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Meritocracy applies to institutions, to countries. I have been concerned at whether our institutions would themselves become meritocratic, and if they were going to become meritocratic....I hope that as time goes by, you will be more and more demanding upon yourselves, upon your institutions, more and more eager to bring competence and knowledge and wisdom and understanding from generation after generation into these institutions.

In your high intellectual world many of you are fortunate to have the time to reflect on the great aspects of Prophet Mohammed's life. It is a blessing that many a Muslim would wish for, but due to circumstances beyond his control, indeed the very nature of modern life, he can

My Jamat will be aware of the innovative work undertaken by the Aga Khan University in combating the Covid-19 pandemic. These efforts, alongside those of all other Imamat and Jamati institutions globally, are worthy of the highest admiration, and I convey my special loving blessings to all my spiritual children who, in the capacity of either healthcare professionals or volunteers, continue to spare no effort in providing treatment, care, and support to my Jamat.

Two recent events of special happiness for me as Imam-of-the-Time are the granting of the Charter to the Aga Khan University by the Kenyan government, and the first convocation of the University of Central Asia, which was established through an Ismaili Imamat treaty with the governments of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. I hope that my Jamat will share in my happiness and that, together, we will continue to make good progress in developing new institutions and programmes for excellence in higher education and research.

It was Canada which opened her arms to receive them, to succour them and to give them a new home and a new country. None of us will ever forget that wonderful gesture of spontaneous goodwill by the government and people of Canad

In Islam, the Holy Quran offers explicit direction to share resources beyond one?s requirements, and to care for the poor and those in need. The injunction to service is the ethical underpinning of the work of the Aga Khan Development Network. It drives its efforts to build the intellectual capital and institutions needed to address the problems of our world today. An example is the Global Centre for Pluralism which we have recently founded in partnership with the Government of Canada.

ngaging with one another to build mutual understanding and appreciation across our differences, the kind of dialogue which is at the heart of pluralism, must continue. There are important lessons to be learnt from the past year as the pandemic has transformed our societies and our institutions.

The struggle to survive brought some immediate results – many with more than short-term consequences. I will give just two examples. The-cut off of imported and subsidised fuel led to the massive cutting of trees and shrubs to provide heat during the bitterly cold winters. Herds of livestock, once a major export, were decimated for food in the absence of alternatives.

There was a time when male and female teachers could not get to the school because the students could not get to the school because they had no shoes to walk in the snow. And all through these terrible times of poverty, professional men and women did everything they could to sustain the educational system of Badakshan. I think therefore that it is appropriate that at the beginning of this speech I should pay My compliments

n recent years there has been an absolute revolution in education. This revolution in education is driven by a number of new concepts. First of all communications, the capacity to bring education through the new electronic networks to the most isolated parts of our globe. The second one is the extraordinary volume of knowledge which each individual has to absorb during his or her lifetime. And therefore the necessity for continuing education.

True regime change occurs when liberty is guaranteed by a people free to create or support institutions of their own choosing. True regime change occurs when that strength and that freedom are defined by the depth, breadth and quality of education shared across the society in question.

Students of world history remind us how Central Asia, a thousand years ago, led the world in cultural and intellectual achievements. This region is where medicine was founded, where algebra got its name, where the earth's diameter was precisely calculated, where some of the world's greatest poetry was penned. This happened because the societies were open to new ideas, open to change, open to scholars and people from many backgrounds. That kind of openness can again unlock the doors to the future, and allows us to take on the great questions of our time and place.

However, a measure of a university's success is the quality of the education it delivers and the careers of its graduates. This starts with the recruitment of students, for without good students, a university will never achieve excellence. A key ingredient in this story has been our open-access philosophy, enabling us to enrol students on merit alone, with the vast majority of students receiving financial support. The result is that 70 percent of our students are from small towns and rural areas, and half are women

Our aim is not only to mitigate the carbon emissions for our hotels but to become carbon negative. Hence we have partnered with WWF-Pakistan and AKRSP for the effective implementation and widening of scope for our mission, and to link it with the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Pakistan (TBTTP) and Clean and Green Environment Movement (CGP) of Prime Minister Imran Khan,”

While its Charter is new, AKU is a firmly established institution in Kenya: It has been operating here since 2002, under a letter of interim authority from the Government. Moreover, as an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network, the University is part of a wide-ranging effort to improve quality of life in East Africa, and that dates back more than 100 years, to the schools founded by my grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan, in the early 20th century.

The Charter details AKU’s functions, powers, obligations, and governance. But it is more than a legal document. It is a vote of confidence in AKU and all those who are part of it – our faculty, our staff, administration, students, alumni, friends, and supporters.

I should also mention here the headlines of this past week—which chart the widening gulf between Islamic and Western societies. Here the culprit has not been military action or diplomatic failure but the power of media images----deeply offensive caricatures -- which have profoundly offended one billion four hundred million Muslims around the world— including myself.

But as the joys of human love surpass all that riches and power may bring a man, so does that greater spiritual love and enlightenment, the fruit of that sublime experience of the direct vision of reality which is God's gift and grace, surpass all that the finest, truest human love can offer. For that gift we must ever pray.

t is said that we live, move and have our being in God. We find this concept expressed often in the Koran, not in those words of course, but just as beautifully and more tersely. But when we realize the meaning of this saying, we are already preparing ourselves for the gift of the power of direct experience

I want to say also that in the next months Toronto will come up on our radar screen of great cities around the world (applause). Today I have in front of me the best of civil society. And I want you to know how happy and proud I am that in a few months time, we will open a new Ismaili Centre here in Toronto and a new Museum.......And I hope today that all the people of Toronto will feel that the park that will be around these buildings - is their park.