Honourable Deputy Prime Minister, Your Excellencies, distinguished guests
It is a great pleasure for my wife and I to be in Singapore again and to see for ourselves what tremendous developments have taken place here over the last few years. Your government, Mr. Rajaratnam, deserves congratulations for the economic miracle you have achieved, in spite of the recession in the industrialized countries.
In the last few days, members of my community have come from many parts of Asia to take part in the celebration of my Silver Jubilee. They have come from as far as Australia, from Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and elsewhere. I could not speak here this evening without saying how pleased I am that they have done so, or without expressing my heartfelt thanks to my Council for Malaysia and Singapore for all the work they have done to make this visit so happy.
This is the twenty-fifth anniversary of my accession to the Imamat of the Ismaili Muslims and, although some of you are already well-informed about our community, it may be appropriate for me to say a few words about the office which I hold.
Ismailis are Shia Muslims who believe that the successor to the leadership of the Muslim community after the death of Prophet Muhammad was the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, and that this leadership, in both spiritual and temporal matters, was to continue by heredity through Ali in the Prophet's family. Today, we are one of the few Shia sects led by an hereditary Imam, my grandfather having been the forty-eighth and I myself being the forty-ninth.
Ismailis live in over twenty-five different countries including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Syria, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, south-west China, Australia, Indonesia, and of course Malaysia and Singapore. Being responsible as the Imam for this Ismaili community of some 15 million people, I have necessarily become a student of social problems of all kinds. Islam, I should like to underline, is an all-encompassing faith. It gives direction to man's life, urging the individual to achieve a balance between material progress and spiritual well-being. But no man, woman or child can hope to achieve such a balance in sickness, illiteracy or squalor.
My grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan, initiated health and education services a hundred years ago, in the 1880's, which are now on their way to becoming an internationally-linked system of voluntary, non-profit, Muslim institutions serving all communities, and which through their welfare activities are contributing to improving the quality of life in the Third World.
When I assumed the responsibilities of the Imamat in 1957, I was eager, as I still am, to see that the countries where my followers live are sound and stable, that they are countries with clear development horizons, countries where, following my grandfather's example, I could help to underwrite the integrity of the state and to contribute to improving the quality of life for all communities, not just my own. I hoped to help bridge the gulf between the developed and the developing worlds. This aspiration, I felt, was particularly appropriate to the Imamat because of its commitment to broad social objectives without political connotations, save in its concern for the fundamental freedom of its followers to practise the faith of their choice.
Just as a few moments ago, I stressed the all-encompassing nature of Islam. So I must emphasize the non-political character of the Ismaili Imamat. Far from seeking to interfere in politics, I have always urged Ismailis to be loyal to the countries where they live and to whatever government is responsible for their security and well being. This respect for integrity of nations, coupled with our fundamental aspiration to improve the quality of life in the Third World countries is, I believe, the reason why the role of Ismailis and of the Imamat is today generally perceived as being a positive and constructive one.
Негізгі бет Speech of His Highness The Aga Khan - Singapore, January 9, 1983
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