The following is taken from late Alwaez Shamshudin Bandali Haji's book, "The Noor En Allah Noor". This book was presented to Mowlana HazarImam.
OPENLY, IN THE PRESS AND COURT...
A LEADING JOURNALIST AND CORRESPONDENT INNOCENTLY ASKED SHAH KARIM PRINCE AGAKHAN, "WHAT IS THE PROOF YOU ARE DIRECT DESCENDENT OF PROPHET MOHAMED?"
(An extract from an article written in a paper "CURRENT," published in Bombay by a correspondent, Mazahir Rahim who had been given an audience by PRINCE KARIM A.K. The article appeared in the "CURRENT" issue of 9th December 1967.)
Of course, when I innocently asked him for any 'Proof' of the fact that he was the descendent of PROPHET MOHAMMED, the founder of ISLAM, he offered to shoot off the numerous names of 'IMAMS' who preceded him, 'and the geneological chart was there of course.' Thus he offered me the proof of his Right to the GADDI.
More solid proof is given by: there is an interesting incident in Prince Karim's grandfather's rule as the third Aga Khan. he was sued by his sister as having no right to keep the Zakat money, which was given to him. She had an equal right to it, she argued. The Agakhan stated that all the money collected by him went back to the community.
At this juncture, the honourable judge interposed an interesting question. What right had he to collect the Zakat? The Aga Khan explained that it was the custom in his community to pay a small sum to the Imam. The judge interposed, "What proof do you have that you are the descendent of Prophet Mohammed?"
The Aga Khan invited the judge and the two lawyers into the next room, but cautioned them, that his showing them the proof would result in their death and that his own lawyer would lose both the power to hear and speak.
The three tried to call his bluff, and accompanied him to the next room, where it is said, names started appearing on the wall. The first name was of Prophet Mohammed and last of the Aga Khan.
Sure enough, after three days, the judge and the lawyer did die, and his lawyer lost his speech and hearing.
Haji Bibi Case Incident.
Press Article on Aga Khan Case
The following article is taken from "The Noor en Allah Noor" by Late Alwaez Shamshudin Bandali Haji.
In "JANMA BHUMI" a very widely circulated paper of GUJARAT (INDIA) there appeared, in the publication dated 8-9-1957, an article written by a Mr. K.M. Shah, B.A., LLB. The original article was in Gujerati but a translation of parts of it appears below.
I have gone through the "Aga Khan Case" conducted in the Bombay High Court ( in 1885 by Judge Sir Rusell) and found it to be very interesting indeed. In the case there were many points which were sensational and startlingly revealing.
Haji Bibi was the daughter of Aga Hangishah, uncle of Sultan Mohamed Shah Agakhan. She filed a suite against Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan claiming that she too had a right to religious funds and it had to be shared between herself and the family members.
The plaintiff's advocates attempted to ask certain irrelevant questions to advocates of Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan, therefore the honourable judge refrained them lest they should be harmful to the parties concerned.
The plaintiff's party decided to walk out from the Courtroom since they did not like the idea that they were stopped from asking questions they thought were relevant.
Apparently then, the case turned in favour of Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga khan. Ex-party judgement would be granted by the Judge.
With this knowledge, Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan's advocates pleaded to the Honourable Judge not to dismiss the Case but to let it continue. This was the instruction of Sultan Mohamed Shah Agakhan. There were sixteen leading lawyers for Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan among whom were Sir Chimanlal Setalvad, Bhulbhai Desai and Mohammedali Jinnah.
The Aga Khan Case was the most interesting, important, sensational Case of the current times. The leaders from quite a number of communities attended the Court proceedings -- leaders of Hindus, Muslims, Boharas, Khojas and also Mullahs and Molwis.
During the Case, altogether one hundred and twenty eight interesting points were discussed, and all these turned out to be in favour of Sultan Mohamed Shah Agakhan III. A history of the Aga Khan and his families was presented.
Pir Sadardin and Pir Hassan Kabirdeen converted Hindus of Sind Province in India. Pir Sadardin has written an important book titled "DASAVTAR" (TEN INCARNATIONS OF GOD) which played a very useful and important role in the Aga khan case.
