Hee Munjo Deen Ai post 4 - Sherbet and Cake

79 years ago today, Prince Karim al-Hussaini, now the Aga Khan and the 49th Imam of the Shi'a Imami Ismaili Muslims, was born in Geneva. Every year, the Salgirah, or birthday, of the Imam is an occasion for huge rejoicing, for jamatkhanas everywhere to be packed to the rafters with people dressed up to the nines.

It's a celebration not just of one man and the tremendous difference he has made to the quality of life, spiritual and material, of millions of people across the world, but of the presence of a living spiritual guide. It is an outpouring of joy that there remains on this earth someone descended from the Prophet and from Ali, with both the authority to interpret the faith for the present day, and, somehow, the "light" that can't quite be explained, that enables him to do so with a level of wisdom and compassion that are extra-ordinary. It is an occasion to remember that, as he tells us so frequently, his guiding, supporting hand is on the shoulder of each one of us, upholding us in his love and care.

(There will be more posts on the Imam, and on the concept of the Imam, but to get some measure of the man, have a listen to his recent lecture at Harvard University: http://www.theismaili.org/news-events/increasingly-fragmented-planet-need-cosmopolitan-ethic-hazar-imam-tells-harvard-audience).

In the South Asian tradition of Ismailism, any big happy occasion, including weddings and religious festivals like Salgirah, is celebrated with "sherbet and cake." Sherbet is a drink of sweetened milk flavoured with rosewater, coloured pink and topped with chopped pistachios. Its rose pink colour, studded with green, and delicate flavour, are indelibly associated with rejoicing in my mind. (It helps that I love the taste of it, too). After the jamatkhana ceremonies tonight, everyone will gather in the social hall, have a glass of sherbet (or several) and a piece of cake, bemoan the long queues to get said sherbet and cake, and catch up with friends and family, including those whom we might not see very often.

Prevented by illness from attending jamatkhana tonight and enjoying sherbet and cake in the company of friends and family, I created my own tribute to this little celebration by making a cake flavoured with rosewater and studded with pistachios (pictured above). I will recite the ginan, the devotional poem traditional for this occasion, which calls on us to rejoice in the presence of the True Guide, and I will savour my sherbet-flavoured cake, and I will be thankful beyond words for the wisdom, love and guidance of the man who is my spiritual father and mother, my Imam, whose words are truth and whose actions are love.

Salgirah Mubarak.