Death of Aga Khan, Imam of the Nizâritis Ismaelis

Death of Aga Khan, Imam of the Nizâritis Ismaelis


(Paris) AGA Khan, who became the spiritual leader of millions of Ismaeli Muslims in the world at 20 years old when he was a student at Harvard and who used billions of dollars in tithes to finance the construction of houses, D ‘Hospitals and schools in developing countries is dead. He was 88 years old.




Its Aga Khan Foundation and the Ismaelian religious community announced on their websites that its Highness Prince Karim al-Hussaini, Aga Khan IV and 49e Hereditary imam of Ismaelian Shiite Muslims, died Tuesday in Portugal surrounded by his family.

They indicated that an announcement concerning his successor will be made later.

In Canada, his name has been synonymous with scandal since the federal police station in conflicts of interest and ethics judged that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s vacation on a private island belonging to him violated the law.

Reread “AGA Khan Holidays: Justin Trudeau makes his mea culpa”

The Ethics Commissioner declared that Mr. Trudeau had broken the rules by accepting a gift likely to influence government decisions. Mr. Trudeau went to his Bahamas Island for the holidays in 2016. This eight -day trip cost $ 215,000 of taxpayers money. The same year, the Aga Khan Canada Foundation received funding up to more than 50 million.

Mr. Trudeau paid tribute to Aga Khan on Tuesday, describing him as a compassionate leader who will deeply miss people all over the world.

Photo Sean Kilpatrick, Canadian Press Archives

Justin Trudeau with Aga Khan in 2016

AGA Khan received Canadian citizenship as an honorary basis in 2009.

The head of the Ismaelis

Considered by his disciples as a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV was a student when his grandfather dropped his father as a successor at the head of the diaspora of Ismaelian Shiite Muslims, saying that his disciples should be directed by a young man “who was raised in the middle of the new era”.

Over the decades, Aga Khan has become a business magnate and a philanthropist, oscillating between the spiritual and the profane, and mixing them with ease.

Considered a head of state, Aga Khan received the title of “her Highness” from Queen Elisabeth II in July 1957, two weeks after her grandfather, Aga Khan III, unexpectedly designated him Heir to the 1300 -year -old family dynasty, making him the head of the Ismaelian Muslim sect.

He became AGA Khan IV on October 19, 1957, in Dar Es-Salaam, Tanzania, in the very place where his grandfather had received as a gift from his faithful weight in diamonds.

PHOTO DOMINIC LIPINSKI, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS

AGA Khan with Queen Elisabeth II in July 2008

AGA Khan left Harvard to be alongside his sick grandfather and returned to school 18 months later with an entourage and a deep sense of responsibilities.

“I was a student who knew what his work would be for the rest of his life,” he said in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine in 2012. “I don’t think anyone in my situation would have been prepared. »»

A large philanthropic network

The Aga Khan Development network, its main philanthropic organization, mainly dealing with health care, housing, education and rural development issues.

A network of hospitals bearing its name is disseminated in countries where health care failed in the poorest, notably in Bangladesh, Tadjikistan and Afghanistan, where it spent tens of millions of dollars for the development of local economies.

His sense of construction and design led him to create an architectural prize and Islamic architecture programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. It has also restored ancient Islamic structures worldwide.

In Canada, Aga Khan contributed to the creation of the World Pluralism Center in Ottawa and the first Islamic Arts Museum in Toronto.

The stories differ as to the date and place of the birth of Prince Karim Aga Khan. According to the French biographical dictionary “Who’s Who”, he was born on December 13, 1936 in Creux-de-Genthod, near Geneva, Switzerland, son of Joan Yarde-Buller and Aly Khan.

The extent of the AGA Khan financial empire is difficult to measure. Some reports estimate his personal fortune at several billion dollars.

The Ismaelis-a sect from India, but which has extended to vast communities in East Africa, Central Asia and South as well as in the Middle East-consider it a duty to pay it to to 10 % of their income as an intensive.

“We have no notion that the accumulation of wealth would be an evil,” he said to Vanity Fair in 2012. “Islamic ethics is that, if God has given you the capacity or the chance to ‘Being a privileged individual in society, you have moral responsibility towards society. »»

He leaves behind three sons and a daughter.



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