A STRANGE AND AMAZING FACT HAS BEEN POINTED OUT IN THE BOOK THAT HAZARAT ALI WAS SHRI VISHNU IN HIS TENTH AVTAR, AND ALSO STRANGE AND AMAZING THAT ALL THE PREVIOUS NINE AVTAARS OF SHRI VISHNU WERE IN FACT THOSE OF HAZARAT ALI. THIS IMPORTANT FACT IS NOT MENTIONED IN ANY OF THE OTHER SCRIPTURES OF THE WORLD.
Sir Sultan Mohammad Shah proved in the court that he was the sole authority to accept the tributes from his followers as he was the bearer of the "NOOR" of Imamat or "NOOR" of Ali. He had absolute authority over the Ismaili Muslims all over the world.
The writer of the article in "JANMA BHUMI" adds that Hindus would be much surprised to know that Pir Sadardin has said in "DAS AVTAR" all the NINE Avtars of SHRI VISHNU were in fact of THE ALI (MOWLA MURTAZA ALI). This Case and the judgements of the court are of such a nature that even if one were to read hundreds of books on other cases one would not find such deep knowledge as in this UNIQUE and EXCLUSIVE "AGA KHAN CASE".
More on Haji Bibi case can be referenced at: http://www.ismaili.net/hajibibi.html
In "JANMA BHUMI" a very widely circulated paper of GUJARAT (INDIA) there appeared, in the publication dated 8-9-1957, an article written by a Mr. K.M. Shah, B.A., LLB. The original article was in Gujerati but a translation of parts of it appears below.
I have gone through the "Aga Khan Case" conducted in the Bombay High Court ( in 1885 by Judge Sir Rusell) and found it to be very interesting indeed. In the case there were many points which were sensational and startlingly revealing.
Haji Bibi was the daughter of Aga Hangishah, uncle of Sultan Mohamed Shah Agakhan. She filed a suite against Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan claiming that she too had a right to religious funds and it had to be shared between herself and the family members.
The plaintiff's advocates attempted to ask certain irrelevant questions to advocates of Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan, therefore the honourable judge refrained them lest they should be harmful to the parties concerned.
The plaintiff's party decided to walk out from the Courtroom since they did not like the idea that they were stopped from asking questions they thought were relevant.
Apparently then, the case turned in favour of Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga khan. Ex-party judgement would be granted by the Judge.
With this knowledge, Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan's advocates pleaded to the Honourable Judge not to dismiss the Case but to let it continue. This was the instruction of Sultan Mohamed Shah Agakhan. There were sixteen leading lawyers for Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan among whom were Sir Chimanlal Setalvad, Bhulbhai Desai and Mohammedali Jinnah.
The Aga Khan Case was the most interesting, important, sensational Case of the current times. The leaders from quite a number of communities attended the Court proceedings -- leaders of Hindus, Muslims, Boharas, Khojas and also Mullahs and Molwis.
During the Case, altogether one hundred and twenty eight interesting points were discussed, and all these turned out to be in favour of Sultan Mohamed Shah Agakhan III. A history of the Aga Khan and his families was presented.
Pir Sadardin and Pir Hassan Kabirdeen converted Hindus of Sind Province in India. Pir Sadardin has written an important book titled "DASAVTAR" (TEN INCARNATIONS OF GOD) which played a very useful and important role in the Aga khan case.
A STRANGE AND AMAZING FACT HAS BEEN POINTED OUT IN THE BOOK THAT HAZARAT ALI WAS SHRI VISHNU IN HIS TENTH AVTAR, AND ALSO STRANGE AND AMAZING THAT ALL THE PREVIOUS NINE AVTAARS OF SHRI VISHNU WERE IN FACT THOSE OF HAZARAT ALI. THIS IMPORTANT FACT IS NOT MENTIONED IN ANY OF THE OTHER SCRIPTURES OF THE WORLD.
Sir Sultan Mohammad Shah proved in the court that he was the sole authority to accept the tributes from his followers as he was the bearer of the "NOOR" of Imamat or "NOOR" of Ali. He had absolute authority over the Ismaili Muslims all over the world.
The writer of the article in "JANMA BHUMI" adds that Hindus would be much surprised to know that Pir Sadardin has said in "DAS AVTAR" all the NINE Avtars of SHRI VISHNU were in fact of THE ALI (MOWLA MURTAZA ALI). This Case and the judgements of the court are of such a nature that even if one were to read hundreds of books on other cases one would not find such deep knowledge as in this UNIQUE and EXCLUSIVE "AGA KHAN CASE".
