In 1926 Khan named his 11-year-old son,
Vilayat, to be his successor as head of the Sufi
Order. Following his father’s death in 1927,
Vilayat studied philosophy, psychology, and music
in Paris and Oxford and began intensive medita-
tion training under various Sufi masters in the
Middle East and India. He eventually emerged as
a legitimate successor to his father’s work, though
much of the European following had reorganized
as the s
UFi
m
ovement
, under Maheboob, Inayat
Khan’s brother. However, Vilayat rebuilt the Sufi
Order and eventually reinstated it in the United
States during the 1960s. His efforts in California
were helped by Murshid Samuel Lewis (1896–
1971), an eclectic teacher who had received ini-
tiation into several Sufi orders during a lifetime
of spiritual seeking. Lewis brought his group of
students into the Sufi Order in 1968, but some
of those students left the order in 1977 over dis-
agreements with Vilayat’s regulations and formed
the Sufi Islamia Ruhaniat Society.
Over the past 40 years, Pir Vilayat Khan has
become an internationally recognized spiritual
teacher who gives frequent public lectures and par-
ticipates in various religious congresses, interfaith
dialogues, meditation camps, and New Age expo-
sitions in the United States, western Europe, and
India. Pir Vilayat and Pir Zia, his son and successor,
were invited to attend the UN Peace Summit for
world spiritual and religious leaders in 2000.
The Sufi Order International’s teachings gen-
erally consist of the writings of Hazrat Inayat
Khan and their further elaboration by Pir Vilayat
and Pir Zia. All three Khans teach the essential
unity of spiritual ideals across religious tradi-
tions. Pir Vilayat seeks to establish in his initiates
a “stereoscopic consciousness” that cultivates
simultaneous awareness of everyday human real-
ity and the most elevated levels of the Divine
Being. He emphasizes that the realm of ordinary
perception both reveals and veils a sublime real-
ity that is unfolding itself within and through
human life. The universe is evolving, in other
words, toward a Chardin-like Omega point. In
books such as Toward the One and Awakening: A
Sufi Experience, Pir Vilayat synthesizes prayer,
meditation, and breathing methods from different
spiritual traditions with traditional Sufi practice
with the intention of helping disciples experience
the underlying unity of all things in the Divine
Ground. All of Pir Vilayat’s teachings comprise a
natural outgrowth of his father’s intention to fos-
ter tolerance and mutual understanding between
East and West and between the different branches
of the Beni Israel traditions.
The present-day teaching work of the Sufi
Order International includes seminars and retreats
that focus on spiritual healing arts, meditation
practices, the spirituality of music, esoteric stud-
ies, and universal dances of peace. The Sufi Order
International is headquartered in France and the
North American headquarters are at the Abode of
the Message, a residential Sufi community founded
in 1975 in New Lebanon, New York. There, the
former Shaker colony houses Omega Publications
and its retail outlet, Wisdom’s Child Bookstore,
and Sacred Spirit Music. The Abode of the Mes-
sage hosts an annual program of spiritual retreats,
the healing arts center, and ongoing classes in
dhikr
(a traditional Sufi chanting practice),
der
-
vish
whirling, and universal worship. This latter
liturgy was developed by Inayat Khan and draws
on elements of the world’s major religions.
Additional teaching centers exist in large cities
throughout the United States and e
Urope
, with
center and branch leaders appointed by the presi-
dent of the order. The Hope Project is a charitable
program, active in India.
On February 4, 2000, Pir Zia Inayat Khan
received the teaching mantle of Pir Vilayat in an
investiture ceremony at Hazrat Inayat Khan’s tomb
in Delhi, India. He was also elevated to the presi-
dency of the Sufi Order in North America, although
Pir Vilayat remains chairman of the board of direc-
tors. Pir Zia divides his time between the Abode of
the Message, India, and Europe. He is particularly
interested in creating stronger ties with established
Sufi orders in the Middle East and Asia and with
helping Sufism as a tradition to move in a more
universal direction. Pir Zia is committed to his
grandfather’s vision of building Universal temples
that honor all religions. The Universal is currently
K 638
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