Exploring Kinship
Third Fridays, September 18 – December 18, 2026 via Zoom
7:00 – 8:15 pm ET (New York)
What does it mean to be in kinship with a troubled world — and with one another within it?
Across four gatherings, the Kinship Activity takes up that question from several directions: how we meet the challenges of our time without either drowning in them or turning away; how the state of our bodies shapes the stories we tell; how we find agency when the scale of things feels overwhelming; and where spiritual life can quietly become a way of avoiding the very work it promises.
All are welcome. Come to one session or all four.
Dates & Themes
Friday, September 18 — Being Awake and Present in a Troubled World
With Majid David Vowells
Continuing our inquiry into how we interact with this troubled world, we look at our responses to the challenges it brings. Are we engaged with them? Do we withdraw? Or can we find somewhere in between the two extremes — a way of being in the world but not of it, perhaps? What does the interface between our Sufi life and the world around us look like?
Friday, October 16 — Embodied Kinship: Story Follows State
With Raqib Jonah Yakel
We continue our journey from practice into perception, exploring how the state of our nervous system quietly authors the stories we tell about ourselves, each other, and the world. We will explore how our biology shapes our narratives before the mind ever catches up, coloring what we notice, what we believe, and what we feel is possible. Through guided practice and reflection, we’ll bring awareness to the state beneath the story, opening space to reshape our inner narrative and deepen our capacity for kinship from a place of genuine safety and connection.
Friday, November 20 — Finding Agency
With Majid David Vowells
The problems and issues we face in the world today are of an overwhelming scale, and it is easy to feel helpless. How do we find agency? How do we come to the realization that what we do matters, and that we can make a difference? Together we will look at the various ways people are working for positive change, both within themselves and in the world around them.
Friday, December 18 — Mysticism vs. Activism: Spiritual Bypass
With Raqib Jonah Yakel
We turn to the delicate edge where spiritual life meets engagement with the world, asking what it truly means to be a mystic in service of real change. We’ll explore the subtle ways spiritual ideas and practices can be used to avoid unresolved wounds, difficult emotions, and unfinished inner work — how transcendence can be used to avoid grief, loving kindness to avoid anger, oneness to avoid boundaries. Together we’ll explore how to hold both truths, that we can be genuinely growing and also avoiding, as we discern what it means to act from wholeness rather than escape.
Details
All sessions are Fridays, 7:00 – 8:15 pm Eastern Time / 4:00 – 5:15 pm Pacific Time.
For those in Oceania, sessions fall on Saturday mornings. Because of daylight saving changes, times shift during the series:
| Session | Eastern Australia | New Zealand |
| Sat, September 19 | 9:00 am | 11:00 am |
| Sat, October 17 | 10:00 am | 12:00 pm |
| Sat, November 21 | 11:00 am | 1:00 pm |
| Sat, December 19 | 11:00 am | 1:00 pm |
This program is offered free of charge. All are welcome — come to one session or the whole series.
If you miss a session, video will be made available a day or two afterward.
For questions about Kinship or this series, please email kinship@inayatiyya.org. You can also find the Kinship Activity on Instagram and Bluesky.
Speakers
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Khatidja Rodriguez-RuizKhatidja Rodriguez-Ruiz was initiated into the Inayatiyya in 2008 and is a graduate of the Suluk Academy (Naubahar). She has previously served the Inayatiyya as a Kinship Council Member, as a member of the North American Board of Trustees, and as a chair of the Fundraising Committee. Khatidja has focused her academic studies in the area of urban community and public policy. In her daily life, she works in education philanthropy with a goal of expanding accessibility and inclusivity in higher and performing arts education. She is passionate about building networks of community and mutual aid, as well as elevating the visibility of marginalized groups. She is motivated by the belief that our diverse outlooks and experiences make us a stronger whole, if we work collaboratively to weave a unifying ideal of love, harmony, and beauty. She currently lives in Forest Hills, NY with her husband Wesley.
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Majid VowellsMajid David Vowells is the Kinship representative for Aotearoa New Zealand and discovered the Sufi path when he moved there over twenty-five years ago. The Maori, Pacifica, and African cultures he has met have shown him much about the living experience of kinship. He has taught in culturally diverse schools and seen the challenges refugees face. He shares the experience of being an immigrant with his Ethiopian wife and her extended family. They have two adult children, and Majid has grandchildren in England and Japan. He has found that the message of Hazrat Inayat Khan, and particularly the teachings on kinship are a potent way for the human family to work toward unity and peace in these troubled times.
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Raqib Jonah YakelRaqib Jonah Yakel was initiated into the Inayati Order by Pir Vilayat in 2000. For many years, he was an active member of the Washington, DC, Baraka Center and is a graduate of both the Suluk Academy (Gulzar/2015) and the Raphaelite Program with Himayat Inayati. He spent ten years in Kansas City, where he led a Sufi center and later served as a mentor for the Suluk classes of Naubahar and Na-koja-abad. His service in the Kinship Activity began in 2010 as a rider for the Spirit Rides the Wind fundraiser, a five-day bike ride from Washington, DC, to the Abode of the Message. He later led early Kinship circles in Kansas City. After several years focused on health and healing, he returned to the Kinship Council in 2023. Professionally, Raqib is a chiropractor and functional medicine practitioner specializing in brain health, chronic inflammatory conditions, and mold-related illness. In addition to his private practice, he works closely with Raqib Kogan at the George Washington Center for Integrative Medicine in Washington, DC. Raqib currently resides near Portland, OR, with his wife, Jeni.