This article is offered with the permission of our friends at Sufilab, a German web site on Sufism. It first appeared in 1964, and, along with two lectures on the Sufi Message and the Sufi Movement, forms a small booklet which was published at about the same time as the eleven-volume Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan, published by Barrie and Rockliff, Barrie Books Ltd. and known to many long-time students of Sufism as "the orange books".

Pir-o-Murshid Musharaff Khan, the youngest brother of Hazrat Inayat Khan and head of the Sufi Movement at that time, made these very important publications possible in order to secure the future development and growth of Sufism. The probable writer of the monogram may be Huzurnawaz van Pallandt, who was also one of the main compilers of these complete works.

I was transported by destiny from the world of lyrics and poetry to the world of industry and commerce, on the 13th of September 1910.... The ocean which I had to cross seemed to me a gulf between the life that had passed and the life that was to begin. I spent my time on the ship looking at the rising and the falling of the waves and realizing that in this rise and fall the picture of life was reflected the life of individuals, of nations, of races, and of the world.... This period, while I was on the way, seemed to me a state which one experiences between a’ dream and the awakening; the whole part of my life in India became one single dream, not a purposeless dream, but a dream preparing me to accomplish something towards which I was proceeding. There were moments of sadness, of feeling myself removed farther and farther from the land of my birth; and moments of great joy, with the hope of nearing the Western regions for which my soul was destined. At moments I felt too small for my ideals and aspirations, comparing my limited self with this vast world. But at others, realizing by the answer which my heart gave Whose work it was, Whose service it was, Whose call it was, moved me to ecstasy, as if I had risen in the realization of truth above the limitations which weigh mankind down...

Thus did Hazrat Inayat Khan describe his feelings at the time when he started on his journey towards the Western world. It evokes something of the romance and heroism which adhered to the task he was undertaking: that of bringing the Sufi Message of Spiritual Liberty, as he called it, whose aim was the integration of spiritual and modern life. In those days mysticism, as a spiritual process of attuning human consciousness to the realization of the divine, of vitalizing the subtle link between the soul and God, was hardly any more seriously considered in the West. In so far as humanity was not absorbed by the furthering of its material aims, its intellectual interests were mostly dominated by science, and much of its theology was fundamentalistic. And although in the East mysticism, whereby man could find an outlet for his spiritual aspirations, had much longer continued to provide a counterpart to doctrinal religion, it was too directly linked with the emotional and social aspects of religious tradition and outlook to be capable of meeting the new challenge of modern development and the inroads of the West. The result was a real and sometimes dramatic struggle between the age-old social and religious systems on the one side, and the new ideas, ideals, and ways of life on the other. This is why today the educated Oriental mind often roves between religious orthodoxy and Occidental modernism, while mysticism, as an individual attitude, tends to be crushed between these two trends.

In these circumstances, it is understandable that the mystic’s royal road known as Sufism had heavily fallen in disrepair. Sufism was, to quote Hazrat Inayat Khan, "intellectually born in Arabia, devotionally reared in Persia, and spiritually completed in India." It is mostly known as an aspect of Islamic mysticism and poetry, brought to its full development by the great classics of Persia, as Shams-i Tabriz, Jelal ud-Din Rumi, Hafiz, and many others. But this religion of "love, harmony, and beauty" is more than that: it is the essence of all religions. At all times religions have had an exoteric aspect which was meant to give consolation and support to mankind, and an esoteric aspect whereby the divine truths, which are not suited for everybody, are handed down to posterity. And whereas the outer religions may differ from age to age and from prophet to prophet, the inner core remains always the same. It was to make mankind again aware of the fundamental truths hidden in every religion that Hazrat Inayat Khan started on his mission.

Coming from a family of Sufis, being initiated himself by a Sufi Murshid, he named his message the Sufi Message; but the idiom in which he clothed it was his own, and he adapted it to the needs of our time. As secular modernism had largely displaced mysticism as the cultural counterpart of formal religion, Hazrat Inayat Khan tried to make of Sufi mysticism the spiritual counterpart of modernism itself. It was for this reason that he addressed himself in the first place to the Western world upon his departure described above. To accomplish this task he left everything he possessed and cherished behind, though the life and career he abandoned had been in many respects brilliant and full of promise.

