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KARACHI, the biggest city of Pakistan is the Alexander’s haven, the Liverpool of Sub-continent or the Croydon of the East. It is the only city in the world, which became known over thirty times. Crochey, Krotchey Bay, Carnjee, Koratchey, Currachee, Kurrachee and Karachi are its notable appellations, the last however being an official according to The Imperial Gazetteer of India. When Iran did the Greeks under Alexander conquer in the 4th century B.C., the whole Sind came under his supremacy.

THE ISMAILI SECT

On the death of Prophet Mohammed in A.D. 632 his followers split into two groups, the Sunnis, who comprise the vast majority of Muslims, and the Shias. The point of issue was the devolution of the authority of the Prophet upon his death.

The origins of man's religious aspirations are to be found in what we nowadays call science. Those who have studied mythology and primitive psychology know that magic in various forms started various trains of thought in primitive man by which he achieved what seemed to him to be rational accounts of the natural phenomena around him.

While the Sunnis believe in five pillars in Islam, the Isma'ilis raise them to seven. Al-Qadi an-Nu'man devoted the first volume of his famous book Da'a'im al-Islam to the description of these pillars and an elaboration of them. The first of these seven pillars, as al-Qadi an-Nu'man mentions, is Faith (Iman). He also calls it walaya, which means allegiance or devotion. The other six are successively Ritual Purification (tahara), prayer (salat), Alms Tax (zakat), Fasting (sawm), Pilgrimage (hajj), and Holy War (jihad).

THE AGA KHAN HEALTH SERVICES

Background Information

(Following is a brief provisional report of the Expedition to Khorassan in 1967 by Mr. Peter Willey regarding the Ismaili Forts and throwing light upon the Nizari Ismailis - their movements and achievements)

1. OBJECTS OF THE EXPEDITION.

(a) General Background:

The history of Cairo dates back to about B.C. 5000 when King Mina united Upper and Lower Egypt and chose Memphis as the capital of the New Kingdom. Memphis survived several dynasties and invaders and finally was rebuilt in 969 A.D., by Jawhar al-Siqily, of the army commanders of the Fatimid Caliph al-Muiz Ladin Allah, and given the modern name of Cairo.

The impediment, which belonged to the inner nature of the preaching of Islam was connected with its conservatism of forms. When the preaching started amongst the heathen Arabs, it was easy indeed to demand that they would learn the new forms of worship and accept the new scriptures in the Arabic language. Perhaps it was not so difficult in the case of Semitic peoples who lived in close touch with the Arabs.

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.

In Russia, or U.S.S.R., Ismaili villages are only found in the valley of the river Panj which, after its confluence with Wakhsh, or Wakhshab, forms the mighty Oxus or Amu-Darya river of Central Asia. These Ismailis are often wrongly called "Pamir Ismailis", not because they inhabit the plateau of the "Roof of the World", Pamir, but because they reside on its borders, in the gorges which open into the valley of Panj. Only few Qirgniz nomad tribes who with their flocks roam the cold and arid expanse of the Pamir tableland, deserve to be called the real inhabitants of the place.

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.

During a recent stay in Cairo, I found in the Taimuriya library a manuscript copy of an interesting Ismaili work entitled Kitabu'l-idah wa'l-Bayan, by the Yemenite da'i Husain ibn 'Ali (*1)

By: Rai Shamshudin G. Tejpar

'Jamat Khana' means 'A house designated as a place of worship in which a congregation gathers for prayers'.

'Jamat Khana' for us also means 'House of ALI and NABI' for it is our faith that the NOOR (LIGHT) of Hazar Imam is present there is all It's Glory.

Holy Qur'an says: -

"(This Lamp is found) in house which Allah hath allowed to be exalted and that His name shall be remembered therein. Therein do offer praise to Him at morning and evening".
Sura Nur (XXIV) - Ayat 36.

(From 'Glorious Qur'an' translated by Marmaduke Pickthall)