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Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III The First and the Founder President of Muslim League

By Khwaja Hussain Bux


�In these 70 years of my Imamat men�s material condition has totally changed. There has been an immense increase in power over nature but as we see, with strives everywhere, spiritual power has not increased��

�Our social customs, our daily work, our constant efforts must be turned up must be brought into line with the highest form of possible civilization. At its greatest period, Islam was at the head of science, was at the head of knowledge, was in the advanced line of political, philosophic and literary thought��
H.R.H. Prince Aga Khan III


H.R.H. Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III was one of those Muslim stalwarts who believed in Islam as a world religion and who worked ceaselessly for its triumph and glory throughout their lives. He had always been passionately interested in promoting unity and understanding among the Muslims all over the world and contributed immensely to the social, cultural, political, economic and educational development of the Ummah. In studying his services to Islam and the Muslims in general and that of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent in particular, one would find that the most remarkable and distinguished aspect of his work in his untiring efforts for the unity of the Muslim community as a whole, irrespective of their geographical, political, sectarian or denominational differences and affiliations.

His Royal Highness Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III (1877-1957) was born at Karachi on November 2, 1877 and became the 48th Imam and spiritual leader of the Ismaili community at the young age of 8 years (in1885), after the sad demise of his father Aga Ali Shah. He managed the affairs of his followers with great wisdom even in his tender age. The title of His Highness was bestowed upon him at the age of 9 years. It was a clear pointer to the fact that he was held in high esteem by both the government and the people of the country.

Under the guidance of his wise mother, His Highness Aga Khan received careful educational training and within a few years he was able to read and write with perfect ease in the languages he was learning. He made remarkable progress in both Eastern and Western literature and in the knowledge of ancient and modern history. The languages specially studied by him included Persian, Arabic, English and French. He also acquired proficiency on philosophy and theology. He spent much time in studying English classics and acquired mastery over the works of Persian poets. At the age of 18, he was able to speak in public on religious philosophy and politics. Through his intimate knowledge of Eastern as well as Western cultures, he was uniquely placed to play significant role in the international affairs of his time and his public career had many dimensions.
In 1898, at the age of 21 Prince Aga Khan made his first trip to the west. He was received in London with great honor by the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State and other elite leaders in the British Kingdom. Queen Victoria invited him to dine with her and stay at the Windsor Castle. During her coronation ceremony, she made Prince Aga Khan to sit to her right, on the seat reserved for the highest religious personality in the British Kingdom.

His Royal Highness Prince Aga Khan is a direct descendent of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in an unbroken line of succession through the Prophet�s cousin and son-in-law, Hazrat Ali (AS) the fourth Caliph and the first Imam. The ancestors of Prince Aga Khan are known in history as the Fatimide caliphs, who ruled with great splendor over Egypt and North Africa during the tenth and eleventh centuries AD. They left behind lasting monuments of culture and enlightenment in the shape of institutions of learning and works of great art. They also founded the most famous university of Islam, Al Azhar, as well as the city of Cairo in 970 AD. Al Azhar University stands to this day as a great seat of learning, sending forth into the Muslim world great religious scholars and learned theologians.

It is now generally recognized on all hands that without the wise guidance and leadership of His Highness Prince Aga Khan, Muslim India would have been like a rudderless ship sadly at the mercy of mountainous waves threatening to engulf it from all sides.
After the demise of Sir Syed Ahmed and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, the mantle of leadership of the Muslims of India fell upon the shoulders of Prince Aga Khan and it was his selfless service, which built upon the unorganized Muslim community in the Sub-continent into a powerful force in the political life of the country. His great influence and prestige among the British proved a very helpful asset in the cause of Muslim standpoint being understood and appreciated by the foreign rulers.

Prince Aga Khan laid the foundation of separate nationhood of the Indian Muslims as early as 1906. He had led a deputation of Muslims to the Viceroy and demanded separate electorates for the Muslims. His penetrating genius had discovered that the Muslims of India were not a mere community but a nation and he worked hard to unite them into an effective organization for the protection of their rights. It was mainly due to his efforts that the All India Muslim League came into existence in 1906. He was voted permanent president of the Muslim League and occupied this post for seven years from 1906 to 1913.

Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III played a pivotal role in making the Pakistan Movement a success by inculcating political awareness among the Muslims of the sub-continent. He strived hard for cultural renaissance, social regeneration and political rehabilitation of the Muslims. He rendered invaluable services and worked in league with other Muslim leaders to further the cause of Muslim identity by constitutional means.
Aga Khan soon realized that the main cause of the political backwardness of the Muslims was due to their neglect of education, and to spread education among Muslims became the most important part of his life�s mission. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan had started the great Aligarh Movement, and in it, the Aga Khan believed, laid the salvation of the future of Muslims. In 1902, because of devoted services to the cause of Muslim education, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah became a member of the Imperial Legislative Council and he was asked to preside over the Mohammadan Education Conference being held in Delhi. In his presidential address he said that the clearest way, by which the decay of the political power of the Muslims in India could be halted, was by laying the foundation of a great Central Muslim University at Aligarh. �We want to create for our people an intellectual capital that shall be a home of elevated ideas and high ideals, a center from which light and guidance shall be diffused amongst the Muslims of India and out of India too, and shall hold up to the world model standard of justice and virtue and purity of our beloved faith.�

In 1911, the Aga Khan took upon himself the task of collecting funds to start the Aligarh University. A year earlier in reply to an address of welcome by the trustee of the Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College (M.A.O), he said that he would undertake the responsibility to �build a mighty university worthy of Islam in India.� He increased the annual grant that he had been giving to the college for the last many years, and promised to contribute a substantial amount to the University funds. He donated money in cash for scholarships to the most deserving students for foreign studies, which the trustees named �Aga Khan Foreign Scholarship�.

On October 01, 1906 the Aga Khan led a distinguished delegation of 35 leading Muslims of India to Simla and presented a memorandum on behalf of the Muslims of the sub-continent. He presented an address to the Viceroy wherein it was clearly defined that: �Muslims of India should not be regarded as a mere minority but a separate nation, whose rights and obligations should be guaranteed by statue, and this was sought to be achieved through adequate and separate representation for Muslims both on Local Bodies and in Legislative Councils�.
(The Memoirs of Aga Khan)

It must be noted here that work of the deputation led by the Aga Khan bore fruit, and in the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909 it was conceded that Muslims should henceforth be elected on the basis of separate electorates. The principle of separate electorates having been accepted, the demand for a separate homeland for Muslims as a separate nation was to become inevitable in the course of time. As a result of Simla Deputation, a movement towards establishing a Muslim political organization developed, and within three months All-India Muslim League was formed in Dhaka, which ultimately created Pakistan. He also played a historic role, as a delegate to the Round Table Conference convened by the British Government in London in the 1930s.

At the Round Table Conference, the Muslim leadership was entrusted to His Highness the Aga Khan. He performed his duty remarkably well, and with his suavity of manners and tact, and general attitude of helpfulness kept the Muslim team solidly together-which was an invisible contrast to the many and discordant voices, which spoke from the other camp.� (Makers of Pakistan: Al Biruni P-207)

The congress sent M.K. Gandhi as their sole representative to the Second Round Table Conference. During all these protracted deliberations, the Aga Khan rose to great heights as a political leader of consummate skill, a patient and skillful negotiator, a gifted and foresighted statesman. Commenting on his works as the leader of the Muslims at the Round Table Conference, Dr. Shafat Ahmed Khan wrote in 1932, �The Aga Khan is the greatest Muslim Leader in Asia�.

On 15th December 1932, the National League held a meeting in London in Committee Room No.10 of the Parliament building. In this meeting Allama Iqbal, speaking on the Aga Khan at the Round Table Conference, said, �We have placed these demands before the conference under the guidance of His Highness the Aga Khan, that worthy of statesman whom we all admire and whom the Muslims of India love for the blood that runs through his veins�. (Letters and writings of Iqbal: B.A Dar, Iqbal Academy, Karachi 1967, p. 72)

In short, the Aga khan had championed the cause of Muslims of the world throughout his life. He was totally dedicated to Islam-in mind, body and soul. This extraordinary personality of the Muslim world passed his last days in his Villa Barkat, at the Varsoix on the lake of Geneva and breathed his last on July 11, 1957 and was laid to eternal rest at Aswan in Egypt. We can pay real tribute to the memory of this great leader of the Muslim world by making Pakistan stronger and prosperous. In one of his messages he had identified �Pakistan as the rising star of Islam� and wished the future of the country as bright. He had invoked the young nation to forge closer unity and eschew internal violence. Let us live up to his ideals and convert Pakistan into a fortress of Islam. This we can ensure only by defending the ideological frontiers of this country and evolving as a truly Islamic Welfare State free from hunger, poverty and disease.