Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

There are between 70,000 and 80,000 Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims (also known as Nizari Ismaili Muslims, or simply, Ismailis) in Canada. The largest settlements are in Toronto and Vancouver, with substantial communities (jamats; jama'ats) located in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal and Ottawa. Ismaili migration to Canada .occurred in the 1950s, with significant increases taking place between the 1970s and 1990s.1 The expulsion of Ugandan Asians in 1972 was the cause of a notable growth in the
community.

“Now let me talk about a third matter which is a consequence of the collapse of the communist world. At the time of communism the practices of the faith was not encouraged, it was actively dissuaded.” (Mawlana Hazar Imam: Surat, 10th Nov., 1992)
“The third consequence of the collapse of the communist world is a number of newly independent countries, in some of which a jamat is there. There we have a jamat in Afghanistan, we have a jamat in Tajikistan, and we have a jamat in other countries which after fifty years of imprisonment in a dogma are finding their independence.”

Aswan, there we can hardly see any cultivated land. The hills and rocks are not only on both sides of the Nile River, but also form its bed and island. Granite, mostly red, is everywhere, parts of which still keep their original color, while other parts, exposed to the effect of the water and the sun, have become dark and covered with a smooth glaze like enamel. Those who have enjoyed such a view while sailing opposite Aswan or in going up-steam or downstream to the Dam, can never forget it.

When "The Times", London, made some unfair allegations against Islam and the Muslims in a leading article in October 1951, Mowlana Sultan Muhammed Shah sent a spirited reply to the newspaper, which was published in its issue of November 6, 1951. He explained that it was because of the spirit of tolerance of Islam that even the smallest Christian and Jewish minorities survived and kept all their doctrines during the thousand years of Muslim rule.

I came in touch with the Ismailis for the first time in Persia, in February 1912. The world was quite different then. No one imagined that the Great World War I, with all its misery and suffering, was just round the corner. Persia was still living in her ancestral mediaeval style, and her affairs were largely going on in their traditional ways, as they were going on for centuries.

O Momins, may God guide you to the right path and may He make your abode in the place where you will not hear a useless or a sinful talk.

I have told you that the thick earthly body will not rise to the skies. A belief of this kind cannot stand the test of reason. It is only the spirit which will rise and which does rise even when our body lies here during our stay in this world. It has the potential power of rising and it is not outside its province to rise in reality.