19 May 2021 Dear Companions on the Path, I will never forget the look of sorrow in my father’s eyes. “They are destroying the Palestinians’ olive trees,” he said. For him, those trees were living symbols of endurance and hope. He had seen the horrors of the Second World War, and had fought for the […]
21 April 2021 Dear Companions on the Path, Imagine a world in which the glorification of the One resounded continuously from pole to pole, offered up in innumerable languages and according to the rites of numerous sacred traditions, a planetary polyphony of praise poured forth in thanksgiving, repentance, remembrance, and communion. Imagine, likewise, all of […]
17 March 2021 Dear Companions on the Path, May this find you well. This week in Richmond the daffodils declared the arrival of spring, “tossing their heads in sprightly dance.” Soon every manner of herb will be unfurling its leaves, and the scaled and furred sleepers underground will groggily unbury themselves. It continues to be […]
10 February 2021 Dear Companions on the Path, Here in the United States, February is Black History Month. This annual observance presents Americans with an opportunity to reflect on the traditions, travails, and triumphs of the African American community. For our Sufi fellowship, it’s an opportunity to celebrate the African roots of our lineage, as […]
20 January 2021 Dear Companions, As travelers on the Sufi path, many affinities unite us. We are stirred by the spiraling melodies of spirit-rousing music. We find renewal in daily plunges into silence. We bow to the current of luminous guidance that moves through all of the world’s great wisdom traditions. But perhaps most fundamentally, […]
14 December 2020 Dear Companions on the Path, Here in the northern hemisphere we are nearing the darkest day of the year. It has not been an easy year. We have lost some dear friends—have lost, at least, their earthly forms—and the lives of many of us have been unsettled in numerous ways. The routines of […]
After closely collaborating on the portrait of the WWII heroine Noor Inayat Khan, unveiled in September 2018 at the Inayatiyya’s headquarters, the Astana in Richmond, Virginia, Pir Zia and the artist Nan Majida Hill turned to co-creating a portrait of Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan. This new portrait, Murshid at Suresnes, was completed in March 2020 […]
16 November 2020 Dear Companions on the Path, Just as the pandemic hit this spring, my family and I moved into a little house by the James River. Throughout the summer—our first summer in America in twenty some years—whenever there was a free moment I would go out into the backyard and tend to the herbs […]
November 11, 2020 I am coming from a perfect source and I am bound to a perfect goal. The light of the perfect being is kindled in my soul. I live, move, and have my being in God. And nothing in the world of the past or present has the power to touch me, for […]
26 October 2020 Dear Companions on the Path, I hope this finds you well. Here in Richmond, the sidewalks are spangled with golden leaves. As the trees shed their spent foliage, the Light of Nature is calling us to relinquish our outworn devices and sink down into our roots. Thus Shelley sings to the West Wind, […]
Inayatiyya
Inayatiyya
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astana@inayatiyya.org
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