Hazrat Inayat Khan
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Inayat Khanwas the founder of The Sufi Order in the West in 1914and teacher of Universal Sufism. He initially came to the West as a Northern Indian classical musician, having received the honorific "Tansen" from the Nizam of Hyderabad, but he soon turned to the introduction and transmission of Sufi thought and practice. Later, in 1923, the Sufi Order of the London period was dissolved into a new organization, formed under Swiss law, called the "International Sufi Movement". His message...
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth5 July 1882
dark night soul
There can be no rebirth without a dark night of the soul, a total annihilation of all that you believed in and thought that you were.
depth rhythm
To attain peace, what one has to do is to seek that rhythm which is in the depth of our being.
music heart reality
I played the vina until my heart turned into the same instrument. Then I offered this instrument to the Divine Musician, the only muscian existing. Since then I have become His flute, and when He chooses He plays His music. The people give me credit for this music which, in reality, is not due to me, but to the Musician who plays his own instrument.
spiritual nature order
A soul who is not close to nature is far away from what is called spirituality. In order to be spiritual one must communicate, and especially one must communicate with nature; one must feel nature.
names life-is form
All names and forms are the garbs and covers under which the one life is hidden.
wise views judging
While people judge others from their own moral standpoint, the wise person looks also at the point of view of another.
attitude love-you heart
If a person is cold and rigid, he feels within himself as if he were in a grave. He is not living, he cannot enjoy this life for he cannot express himself and he cannot see the light and life outside. What keeps man from developing the heart quality? His exacting attitude. He wants to make a business of love. He says, 'If you will love me, I will love you.' As soon as a man measures and weighs his favors and his services and all that he does for one whom he loves, he ceases to know what love is. Love sees the beloved and nothing else.
music song people
I had composed songs, I sang, and played the vina. Practising this music I arrived at a stage where I touched the music of the spheres. Then every soul became a musical note, and all life became music. Inspired by it I spoke to the people, and those who were attracted by my words listened to them instead of listening to my songs.
leaving easy all-things
To make a friend, forgiveness is required which burns up all things, leaving only beauty; but to destroy friendship is easy.
wise men goal
The peace for which every soul strives and which is the true nature of God and the utmost goal of a man is but the outcome of harmony.
musician great-music ancient
In ancient times the greatest of the prophets were great musicians.
divine-beauty divine persons
By our trust in the divine beauty in every person we develop that beauty in ourselves.
winning self stupidity
Very often in everyday life one sees that by losing one's temper with someone who has already lost his, one does not gain anything but only sets out upon the path of stupidity. He who has enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when the other person is in a temper, wins in the end. It is not he who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won; it is he who has perhaps spoken only one word.
wise art secret
What we call music in our everyday language is only a miniature, which our intelligence has grasped from that music or harmony of the whole universe which is working behind everything, and which is the source and origin of nature. It is because of this that the wise of all ages have considered music to be a sacred art. For in music the seer can see the picture of the whole universe; and the wise can interpret the secret and nature of the working of the whole universe in the realm of music.