Hazrat Inayat Khan

Hazrat Inayat Khan as head of his order. Around 1920.

Hazrat Inayat Khan ( 5 July 1882 in Baroda – 5 February 1927 in New Delhi ) is the founder of the International Sufi Order and the International Sufi Movement . In his capacity as leader of the order, he called himself Hazrat (“divine presence”) Pir-o-Murshid (“spiritual master and right guide”) Inayat Khan . He is regarded as a pioneer of numerous Sufi organizations in Europe and the USA, operating under the Federation of the Sufi Message. The Sufism Reoriented Order, of which Meher Baba is the best-known member , also relies on the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan .

religious historical circumstances

Hazrat Inayat Khan was born into a family in Gujarat , western India , belonging to the moderate Islamic orthodox Chishtiyya order. The Chishti tradition is evident in Khan's teaching and practice primarily in terms of the emphasis on musical events as an important religious ritual , the ethical orientation towards pacifism and non-violence, and the tendency towards syncretism . Since the order he later founded with a legal statute in London was and is addressed to Americans and Europeans and their very special needs and is therefore also removed from the social and historical framework of the Chishtiyya, his Sufi order can be understood as a new foundation, and is difficult to locate in the Chishti tradition.

Life

origin

Hazrat Inayat Khan's father Rahmat Khan plays Sursingar .

Hazrat Inayat Khan's father, Rahmat Khan (1843-1910), came from an ancient Panjab -based Sunni Sufi family that is said to have produced important saints, poets, musicians and landowners. His mother Khadidja Bibi (1868-1902) was the daughter of the well-known Indian music virtuoso and poet Maula Bakhsh (1833-1896). After long journeys through India, Maula Bakhsh had settled in the then very advanced princely state of Baroda . There he met Rahmat Khan. A close friendship quickly developed, which led to a marriage between Maula Bakhsh's daughter and Rahmat Khan. Within a few years, the entire family achieved a high social reputation and influenced the cultural, but above all the musical development of the region. Of note are Maula Bakhsh's achievements as director of the Gayanshala Academy of Music, which he founded in Baroda, and his work on a unified notation system that would unite the northern and southern traditions of Indian music. Highly respected as a musical authority, Maula Bakhsh was known for his interfaith tolerance and openness. His house was "a temple of talent" in which personalities of all religions and castes made music and discussed.

Hazrat Inayat Khan was born into this family environment, which was shaped by the faith of his grandfather, who joined the Chishtiyya at the age of 15. Two aspects were the focus of family life: on the one hand the music, on the other hand an undogmatic and tolerant , but nevertheless deeply religious piety. Music was the most important expression of religiosity and at the same time an instrument of knowledge for religious truth. Music for pure entertainment purposes represented a degeneration of a high "sacred" art form for Maula Bakhsh.

childhood and adolescence

Hazrat Inayat Khan's grandfather Maula Bakhsh

Until his death in 1896, Maula Bakhsh had a great influence on Hazrat Inayat Khan's education. Their relationship was one of mutual respect and friendship. Young Inayat Khan considered his grandfather the ideal of a man. He learned a lot from him about other religions and worldviews. Personally, he was very interested in Hinduism , but in his upbringing great importance was attached to the belief in Allah being the focus of daily religious practice. Already in his childhood he longed for God, whom he believed to find in his surroundings, in his friends and acquaintances and finally in himself. In addition, he developed an awareness of the love mysticism of the Chishtiyya, which he later developed theoretically as a central theme of his teaching. Despite his intelligence - he is said to have learned Sanskrit , Hindi , the Marathi of the Hindu scholars, his mother tongue Urdu and Parsi Gujarati with relative ease - he did not like the school. At the Hindu school in Baroda, where he spent his schooling, there was a strong emphasis on authoritarian teaching methods, with which Inayat seemed to have great difficulty. On the other hand, he devoted his full attention to subjects of his interest. He invested a lot of energy and achieved extraordinary achievements from the point of view of his environment. For example, he published his first book on music theory , Bala sangit mala , at the age of 14 and became a full professor at the Baroda Academy of Music by the age of 20. All in all, it can be stated that music was the gateway to spiritual experience and knowledge for him.

Travels through India

Hazrat Inayat Khan plays Vina .

The death of Maula Bakhsh in 1896 meant the loss of a friend and first teacher for Hazrat Inayat Khan, which he took with great difficulty. A change of location was supposed to bring him mental relief and so he was allowed to accompany his father at the age of 14 to the Maharaja Bhim Shamsher in Nepal . This was the beginning of another seven journeys, during which he got to know the entire Indian continent. After his first long journey he returned to Baroda with his father in 1897. After three years later his brother Karemat Khan, who was ten years his junior, and five years later his mother died, Inayat Khan began to travel alone.

His path first led him to Madras and Mysore in 1902 , where he achieved musical success and a great reputation. He then returned to his hometown for about a year, where he published an anthology of his poems and songs in various Indian regional languages under the title Sayaji Garbawali .

