By Shams Ur Rehman Alavi
www.asiantribune.net
He was born in an extremely influential and wealthy family & was destined to be a major personality due to his unique position, even without doing so much work in diverse fields.
But Prince Karim Aga Khan was not a man to just lead a life in opulence. Instead, he aimed to transform people’s lives, setting the bar higher—zealously building, expanding, running a huge charitable network that has hospitals & schools, focusing on social development, changing the world for better, helping and empowering the people.
Owning jets, hotels & yachts is one thing, but being a visionary leader and a statesman, acting as a bridge between the East and the West, is rare.
A ‘giver’, a philanthropist, he ensured uplift of his community as well as running innumerable social and developmental projects, schools, hospitals & centres of knowledge as well as architecture, heritage, culture and promoted dialogue between communities.
Like his predecessor, the Aga Khan III who was major voice and an important personality in the Islamic world, and had wide influence in Asia as well as the West, the grandson–Karim Aga Khan [Aga Khan IV], as a spiritual leader, statesman and philanthropist, made an impact on the society.
Agha Khan III had not chosen his son, but the grandson as spiritual heir. After he became Imam of the Ismaili Muslims
in 1957, Aga Khan IV took up leadership role in a sense that he touched lives of innumerable people, working all over the globe, involved in multiple fields, to make life better for masses.
He set up long-term goals and Aga Khan Development Network employs nearly tens of thousands of people. Aga Khan had a vast collection of Islamic art, set up university campuses. He had shifted Imamate’s headquarters to Lisbon, Portugal.
Aga Khan spent huge funds on charity, economic empowerment , health services, contributing to society in different forms. Set up schools, university campuses, renovated & saved monuments from Delhi to Cairo & gave a message of inclusivity.
He passed away early this month & was buried in Egypt. Undoubtedly, he has been a major personality who left his stamp on both the centuries i.e. twentieth and twenty first. The mantle now falls on his successor, Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini Aga Khan V.
[Shams Ur Rehman Alavi is a senior journalist and can be contacted at shams.alavi@gmail.com]
