News

Dear Companions on the Path,

I am writing to you from France, where with great sadness and concern I have been following the news coming out of the United States. I am grieving, as so many are grieving, the tragic death of Heather Heyer.

Charlottesville is just an hour’s drive from Richmond, where our new North American headquarters is located. Richmond has its own statue of Robert E. Lee.

It is said that Gen. Lee himself opposed the construction of Confederate memorials, recognizing the need for the nation to “obliterate the marks of civil strife.”

Our nation is now struggling to find an adequate response, not only to the presence of Lee’s image, but to the shadows of American history, encompassing the dispossession of native people, the brutal practice of slavery, and the subordination of women.

And yet for all our troubled history, America is a land of vision and promise, where much has been, and may yet be, achieved.

Lost souls grasp desperately for belonging and forge factional identities premised on assumed superiority in the hope of shoring up self-esteem. Sooner or later, however, the illusion of separateness must crumble. Murshid says, “The one who will not take in the idea of unity will be taken in by unity one day.”

How much better it would be for the whole of the world to take in the idea of unity now. It is for this reason that the Inayati Order exists: to realize and spread the knowledge of unity so that hearts overflow with love and hatred based on distinctions and differences is rooted out.

We intend to always be a community of equality between people of all races, religions, and kinds, and to spread the message of unity. This requires of us continuous vigilance, uprooting the traces of divisiveness whenever they appear in our own minds and hearts.

I am grateful for the conscientious work on behalf of our Order done in Charlottesville by Rabia and Zakir Amin, who recently shared their experiences. I honor, likewise, the contributions of all of you, my companions on the path, in your prayers and meditations, kinship activities, healing circles, Universal Worship services, and Ziraat lodges, and in all that you do in the service of the Message of Love, Harmony, and Beauty.

May love’s victory come soon.

Yours always,

Sarafil Bawa

TOWARDS THE ONE
THE PERFECTION OF LOVE, HARMONY AND BEAUTY

“Dive deeply into the miracle of life and let the tips of your wings be burnt by the flame, let your feet be lacerated by the thorns, let your heart be stirred by human emotion, and let your soul be lifted beyond the earth.”
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

You are cordially Invited to the

13th Urs celebration of

Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

(1916-2004)

Sajjada-Nashin of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan and Founder of the Hope Project

Saturday, 17th June 2017

At Dargah Sharif Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan and

Dargah Sharif Hazrat Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Program

Saturday, 17^th June 2017

From 6.00 am onwards Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan’s Dargah is open for Morning Meditation.

9.30 am Fatiha and blessing of the Chaddar at Dargah Sharif Hazrat Inayat Khan; procession to Dargah Sharif Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan; prayers and offerings.

Followed by a reception with the community of the Hope Project at the Noor Inayat Khan Library, with refreshments.

11.00 am

Distribution of Langar at Dargah Sharif Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan.

Organized by The Inayati Order under the auspices of its President, Pir Zia Inayat-Khan ‘urf Sarafil Bawa (Sajjada-Nashin of Dargah Sharif Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan and Dargah Sharif Hazrat Pir Vilayat Inayat-Khan), in conjunction with the Hope Project Charitable Trust founded by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan. Pir Zia will be represented by Haji Aslam Hussain. 

Dargah Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

and Dargah Hazrat Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

129 Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin,

New Delhi 110013 INDIA

For further information please contact Ms. Carmen Hussain: carmen.hussain@gmail.com

Dear Companions on the Path,

I am writing to share with you a piece of wonderful news: The Inayati Order, North America, has a new Headquarters!

Two years ago it became clear that it was important for The Inayati Order to free itself from its time-consuming responsibilities toward The Abode of the Message and allow the Abode to become self-directed. At the same time, I felt the “pull of the future” drawing me to establish my work in a new and more populous and diverse setting.

While considering a long list of cities, my family and I took a road trip last year, driving from New York to Georgia and back. Richmond, Virginia, was not on our list, but on the return journey we felt compelled to stop there. We stayed at a Holiday Inn, and when we stepped outside of the hotel and looked around, something felt very right in our bones.

I communicated my enthusiasm to the Board, and Alia and some of the members of the Board visited Richmond and experienced a similar sense of the rightness of it. The search for a Headquarters building now began. Alia and the Board (especially Fazl and Roshan Peay) put in a lot of work, and at last a splendid building was found. When all signs were positive, my family and I went to Richmond to see the building. Lo and behold, we discovered it was diagonally across from the Holiday Inn where we first arrived in Richmond and felt intuitively we had come to the right place!