More on Haji Bibi case can be referenced at: http://www.ismaili.net/hajibibi.html
Book
The Aga Khan Case
Religion and Identity in Colonial India
Teena Purohit
An overwhelmingly Arab-centric perspective dominates the West’s understanding of Islam and leads to a view of this religion as exclusively Middle Eastern and monolithic. Teena Purohit presses for a reorientation that would conceptualize Islam instead as a heterogeneous religion that has found a variety of expressions in local contexts throughout history. The story she tells of an Ismaili community in colonial India illustrates how much more complex Muslim identity is, and always has been, than the media would have us believe.
The Aga Khan Case focuses on a nineteenth-century court case in Bombay that influenced how religious identity was defined in India and subsequently the British Empire. The case arose when a group of Indians known as the Khojas refused to pay tithes to the Aga Khan, a Persian nobleman and hereditary spiritual leader of the Ismailis. The Khojas abided by both Hindu and Muslim customs and did not identify with a single religion prior to the court’s ruling in 1866, when the judge declared them to be converts to Ismaili Islam beholden to the Aga Khan.
In her analysis of the ginans, the religious texts of the Khojas that formed the basis of the judge’s decision, Purohit reveals that the religious practices they describe are not derivations of a Middle Eastern Islam but manifestations of a local vernacular one. Purohit suggests that only when we understand Islam as inseparable from the specific cultural milieus in which it flourishes do we fully grasp the meaning of this global religion.
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php? ... 0674066397
The Aga Khan Case
Religion and Identity in Colonial India
Teena Purohit
An overwhelmingly Arab-centric perspective dominates the West’s understanding of Islam and leads to a view of this religion as exclusively Middle Eastern and monolithic. Teena Purohit presses for a reorientation that would conceptualize Islam instead as a heterogeneous religion that has found a variety of expressions in local contexts throughout history. The story she tells of an Ismaili community in colonial India illustrates how much more complex Muslim identity is, and always has been, than the media would have us believe.
The Aga Khan Case focuses on a nineteenth-century court case in Bombay that influenced how religious identity was defined in India and subsequently the British Empire. The case arose when a group of Indians known as the Khojas refused to pay tithes to the Aga Khan, a Persian nobleman and hereditary spiritual leader of the Ismailis. The Khojas abided by both Hindu and Muslim customs and did not identify with a single religion prior to the court’s ruling in 1866, when the judge declared them to be converts to Ismaili Islam beholden to the Aga Khan.
In her analysis of the ginans, the religious texts of the Khojas that formed the basis of the judge’s decision, Purohit reveals that the religious practices they describe are not derivations of a Middle Eastern Islam but manifestations of a local vernacular one. Purohit suggests that only when we understand Islam as inseparable from the specific cultural milieus in which it flourishes do we fully grasp the meaning of this global religion.
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php? ... 0674066397
Please note: Pre-order Price Guarantee covers one or more item(s) inagakhani wrote:Thanks KBhai,
I was looking a book on 'Agakhan Case' for long time, however the price $45.00 is very high for only 198 pages book.
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Last edited by kmaherali on Sat Aug 18, 2012 4:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
K.Bhai,
Thanks for the info, your info will sure save me few bucks, please keep informing me/us about "hard to find books" or history books specially related to Ismaili religion, and if you do this then, ( I am pretty sure that you are doing this) it will be a great khidamat towards our religion and it will be a most beneficiery for the book lovers and history lovers like me.
Thanks for the info, your info will sure save me few bucks, please keep informing me/us about "hard to find books" or history books specially related to Ismaili religion, and if you do this then, ( I am pretty sure that you are doing this) it will be a great khidamat towards our religion and it will be a most beneficiery for the book lovers and history lovers like me.
XQs I: A Conversation with Teena Purohitkmaherali wrote:Book
The Aga Khan Case
Religion and Identity in Colonial India
Teena Purohit
http://www.chapatimystery.com/archives/ ... rohit.html
Highlight:
I situate the ginans as “Islamicate” texts because I am interested in the how these texts are embedded in local contexts and how their texture and movement help us understand religious practices that are not derivations of an Arab Islam, but instantiations of local Islam, described by the poems as Satpanth. My analyses of the poems foreground how the Satpanth tradition reworks classical Sanskrit and Arabic forms and ideas, giving them new meaning and significance. These “borrowings” and “exchanges” set in motion particular ways of imagining community and belonging that are not based on a restrictive conception of identity