Our 16th Pir Mahmud Shah the son of our 15th Pir Muhammad Shah was born in the Iranian city of Subzwar in A.H. 443 on Friday the 12th of Shaban. His mother's name was "Bibi Anwar". Pir Mahmud Shah was appointed as Pir by our Holy Imam Mustansir Billah. Pir Mahmud Shah also played a leading role in the "dar-ul-Hikmat" in Cairo.

Government, while critical, can only take us so far. At a time of democratic disappointment, we must re-emphasise the immense potential of those non-governmental institutions that we call “civil society.”

I believe that the progress of democracy in our world is fundamentally linked to improving the quality of human life. The promise of democracy is that the people themselves best know how to achieve such progress. But if that promise is disappointed, then democracy is endangered