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Mawlana Hazar Imam attends Kenyan Jamati Institutional Dinner

Mawlana Hazar Imam addresses those gathered for the Kenya Jamati Institutional Dinner. Photo: Courtesy of the Ismaili Council for Kenya

Nairobi, 16 July 2011 — Mawlana Hazar Imam joined Jamati and institutional leaders at a dinner held in Nairobi yesterday evening.

“I want to tell you how happy I am at the occasion of my renewal of my visits to my Jamat,” said Mawlana Hazar Imam during his dinner remarks. “I have had such a wonderful time in East Africa, in Tanzania, in Uganda and here in Kenya. And when I look at you and I remember all the work that you have done with me over the years, I have expressed my deepest gratitude and my deepest admiration.”

Aitmadi Zul Abdul, President of the Ismaili Council for Kenya presented a gift of a Qajar manuscript of Nasir Khusraw’s Diwan to Mawlana Hazar Imam on behalf of those in attendance. Nasir Khusraw is considered one of the foremost poets of the Persian language and a major Ismaili thinker and writer. The Persian manuscript dates from AH 1257 (1841 CE).

The evening’s entertainment began with a performance by students from the Aga Khan Academy, Nairobi, who presented a vocal piece created by the Canadian Ismaili Muslim Youth Choir. The interfaith chant invoked the spirit of pluralism, drawing on spiritual sounds from Muslim, Christian, Vedic and Jewish traditions.Another feature of the evening was a performance of two songs by well-known Ismaili Bollywood music artists Salim and Sulaiman Merchant.

Mawlana Hazar Imam is currently in Kenya to meet with the Jamat, after having visited with Jamats in Tanzania and Uganda. While in Nairobi, Hazar Imam will also preside over the opening of the Aga Khan University Hospital’s Heart and Cancer Unit, and the groundbreaking of the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications.

TheIsmaili.org will continue to provide updates on Mawlana Hazar Imam’s East Africa visit in the coming days.