Today is the Aga Khan's 71st birthday, and this year marks his Golden Jubilee celebration of 50 years on the throne of Imamat. The Aga Khan is the spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims, and looks after both the spiritual and material/secular well-being of his followers.
It is quite remarkable that any leader fulfills 50 years of service, and this gentleman has made major contributions to world peace and economic development.
Here is a clip from a Canadian broadcast wishing the Aga Khan a happy birthday. There has been a close relationship between the Ismaili community and Canada since the time Canada served as a refuge for Ismailis who were expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin in 1972.
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6 comments:
Please translate the title?
Salgirah means celebration, birthday, anniversary (based on context). Mubarak means congratulations.
Thank you for the kind words you expressed in honor of our Beloved Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan. We are very fortunate to have a Leader like Him.
I don't know if Beth Israel hospital in New York is an extension of your hospital in Boston, but a few years ago, my husband was admitted there. He had meningioma,which was succefully operated on at Beth Israel.
Two excellent doctors operated on him for almost 11 hours. One of the doctors' name was Dr. Uygur, who incidentally, had also performed a surgery to remove a bullet from "Serpico"'s skull.
When I forwarded your blog to my cousin in Calgary, she wrote back and told me that she had hiked with you and your wife in Madagascar and you all had become very good friends. What a small world!
It is so refreshing to know how people from different backgrounds and different religious affiliations come together to be "God's helpers" and share their good fortune with people of the world who are less fortunate.
I am sure God is smiling on you and your family for being His Helpers. God bless you and your loved ones, Amen. Mohgul
Thank you so much. No, BI in New York is a different institution. I don't know if it was established for the same reason as Beth Israel in Boston. In the early 1900s here, there was discrimination against Jewish doctors and patients in a number of Boston hospitals; so the Jewish community created the BI in 1916 to provide a place for their doctors to practice and for their people to be treated respectfully. But the founders also decided that people of all religions and ethnic and racial backgrounds should also be treated in the same way at the hospital -- with respect, compassion, and warmth. That is a tradition that has been kept through to the present, following the merger with New England Deaconess Hospital.
As an Ismaili student at HMS, I am pleased but surprised that you know of the Aga Khan and his work. Of course, His Highness has many affiliations with Harvard and MIT (which I know you attended). I've been considering for some time now a way to build some kind of partnership between the Harvard teaching hospitals and the Aga Khan Development Network. Any thoughts? (I know that's a HUGELY open-ended question, but maybe we can chat about it one of these days)
Please send me an email and we can follow up.
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