The building is a historical brick edifice that has been beautifully renovated inside. It has room for a reception, a meeting space for approximately forty people, an archive, offices, and breakout areas. It is situated on a quiet street not far from the city center.

It was by virtue of a generous low-interest loan from friends within the Order that The Inayati Order was able to purchase the building. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all who have supported this grace-filled move. Alhamdulillah.

Our new Headquarters in Richmond will be called the Astana, which means, “the Threshold.” Our intention is that it be the beating heart of our order; a magnetic and energetic center; its outer physicality reflecting our inner quest for harmony. Our hope is to fill it with an atmosphere of hospitality, with music, visiting scholars, a shared commitment to matters of the heart, and abiding adab.

I look forward to seeing you all there as soon as you are able to come and visit.

Yours ever,

Sarafil Bawa

For more photos and details, please visit the Inayati Order website.

A response to Pir Zia’s new book Mingled Waters: Sufism and the Mystical Unity of Religions:

With the love of the Supreme Creator, who is the most Gracious and the most Merciful

“Both worlds, the spiritual and the material have no knowledge of Love itself. There are seventy- two kinds of madness, there are seventy-two types of insanity. The lover’s creed is far from being able to embrace the seventy-two religions! The lover’s teacher is God, the owner of majesty. In this world there are hidden stairs that reach, with steps leading one by one, all the way to the heavens. Every community has their own stairs, their own heaven. Each one is unaware of what another’s situation is like. See the believer and the unfaithful with your own secret- with the eye of your heart. In each of one of them and according to their own beliefs, there is nothing but yearning that cries out ‘Oh Lord’ ‘Oh True Life’.” Hz. Mevlânâ Jelâleddin-i Rûmî

This exceptional piece of work, written by our very precious and dear friend Pir Zia Inayat Khan, will undoubtedly be a fountain of Nothingness and will illuminate the hearts and eyes of those who discover the lesson of Love. Knowledge that does not free mankind from duality and lead to unity and togetherness, is nothing but a heavy burden. The divine laws that we call religion, are intended for us to experience absolute oneness or unity, which in this world of appearances, is revealed within multiplicity. God is One. There is no doubt that He wishes to see His servants, His creation, also living in Unity. This is why Semitic beliefs never accept duality. Religion is not the personal matter of the prophets, it belongs to God, totally. The prophets are responsible for spreading the commands that are of an elevated, divine nature belonging to God, across the world. For that reason, personalizing religion and making discriminations between prophets make a very wrong ideology. The Essence and the Truth of religions is the same. What is different in appearance is created by the requirements of the present times and its conditions, and by the design of the Supreme Creator; there are the surface waves, the outer shell, forms and appearances. Consequently, to be attached to surface appearances, to form, to the facade of a religion is another type of idolatry. As told in the Surat Fatiha, it leads us away, separates us from the “True Owner of Religion” away from Essence, from Truth, away from His Divine Love. It must also be acknowledged that religion is not the ultimate goal, it is a divine instrument that enables us to reach that goal, it is the best path, the most beautiful and the most virtuous.

In Surat Al-Maidah 48 and An-Nahl 93: “Oh Muhammad, we have revealed to you the Coran, in truth, confirming and protecting all the holy scriptures that preceded. To each of you we have prescribed a sacred law and a method. Had God willed, He would have made you one nation, but He intended to test you  in what He has given you. So then, race towards goodness and beauty. To God is your return, all of you together. He will then inform you the truth, concerning that over which you used to differ.” “If God had willed, he could have made you of one religion. You will surely be questioned about your past actions.” So, if you still fall into this duality despite all the warnings, think of when you will be surely questioned.

We pray that this book called ‘Mingled Waters’, filtered through a blessed and pure heart, will bear witness to Unity and to our Oneness on the day of Resurrection, and we offer our most sincere gratitude to Pir Zia Inayat Khan for offering us this exquisite work which extends our horizons and illuminates our souls.

Within Love, praying to be amongst the lovers and the true-hearted.