An important reason for his return was the preparations for a second arranged marriage. A close family friend had offered his sister in marriage, but Hazrat's father ultimately turned it down because it was a Shia family. He later married a Sunni woman.

Inayat Khan reached the peak of his musical career in the city of Hyderabad from around 1903-1908, where he managed to gain a foothold in important political and artistic circles. Here he was valued as a musical authority and increasingly also as an exceptional religious figure. The musical career benefited from the fact that Hyderabad was formerly a center of the Mughal Empire and, until the beginning of the 20th century, a culturally and artistically important metropolis in India. With the invitation to court, Inayat Khan became better known throughout the country. During the first six months of his stay in Hyderabad State , he wrote his last book on music theory , Minqar-i Musiqar , summarizing his grandfather's musical system in Urdu.

From murid to religious leader

Hazrat Inayat Khan had not previously entrusted himself to any spiritual leader or teacher, but he recognized the need for such guidance for himself. In Hyderabad he had a vision after which he went in search of a spiritual guide. Inayat Khan met the Chishti Sheikh Sayyid Abu Hashim Madani , who was important at the time, in a friend's house . Although the Sheik held Inayat Khan in high esteem, he did not spare him in his training and initially subjected him to strenuous tests designed to test his courage, resilience, faith and physical and mental self-control. All this did not shake Hazrat's strong faith in his teacher, since he had been accustomed from early childhood to testing himself through meditation and asceticism . In honor of his teacher, Hazrat wrote numerous poems, some of which have survived. From 1908 to 1910 he undertook a pilgrimage through India, on the one hand to hold numerous musical events and on the other hand to meet with clergymen of the Chishtiyya. Judging by his hagiography , it was in Kolkata that Hazrat Inayat Khan achieved his musical and spiritual perfection. On September 13, 1910 he left India with his brothers Mahaboob Khan and Ali Khan to emigrate to the USA and spread his music and teaching there.

Hazrat Inayat Khan in the US and Europe

Hazrat Inayat Khan was accompanied on his way west by his brother Maheboob Khan, who was five years his junior, and his cousin and lifelong companion Mohammad Ali Khan. Both gave up promising music careers in India to be close to Inayat Khan as students. Six months after they entered the United States via New York , Inayat Khan's youngest brother, Musharaff, followed. They were initially unsuccessful in effectively spreading their Sufi message because they were simply too unknown and exotic for a larger audience to be interested in their worldview. They were part of the first wave of immigration from Indo-Pakistan when they immigrated in 1910, but the Immigration Act of 1924 eventually banned all further East Asian and Indian immigration.

In order to become known and to secure a financial basis for existence, Inayat Khan and his students first gave a large number of concerts and held lectures on music theory. Although this only insufficiently solved the financial emergency, it resulted in the first contacts to his later students. One of the first Western disciples was Ada Martin (1871-1927), who later ran the business of the Sufi movement in the United States as an independent "teacher" . According to her autobiography, she had had a powerful vision of Inayat Khan for a year before they met. Among his first murids was his future wife Ora Ray Baker, later Amina Begum (1892-1947), whom he married in London in 1912. They had four children together: the two sons Vilayat and Hidayat and the daughters Noor-un-Nisa and Khair-un-Nisa (born 1919).

After a short stay in England, he moved to Paris with his family , where he hoped for a greater response. This expectation was fulfilled. In addition, Inayat Khan had inspiring encounters with musical greats of the time in France , such as B. the French composer Claude Debussy . He also made some trips from France, e.g. B. to Russia , where he was invited to the Moscow Conservatory . In 1914, with the start of the First World War , Inayat Khan again retired to London, where he lived during the war years. This time was also difficult for Inayat Khan and his followers. War dominated people's minds and few were willing to delve into a pacifist doctrine. Nevertheless, more and more students joined him.

The winged heart of the Sufi order

In 1917 Hazrat Inayat Khan founded his Order in London and religious life took shape. He formed the rite of his universal worship and the first publications appeared that served as a "mouthpiece" for the Sufi movement.

In 1920 Hazrat Inayat Khan retired to Paris with his family. His wish was to move to Geneva to found the headquarters of the international Sufi movement there, but his wife Amina Begum wanted to stay in Paris. That is why he appointed his student Lucy (Sherifa) Goodenough as general secretary in Geneva . He then commuted back and forth between his home in Suresnes near Paris and Switzerland .

As the order grew, so did Inayat Khan's obligations. In addition to initiating and teaching the students, giving concerts, lectures and courses, he also had to look after the national groups that were being set up in the individual European countries. Due to the numerous commitments, he was usually only able to stay in France in the summer months. Initially he wanted to use this for religious immersion and contemplation, but his students' need for individual care and the summer school that had been set up prevented him from carrying out these practices. The Summer School , which was established every year between 1921 and 1926 in Wissous (near Paris), in Katwijk ( Netherlands ) and finally in Suresnes, soon became the most popular institution in the Sufi community and Inayat Khan's most important opportunity to teach his students . Due to his varied and demanding activities, he even had to give up making music.

