1. Can you please tell our readers a little bit about yourself?
I was born in 1982 in Tanga, Tanzania. I lived 18 years of my life there, and moved to Dar es Salaam for my A levels. I moved to Canada in year 2000 for my undergraduate studies and back to Dar-es-Salaam thereafter.
I'm the son of Mohamed Ramzanali Manji Walli and Marhuma Rayhana Sherali Jeraj, and husband to a very supportive and loving wife Sayyedah and father to two lovely daughters, Rayhana aged 10 and Zahra aged 3.
2. What is your educational background?
I did my undergraduate in Industrial (Operations) Engineering at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, and I completed the Masters in Business (MBA) from Warwick Business School in the UK in December last year.
3. What is your occupation?
I run my own firm, Mosaic Global Limited, a multi-family office that provides high-net worth individuals and families with a number of services including investment management, estate planning, risk management, lifestyle services, and management of philanthropic work. I am also involved in non-executive capacities in other companies such as Dolson interiors in Dar es Salaam and as part of our family business with interests in manufacturing and trading.
4. When did you first get involved in community work?
As many who started volunteering in our community, I began by serving niyaaz in the mosque in Tanga.
5. What pulled you towards community service?
This is one area where I say peer pressure is actually good for kids, because as part of a community they see all their friends serving niyaaz, serving sabeel, and they want to be part of that.
So initially it was through seeing friends doing it, and the fact that Dad used to take me to mosque every day. As I went on, I believe it is the values that were imparted to me by my family, by the community around me and particularly by my parents. My father would always tell me that one should always serve at different levels. You need to start serving your family, your society, your community, your city, your nation and if you can – the world. You always need to serve wherever you are and whenever you can. The other value my father instilled in me was the freedom to think and, while debating has always been considered healthy in our family, my father always respected others’ views and did not impose his views on others. I know of so many times, even today, when he (my father) would disagree with me, yet would allow me to think on my own. These values are what I believe pulled me towards community service on my own terms.
6. What is your current position and what does it entail?
The current position I hold is the Secretary General of the World Federation of KSIMC. I see my position more like a political voluntary position, rather than the traditional definition of a volunteer in the community. My role is ensuring we have the right global strategy within all our departments, both at planning and delivery levels, making sure all the resources and working teams are in place, and that things are pushed to make sure projects are delivered, and to come up with new initiatives for the global community.
7. How has your journey been through the community ranks?
My journey, as I said earlier, started with Niyaaz like so many of my childhood friends, after which I took up some junior positions in our local community in Tanga. Once I came back from my undergraduate degree from Canada, I joined the Tabligh subcommittee in Dar-es-Salaam, and among the first projects that we took up that I still hold very dear to myself was the Bab-ul-Ilm Library project in Dar-es-Salaam. To date, I feel that is one project that has had a considerable impact on the community. After that I joined the Dar-es-Salaam Jamaat, for one term under the very able Chairmanship of Anwarbhai Dharamsi handling the portfolio of Economic Empowerment. When Anwarbhai was elected as the Chairman of Africa Federation, he asked me to join him as Assistant Secretary of the Federation until I was appointed as Secretary General of the World Federation earlier this month. My role at Africa Federation was one that I thoroughly enjoyed, gained a lot from, and I am proud to say that at Africa Federation I served a Chairman and with office bearers who have the highest integrity and sense of sacrifice when it comes to voluntary service and community leadership.
8. Many youths shy away from community service citing two reasons - time and community politics. What do you feel about that?
While that is an oft-repeated statement, I do not believe that youths are not involved in community service. In fact, when I look around, most of the key delivery positions in our worldwide communities, at all levels, are occupied by youths under age 40. In any case, I know of many elders who are so progressive, I wish I thought more like they did, while I have also met youths who are in a mind-set that is set in ancient times and very resistant to change. Hence, I do not believe it is biological age that makes a difference to this community; I believe it is youthfulness and progressiveness of thought and mind-sets that is important.
Having said that, in the current environment, who has free time? I know of people who run one company and others who run fifty companies within the same twenty-four hours. I do not believe it is the availability of time, rather the fact that one needs to make time. Does it take a toll on one’s life and that of the family? Of course it does. If it did not, volunteering wouldn’t be referred to as a sacrifice.
