"If anybody asks you, 'What is Sufism?' ... you may answer: 'Sufism is the religion of the heart, the religion in which the most important thing is to seek God in the heart of humanity.'" — Hazrat Inayat Khan
According to the Sufi masters, Sufism has existed from time immemorial. It is the awakening of the heart to beauty and the divine, as old as humanity itself. It has no specific doctrines or dogmas, but views itself instead as a school of experience, emphasizing a personal search for answers through a practice of prayer, meditation and spiritual inquiry. It is a tradition anchored in the act of remembrance: remembering the breath as a conduit of divine life and energy; remembering the divinity inherent in all life and creation.
Remembrance, for the Sufi, is an act of love, and thus Sufism has often been called “the religion of love,” as emphasized in a poem of the Sufi master, Muhyiddin ibn al-’Arabi . . .
my heart embraces all —
it is a pasture for gazelles
a cloister for monks
a temple for idols
a ka‘ba for pilgrims
it is the tablets of the torah
the very pages of the qur’an
mine is the religion of love —
wherever love’s caravan turns
my faith and religion follow*
In the same way, Inayati Sufism is universalist in its approach and acceptance of all people and paths leading to the unfoldment of the light and power latent in the human being. It is not exclusively bound to any particular religious confession, but honors all as paths to the One.
Toward the One
The Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty
The Only Being
United with all the Illuminated Souls
Who form the Embodiement of the Master
The Spirit of Guidance
— Hazrat Inayat Khan
A Web-site of the Inayati-Maimuni Order.
* Muhyiddin ibn al-’Arabi, from his Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, interpreted in English by Pir Netanel Miles-Yépez, based on a translation by Reynold A. Nicholson in Mystics of Islam.