Hazrat Inayat Khan
In 1910, Hazrat Inayat Khan, accompanied by his two brothers Maheboob and Musharaff and his cousin Ali Khan, embarked on an odyssey that would span three continents and transform the lives of thousands of people.
Birth and Youth
Hazrat Inayat Khan was born in 1882 in Baroda (now called Vadorada), northern India, into a family of renowned musicians. He received a thorough education in traditional and classical Indian music.
In 1896, at the age of 14, he spent a year in Nepal with his father. During long walks in nature, he found the peace from which derives his ten Sufi thoughts. On his return, he was introduced to Western music through his uncle who had studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London, UK. From the age of 16, he taught music and wrote books on music theory. Two years later, he began travelling around India, giving concerts and teaching music. At the age of 21, he obtained the title of Tansen (master musician) at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad. During this time, he also met his Sufi master Syyed Abu Hãshim Madani, who initiated him into the Sufi order Chishti, as well as teachings of the Suhrawardia, Nashbandia and Qadiria.
At the end of 1909, while continuing his career as a musician, he presented a national music teaching programme to the Indian government. In 1910, following the death of his father, Hazrat Inayat Khan, accompanied by his brother Maheboob and his cousin Ali Khan, left India for the United States; they were later joined by their younger brother Musharaff.
Years in the West
The group toured the major cities of the United States with the dancer Ruth St Denis. Inayat Khan at the same time gave concerts and lectures on Hindu music and art.
In 1912, the three brothers and the cousin went to England, where their concerts of oriental music were less successful. The same year, they went to Paris where they played the music for Mata Hari’s show. Hazrat Inayat Khan met the composer Claude Debussy.
In 1913, Hazrat Inayat Khan, his wife, brothers and cousin travelled to Russia, where they received a warm welcome. It was in Moscow that Noor-un-Nisa, his first daughter, was born, and where he finished his first book A Sufi Message of Spiritual Liberty which was published in Russian, French and English. A year later, the family returned to France, and at the outbreak of WWI lived in England where a group of followers formed and Inayat Khan travelled giving lectures. During the war years, he developed his activities, founding the first Sufi associations, while continuing to give concerts of Indian music.
In the aftermath of the war, Europe was longing for peace, unity and dialogue to try and prevent the horror of war from happening again. In 1920 the League of Nations was established in Geneva and in that same year Inayat Khan, with his message of unity above race, creed or religion established the headquarters of the Sufi Movement in Geneva. In the tradition of the Sufi masters of India, he embraced the ideals of his time. Inayat Khan, his American wife Ameena Begum, and his four children: Noor-un-Nisa, Vilayat, Hidayat and Khair-un-Nisa together with his brothers, and his cousin, left England to live in France.
Once settled in France he began travelling through Europe and Sufi centres following his teachings were set up in Belgium, France, The Netherlands and Switzerland as well as those already created in the USA and England. The first summer school took place in 1921. In 1922, the family moved permanently to Fazal Manzil in Suresnes. Until 1926, the form of Sufism that Inayat Khan taught met with increasing success. He returned to the US twice in 1923 and 1925 and travelled throughout Europe. At the end of 1926, he returned to India where he gave lectures in several cities. He fell ill in January 1927 and died in Delhi on 5 February 1927.
Heritage and Philosophy
During his years of travels in Europe and the United States, Hazrat Inayat Khan gave many lectures, all of which were recorded. From 1922 to 1926 he held summer schools at Fazal Manzil, during which he distilled the quintessence of his teaching, a subtle flavour of his native India reinterpreted in the light of the Western spiritual ideals of his time.
Gathered under the name of “The Sufi Message”, his lectures were published in 14 volumes and are a constant source of inspiration for spiritual seekers. His musical teachings found in The Mysticism of Sound and music have also inspired many musicians, including John Coltrane.
The legacy of this master musician-philosopher who, for a few short years, shed light on the meaning of human life continues through the work of different organisations which were created after his death.