H. Nur Artiran

President of Sefik Can International Mevlânâ Education and Cultural Foundation

Istanbul, Turkey

Mingled Waters: Sufism & the Mystical Union of Religions is now available for preorder from Suluk Press and Amazon.com.

by Misbah Noor

On Sunday, February 5—Visalat Day—a beautiful Universal Worship service was held in the khanqa at Fazal Manzil, in Suresnes, in remembrance of Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan (may his secret be sanctified) who passed into the Realm of Beauty on this day, ninety years ago. The khanqa, vibrant with flowers and smiles, was filled to capacity. A heart-warming sense of closeness was discernible in the community of mureeds belonging to many different traditions, cultures, and walks of life, yet all united on the spiritual path of Love, Harmony and Beauty. Indeed, there was something very special about celebrating the Urs of our beloved Murshid in the home where he resided during his life.

A garland of marigolds adorned the ceiling and a panel of gold fabric formed a backdrop against a table displaying the sacred books and candles representing the great religious traditions of the world. On this day, an additional candle, preceding the six customary ones, was included to represent the “tradition of God’s (feminine) creativity,” referring to spiritual traditions outside the Religions of the Book which take nature as their scripture and have often, historically, been administered by priestesses.

Sarafil Bawa offered inspiring words reflecting on this tradition. Throughout time, he said, “… from the priestesses of the Mediterranean to the indigenous grandmothers of our own time, there has flourished, and continues to flourish, a tradition of sacred remembrance that glorifies the divine creativity. This tradition transpires in many places in the world. It does not uphold a written scripture, but rather reads the scripture of nature itself. For every existent thing is a word written by God. And the revelations of nature resound, indeed, in all of the hallowed scriptures of the world’s greatest revelations. And this, the disclosure of the creative grace of the Creator, abounds everywhere, on the horizons and in ourselves. And it is intimated in these words of Murshid: Wide space, womb of my heart, conceive my thought, I pray, and give birth to my desire.”

Outside the glass walls of the khanqa, the air was dewy and the sky formed a mirror to our emotions—a vast, glistening ‘heart’ ambivalent with longing and the celebration of union. The laden horizon and the trees in the garden—still as a painting—matched the atmosphere of expectant stillness inside at the beginning of the ceremony. We joined voices in song, our spirits stirring, becoming uplifted. And as the service proceeded, the weather turned around, the sun suddenly breaking through the clouds! Sunlight beamed on the arches of the Universelle, reflecting the bare winter branches in patterns of delicate filigree.

Inside the khanqa, attuning to the atmosphere of Murshid, in the very place in which he lived and met with mureeds upstairs, we felt his spirit, his blessed presence and nearness. And in this room filled with ‘instruments’—leaders, teachers and workers of The Inayati Order kindled by his consciousness—we were ever conscious of the living pulse of Murshid’s teachings. Our view of the Universelle in the garden (housing the original cornerstone blessed by Murshid) reminded us that it stood as both witness and monument, an embodied form of the Universel prayer which, as we recite it, inspires us to realize the divine creativity working through us in our work on the physical plane.

At the end of his remarks, Bawa offered Murshid’s benediction:

May your heart be filled with heavenly joy

May your soul be filled with divine light

May your spirit uphold the divine Message

May you go on in the spiritual path

May God’s peace abide with you forever and ever more.

A moment of silence followed, then, suddenly, Murshid’s voice rose in our midst. It was as if he were physically there amongst us in the room, reciting the takbir al-‘id— Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar la ilaha illa’Llah Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar wa li’Llahi’l-hamd—singing the praises of the Almighty in a tone resonant with love, striking at the very core of our hearts, breaking up and clearing any residual hardness, mist, or doubt that might be lurking unbeknownst to us; tuning us; harmonizing us; and, above all, elevating us. Time and space collapsed in that transformative moment of Murshid’s power working via the conduit of his stirring voice.

The Urs culminated in a beautiful flower ceremony. We each, in turn, stepped forward towards Bawa, receiving his gaze of benediction as he presented a long-stemmed rose. We drank the light of his eyes, a fire that filled our very beings with the light of the Silsila, linking us to the chain of illuminated souls going back to the Divine source. What a gift and treasure that brief moment! It encompassed a lifetime, served as a vivid reminder of a sacred trust.