Inayat was born in Baroda on the 5th July 1882. His father, Mashaikh Rahemat Khan, came from the Panjab, where he was born in 1843 as a descendant of an ancient family of Sufi saints, zamindars (feudal landowners), poets, and musicians. Inayat’s mother, Khatija Biy, was the daughter of Chole Ghise Khan Maulabakhsh, known all over India as one of the greatest musicians and poets of his time. Born in 1833 at Bhiwani, in the state which is now called Uttar Pradesh, Maulabakhsh travelled widely throughout India, and after a prolonged stay at the court of the Maharaja of Mysore, who invested him with princely rank, he settled down in the state of Baroda, which was ruled at that time by the very progressive Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwar, who did so much to raise it to one of the most modern and advanced states in India. Maulabakhsh took his son-in-law into his household, his Khandan. This closely-knit family unit grew in importance as the time went by and played a considerable part in the development of cultural, especially musical, life in Baroda.

The prominent position of the Maulabakhshi Khandan brought its members outside the narrower Muslim circle and in close contact with leading Brahmin and Parsi families, a circumstance which has strongly influenced Inayat Khan’s intellectual growth and way of thinking. All written and oral accounts agree that even as a child Inayat had a striking personality, and that various traits seemed to foretell the subsequent course of his development. Extremely lively and bright, his intelligence readily absorbed whatever sufficiently interested him, and he was continually inquiring about God, the nature of things, and points of morality and behaviour. And being a scion of the Maulabakhshi Khandan it is not surprising that already at an early age he showed a remarkable proficiency in music. When nine years old he sang a famous Sanskrit hymn at a court ceremony, which brought him reward from the Maharaja and a scholarship. At fourteen he published his first book on music, called Balasan Gitmala and written in Hindustani. He started teaching music with so much success that before he was twenty he was made a full professor at Gayanshala, the academy of music founded by his grandfather in 1886, now the Baroda University Faculty of Music. It was, in a way, his musical achievements which helped to awaken and widen Inayat Khan’s spiritual interest; this interest was closely linked to his love for beauty in art and music, for in his world cultural and spiritual pursuit went hand in hand. Meher Bakhsh, his cousin, writes in his hitherto unpublished biography: His parents wondered at times what could be the matter with the child. Very often, in the midst of great activity or excitement among his relatives and friends, Inayat would be very quiet, and he would seem above all things around him. More and more, as he grew up, his search for truth became conscious and consistent. But before he would find the true purpose of his life, Inayat Khan had still to pass some difficult and sad years.

In 1896 Maulabakhsh died, leaving above all in Inayat’s life a void which none could fill. Then the sudden death in 1900 of his ten years younger brother Karemat Khan made a deep impression on him, and two years later he lost his mother to whom he was devoted. It was after this last bereavement that Inayat Khan, then aged twenty, started on his first independent journey, leading him to Madras and Mysore, where he won renown in the same places where his grandfather had reaped fame and success. He returned to Baroda for about one year, during which he published an anthology of his poems in different Indian languages under the title Sayaji Garbavali; but soon it became clear that another scene was needed for his development and his activities. Steeped as he was in the Maula- bakhshi music and musical concepts, he felt the urge to carry them to Hyderabad, the principal remaining centre of Moghul tradition and culture at the time.

It is probable, however, that he was also aware of the great spiritual experiences that awaited him there. The first six months were spent in musical activity and in making acquaintances and friends; Inayat Khan also wrote at that time his final book on music, the Mincar-i Musicar, by which he made his grand- father’s musical system available to Urdu readers. He was then introduced at the court of the Nizam, H.E.H. Mahbub Ali Khan, who was very mystically inclined himself and who sensed at once that the musical talent shown by this young man was but an outer garb covering some wonderful secret. When by his questions he sought to fathom it Inayat Khan gave the impressive reply which Meher Bakhsh mentions in his biography. ’Huzur,’ said Inayat, ’as sound is the highest source of manifestation it is mysterious in itself; and whoever has the knowledge of sound, he indeed knows the secret of the universe. My music is my thought, and my thought is my emotion. The deeper I dive into the ocean of feeling, the more beautiful are the pearls I bring forth in the form of melodies. Thus my music creates feeling within me before others feel it. My music is my religion, and therefore wordly success can never be a fit price for it; my sole object is to achieve perfection.... What I have brought you is not only music merely to entertain, but the appeal of harmony which unites souls in God.’