In October 1926, Inayat Khan traveled to India for the first time in 16 years, accompanied only by his personal adviser. Word of his successful work in the West had meanwhile gotten around there too, and when he arrived in New Delhi at the beginning of November , he had to resume the work he had interrupted in Europe and give lectures and introductions to Sufism. The strain seems to have greatly weakened him, for after returning from a short journey to the tomb of Khwadja Muin al-Din Chishti , he contracted influenza , from which he succumbed on February 5, 1927 at Tilak Lodge (New Delhi).

Works by Hazrat Inayat Khan

• Hindustani Songs (Scores) 1914 PDF
• From a rose garden in India. Zurich 1925
• Gayan-Vadan-Nirtan. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 1996, ISBN 978-3-923000-83-8
• The Gathas - Teachings to His Disciples. 2nd edition, Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2016, ISBN 978-3-936246-18-6
• The soul – where from and where to. 2nd edition, Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2019, ISBN 978-3-936246-33-9
• The unity of religious ideals. East-West Publication, ISBN 978-90-5340-021-0
• The inner life - realizing the meaning of life. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2020, ISBN 978-3-936246-43-8
• Music and cosmic harmony from a mystical point of view. 6th edition, Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2013, ISBN 978-3-936246-05-6
• Music. Aeoliah music publisher Weinstadt 1996, ISBN 3-00-000649-4
• Music – From a mystical point of view. 2nd rev. Edition, Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2015, ISBN 978-3-936246-16-2
• A Sufi breviary. Heilbronn publishing house, Polling 1991, ISBN 978-3-923000-61-6
• The language of the cosmos. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2020, ISBN 978-3-936246-45-2
• character and personality. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2022, ISBN 978-3-936246-48-3
• nature meditations. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2000, ISBN 978-3-923000-94-4
• prayer for peace 3rd edition, Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 1993, ISBN 978-3-923000-78-4
• From the happiness of harmony - anthology. 5th edition, Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 1995, ISBN 978-3-923000-82-1
• Wanderers on the Inner Path - Anthology. 3rd edition, Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2013, ISBN 978-3-936246-07-0
• Sufi meditation. Published by Okyanus Yayınları, Istanbul 2010
• Sufi Stories. Heilbronn publishing house, Polling, ISBN 978-3-923000-88-3
• The king's treasury. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2010, ISBN 978-3-936246-00-1
• The bowl of bestowal. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2007, ISBN 978-3-923000-99-9
• Prayer - breath of the soul. 5th edition, Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2020, ISBN 978-3-936246-42-1
• Tuned to God's Melody - Sufi wisdom for every day. Diederichs, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-424-35046-3
• Meditation – A topic for every day. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2016, ISBN 978-3-936246-23-0 and as TB ISBN 978-3-936246-22-3
• The sense of life. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2018, ISBN 978-3-936246-35-3
• Championship. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2018, ISBN 978-3-936246-36-0
• Centennial Edition Volume 1 - The Inner Life. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2018, ISBN 978-3-936246-34-6
• Centennial Edition Volume 2 – The Mysticism of Sound. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2019, ISBN 978-3-936246-39-1
• Centennial Edition Volume 3 – The Art of Personality. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2020, ISBN 978-3-936246-44-5
• Centennial Edition Volume 4 - Healing and the World of Spirit. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2022, ISBN 978-3-936246-47-6
• 365 days of Sufi wisdom. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2018, ISBN 978-3-936246-32-2
• Prayers of the Inayati Order. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2019, ISBN 978-3-936246-38-4
• Healing from the depths of the soul - mysticism and spiritual healing. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2019, bound, ISBN 978-3-936246-37-7
• Knighthood of the heart - 40 rules for an upright life. Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 2021, bound, ISBN 978-3-936246-46-9

literature

• Elisabeth de Jong-Keesing: Inayat Khan. A Biography . East-West Publications, London, The Hague 1974
• Andres Rawlinson: The Book of Enlightened Masters. Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions . Open Court, Chicago 1997
• Hendrikus J. Witteveen: Universal Sufism. The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan . Verlag Heilbronn, Polling 1998, ISBN 978-3-923000-92-0
• Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan: Hazrat Inayat Khan - A Biographical Sketch. Aeoliah Music Publishing, ISBN 978-3-9808418-0-1
• Aftab Talat Kamran: Sufi Meditasyonu. (Selection of texts on meditation from the works of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Turkish)
• Once upon a time… Memories from early days of my beloved parents. Heilbronn publishing house, Polling 1998, ISBN 978-3-923000-91-3
• Erdal Toprakyaran : Why now? On the Popularity of the Indian Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927) in Turkey . In: Journal of Islamic Studies 3 (2012), 5–16.

itemizations

1. ↑ Evangelical Information Center: Churches - Sects - Religions (accessed April 23, 2009)

web links

Commons : Inayat Khan  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Hazrat Inayat Khan in the German National Library catalogue
• International Sufi Movement English page on Inayat Khan ( Memento of 16 July 2011 at the Internet Archive )
• German language site of the International Sufi Order about Inayat Khan
• German language website of the Inayati Order Germany eV about Hazrat Inayat Khan