Even as rose petals fade and disintegrate, even as beloved Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan is no longer with us on this physical plane, the bloom and fragrance of his teachings live on. They do so, as Sarafil Bawa reminds us, in our manner of witnessing and experiencing and joining together “for the sake of the One from whom we have been brought forth from nothingness.” What joy to unite in love and remembrance at Fazal Manzil, Murshid’s House of Blessings.

The following is a transcription of a video posted by Pir Zia Inayat-Khan to the Inayati Order Facebook group.

Invocation

Hazrat Inayat Khan said, “I see as clear as daylight that the hour is coming when women will lead humanity to a higher evolution.”

Today in Washington DC and across the world, women are preparing to march. God bless them. May the marches be filled with and surrounded by peace. And may the voices of the marchers resound.

Rumi said, “Woman is a beam of divine light. She is not the being whom sensual desire takes as its object. She is creator, it should be said, she is not a creature.”

The light of women is needed in our world. It will illuminate the shadows. It is time to gather the light of all souls, the old and the young, people of all religions, people of all races, people of all genders and orientations.

We are one humanity. Kindred in blood and spirit. Through every soul the divine light shines.

There is a need for a wide and deep, civil discourse. A need to collectively contemplate and act upon what matters to humanity in its entirety and to the earth. Hidden in multiplicity is unity. Hidden in unity is multiplicity. God is one and creation is manifold. Humanity is one and our stories are many and diverse.

It’s time to be gathered to do justice to the dispossessed. To hear every voice, including the silent voices of animals, plants and the earth. To be vigilant and resolute against oppression and belligerence. To be united in faith and love. To create and sustain robust and diverse communities at every level of scale. And to walk in devoted companionship with all travelers through time and space.

Toward the One. We invoke you, Divine Retriever, Summoner, Harmonizer, Reconciler and Unifier.

Ya Jami, O (wazifa repeated)

May God’s blessings encompass all beings and unite us all in God’s perfect Being.

Prayer for Universel.

(Many thanks to MaryAnn Gulbadan Vila who quickly and kindly transcribed Pir Zia’s Facebook Live for us.)

Dear Friends,

Another year has run its course, and a new year, a new circuit around the sun, is upon us. 2016 is already a bygone age, its faded days now consigned to the vaults of memory. Ahead, 2017 looms large, bristling with hazards, brimming with opportunities, and wrapped in mystery. Do you feel the ground under your feet? This embodied moment is the threshold between the past and the future, the boundary between the known and the yet-to-be-known. This is what we are given. Here we take our stand.

What are we to make of the past? Should we shrug it off and keep shuffling along? Or, faced with the onslaught of an unwelcome future, are we justified in making a perfumed shrine of what once was, or seemed to be—a halcyon haven in which to retreat in a pique of defiant nostalgia?

We will all always do as we wish. But our wishes are best rewarded when guided by understanding, and understanding is the product of reflection. To penetratingly reflect on the past is to absorb its lessons in our bones.

Murshid says, “The Sufi learns not only by the study of books but by the study of life. The whole of life is like an open book to a Sufi and every experience is a step forward in one’s spiritual journey.”

In retrospect, the past year consists of a series of steps taken. Looking back, we may ask ourselves, which steps of ours were sure-footed, and which were maladroit? Which were the strides that sped us along the road to the Friend, and what sorts of stumbles sent us into the ditch? We can learn as much from our collapses as from our advances if our eyes are open.

Trial and error is part of the forward march of life. The real error is the error of repeating our errors time and again, refusing to learn. The sign of learning is repentance: having the humility to admit mistakes, having the insight to understand our mistakes, forming the resolution to make amends, and taking the initiative to ask God’s forgiveness. What is requested must be accepted when it is granted. We show that we have accepted God’s forgiveness when we move forward resolutely.

But it is not only in studying our own lives that we stand to gain understanding. Wisdom is the butter of life, and just as the child Krishna was known to steal butter whenever he could, we do well when we avail ourselves of the knowledge that is available from every person and every situation. The wise and the foolish may equally serve as our teachers. The virtues and vices of those we encounter day by day may prove equally illuminating as mirrors revealing the choices that are ours to make.

The past is a treasury of experience from which to learn. To learn well, however, we must also unlearn. This means shaking off the compulsive grip of all kinds of half-truths, complacent assumptions, and niggling fears—in short, the full sum of our unexamined prejudices about our selves, other people, the world, and reality in its totality. We’ve got to open our minds, expand our hearts, and look anew at the universe with fresh vision.

