21 January 2026
Dear Companions on the Path,
I hope this finds you well.
Shaykh al-Akbar Muhyi ad-Din Ibn al-‘Arabi said in a couplet: “People are only stories–all of them / So be the best story that they hear.”
We are stories. From the day we were born till the day we die, a tale is taking shape. And the tale has a prologue as well as an epilogue in the Unseen.
When our body is laid to rest, what will endure of us in the physical world but the story we’ve enacted? Hopefully it’s a good one, a deeply felt one.
Not only are we the protagonist of our personal story; we have a role in many other stories. While going about as the hero of our own saga, are we the villain of someone else’s?
Metafictions like the Yoga Vasishta, the Arabian Nights, and the stories of Jorge Luis Borges remind us that there are tales within tales within tales. Each of us is not only a story, but also a library of stories inherited from ancestors, friends, favorite authors, and various other raconteurs.
When Murshid suddenly left the world, Noor realized that he had given her a world of wisdom through the stories he had told her and her siblings when tucking them in at night. She resolved to become a storyteller herself. When fascism reared its head, she used stories of compassion and interconnectedness to counteract the Nazi abuse of immemorial folklore.
Sometimes stories disappear for a time, only to reappear. Noor’s favorite among her compositions, De l’or sur la cime (The Gold on the Summit), was thought to be irretrievably lost, but has resurfaced in the collection of the Sufi Museum in Den Hague. Misbah Noor Afridi has produced an English translation, and I am hopeful that a dual language edition will come out before long. It’s an alchemical fable culminating in an extraordinary vision of the angelic realm.
I’m pleased to say that my story collection entitled Tears from the Mother of the Sun, emblazoned with striking paintings by Amruta Patil, ships next week, and is already available in India. What was the hoopoe Ya‘fur’s superpower? Why did Minos build a labyrinth in Knossos? Who was the last person to read the Emerald Tablet under the pyramid of Hermes? The answers are in the book.
Since writing Tears, three stories in the form of blank verse dramas have commandeered my pen. The first of these is the Arthurian romance Al-Battar, which will be performed as a reading in Glastonbury, God willing, April 9th-12th. I hope to see you there.
Additionally, it would be a delight to see you at the Urs in Delhi later this month, in the online In an Eastern Rose Garden sessions soon thereafter, or at the Spring Retreat in Gersfeld in April.
May our lives of glorification be inscribed with meticulous flowing penmanship. May our ink be liquid earthlight.
Yours ever,
Pir Zia
All beings pursue freedom. Freedom is an essential quality of the soul, but too often, freedom is achieved at the expense of someone else. A truer freedom arises from the realization of interconnectedness. This season we continue our exploration of the ideal of freedom.
Over four weeks, Pir Zia will guide us through topics such as the power of breath, spiritual democracy, freedom of the soul, and the ideal life. Each session will close with spiritual practices to carry into the week ahead. This program is open to everyone. More details and registration.
We’re delighted to announce that Pir Zia will be returning to the West Coast for a weekend gathering at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, CA. Program details and registration information will be shared soon. For now, we invite you to hold these dates and begin making plans to join us. There is something irreplaceable about gathering in person—sitting together, listening, and sharing in the presence of our teacher and one another. We hope you’ll be able to be with us.
Those who walk the path of Sufism are lovers of Reality, ever longing for intimate connection—Communion—with the Divine. At this annual gathering of the Inayatiyya, a Sufi lineage rooted in the teachings of the Indian mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan, we come together to nurture deepening levels of Communion—with one another, and with that which lies beyond time and space: the Oneness of all being.
We will explore states of Communion through meditative practice, spiritual discourse, friendship, sacred music, whirling, and zikr—the remembrance of the Divine. Our guides on this journey will be Pir Zia Inayat Khan, along with our dear friends Omid Safi, Nizam un Nisa Ayeda Husain, Nilufar Maryam Hasnaa, Tarana Jobin, and Shams al Haqq. Whether you are new to Sufism or have long walked this path, you are warmly invited to join us. More details and registration.
This month, we have news to share from the Caravan. Read more…
The Zephyr is a monthly newsletter of the Inayatiyya, an interfaith mystical fellowship with branches worldwide. For more information, please visit us at inayatiyya.org.