The musician had already grown into the Sufi Pir, and yet he had still to find his Murshid; his esoteric training was yet to begin! Although Inayat Khan had by now received much recognition throughout the whole of India, his attention and interest were more and more drawn towards the spiritual life, towards the mysticism so intimately connected with his music. He found a great friend and guide in Maulana Hashimi, a well-known scholar, who taught him Persian and Arabic literature and, being a mystic himself, recognized in Inayat what other friends of his were at a loss to understand. As Meher Bakhsh says, "Hashimi knew that something was being prepared in Inayat for the years that were in store for him which was beyond words or imagination." It was in Hashimi’s house that Inayat Khan met his Murshid, by whose help he was to reach the fulfilment of his stay in Hyderabad. Syed Mohammad Hashim Madani was like Maulana Hashimi and many other leading Hyderabadi Muslims of Arabic descent, but he was a Pir of the specifically Indian Chishtia order of Sufis.

For four years, until his Murshid’s death in 1908, Inayat Khan remained in Hyderabad as his enraptured disciple, apart from occasional visits to Baroda. Some of the poems he composed and sang in honour of his Murshid have been preserved. Years later Hazrat Inayat was to devote many of his most beautiful teachings to the relationship between Murshid and Mureed, and these reflect his recollection of the profound joy and exaltation he himself had found in this relationship. The great process of the spiritual life, that of Fanà and Bagà which are the Sufi terms for annihilation and resurrection, of losing the ego and discovering the essence of being, was now becoming a reality to Inayat Khan.

Inayat Khan’s remaining years in India were again marked by extensive travels, during which he went to Ceylon, and from there to Rangoon. He and his brothers then went to Calcutta where, apart from a short visit to Baroda rendered necessary by his father’s death, they stayed until their departure for the West. This period was the culmination of his life in India; his music and his mysticism were jointly maturing to a rare perfection. But soon his life took another decisive turn; the Western world was to be the scene of his future work.

Thus we return to the time so vividly described by Hazrat Inayat in the passage quoted above. Going from one extreme to another, Inayat travelled from feudal India straight to the modern world of the United States. He was accompanied by his five year younger brother Maheboob Khan and his cousin and life-long companion Mohammad Ali Khan, both of whom had given up their promising musical careers in order to remain close to Inayat Khan, whom they considered not only as their brother but as their master on the spiritual path. Later they were joined by their younger brother Musharaff’Khan, six months after they had arrived in the United States.

In 1912 Inayat Khan and his brothers left the New World and traveled extensively through Europe, where they were well received, especially in France and Russia. On their return from the latter country they first settled in France, but left for London in 1914 where they were to remain until 1920. During the initial period of his stay in the West, Hazrat Inayat Khan’s main occupation was, according to his memoirs, to study the psychology and the general conditions there. With his brothers he gave concerts of Indian music, on which he also gave many lectures. Apart from a livelihood, this provided him with an opportunity of developing the spiritual side of his subject and thus the esoteric teachings of Sufi mysticism. In the course of time he initiated a number of Mureeds here and there, but it was in England that the first systematic forms were given to the extending activities. By then Sufis were scattered throughout several widely separated countries, and Inayat Khan felt that in order to weld them closer together he should use his enforced long stay at one place during the war period to develop a more regular pattern.

Thus the Sufi Order came into being as an organized entity, comprising a Khanka or headquarters and National Societies for the different countries. Its activities consisted in the training of the Mureeds, the Sufi initiates, while concerts and other public activities took place and lectures about Sufism as an universal ideal were given as well as courses for candidates. In 1920 Hazrat Inayat Khan moved his family (in 1912 he had married Miss Ora Ray Baker, later Amina Begum, who bore him four children) again to France. Though it was his intention to settle eventually in Geneva, where he wished to establish the headquarters of the expanding Sufi Movement, his family preferred to remain living near Paris rather than moving to Switzerland.