As for the other reason of community “politics” - in my opinion, politics is a loosely used word of shying away from voluntary service. I would rather a person state that at the current moment he/she is not willing or not ready to serve, not use “politics” as a reason. What we sometimes see wrong in our community, is not unique to our community - we see in all communities. We have had erroneous decisions, human ego at times, and in rare instances self-interest, plus a host of other human tendencies that have historically hurt some of our institutions - but to club it into one word – politics – I believe is unfair. Politics is inherently good without which groups including our families and organizations that we are part of – would not function effectively. The kinds of issues that people refer to as politics in our community are ever present in families and in the workplaces in which we all work. Do we also shy away from these arenas?
9. What do you find most rewarding in your role?
Personally, it is the inner feeling of satisfaction. Everybody makes sacrifices when it comes to serving one’s family, business, and friends, yet the feeling you get when you know you have made a small difference in someone else's life, in some part of the world, is the greatest satisfaction. It is also a matter of pride, especially at Africa Federation and World Federation, being part of institutions that has had some of greatest leaders of our community such as Marhum Ebrahim Sheriff Dewji and Marhum Mulla Asgar, who were also very young when they were serving these institutions.
10. What is the greatest challenge you have faced in your roles so far?
Unlike some whom I meet, who are always complaining of how difficult it is volunteering in our community giving examples of community “politics” and a myriad of other reasons that people come up with, I have personally had a very smooth and a very enjoyable ride. Since it is the same community that we all serve, I believe the problem is not the community, it is self-attitude. That is the challenge I face - seeing that negative attitude in the community every day, and working towards changing this attitude.
11. How would you suggest that we encourage our youth to be more involved in the community?
I believe we need to present volunteerism as a career path and not as a random position. A number of youth that I know, including myself, who are involved in upper echelons of our community leadership, actually use our positions on our LinkedIn profiles. We are as proud of our roles in the community as we are of our positions at work. In my opinion, if progression through community voluntary ranks is seen as a career, it will be a strong incentive for the modern youth.
12. Are you working on any community project at the moment? What is it?
Alhamdulillah, I have had the opportunity to work at different levels in many initiatives that are going on right now within Jamaats of Africa, Africa Federation and at the World Federation. A recent project that was under my supervision was the Africa Federation Commercial Complex project. It's a USD 10+ million dollar investment project that consists of warehouses, showrooms, and offices, that once completed will Insha Allah provide Africa Federation with substantial non-restricted rental income for more strategic initiatives. We have delivered the first phase of the project of twenty warehouses, which will be followed by the second phase of showrooms/offices over the next two years.
13. Do you have a dream project?
More than a project, it's a concept. When I see education in the community right now, we talk about religious education and we talk about secular education. I have a different view to it, because when you talk about secular, you are basically saying something that excludes religion. When you read the Quran, it is very clear when Allah says to ponder on what HE has created, The Quran is talking about Geography. The Quran talks of the wonders of the human body – Biology. The Wonders of the Universe? Physics. How the human thinks? Philosophy and Psychology. It's a dream that one day we move away from terming education into secular education and religious education to a more holistic view where anything that is not against Islam is studying Allah’s creation and is all part of understanding Tawheed and is part of Islamic Education.
14. Thank you for your time. Do you have any parting words or final thoughts for the readers?
The way I see it, we are always comparing ourselves to other communities, especially in the East-African setting where I am based. We always have people comparing "Oh the Bohra community does this, the Ismaili community does that, we should be doing that, and we shouldn't be doing that". While we should always emulate best practices from other communities, I would actually put out a challenge. Show me a community that does not have a supreme political leader, is as democratic as we are, that has structures where a young person can go up ranks and can come up with initiatives without being directed to do so, and a community that has zero state support. Show me a community that is all that and is as successful, with a small population yet as large a footprint, or as globally united as we are, and I doubt you will find any other. Once we realize that, there are two things that we need to have - one is pride in our global community and our progress, and the other is positivity. In a business, if staff do not smile, or look sad and forlorn, productivity is usually affected negatively. Similarly, if our attitude towards our community is negative, we will not progress as fast as we should. So the parting words I have are "Let us, as a community, smile."