Warm Greetings Dear Friends, Our beloved Murshid, Hazrat Inayat Khan, said, “Harmony is the source of manifestation, the cause of its existence, and the medium between God and humanity.” Last year at this time, we were settling into our new home at the Astana after a year of sorting, packing, moving and renovating. With our […]
Dear Companions on the Path, Here in the U.S., the election season has brought into sharp relief the fault lines in the minds of the population. Where there is goodwill and civility, common ground is always discoverable, but too often it seems the will is lacking. Tragically, as we’ve seen, a symptom of polarization is […]
“The rapidity of my walk imagination cannot follow.” A sage walked through the city. She came back glowing, and said, “What a joy!” A pupil of the sage was keen to see the same sights. He followed the route she had taken, but came back seized with repugnance. He asked, “Why did you and I […]
Dear Companions on the Path, Autumn greetings! Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting the Bay Area in California. It was a joy to see my mother Taj and brother Mirza, and to be with many fellow ashiqs and murids. The wonderful Hub Foundation in Pleasanton hosted me for a screening of Enemy of the Reich, followed by my […]
“My deep sigh rises above as a cry of the earth, and an answer comes from within as a message.” The most vital questions are not those that drift on the breeze of airy speculation, but rather the ones that spring direct from the earth of immediate experience. When the handful of clay that is […]
Dear Companions on the Path, I hope this finds you very well. I last wrote to you in the dog days of summer; now fall is nearly here. The wheel of time keeps rolling on. Sometimes the road is smooth, sometimes it’s stony. Through it all, the hub whirls. While staying at Fazal Manzil in […]
Over the summer of 2018, the painter, Nan “Majida” Hill, created this portrait of the WWII heroine and daughter of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan. The portrait now hangs in the Inayati Order’s North American Headquarters, called the Astana, in Richmond, Virginia. Please continue reading to learn more about the artist and the story […]
“If anyone throws it down, my heart does not break; it bursts and the flame coming rises from it, which becomes my torch.” The human heart does not stay enclosed in the breast of its owner; in the course of day-to-day life it passes from hand to hand. One person holds it gently, another squeezes […]
Dear Companions on the Path, My warm greetings to you, this time from Fazal Manzil. I hope you are having a wonderful summer. Our summer has been one of continuous travel. After India we visited Konya in Turkey, the home of Mawlana Rumi. The sama’ ceremonies at the saint’s tomb were exquisite, and Rumi’s 22nd-generation granddaughter Esin Chelebi […]
“I have not come to change humanity. I have come to help it on.” The purpose of the Sufi path is not to impose on the human mind a particular belief system. The purpose is to reveal what is already present within the depths of the mind—the heart; and to reveal what is in the […]
