MY EXPECTED SOCIAL IDENTITY AS SHIA IMAMI ISMAILI MUSLIM.
Sheliza Hyder
On the occassion of Imamat day i.e. on 11 July 2017, Prince Karim Aga Khan had celebrated with his community, the Diamond Jubilee, marking 60 successful years of his leadership as the spiritual head of Ismaili Muslims, the 49th hereditary Imam from the direct progeny of Prophet's beloved daughter Hazrat bibi Fatima (A.S) and her husband Hazrat Ali (A.S). It is the day when Shah Karim al Husseini (Hazir Imam) inherited the mantle of Imamat from his grand father Imam Sultan Mohammad Shah, Aga Khan III, at the age of 20 years.
Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims from around the globe had celebrated this Imamat day with the remembrance of their spiritual allegiance to the Imam of the Time. They had expressed their love and devotion to the Imam, and conveyed gratitude for Hazir Imam’s loving guidance and continuous protection over the course of six decades of his Imamat. The global Ismaili community gathered as One Jamat to witness the commemoration ceremony, which was transmitted digitally to cities across the globe.
This was the celebration for which people of other communities across the globe have congratulated His Highness and His community on the international and local levels. I have read some of the greetings on social websites and in the news articles. To my surprise I found a common pattern in all the wishes I read on the Diamond Jubilee celebrations sent to Aga Khan IV. I would like to share this pattern over here while mentioning some of the articles. And I would also like to give my own views being an Ismaili Muslim upon the celebrations of Diamond Jubilee.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, when issues his statement to wish Diamond Jubilee, he highlights the designation of Prince Karim Aga Khan as the 49th hereditary Imam of Shia Imami Muslims and then describes the work done by Aga Khan IV for global humanitarian causes, for the sustainable development and poverty reduction. He proclaims the efforts of His Highness for the promotion of diversity and pluralism in the establishment of Global Centre for Pluralism.
The abc13 news chose to write on the Diamond Jubilee story highlighting the efforts of Aga Khan IV for improving the quality of life of people.
The Hindu on the other hand, covers the story of Diamond Jubilee celebrations of 49th Imam acknowledging his efforts for health and education in India under AKDN (Aga Khan Development Network).
Dawn news gave its header for this story that the Aga Khan says we have to be a generous society. Dawn news had presented a very pictorail article. Dawn also procliams the designation of Aga Khan as the 49th hereditary Imam. It also states that His Highness is the founder and the chairman of AKDN and then goes on to describe the efforts and achievement of various institutions that comes under the Aga Khan Development Network.
On the local level Government of Sindh Pakistan also congratulates His Highness for his successful leadership while appreciating his efforts under the AKDN in human development and poverty alleviation.
The common pattern which I observed in these greetings is that the Aga Khan is acknowledged more by his work and less by his identity or his designation. More or less the above articles proclaim that yes Aga Khan is the 49th Hereditary Imam but they didn't describe what is meant to be the 49th hereditary Imam. What is the essence behind the celebrations of Diamond Jubilee? I think it is the crucial question of Diamond Jubilee celebrations which every other community wants to know and yet it is not covered in these above articles.
There's always a dintinction between Who one is? And what one has done? Most of us wants to get defined ourselves by who we actualy are not by what we have done. Because that is the only inherent objective thing we possess and the rest is subjective I assume.
In the psychological context we are aware of the terminologies, the actual social self and the expected social self. The former is defined as the way society perceive your self and the latter is defined as the way you want yourself to be perceived by society. Here I would like to relate these two terms with identities. I think that there's always an actual social identity i.e. the aspects in which society perceives your identity. And then there's an expected social identity i.e. the way you want your identity to be perceived by people of the society.
Reading the Diamond Jubilee greetings have made me to mark such distinctions and to reflect upon my own identity. That Being a Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim who am I in actual and what is perceived of me from my actions. And to another extent it also made me wonder about my obliged identity. Just like there emerges an obliged self in the tussle of actual social self and expected social self, I assume there's also an obliged identity which emerges from the tussle between actual social identity and the expected social identity. In making the bridge with different sanctions of society how I represent my own identity through my actions is my obliged identity. We must reflect on our obliged identity that am I leaving my religiously practiced values in order to mingle with other sanctions of society or am I becoming a fine bright thread in beautiful cloth of my society while holding all my specific values of culture and religion.
One of my teachers have made me to wonder that surviving in the twenty first century, what it is to be a Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim. Various historians have represented the Ismaili history through various lenses. Some like Ivanow, Farhad Daftary and Nasir ud din Tusi had glorified our history and the others had put their criticism. For me it isn't the question of what lens represents the most authentic story, but the significant question is how Ismailies themselves in that era represented their own identity. How they spent their lives then and how we are spending it now. Today the world is easily represented through the lens of media. The role of media in forecasting the identities is way more crucial. Media is the lens of the history for future generation. So in this technological and digitized world if I am responsible to write my own history, what will be my focus point. The work which I have done or the ideology/identity/values which I possess. Which of this will remain inherent and which of this will belong to a particular context of time.
I want every person of my community to reflect upon this. What it is that they are transmitting to their children? Are we transmitting the practiced values of our faith to our children? Are we standing firmly on our faith or are we going astray? On the scale of actual social identity and expected social identity, where does my obliged identity stands? Is it near to the actual social identity or am I making efforts to move my obliged identity nearer towards the expected social identity. On the occassion of Diamond Jubilee ask yourselves about the spirit with which you have celebrated the festival, is this spirit manifested in the representation of your identity through your actions?
