Hazrat Inayat Khan

Beware of confining yourself to a particular belief and denying all else, for much good would elude you - indeed, the knowledge of reality would elude you. Be in yourself for all forms of belief, for God is too vast and tremendous to be restricted to one belief rather than another. (Awakening - A Sufi Experience by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Jeremy P. Tarcher - Putnam, New York, 1999, p. VIII)

Hazrat Inayat Khan was a Sufi teacher from India who started ‘The Sufi Order in the West’ (now called the Sufi Order International) in the early part of the 20th century. Though his family background was Muslim, he was also steeped in the Sufi notion that all religions have their value and place in human evolution.

Inayat was born into a family of musicians in 1882. His grandfather was a well-known musician respected as a composer, performer, and developer of a musical annotation which combined a group of diverse musical languages into one simplified integrated notation.

The house in which he grew up was a crossroads for visiting poets, composers, mystics, and thinkers. There they met and discussed their views (religious and otherwise) in an environment of openness and mutual understanding. This produced in the young man a sympathy for many different religions, and a strong feeling of the "oneness" of all faiths and creeds.

Inayat would listen to the evening prayers sung in his household with great interest, and was impressed with the spiritual atmosphere produced by the chanting. From a young age, he was interested in going beyond thinking about religious issues. He wanted a direct "link with God".

He developed considerable skill at the Vina (an Indian instrument). At eighteen, he went on a concert tour throughout India intent on reviving some of the older folk songs which were being replaced by more popular melodies. He felt these songs carried a special spiritual quality which was being lost. This brought him some critical acclaim, and he was invited to perform in the courts of Rajas (the rulers of India's princely states who cooperated with the British).

Inayat began to seek spiritual guidance at this point. He had seen the face of a very spiritual bearded man off and on in his dreams for some time. One day in Hyderabad, he had a premonition that something important was about to occur. A short time later, the man he had seen in his dreams entered the room.

Both teacher and disciple were immediately drawn to each other. The teacher was Mohammed Abu Hasana whose family originally came from Medina, the sacred city of Islam in Saudi Arabia. Mohammed was a member of the Chishti Sufi Order that was introduced into India at the close of the 12th century A.D. Inayat maintained close contact with his teacher for four years. During this time, he experienced a level of realization that made God a reality in his life. As his master lay dying, he told Inayat: "Go to the Western world my son and unite East and West through the magic of your music". Two years later, in September of 1910, Inayat sailed for America.

Inayat began to teach and discuss his world view with different people who would ask what to call this mode of thought. For a long time, Inayat refused to give it a name fearing it would create barriers between people. He would say only it was ancient wisdom from the one and only source. He emphasized how none of the great spiritual teachers gave a name to their religious views. Finally, knowing that a body of thought needs some identifier to unify it, he told people it was Sufism.

Inayat began to travel and lecture first in the United States and later in Europe. He traveled widely between 1910 and 1920. He decided to do more intensive teaching during the summer in France, and took up residence there near Paris in Suresnes where he could hold his "summer schools".

His teaching strongly emphasized the fundamental oneness of all religions. He was deeply concerned that many of the western religious traditions had lost knowledge of the "science of soul", and the prayer and meditation techniques necessary to develop higher consciousness in man.

This Sufi universalism, or interest in and respect for different religions is reflected in a saying by the thirteenth century Andalusian Sufi teacher Ibn 'Arabi. This respected scholar and mystic who authored among other works the classic Sufi retreat manual Journey To The Lord Of Power wrote:

Beware of confining yourself to a particular belief and denying all else, for much good would elude you - indeed, the knowledge of reality would elude you. Be in yourself for all forms of belief, for God is too vast and tremendous to be restricted to one belief rather than another. (Awakening - A Sufi Experience by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Jeremy P. Tarcher - Putnam, New York, 1999, p. VIII)

It was at Suresnes that Inayat developed the Universal Worship service that is now associated with the ‘Sufi Order in the West’. The ritual consists of an invocation, a reading from each of the holy books of the world's major religions, and the lighting of a candle for each tradition. A candle is also lit for all those individuals or religious systems (unknown or forgotten) that have inspired mankind. The ritual continues with a discourse, and ends with a blessing. One goal of the Universal Worship service is to show people from different cultures the many common elements they share in their religious traditions, and to create a sense of unity among people from different cultures by teaching them to read each other's scriptures and "pray each other's prayers".

Inayat said that he traveled a great deal not only to introduce people to the teachings but also to "tune the inner spheres of a country" to a "higher pitch of vibration". His disciple Sirkan Von Stolk talks about these vibrations during his meditation with Inayat:

At those moments he attuned and raised my consciousness to such a high degree that I could hardly stand it. The rate of vibration- that is the only way I can describe it - was so fantastic that it was almost too powerful for me, and I longed to return to the limited security of my own personality where I could I go on living at my own rhythm! (Memories of g Sufi Sage, Hazrat Inayat Khan. by Sikar Van Stok with Daphne Dunlop, East-West Publications Fonds B.V., The Hague, 1967, p.40)

In later life, Inayat went through a three stage set of realizations which had such a profound effect on him as to make him "almost unrecognisable" to those who knew him. Inayat claimed that while his consciousness was far removed from the body, he was obliged to pass through the different states of awareness that all human beings pass through in their development. The experience was analogous to Dante's experience of hell, purgatory, and heaven which concludes in the Beatific Vision of God.

Part of this initiation consisted of an experience of Hell. Hell is a place that the living visit in dreams, and the dead experience when their consciousness lives on to reap the results of their negative actions in life. Inayat's view was that hell in the afterlife is comparable to dreaming but much more intense.

The next vision was an experience of purgatory where souls suffer in an effort to move beyond their attachments and limitations. This act of purification requires a great effort of will.

The third vision was a stage of bliss where the human element was purified and purged to the point of illumination. Von Stalk describes Inayat as "cosmic" and as a being "now given up to service as a superb channel for the divine" following this final experience.

Inayat had been a tireless teacher, writer, and lecturer travelling and lecturing almost continuously for seventeen years. He had established his school in France, and a dedicated group of disciples. But, his difficult schedule had weakened him over the years. He left for India to see his homeland for the first time in seventeen years. He hoped to rest and meditate but was asked to lecture and graciously consented as was common. He died in New Delhi in 1927 of influenza.

Inayat's son Vilayet Khan, who died in 2004, had continued to spread the message of Sufism in the west. He also travelled and taught extensively and wrote several books. One of his disciples was a founder of Omega Institute, a large "new age" teaching institute in Rhinebeck New York.

The "dances of universal peace" developed by Samuel Lewis in conjunction with the Sufi Order are known throughout the world as a spiritual practice mixing meditation, song, and dance. The essential non-sectarian message of the Sufi Order International is still expressed in the Universal Worship service which honours all the world's major religions by reading passages from their holy books.