The Desert Fellowship of the Message http://web.archive.org/web/20090909154254/http://www.sufi-hasid... Home | Khilafat-Nama | Silsila | Murshidan | Lineage History | Suluk | Suluk I | Suluk II | Suluk III | Awrad | Desert Message | Calendar | Links | Contact Us | Concentrations | New Page Title The Desert Fellowship of the Message HIK_Dargah2.JPG Zalman Schachter-Shalomi at the grave of Hazrat Inayat Khan. The Inayati-Maimuni Tariqat of Sufi-Hasidim THE INAYATI-MAIMUNI TARIQAT is an inter-spiritual fellowship of seekers committed to a rigorous path of spiritual development based upon both Sufi and Hasidic principles and practices. In this tariqat or "order," the Sufi lineage of Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927), the first Sufi master to bring Sufism into the West, has been joined to the Hasidic lineage of Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, the Ba'al Shem Tov (1698-1760), founder of the influential 18th Century Hasidic movement. But because it is not the first time that these two mystical paths associated with Islam and Judaism have been brought together, we endeavor to connect to and renew the spirit of the original Egyptian Sufi-Hasidism practiced by Rabbi Avraham Maimuni of Fustat (1186-1237), our forerunner, who successfully combined these paths as far back as the 13th Century. For this reason, we are called the "Inayati-Maimuniyya," honoring both Inayat Khan's vision of Sufism as a universal approach to spirituality, and Avraham Maimuni's radical innovation which made a peaceful marriage between Jewish Hasidism and Islamic Sufism in a time of open conflict between the Abrahamic traditions. The Desert Fellowship of the The Inayati-Maimuni Seal Message Rahmana liba ba-ey, v'liba ba-ey Rahmana. JUST AS THE MESSAGE of Hazrat Inayat Khan recognizes the essential unity underlying all spiritual paths, seeing Sufism as a perennial approach to these paths, so also do Maimuniyyabluejpg.jpg we see Hasidism. Thus, the Inayati-Maimuni Tariqat, while certainly connected to the religious traditions of Islam and Judaism, is not limited to them, emphasizing instead the perennial Sufi and Hasidic teachings and methods that evolved out of these traditions. This is why we have also "The Compassionate One Desires the Heart, chosen to identify more broadly as The Desert Fellowship of and the Heart Desires the Compassionate One." the Message . For the Message is of the essential unity of all Being (as taught by Hazrat Inayat Khan), and the Desert has always been symbolic of where the Message is to be found, especially as the Hasidim , Ihidaya , and Sufiyya ---the mystical fellowships of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam---all have their origins in the desert. Indeed, nearly all the mystical traditions of the world have foundations in the "desert experience" of the place of solitude, the wilderness where all boundaries cease to exist. Thus, we return to the desert again and again to hear that Message for ourselves, renewing it in our hearts year after year. Rose_Heart_Wings_BWSm.JPG (C) 2008 The Desert Fellowship of the Message Powered by Register.com 1 of 1 11/19/2013 1:06 AM Khilafat-Nama of the Inayati-Maimuni Tariqat http://web.archive.org/web/20090910212704/http://www.sufi-hasid... The Desert Fellowship of the Message Home | Khilafat-Nama | Silsila | Murshidan | Lineage History | Suluk | Suluk I | Suluk II | Suluk III | Awrad | Desert Message | Calendar | Links | Contact Us | Concentrations | New Page Title Khilafat-Nama of the Inayati-Maimuni Tariqat HeartWingsArabic.jpg Khilafat-Nama TOWARD THE ONE, THE PERFECTION OF LOVE, HARMONY, AND BEAUTY, THE ONLY BEING, UNITED WITH ALL THE ILLUMINATED SOULS WHO FORM THE EMBODIMENT OF THE MASTER, THE SPIRIT OF GUIDANCE. WHEREAS the sacred traditions of the faiths of Beni Israel-Judaism, Christianity, and Islam-derive from the prophecy of Abraham, who "was the first to bring the knowledge of mysticism from Egypt, where he was initiated in the most ancient order of esotericism"; AND WHEREAS the early Sufis of Islam were deeply studied in Judaica (isra'iliyyat) ; AND WHEREAS Rabbi Abraham Maimonides observed, "the ways of the ancient saints of Israel ... have now become the practice of the Sufis of Islam," and developed a school of Hasidic Sufism in thirteenth-century Cairo; AND WHEREAS Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan founded, in London in 1914, the Sufi Order in the West, a new order of universalist Sufism rooted in the transmission of four unbroken lineages: Chishtiyya, Suhrawardiyya, Qadiriyya, and Naqshbandiyya; AND WHEREAS Hazrat Inayat Khan appointed Pir Vilayat Inayat-Khan as his Sajjada-nishin , and Pir Vilayat has in turn appointed this faqir as his own Sajjada-nishin ; AND WHEREAS in California in 1975 and New