Unity of Religious Ideals
Throughout its history, the Indian subcontinent has been home to multiple religious currents: Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism and others. The teaching Inayat Khan gave reflected the full extent of humanity’s spiritual challenges. In his lectures, he touched on a wide variety of subjects – religion, the arts, music, ethics, philosophy, psychology, health and healing. Yet his work retains a great unity, because it is constantly nourished by the conviction of divine oneness, which makes his teaching relevant to people of all faiths. Indeed, one of his major themes is his description of the “unity of religious ideals” and the underlying harmony of the revelations of the prophets and teachers of all the great religions. As he often stressed, “Sufism removes the boundaries that divide different religions by bringing to light the wisdom that unites religious beliefs.“
Putting thought into action, he opened his school of wisdom to people of all faiths.
Even today, the currents that emerged in his wake offer access to Sufi practices and wisdom without ethnic or religious distinction.
Purpose of Life
Character development, or the ‘art of personality’, are common themes on the spiritual path in India. They found a strong resonance in the turn-of-the-century Western circles in which Inayat Khan moved. The emergence of psychological research and the development of knowledge about the unconscious resonated with the idea of the spiritual development of the human being as a subject and not just as a passive member of a dogma.
For Sufis, the heart is the mirror of the soul, and the spiritual work consists of cleansing the impurities from this mirror so that the divine light can be reflected in it.
Inayat Khan identifies that what is reflected in the heart is due to conditioning. He explains that the original purity of the soul is covered by an uninterrupted stream of impressions received from upbringing, beliefs, events and experiences.
For him, to absorb impressions without discernment is to fall victim to circumstances. In his teachings, he describes the mechanisms that condition the personality, emphasising that freedom and creativity require the exercise of the will. To filter impressions consciously is to express creatively the uniqueness of one’s personality and the soul associated with it.
The metaphors of birth and growth, seed and fruit, recur frequently in his lectures and writings. The growing plant is dynamic, the fruit of the plant is the result of a process of development.
Botanical imagery is adapted to express another Sufi theme: the realisation of the divine essence through human experience. The result is a spiritual psychology that values the freedom and creativity of the human subject and sees the development, expression and refinement of the personality as a goal of existence. This is what Hazrat Inayat Khan called “spiritual freedom”.
Divine Presence
This is the main objective of Inayat Khan’s teaching. To this end, he drew up a list of ten fundamental principles that set out the universal spiritual values that underpin his mystical philosophy.
- There is only one God, the Eternal, the One Being; there is nothing other than God.
- There is only one Master, the guiding Spirit of all souls, who constantly leads his disciples towards the light.
- There is a Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only writing that can enlighten the reader.
- There is only one religion, unwavering progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfils the purpose of every soul’s life.
- There is only one law, the law of reciprocity, which can be observed by a disinterested conscience and an awakened sense of justice.
- There is a Brotherhood and a Sisterhood, the human brotherhood that indiscriminately unites the children of the earth in the Kinship of God.
- There is only one moral: love, which springs from self-sacrifice and blossoms in acts of charity.
- There is only one object of praise, the beauty that lifts the hearts of its worshippers through every aspect, from the visible to the invisible.
- There is only one truth, the true knowledge of our being, inside and out, which is the essence of all wisdom.
- There is only one path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality, and in which all perfection resides.
Visit the Biographical Department
As publisher of The Complete Works of Hazrat Inayat Khan, the Nekbakht Foundation is doing crucial work to preserve and disseminate his legacy. The Foundation was created by a disciple of Inayat Khan, Nekbakht Furnée, who bought a home opposite Fazal Manzil at Rue de Tuilerie nr. 34, and personally took down many of Inayat Khan’s lectures in shorthand.
Many of these lectures, speeches and writings are kept at nr. 34 to this day The Foundation has taken the lectures transcribed by Inayat Khan’s secretaries and republished them as close as possible to the exact words spoken by him, in the publications The Complete Works which can be downloaded for free from their website.
Visit the Inayat Khan Museum
The first floor of Fazal Manzil includes the oriental room in which Hazrat Inayat Khan used to meditate, a library, a study room and a room where his family heirlooms are displayed.
The entire complex can be visited by appointment only. Please give one week’s notice.
