, Prince Karim Al-Hussaini (Aga Khan IV), the 49th imam of the Ismaili Muslim community, was buried in the Aga Khan Mausoleum in Aswan on Sunday. The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), an Aga Khan charity, announced on Tuesday that Prince Karim passed away in Lisbon, Portugal, at the age of 88. Aga Khan IV was buried in Aswan alongside his grandfather, Aga Khan III, Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan. His funeral service was held on Wednesday in Portugal before Sunday's private burial ceremony in Egypt. On Saturday, Aswan Governor Major General Ismail Kamal received Aga Khan's son, Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini, and his family at Aswan International Airport in preparation for the official funeral ceremony, according to a statement from the governorate. According to an AKDN post on X, his son Aga Khan V was named the 50th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims a day after his death. Who was Prince Karim Aga Khan? Prince Karim Aga Khan was the Ismaili Muslim community's 49th imam and spiritual leader. This Shia sect traces its spiritual leadership through a lineage of imams, including Imam Ismail, who passed away in 765 AD. Ismailis believe they are direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. Prince Karim Aga Khan was born in Switzerland and held British citizenship. In 1957, at age 20, he became the imam of the Ismaili Muslims, succeeding his grandfather, Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan. Prince Karim Aga Khan was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by former President Pranab Mukherjee. Photo by AKDN He founded the AKDN , a network dedicated to improving the quality of life for those in need, primarily in Asia and Africa. He also established the Nation Media Group (NMG), one of the largest independent media organizations in East and Central Africa, serving as a voice for the African population. Aswan governor receiving Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini, and his family at Aswan. Photo by Aswan Governorate Facebook page Aga Khan also established the Om Habibeh Foundation in Aswan, which plays a vital role in implementing development programmes supporting healthcare, education, and microfinance initiatives to improve the lives of local communities. In 2015, former President Pranab Mukherjee awarded Aga Khan the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honour, in recognition of his exceptional contributions to social development in the country. Global tributes World leaders and public figures have honoured Prince Aga Khan and recognized his contributions to global development. Emirati Prime Minister and Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum extended his condolences on Wednesday through X. He described Prince Karim Aga Khan as one of the "world's greatest philanthropists, whose life's work was dedicated to relieving the hopelessness of poverty, promoting human development, building bridges between communities, and working tirelessly in the cause of peace." Activist and Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai also paid tribute in a post on X: "His legacy will continue to live on through the incredible work he led for education, health, and development around the world." Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described him as "a symbol of peace, tolerance, and compassion in our troubled world," extending his condolences to his family and the Ismaili community in a post on X on Wednesday. I am deeply saddened by the news that His Highness Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, Aga Khan IV, has passed away. He was a symbol of peace, tolerance and compassion in our troubled world. I express my deepest condolences to His Highness's family and the Ismaili community. — António Guterres (@antonioguterres) February 4, 2025 Short link:
Express Tribune
09-02-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Ismaili Muslims bid goodbye to late Aga Khan
LISBON: The funeral prayers of late Prince Karim al-Hussaini Aga Khan IV, the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, was held in Lisbon on Saturday. Prince Karim al-Husseini, 88, died on Tuesday. He was regarded as a direct descendent of the Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him) and enjoyed near divine status as the 49th hereditary imam of the Ismaili Nizaris. Saturday's private ceremony at the Ismaili community centre in Lisbon was attended by more than 300 guests, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and former Spanish king Juan Carlos I. Aga Khan IV died in the Portuguese capital, where he had established the global headquarters in 2015. He held British and Portuguese nationalities, as well as honorary Canadian citizenship, a distinction rarely given. The global Ismaili community assembled around the world in Jamatkhanas (places of worship and gathering) to witness the ceremony through a live transmission, and to pay tribute to their Imam's extraordinary life of leadership and service. His Highness's casket was draped in a white cloth, with his personal standard embroidered in gold. It was carried into the ceremonial hall by volunteers from the Ismaili community, while prayers were recited invoking blessings on Prophet Muhammad and his progeny (peace be upon them). In accordance with Muslim tradition, verses from the Holy Quran were recited and, thereafter, guests filed past the casket to pay their last respects. Throughout his life, His Highness emphasised that Islam is a thinking, spiritual faith, that teaches compassion and tolerance and upholds the dignity of humankind. Guided by these ethical principles, he established the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) a group of private, international, non-denominational agencies, working to improve living conditions and opportunities for people in some of the poorest, most vulnerable parts of the developing world. He leaves a powerful legacy and platform for his successor, Prince Rahim al-Hussaini Aga Khan V. Prince Karim Aga Khan IV will be laid to rest on Sunday (today), at a private burial ceremony in Aswan, Egypt. He will be interred in the mausoleum of his grandfather, the late Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III, until a new mausoleum is constructed as his final resting place on land adjacent to the existing structure. His eldest son, 53-year-old Rahim, will succeed him and take on the title of Aga Khan V. The equivalent of an inauguration of the new Aga Khan will be held on Tuesday morning at the community's headquarters, a mansion in central Lisbon. Born in Geneva on December 13, 1936, Al-Hussaini succeeded his grandfather, Mahomed Shah, as leader of the Ismailis in 1957, when he was only 20 years old. His father, Ali, was excluded from the succession after his tumultuous marriage to US actor Rita Hayworth. As Aga Khan, Al-Hussaini expanded the work of his grandfather, who created hospitals, housing and banking cooperatives in developing countries. He invested part of the immense family fortune in the most deprived countries, combining philanthropy with business acumen. To this end, he founded the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), a gigantic foundation which is thought to have 96,000 employees worldwide and which funds development programmes, mainly in Asia and Africa. A keen racehorse owner, he continued the family tradition of breeding thoroughbreds in his eight stables in France and Ireland. His horses have many of the most prestigious races. Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb represented Pakistan at the funeral. According to press release issued by finance ministry, during the meeting with Prince Rahim al-Hussaini Aga Khan V the minister expressed heartfelt condolences on the sad demise of late Prince Karim Aga Khan on behalf of the President, the Prime Minister and people of Pakistan. The minister lauded the services of late Prince Karim Aga Khan and the Aga Khan Development Network which has a focus on development of human capacity, generating economic growth, building resilient communities and honoring cultural heritage. He said the sad demise of Prince Karim al-Hussain was a monumental loss not only for his family, friends and followers but also for the underprivileged and destitute people of the recalled late Prince Karim Agha Khan's special attachment to Pakistan and its people. The government of Pakistan declared February 8 as the day of national mourning on the occasion of the funeral of Prince Karim Aga Khan, the press release said, adding Pakistani flag will remain on half-mast in the country and at Pakistan missions abroad.