York City in 1976, invoking the names of Melchizedek and Abraham, Pir Vilayat and Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi performed mutual initiations, bestowing the titles of Shaikh and Kohen l'El Eliyon respectively; AND WHEREAS as a duly authorized Sufi Shaikh and Hasidic Rebbe, Reb Zalman has masterfully integrated the authentic traditions of the Sufis and the Hasidim, in the manner of a "merging of two oceans"; NOW, THEREFORE it is with jubilation of heart that I hereby recognize the establishment of the Maimuniyya, as a new order of Hasidic Sufism, reviving the tradition of the Egyptian Hasidic school and bearing the initiatory transmission of the Sufi Order in the West, whereby it is vested with the baraka of Hazrat Inayat Khan and the fourfold chain of Pir-o-murshidan preceding him. IT IS MY PRAYER that the Maimuniyya will bring healing to the tragically divided family of Abraham and guide many sincere seekers on the path that leads to the fulfillment of life's purpose. May the Message of God reach far and wide! IN WITNESS THEREOF I have signed this deed at The Abode of the Message on the 6th of May, 2004. PIRZADE ZIA INAYAT-KHAN 1 of 2 11/19/2013 1:06 AM Khilafat-Nama of the Inayati-Maimuni Tariqat http://web.archive.org/web/20090910212704/http://www.sufi-hasid... Rose_Heart_Wings_BWSm.JPG (C) 2008 The Desert Fellowship of the Message Powered by Register.com 2 of 2 11/19/2013 1:06 AM Suluk http://web.archive.org/web/20090402072709/http://sufi-hasidim.or... FEB APR MAY Close 4 captures 2 Help 2 Dec 08 - 2 Apr 09 2008 2009 2010 The Desert Fellowship of the Message Home | Khilafat-Nama | Silsila | Murshidan | Lineage History | Suluk | Suluk I | Suluk II | Suluk III | Awrad | Desert Message | Calendar | Links | Contact Us | Concentrations | New Page Title Suluk Below are are the "Thirteen Aspirations of Faith" of the Sufi-Hasidim as well as the inayat.jpg "Ten Sufi Thoughts" and "Three Objectives" of Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan's Sufism as they are found in his The Way of Illumination: The Iron Rules The Thirteen Aspirations of Faith My conscientious self: I. My God, I aspire to perfect faith in Your Infinite Light, issuing from the Source beyond time and space, Who, longing for a dwelling-place in the Worlds below, 1. Make no false claims. compassionately contracts Her Radiant Glory in order to emanate, create, form, and 2. Speak not against others in their effectuate all that exists in the Universe. absence. 3. Do not take advantage of a person's II. My God, I aspire to perfect faith in Your Oneness with all of Creation, a Oneness ignorance. without a second, a Oneness that says, all that exists in the Universe is called into 4. Do not boast of your good deeds. being according to Your Desire in every moment. 5. Do not claim that which belongs to another. III. My God, I aspire to perfect faith in Your intent and purpose in Creation, that the 6. Do not reproach others, making them Divine He may become known to us through Creation, the Divine She, that we firm in their faults. expand this awareness until the Worlds are filled with the consciousness of God, as 7. Do not spare yourself in the work the waters cover the sea. which you must accomplish. 8. Render your services faithfully to all IV. My God, I aspire to perfect faith in Your unfolding plan, in which all of us may who require them. come to constitute one consciously inter-connected and organic whole, that every 9. Seek not profit by putting someone in living being may know that You are the One Who constantly causes their existence. straits. 10. Harm no one for your own benefit. V. My God, I aspire to perfect faith in all the paths through which the Holy Spirit manifests and reveals to us, that all Your manifestations are one, though they are called by different names throughout time and space. The Copper Rules VI. My God, I aspire to perfect faith in the mission of each path as an organ of the collective being that comprises all existence, that through Your compassion on all creatures, it be revealed to all how integral each Message is to the health of all the My conscientious self: species of our collective being. VII. My God, I aspire to perfect faith in the reciprocity of Your Universe which takes 1. Consider your responsibility sacred. our impressions, that everyone who does good with one's own life takes part in the 2. Be polite to all. fixing of the world, and that everyone who uses that life for negative purposes, 3. Do nothing which will make your likewise, participates in the destruction of the world, that every action has an impact conscience feel guilty. on the rest of existence. 4. Extend your help willingly to those in need. VIII. My God, I aspire to perfect faith in Your perfect judgment, that the amount of 5.