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

May I extend a very warm welcome to you to the Diwan of the Ismaili Imamat for this evening’s reception.

It is very special for us to be able at last to host you in this beautiful building and to welcome you to the Seat of the Ismaili Imamat, which has been designated by my brother, His Highness the Aga Khan, as the Diwan of the Ismaili Imamat.

His Highness and the entire Ismaili community will be eternally grateful to Portugal for the way you welcomed us here in the 1970s, and it is a testament to the generosity of the Portuguese people that we have been able to integrate successfully into the fabric of Portuguese society and to contribute actively to its ongoing development.

Helping one’s neighbours and working with them for the common good is a basic tenet of Ismailism. In keeping with the ethics of Islam, wherever we reside, we ensure we are active in civil society, working in many fields of endeavor to offer our time, knowledge, expertise and material resources to help better the cohesiveness of the communities and societies in which we live, and to improve their quality of life.

We will, no doubt, seek to be active here in matters not only socio-economic and medical, but also environmental and cultural. We engage with the often difficult issues that relate to the quality of peoples’ lives, not only in the Ismaili Community, but also for those with whom we share our lives, locally, nationally and internationally.

And in so doing, our purpose is to uphold human dignity, to help improve the lives of the vulnerable, and to support the pluralism that exists here in Portugal, and which is crucial to the maintenance of a peaceful, compassionate and harmonious society.

On behalf of His Highness, may I thank the President – and indeed his predecessors – for their on-going support of our work to help improve the quality of life of people in Portugal, in Portuguese-speaking countries and beyond.