Malik Waqar
By Waqar Malik
PMC ( Pak Media Centre )
The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of millions of Ismailis and jet-setting billionaire philanthropist
He was a good man and a messiah of humanity, even an angel who helped humanity at all times.
The Aga Khan IV, Wealthy Leader of the Ismaili Muslims, Dies at 88
At the age of 20, Prince Karim Al-Hussaini inherited the reins of a Shia Muslim lineage and used his entrepreneurship to become one of the world’s richest hereditary rulers.
The Aga Khan IV, who as the leader of the world’s Ismaili Muslims fused entrepreneurship and philanthropy in becoming one of the world’s wealthiest hereditary rulers, died on Tuesday at his home in Lisbon. He was 88.
His death was confirmed by Fayyaz Nurmohamed, the director of communications at the Aga Khan Development Network. No cause was given.
Urbane, cosmopolitan and often media-averse, the Aga Khan — born Prince Karim Al-Hussaini — rejected the notion that expanding his personal fortune would conflict with his charitable ventures. He said his ability to prosper complemented his duty to enhance the lives of Ismaili Muslims, a branch of the Shiite tradition of Islam with a following of 15 million people in 35 countries.
An imam, or leader of his faith, was “not expected to withdraw from everyday life,” he once said after becoming the Aga Khan. “On the contrary, he’s expected to protect his community and contribute to their quality of life. Therefore, the notion of the divide between faith and world is foreign to Islam.”His projects included developing the island of Sardinia’s ritzy Costa Smeralda resort area, breeding thoroughbred racehorses and establishing health initiatives for the poor in the developing world.He took issue with descriptions of his lifestyle as lavish, though he traveled on his own private jets and a luxury yacht, owned a private Caribbean island and shuttled among a variety of residences, including Aiglemont, a sprawling estate north of Paris that became the headquarters of his development network and a training center for his horses.
“The role and responsibility of an imam,” he said in a speech in 2006, “is both to interpret the faith to the community and also to do all within his means to improve the quality, and security, of their daily lives.”Even though he had no inherited realm in the manner of other hereditary rulers, the Aga Khan’s fortune was variously estimated at $1 billion to $13 billion, drawn from investments, joint ventures and private holdings in luxury hotels, airlines, racehorses and newspapers, as well as from a kind of Quranic tithe levied on his followers.
Unusually, the Aga Khan — the name is often translated as a blend of Turkish and Persian meaning commanding chief — inherited his title from his grandfather the Aga Khan III, who bypassed his other descendants to name his grandson as his successor. With his assumption of the leadership as 49th imam of Ismaili Muslims in 1957, the Aga Khan IV took the reins of a Shia Muslim lineage that claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad and imposed what he said were clear responsibilities on him.At the time, he was a 20-year-old student of Islamic history at Harvard. That same year, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain conferred on him the nonhereditary title of His Highness, a reflection of the close ties between the two dynasties, bonded in a shared fascination with fine horses.In his will, his grandfather Sultan Mohamed Shah said he had chosen to skip a generation in part because the “fundamentally altered conditions in the world” — including advances in atomic science — required a “young man who has been brought up and developed during recent years and in the midst of the new age, and who brings a new outlook on life to his office.”
Agha khan
The Prince Karim Aga Khan told the world what humanity is and how we should live and how to share love among people.
Prince Karim Aga Khan will leave this world but will leave behind a golden memory that will remain an example for the world.
