Today, the world lost The Architect Who was ALWAYS designing buildings. However, for this Architect buildings were just not the buildings that you and I would call buildings. He designed the future of cities, communities, nations but ultimately the lives of millions of people around the world.
Many of the people whose lives have been designed by this ALWAYS-designing Architect, are sometimes not even able to tell others, just like those buildings, who designed their beautiful lives. There are hundreds of thousands of young men and women around the world today who have got the highest levels of education in their lives. Many of these individuals are already at the pinnacle of achievements and others are on their way there. All of these have high aspirations for their own families and motivate their future generations to achieve even higher levels of education. They came from families where their parents were guided and helped by this wonderful Architect to take up Education as the primary mission in their lives for their children. Many millions were impacted by his designing and took up education as a mission in their lives. Those who were not able to take up education for themselves took it as a mission for their children.
Of all the beautiful tools that this amazing Architect used in his life, including expanding economic development, healthcare, art, culture, tourism development, industrial development, financial institutions and so much more, for which there will be so much said by so many around the world for years to come, I think he used a remarkable tool of Education for designing the lives of millions of people.
I remember a call to action by him that has been stuck with me forever and I have used to convey the message to my students and that is when he said: "I would like you to be students as eager to study as the armies of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) were eager to fight in the name of Islam." Can you imagine the strength and the power of this message. This changes the whole approach to Education. This is no more a luxury, this is no more a nice thing to have, this is a struggle for survival and victory in life, it became a mission. At one time, I heard it first hand from him in a student audience where he addressed us and said for Education: Fight for it, defend it, use it.
With that one tool he designed and changed millions of lives for many many generations to come. What an Architect he was. Always designing, sometimes concrete buildings, but most of the times lives of millions of people around the world.
The beauty of all his work was that all these lives that have been designed by his art, are all like buildings who are not able to tell you who designed them. So, you may come across a highly education professional with great accomplishments and you would see the beauty of that person's accomplishments, you would see the pride in the eyes of that individual, but many a times that individual may not be able to clearly articulate who was the architect of her or his beautiful life - it was this Architect who was ALWAYS designing. He impacted the lives of generations to come, quietly as an Architect who goes missing once the building is done and complete. Very rarely does the name of the architect of the building gets discussed when you visit a beautiful building, almost always it's the beauty of the building itself and how nice it is. I love this beautiful picture of him overlooking at one of his physical development work, he might as well be looking at all the change he made from his spiritual view.
Like many millions around the world, I too lost a visible pillar of my life. My Imam, the strength of my life, my companion in all my situations, was gone. But No, he is not gone. Fortunately, my Imam never left me. Shah Karim, the Architect who was ALWAYS designing, left the world physically, but the Imamat continues and, while visibly different, I continue to have a strong pillar of spiritual and emotional support in my life, the Living Imam Shah Rahim Al-Husayni Hazar Imam. I am all excited and ready to see more and more of beautiful designing - quiet designing where the beneficiary will not be able to tell how he or she benefited - will continue on forever. I wish I had not had to see this transition happen, but now I feel happy and proud to have had the opportunity to experience this outstanding transition during my lifetime.
A humble submission by an Ismaili Murid whose life was totally designed by this Architect who was ALWAYS building. Forever and ever grateful to you, my beloved Imam.