Consequently the Sufi Headquarters were organized at Geneva, from whence all Sufi affairs are conducted, while Inayat Khan’s private residence remained at Suresnes, on the outskirts of Paris. As his fame and obligations increased, the extent and frequency of Inayat Khan’s travels throughout Europe and the United States grew in proportion; it was only during the summer months that he could return to his residence for any length of time. At first this was intended to be a period of retirement and quiet meditation, but soon the fact of his being available and comparatively free drew to his home a number of Mureeds. Hazrat Inayat Khan lectured to them, instructed them individually, and was at all times ready for everyone seeking his help or the comfort of his presence. Thus out of original retirement grew the Summer School, soon the busiest and most popular of Sufi activities, and the focal point of Hazrat Inayat’s Sufi teaching. The greater part of his later discourses were delivered at the Summer School held regularly from 1921 to 1926, the first year at Wissous, near Paris, then in 1922 at Katwijk, Holland, and subsequently at Suresness. This period marks the culmination of’ his activities.

The concentration and unsparing intensity with which he developed his work in different fields seemed unlimited. It was not in the least exceptional for him to lecture, on different subjects, three times a day; in addition every free moment was devoted to receiving, advising, and helping Mureeds individually, and to directing the Sufi organizations and their varied activities.

After the closing of what was to be the last Summer School under his guidance, Hazrat Inayat Khan left for India in October 1926, accompanied only by his secretary, and arrived at Delhi in the first days of November. His fame had already preceded him, and he was continually urged to lecture and to give instruction. Early in 1927 he went once more to Ajmer, to revisit there the most celebrated of Indian Sufi shrines, the tomb of Khwaja Moin-ud-Din Chishti, and again he experienced a deep joy in the marvellous serenity and the sacred Suma music of’ this holy place.

It was the fatal cold he contracted on this journey which caused his death on the 5th February 1927 at Tilak Lodge, Delhi, where he was staying. Although his own Murshid and initiator belonged to the Chishtia Order of Sufis, Hazrat Inayat Khan cannot, strictly speaking, be considered as a link between Chishtia teaching and the West, for neither his origin nor his education, culture, or esoteric training should obscure the fact that the essence of the Sufism he taught is the product of his individual achievement and originality. But for his personal genius, his inspiration, and his awareness of being entrusted with a divine message, the attempt of grafting the spirituality of the mystic on modern life would have failed at its inception. Having fully achieved what he himself called ’to make an empty cup of oneself’, he became the perfect vessel for God’s message; he was able to deliver this message because his faith was so great that it turned into knowledge, and because in him there was nothing left that could obstruct the flow of the divine inspiration.

After some years the external form of the Sufi Order underwent a marked modification. At first its activities were intended to cover a great many fields, both artistic and intellectual; but later the religious aspect of the Sufi message, the Universal Worship, gained more and more in importance. This was mainly due to two reasons. In the first place it was found that for many members the religious approach proved the most appealing and instructive, but an even more significant reason was the condition of religion in the West itself, where most religious communities claim that their way to salvation, redemption, or spiritual bliss, is the only valid one.

This must have struck Hazrat Inayat Khan, steeped as he was in the universalism of the mystic, as the most unfortunate feature of religious life in the West; and it is this attitude and religious outlook, so common in Western man, which in many ways is responsible for the increasing stress on religious universalism in the Sufi Movement, so that the Universal Worship has now grown into its best-known aspect. The original name of Sufi Order remained attached to the esoteric activity of the Sufi Movement. The Sufi Movement is directed by a body called International Headquarters, formally established and incorporated in Geneva in 1923. Hazrat Inayat Khan has himself drafted, with great care, the principles which he wished to see incorporated in the constitution of the Sufi Movement.

While giving in his Sufi message a method by which the inner life could be developed, Hazrat Inayat Khan never aimed at constructing a hard-and-fast system. The Sufism he taught is essentially an attunement rather than a doctrine, an inspiration rather than a course. The realization of the divine life by a mystic can never be put into words. Belonging to a lesser dimension our words are inadequate. In trying all the same to convey by these imperfect means something of his knowledge and experience, the mystic therefore uses those words, concepts, or explanations which are most suitable in the specific circumstances, even if they might seem mutually irreconcilable. Inayat Khan himself declared that "contradiction is the music of the message." He took great care not to let the Sufi message harden into another system, in addition to and apart from all others.

Sufism does not require acceptance of specific beliefs or concepts; neither does it define rules or principles regarding behavior, mode of life, or ideals, applicable to all cases and circumstances. The Sufi message aims at providing all those who seek the spiritual life and who try to understand the mystic’s realization of unity, each along his individual road, with that enrichment and profound sense of fulfillment which enlighten the journey towards life’s ultimate joy.

© The International Headquarters of the Sufi Movement, Geneva.