Among Aga Khan IV’s legacy, Karim al-Husseini, his work is highlighted for peace and dialogue. Your words always go in the sense of looking at the difference as a wealth
In the Benfica neighborhood, between fast roads, the Ismaili Center stands. Inaugurated in 1998, this is where the temple of the small Portuguese Ismaelite community is. At the inauguration ceremony was Jorge Sampaio, then President of the Republic, and the Khan IV AGA, the spiritual leader of the Ismaelites from around the world.
In Portugal, the Ismaelite community rounds the ten thousand people. But in the world there are over 20 million. Aga Khan IV, who recently died in Lisbon, has gained recognition of leaders from around the world because of the network for the development it won a worldwide dimension.
The Khan AGA Development Network has been called United Private Nations because it has in its center the fight against poverty and the promotion of health, education and culture worldwide.
This discreet religious community is part of the Shiite Islam. “It is in the background the group of individuals that in Ali’s offspring, through his son, Hussein, recognize the legitimacy of community leadership. Therefore, it is not an autonomous religion. It is part of Islam with some particularities. And the biggest particularity has to do precisely with the charismatic importance of the magnet and a greater centrality of the prophet’s grandson, Hussein, who was killed in Karbala in 680, ”says CNN Portugal Hermenegildo Fernandes, professor at Faculty of Letters from the University of Lisbon.
It was in this October 10, 680 that Hussein was killed and the massacre day is still marked in Karbala, Iraq. Hussein is the son of Ali, son -in -law of the prophet Muhammad. It is in the legitimacy of Ali to succeed Muhammad that the division of Islam between Sunites and Shiites begins. Sunnis is between 87 and 90% of the Muslim community. Shiites are between 10 and 13%.
The Shiites defend Ali’s legitimacy in succeeding the prophet of Islam. And this is also here that the history of the Ismaelites begins, minority among the Shiite minorities. But then, over time, they will also differ from their Shiite brothers. “The majority Shiite is the so -called duodeciman Islam and Islam Islamal is an Islam that separates before. And basically shares with the Shiite duodecimano the first six magnets, but from the seventh magnet follows another way that is the route of Ismail Jafar, which would be to the Semaelites the seventh magnet. And this happens in the eighth century. It’s a very remote thing, ”explains the expert professor in Islam.
This division, who separated the Ismaelites of the other Shiites, has let them tell magnets to this day. Karim al-Hussein, the spiritual leader of the Ismaelites who died on February 4, was the 49th magnet who, believe me, would be directly descended from the Prophet Muhammad.
In the history of this branch of Islam, there is still the moment when this line turns into a political system. “This happens in the tenth century when one of the magnets takes power in the Iphritia, the Arab name of Roman Africa that corresponds to the present Tunisia, and founds a fateful caliphate. These magnets are fateful and oppose the Sunni Caliph of Bagity. And this caliphate will make a way during the tenth century and will conquer Egypt. And moves to Cairo, ”says Hermenegildo Fernandes.
Thus continues its history until near the twelfth century, before the disappearance of the Fatimide Caliphate: “The Fatimide Caliphate disappears, is the victim of a coup made by one of its generals that will become a very famous figure of the Sunni Islam , Saladino, in 1171. But just under 100 years earlier, there is another group of these adherents to this branch that separates because it recognizes another magnet who is the son of one of the fateful calfs that is the Nizar magnet. And it is this way of the Nizar magnet that will give rise to the way to what we call the Ismaelites, ”explains the teacher.
It is in these origins that this community is born dispersed by several states. The Stateless Ismaelite Community is transnational before the concept.
“We in contemporary terms would say that it is a transnational community. However, it is already transnational before there is this concept of nation and before there is the concept of transnationality. It is a community that is not linked to the existence of a state that lives in other political systems, but recognizes itself in a spiritual community. Or, above all, a spiritual community that recognizes itself around a leadership of a magnet in which all the Ismaelites of this branch autonomously recognize themselves from the place where they are, ”he says.
In an Islam that does not separate the religious from the politician, the magnet appears as the man from a state that does not exist, but has a leading community. “He is a man of state of fact in the sense that the religious leader within Islam is necessarily what we call a state man,” explains Hermenegildo Fernandes.
In this case the state man is Aga Khan, a title of king who only began to be used from the nineteenth century. But in a community scattered around the world, the principle they follow is respect for the customs and laws of the country where they are inserted with a very unique understanding of Jihad, the struggle against the enemy. “Jihad has an imminently metaphorical dimension. It is a struggle against their own demons, the internal demons. It is not a military activity. And there are some authors who understand that Ismaelism is an imminently pacifist current, ”concludes the university professor.
Moreover, between the Legacy of the Khan IV AGA, Karim al-Husseini, his work is highlighted for peace and dialogue. Your words always go in the sense of looking at the difference as a wealth. In 2016, at a world conference in Africa. Karim Al-Husseini said: “The fact that it is different is often seen as a weight or a threat, a source of fear and suspicion. But there is another way to look at our differences. What a wonderful and liberating thing it would be if more people among us, more often we could see diversity, not as a weight, but as a blessing. Not as a threat, but as an opportunity. ”
In a world where hate speeches against difference gain weight, the words of the spiritual leader of the Ismaelites made a big difference. Your son Rahim will be the Khan V Aga and everyone expects you to follow your footsteps.
