Address by President Wasif Rizvi, Habib University at President’s Dinner 2026
At the President’s Dinner 2026, President Wasif Rizvi drew on the ancient archetype of the Genie’s Lamp, its boundless power and who holds that power in today’s world. He opened his address with a provocative question: “What would happen if the Genie’s Lamp fell in the wrong hands?”
He argued that the lamp of technology, political power, and concentrated wealth now sits with those who treat human beings as inefficiencies to be optimized and who regard global conflicts as personal entertainment. Quoting Mirza Ghalib, he said that the tragedy of today’s world is that immense power is untethered from wisdom:
قطرے میں دجلہ دکھائی دے اور جزو میں کُل
کھیل لڑکوں کا ہوا، دیدۀ بینا نہ ہوا
The Tigris is visible in a drop, the whole in a part
The game became a child’s play, for the conscious eye was absent
An Age When the Lamp Had Found the Right Hands
After setting the stage of the current world, President Rizvi turned to a time when the lamp had found the right hands. He spoke about the Islamic Golden Age, between the 8th and 13th centuries—an era when the lamp of knowledge and patronage was deliberately placed in the hands of those who had earned it through intellect and wisdom, regardless of wealth or social standing.
Scholars such as Ibn al-Haytham, Al-Biruni, Al-Ghazali, and Al-Farabi came from modest backgrounds yet rose to become founders of entire disciplines in science and philosophy, ranging from optics to geodesy. President Rizvi noted that this was possible largely because the right people were “rubbing the lamp,” enabling these scholars to produce their magic. The patrons of the Islamic Golden Age included figures such as Fatima al-Fihri, Fadl ibn Sahl, and the Barmakids—the often invisible architects of a glorious civilization. However, when such patrons disappeared, the Muslim world’s golden age faded alongside them.
Habib University: Built on the Conviction that the Right Hands Still Exist
President Rizvi then introduced Habib University as an institution built on the belief that a different reality remains possible, even today. He explained that the animating idea behind Habib University’s founding was that a unique intellectual fabric—one that connects lived experience with critical reasoning—can be cultivated; that talent, regardless of means or wealth, can be identified and nurtured; and individuals who aspire to become genuine patrons of knowledge can once again be inspired.
President Rizvi paid particular tribute to the donors and institutional partners gathered at the dinner, who support Habib University’s intellectual and institutional mission. Each, he suggested, performs an act of rubbing the lamp so that its magic may be produced in the form of our graduating class of 2026.
Turning to the graduating class he said, “you are now the bearers of this lamp. We hope that through the nurturing Habib has given you, you reach places of influence and consequence, and repair what is broken, heal not disrupt, protect not corrupt.”
Reflecting on the enduring nature of the magic that is created, he quoted Munir Niazi
اک واری جَد شروع ہو جاوے
تے گل فیر ایویں مُکدی نئیں
Once something meaningful truly begins,
it does not simply end abruptly.
