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I think assisting the Jamat in every possible, particularly improving the quality of life of those parts of the Jamat which are less fortunate. As I said, I think pluralism has been a message, a big message. I think, quality of life has been a big message too. That life is a complex thing and has to be treated in all its complexities. So, I think, the discovery of the requirements of the members of the Jamat, the grassroots, accuracy of those, of the information on the grassroots has been important.

Prince Amyn exemplifies the values of pluralism and inclusivity that also make the City of Houston one of the most diverse metropolitans in the world.

In our faith, a religious leader is not separated from the life of the people everyday. The everyday life, the material life, of people is as important as the spiritual life. Because of this, I have built many schools and hospitals and housing estates and industries all through the third world. Any every time I have had to build I have asked myself what is the consequence of building? Not only on providing a service, which could be education or health, but what is the consequence on the family, what is the consequence on the culture, what is the consequence on the style of life

China is not only the world's oldest civilization, it identified its major national problems (and often found solutions for them) long before most of today's nation states had even been thought of. As a country with a vast rural population it is in the vanguard of those who give the highest priority to the welfare of its countryside, and it has done so with courage and originality. This fact alone, it seems to me, makes the choice of China for a seminar on the rural habitat a most felicitous one.

Those who can model and predict natural disasters as well as predict future changes in the climate, and the effect it will have on humans in the next hundred years or more. These scientists will be greatly in demand in various careers, from biology, geology and geography, to physics and chemistry, because all these fields will evolve with climate change, and career options will be varied and crucially important. Unfortunately, sooner than we think.

I am not in a political office. I am in a religious office. But I have reached one conclusion which is important, which is that there can be no development unless man himself wishes to develop. In English you say, 'You can take a horse to the water but you can't make him drink', and I have been very excited to see how everywhere I have been in China, people want to work.

Climate change is a global problem, but solutions and adaptation measures have to be locally defined and implemented. The reason that UCA teaches Earth and Environmental Sciences is that climate change will affect Central Asia as it will the rest of the planet. This sad reality will have several outcomes for the students of UCA. First of all, it will affect your daily lives and your families. It will force changes to the way you grow and distribute food; to your approach towards resources; and to the way you will build houses in the future.

Job satisfaction is a strangely neglected subject by even the most enlightened and progressive employers. So much work today is obsessively monotonous. Yet a little thought, research and imagination can turn the dullest routine into something which attracts the employee's interest. It can be done by introducing an element of sporting competition, or even by setting simple and administrative or production targets to replace daily repetitive drudgery from 9 to 5.

Material or financial compensation is the first and most obvious means of motivating people and it is a tragedy that society has not yet learned to accept that men and women who earn their livelihood in the social field deserve as much, if not more, financial reward than others whose work receives exaggerated respect and remuneration. Nurses and teachers, for example - and let me say this frankly - are sadly under-valued in many nations of the world.

In defining the physical environment in these terms, we are including the ultra poor and the ultra-rich. We are covering the full spectrum of poverty and material wealth. In my view, it would be seriously wrong to ignore either end of that spectrum. That is why architecture for the poor, building for the poor, building by the poor, is an extremely important component of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

A deepening sense of spiritual commitment—and the ethical framework that goes with it--will be a central requirement if we are to find our way through the minefields and the quicksands of modern life. A strengthening of religious institutions should be a vital part of this process. To be sure, freedom of religion is a critical value in a pluralistic society. But if freedom of religion deteriorates into freedom from religion—then societies will find themselves lost in a bleak and unpromising landscape—with no compass, no roadmap and no sense of ultimate direction.

I come to this visit and to this gathering with the hope that, as Imam of the Ismaili Community, I can be of some help in furthering he efforts of Tajikistan’s people in improving their lives. Tajikistan has sought and doubtless will seek collaboration and help from many quarters, and appropriately so, but I should be pleased if the people of Tajikistan found me as one of the effective sources of such help.

if you look at that picture today, you no longer have the issue of government-driven change. The processes of change, more and more, are part of the structure of civil society. You have independent decision-making by independent governments. The issue of nationhood has, in a sense, been driven backwards. Nationhood is no longer on the front burner of most of these countries - it is an accepted notion.

He (Hazar Imam) suggested that it might be advisable in the future - particularly after the incident which involved Sir Evelyn, that the ability to swim were made a compulsory qualification for a degree. This was the practice at Harvard University, of which he is a former student, where they “refuse to give you your degree until you can swim two lengths of swimming pool”

However, there still exists to day a wide gap in the mutual understanding between different parts of the world In the West, much attentions is paid to reporting international conflicts, political upheavals, economic crises and natural disasters that occur in the non-Western world. This is unavoidable, but should not be to the exclusion of other aspects of man's life, the universe of his intellect.

The tradition I am describing, however, goes back much further than one hundred years. For it was some one thousand years ago that my forefathers, the Fatimid Imam-Caliphs of Egypt, founded Al-Azhar University and the Academy of Knowledge in Cairo. For well over a millennium, the pursuit of knowledge has been a central element in our tradition.

The treasures of our past are being destroyed and an ever quickening construction boom is bringing us too many buildings that I think we will live to despise. Should we allow future generations of Muslims to live without the self-respect of our own cultural and spiritual symbols of power, to practise their faith without also being reminded of that sense of scale in relation to the universe around us which is so particularly ours?

Many of our greatest architectural achievements were designed to reflect the promises of life hereafter, to represent in this world what we are told of the next. Since all that we see and do resonates on the faith, the aesthetics of the environment we build and the quality of the social interactions that take place within those environments, reverberate on our spiritual life. The physical structure of Islam is therefore an important concern for me, charged as I am with the leadership of a Muslim community.

It is as a result of My community's experience that I have been haunted by one single question; what is the future physical environment that Muslims should seek for themselves and future generations in their homelands, their institutions, their workplaces, their houses, their gardens, and in their surroundings?

It is as a result of My community's experience that I have been haunted by one single question; what is the future physical environment that Muslims should seek for themselves and future generations in their homelands, their institutions, their workplaces, their houses, their gardens, and in their surroundings?