Rahim al-Hussaini appointed 50. Aga Khan after death of father | Islam

Rahim al-Hussaini, 53, has been named the new Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the world’s millions of Ismaili Muslims, after his father’s death, the Ismaeli -Society has announced.

Aga Khan V, the 50th hereditary imam of Shia Ismaili -Muslims, was appointed in her father’s will “in accordance with historical Shia Imami Ismaili -Muslim traditions and practice,” the community said on its website.

His father, His Highness Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, Aga Khan IV, known for his amazing wealth and development work around the world, died Tuesday in Lisbon, the seat of Ismaili Imamat, at the age of 88.

Aga Khan is considered by his followers as a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and is treated as a head of state and is assigned almost divine status by the Ismaeli community if the site says it number 12 to 15 million people.

Born in October 1971, the new Aga Khan is the eldest son and the second of three children born of her father and Sarah Coker-Poole, a British model. The couple was divorced in 1995, and Aga Khan IV remarried to German singer Gabriele Thyssen.

Prince Rahim grew up between Geneva and Paris, spent his winters in Saint-Moritz and Summers in Sardinia, studied literature at Brown University in the US and Business in Barcelona and then joined Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).

AKDN, Aga Khan’s most important philanthropic organization, is mainly dealing with questions about health care, housing, education and rural economic development, working in more than 30 countries with an annual budget of around $ 1 billion. For nonprofit development.

Founded in 1967, the group of international development agencies employs 80,000 people and has helped to build schools and hospitals and supply electricity to millions of people in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia.

Prince Rahim serves on the boards of several of the network agencies, reportedly after the work of the Institute of Ismaili Studies and the social government institutions in particular.

He married model Kendra Spears in 2013, which he had two sons born in 2015 and 2017. The couple was divorced in 2022. He inherits a fortune that is difficult to measure with some reports that estimate his father’s personal fortune in billions.

Ismailis – a sect that was originally prevalent in India, but who expanded to large communities in East Africa, Central and South Asia and the Middle East – considers it a duty to tithe up to 12.5% ​​of their income to Aga Khan.