As Jesus said, only when the “planks” are removed from our eyes will we properly perceive the present moment. Otherwise, the here and now is merely the shadowy perpetuation of the then and there. The dross of the past endures and obscures the essence of the present. We see through a glass darkly.

In Arabic the heart is called qalb, which is related to the word qalab, meaning “mold.” The heart is a mold, a vessel that contains whatever fits within its contours. If the heart is narrow it will hold little; if it is wide it will hold more. If it is rigid it will accommodate only that which conforms to its predetermined shape. If it is malleable it will encompass whatever is bestowed.

Disclosures of God’s presence are constantly given to the world, but a disclosure is never repeated—each is unique, as God is unique. A narrow, brittle heart can contain little more than the flaking residue of an old disclosure. An expansive heart, by contrast, meets the vividness of each moment in its fullness. Such was the heart of Abraham, who prayed each morning, “O God, this is a new creation!”

Hence a Sufi is called a “child of the moment.” To be a child of the moment is to be born anew with each dawning instant of time. It is to witness everything perpetually dissolving into emptiness and reappearing, reanimated by the rhythmic pulse of the Divine fiat: “Be!”

This is what we are given. This moment, this now, this ground under our feet, this sky over our heads, this encounter with faces and forms, this awareness. Revealing the whole of what is shown is a light that is continuously renewed in our minds. That light, we may be sure, will never die.

The past has morphed into this moment, and the present will become the future. What our minds nurture will be grown in us; what we renounce will be composted. Good seeds and the elixir of well-churned decay are bound to produce a rich harvest if Providence is smiling.

There is nothing to be gained in brooding listlessly over dark dreads. Jesus said, “Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.” Muhammad said, “Even if you expect the world’s end tomorrow, plant a tree today.”

Let beauty lead. It will lead to a more beautiful tomorrow if we follow it. Follow the trace of what-may-be, the track of the shimmering ideal. Travel in the footsteps of those who leave marks of wisdom and kindness in their wake. Their path will surely lead us to the Friend.

Look to the past, look to present, look to the future—wherever you turn, if your eyes are open, there is God’s Face. Past, present, and future are in essence no different from each other. All that is has always been, and will always be, in the One. It is only our perspective that alters, like a searchlight flashing across the sky. “Time is God,” says Murshid, “and God is eternal.”

May our perception widen, deepen, refine, extend, and partake more and more of the light of the One whose glance, encompassing and harmonizing all of the myriad angles of vision streaming through creation, is reality itself.

Let us pray:

O Thou who abidest in our hearts,
most Merciful and Compassionate God,
Lord of Heaven and Earth,
we forgive others their trespasses and ask Thy forgiveness of our shortcomings.
We begin the New Year with pure heart and clear conscience, with courage and hope.
Help us to fulfil the purpose of our lives under Thy divine guidance.

Amen   

We will keep bearing witness to the One Being.
We will keep honoring the legacies of the prophets and prophetesses of all lands.
We will keep revering the sacredness of the Earth.
We will keep following the way of remembrance which all religions share.
We will keep pursuing justice for all people.
We will keep recognizing people of all races and persuasions as our sisters and
brothers.
We will keep extending our hearts’ goodwill toward everyone, excluding no one.
We will keep witnessing the beauty that is all around us and within us.
We will keep learning the truth of our being.
We will keep working to draw back the curtains of egoism from our eyes.
Life goes on, and we will keep going.

The Minqar-i Musiqar

Hazrat Inayat Khan’s Classic 1912 Work on Indian Musical Theory and Practice
Translation and introduction by Allyn Miner with Pir Zia Inayat-Khan

The Minqar-i Musiqar is of rare interest both for its contents and for its distinguished author, Hazrat Inayat Khan. Its sections on theory are based on the teachings of the author’s grandfather, Maula Bakhsh, and other late nineteenth century sources. The songs at the center of the book are the author’s own compositions, and the poetry collection includes more than sixty choice Urdu and Persian ghazals.  As valuable as it is for its musical content, the Minqar is equally fascinating for what it tells us about the writer and the times in which it was written, and the musical learning and enthusiasms of Inayat Khan, whose personal drive, ambition to engage with the wider world, and longing for the divine are palpable throughout the book.

Available for purchase from Omega Publications