Description

LINEAGE

The Sufi Way is a direct continuation of the inner school established in the West in 1921 by Inayat Khan (R.A). Inayat Khan (R.A) is also referred to by the honorific titles Sufi Inayat Khan, Hazrat Inayat Khan, and Pir-O-Murshid Inayat Khan and was an accomplished musician as well as a spiritual master initiated in the four major Sufi orders: Chishti, Qadiri, Suhrawardy, and Naqshbandi.

Hazrat Inayat Khan (R.A) was born in Baroda (now Vadodara), Gujarat, India, into a Muslim family of musicians. His father was Mashaikh Rahmat Khan (1843–1910), who descended from Pir Jammashah (R.A). Inayat’s mother, Khatija Bi, was the second daughter of Sholay Khan Maulabakhsh, who was one of the greatest musicians and poets of his time as well as an experienced Sufi. His musical achievements helped to awaken and widen spiritual interest; this interest was closely linked to his love for beauty in art and world cultural and spiritual pursuit went hand in hand.

 

LIFE

Inayat’s (R.A) early life primarily revolved around music, and he was given many awards and medals in honour of his magnificent singing. As a youth, Inayat (R.A) was brilliant in poetry and music, yet his deepest inner calling was in spiritual matters.

One day as Inayat (R.A) was praying, he thought to himself that there had not been an answer yet to all the prayers he had offered to God, and he did not know where God was to hear his prayers and he could not reconcile himself to going on praying to the God whom he knew not. He explained that to his father who immediately understood that his son really hungered for truth. The father, to build that confidence in him, said ‘God is in You, and You are in God.’

Inayat Khan (R.A) was an Indian Sufi master who presented a universal spiritual message to harmonize eastern and western cultures and established the Sufi Order International in 1920 as an international Mystical Organization with the following objectives:

• to spread the knowledge of unity, the religion of love and wisdom, so that the bias of faiths and beliefs may of itself degenerate, the human heart may overflow with love, and all hatred caused by distinctions and differences may be removed.
• to discover the light and power hidden in man, the secret of all religion, the power of mysticism, and the essence of philosophy, without interfering with customs and beliefs.
• to help to bring the world’s two opposite poles, East and West, closer together by the interchange of thought and ideals, that the Universal Brotherhood may form of itself, and man may see with man BEYOND the narrow national and racial boundaries.

Inayat Khan (R.A) let go of his greatest attachment, his musical career, to become a Sufi Master, immersing himself in the Sufi Ideology.

Inayat (R.A) had met Ora Ray Baker, Ameena Begum in America. She followed him to London, and they married on 20th March 1913. They had four children. Noorunissa, born 1st January 1914 in Russia, Vilayat was born on 19th June 1916, London, Hidayat was born on 6th August 1917, London and Khair-un-nissa born 3rd June 1919, London. The family settled in Suresnes near Paris in the year 1920. In 1926 he was becoming physically exhausted from his schedule of travel and work as he suffered from repeated bouts of pneumonia. He decided, therefore, to go on a visit to India. However, his fame had reached India, and he found himself travelling to spread his message. Early in 1927, he visited, once again, the Dargah Sharif of Hazrat Khwaja Chisty (R.A) at Ajmer and was again afflicted with pneumonia.

Inayat Khan (R.A) departed from this world on 5 February 1927 in Delhi, at a house called Tilak Lodge, near the banks of the river Yamuna in the northeastern part of Delhi. His Dargah is in Nizamuddin West in New Delhi and receives visitors from around the world.

 

TEACHING

On 13 September 1910, Inayat Khan (R.A) left India for America with his brother Maheboob and cousin Muhammed Ali. He travelled in America until 1912 and then he went to Europe. He was based in England until 1920 when he left for France, eventually setting up residence in Suresnes, a suburb of Paris. Inayat Khan travelled widely throughout Europe and twice returned to the United States to realize and to spread the Sufi Message.

Inayat Khan’s message was always aimed at unity, bringing together all of humanity, rising above the differences and distinctions that have separated us. He set forth 10 Principles to guide Universal Sufism.

1. There is one God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none else exists save God.
2. There is one Master, the Guiding Spirit of all souls, who constantly leads all followers towards the light.
3. There is one Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, which truly enlightens all readers.
4. There is one Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfils the life’s purpose of every soul.
5. There is one Law, the law of reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.
6. There is one human Brotherhood, the Brotherhood and Sisterhood which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Fatherhood of God.
7. There is one Moral Principle, the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
8. There is one Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshipper through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
9. There is one Truth, the true knowledge of our being within and without which is the essence of all wisdom.
10. There is one Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality, and in which resides all perfection.

 

MIRACLES

Inayat Khan (R.A) had a spiritual experience in the South Dunes in Katwijk, Netherlands. He immediately told his students to meditate and proclaim the place Sacred. In 1969, the Universal Sufi Shrine was built there. Inayat returned to India at the end of 1926 and there chose the size of his tomb, situated near the Nizamuddin Dargah Complex in Delhi.

 

LEGACY

During his sixteen years in the West, he created a School of Spiritual Training based upon the traditional teachings of the Chishti Sufis and infused with a revolutionary vision of the unity of religious ideals and the awakening of humanity to the divinity within. Inayat Khan’s (R.A) movement can be found in the Netherlands, France, England, Germany, the United States, Canada, Russia, and Australia. He wrote a number of books, articles on Sufism and his lectures were transcribed and edited to create the series known as ‘The Sufi Message Volumes’.

Inayat Khan (R.A) passed away unexpectedly in 1927. The leadership of the Sufi Movement he had founded first passed to his brother, Shaikh-ul-Mashaikh Maheboob Khan; in 1948 to his cousin, Ali Khan; in 1956 to his youngest brother, Musharaff Khan; and in 1968 to his grandson, Fazal Inayat-Khan.

There are several living lineages and organizations that trace their origins to Inayat Khan (R.A). The Inayati Order represents the lineage passed directly to his eldest son, Vilayat Inayat Khan, includes his daughter Noor Inayat Khan, and is currently led by his grandson Zia Inayat Khan.

Inayat Khan’s (R.A) urs is held on the 2nd of Sya’Ban.

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