Thank you.
Sheliza Hyder.
On the occassion of Imamat day i.e. on 11 July 2017, Prince Karim Aga Khan had celebrated with his community, the Diamond Jubilee, marking 60 successful years of his leadership as the spiritual head of Ismaili Muslims, the 49th hereditary Imam from the direct progeny of Prophet's beloved daughter Hazrat bibi Fatima (A.S) and her husband Hazrat Ali (A.S). It is the day when Shah Karim al Husseini (Hazir Imam) inherited the mantle of Imamat from his grand father Imam Sultan Mohammad Shah, Aga Khan III, at the age of 20 years.
Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims from around the globe had celebrated this Imamat day with the remembrance of their spiritual allegiance to the Imam of the Time. They had expressed their love and devotion to the Imam, and conveyed gratitude for Hazir Imam’s loving guidance and continuous protection over the course of six decades of his Imamat. The global Ismaili community gathered as One Jamat to witness the commemoration ceremony, which was transmitted digitally to cities across the globe.
This was the celebration for which people of other communities across the globe have congratulated His Highness and His community on the international and local levels. I have read some of the greetings on social websites and in the news articles. To my surprise I found a common pattern in all the wishes I read on the Diamond Jubilee celebrations sent to Aga Khan IV. I would like to share this pattern over here while mentioning some of the articles. And I would also like to give my own views being an Ismaili Muslim upon the celebrations of Diamond Jubilee.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, when issues his statement to wish Diamond Jubilee, he highlights the designation of Prince Karim Aga Khan as the 49th hereditary Imam of Shia Imami Muslims and then describes the work done by Aga Khan IV for global humanitarian causes, for the sustainable development and poverty reduction. He proclaims the efforts of His Highness for the promotion of diversity and pluralism in the establishment of Global Centre for Pluralism.
The abc13 news chose to write on the Diamond Jubilee story highlighting the efforts of Aga Khan IV for improving the quality of life of people.
The Hindu on the other hand, covers the story of Diamond Jubilee celebrations of 49th Imam acknowledging his efforts for health and education in India under AKDN (Aga Khan Development Network).
Dawn news gave its header for this story that the Aga Khan says we have to be a generous society. Dawn news had presented a very pictorail article. Dawn also procliams the designation of Aga Khan as the 49th hereditary Imam. It also states that His Highness is the founder and the chairman of AKDN and then goes on to describe the efforts and achievement of various institutions that comes under the Aga Khan Development Network.
On the local level Government of Sindh Pakistan also congratulates His Highness for his successful leadership while appreciating his efforts under the AKDN in human development and poverty alleviation.
The common pattern which I observed in these greetings is that the Aga Khan is acknowledged more by his work and less by his identity or his designation. More or less the above articles proclaim that yes Aga Khan is the 49th Hereditary Imam but they didn't describe what is meant to be the 49th hereditary Imam. What is the essence behind the celebrations of Diamond Jubilee? I think it is the crucial question of Diamond Jubilee celebrations which every other community wants to know and yet it is not covered in these above articles.
There's always a dintinction between Who one is? And what one has done? Most of us wants to get defined ourselves by who we actualy are not by what we have done. Because that is the only inherent objective thing we possess and the rest is subjective I assume.
In the psychological context we are aware of the terminologies, the actual social self and the expected social self. The former is defined as the way society perceive your self and the latter is defined as the way you want yourself to be perceived by society. Here I would like to relate these two terms with identities. I think that there's always an actual social identity i.e. the aspects in which society perceives your identity. And then there's an expected social identity i.e. the way you want your identity to be perceived by people of the society.
Reading the Diamond Jubilee greetings have made me to mark such distinctions and to reflect upon my own identity. That Being a Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim who am I in actual and what is perceived of me from my actions. And to another extent it also made me wonder about my obliged identity. Just like there emerges an obliged self in the tussle of actual social self and expected social self, I assume there's also an obliged identity which emerges from the tussle between actual social identity and the expected social identity. In making the bridge with different sanctions of society how I represent my own identity through my actions is my obliged identity. We must reflect on our obliged identity that am I leaving my religiously practiced values in order to mingle with other sanctions of society or am I becoming a fine bright thread in beautiful cloth of my society while holding all my specific values of culture and religion.
One of my teachers have made me to wonder that surviving in the twenty first century, what it is to be a Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim. Various historians have represented the Ismaili history through various lenses. Some like Ivanow, Farhad Daftary and Nasir ud din Tusi had glorified our history and the others had put their criticism. For me it isn't the question of what lens represents the most authentic story, but the significant question is how Ismailies themselves in that era represented their own identity. How they spent their lives then and how we are spending it now. Today the world is easily represented through the lens of media. The role of media in forecasting the identities is way more crucial. Media is the lens of the history for future generation. So in this technological and digitized world if I am responsible to write my own history, what will be my focus point. The work which I have done or the ideology/identity/values which I possess. Which of this will remain inherent and which of this will belong to a particular context of time.
I want every person of my community to reflect upon this. What it is that they are transmitting to their children? Are we transmitting the practiced values of our faith to our children? Are we standing firmly on our faith or are we going astray? On the scale of actual social identity and expected social identity, where does my obliged identity stands? Is it near to the actual social identity or am I making efforts to move my obliged identity nearer towards the expected social identity. On the occassion of Diamond Jubilee ask yourselves about the spirit with which you have celebrated the festival, is this spirit manifested in the representation of your identity through your actions?
Thank you.
Sheliza Hyder.
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