Hazrat Inayat Khan

Inayat Khan (July 5, 1882 – February 5, 1927) was born in india and was the founder of The Sufi Order in the West in 1914 (London) and teacher of Universal Sufism.

Hazrat Inayat Khan was a sensitive soul and was brilliant in poetry and music. He initially came to the West as a Northern Indian classical musician, having received the honorific "Tansen" from the Nizam of Hyderabad. But his deepest inner longing was in spirituality that is to know the ultimate truth 'nirvana'.

During his spiritual searching's Inayat Khan was drawn to the shrine of Khwaja Moineddin Chishti and he was attracted to the path of sufi's. After wandering in india for the search of master, Inayat Khan met Mohammed Abu Hashim Madani, a great Sufi murshid. Madani recognised Inayat to be a seeker of the highest order so initiated him into the Christi path of Sufism.

Hazrat Inayat Khan message of divine unity (Tawhid) focused on the themes of love, harmony and beauty. He taught that blind adherence to any book rendered religion void of spirit.

Inayat Khan set forth ten principles that formed the foundational principles of his Universal Sufism:

   1- There is one God; the Eternal, the Only Being; None exists save He.
   2- There is one master; the guiding spirit of all souls that constantly leads all followers toward the light.
   3-There is one holy book; the sacred manuscript of nature, the only Scripture that can enlighten the reader.
   4- There is one religion; unswerving progress in the right direction toward the Ideal, which fulfills every soul's life purpose.
   5- There is one law; the law of reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience, together with a sense of awakened justice.
   6- There is one brotherhood; the human brotherhood which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the fatherhood of God. This was later adapted by followers to; "There is one Family, the Human Family, which unites the Children of Earth indiscriminately in the Parenthood of God."
   7- There is one moral; the love which springs forth from self-denial and blooms in deeds of beneficence. ... (later alternative; "which springs forth from a willing heart, surrendered in service to God and Humanity, and which blooms in deeds of beneficence").
   8- There is one object of praise; the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshipper through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
   9= There is one truth; true knowledge of our being, within and without, which is the essence of Wisdom.
  10-  There is one path; annihilation of the false ego in the real (later alternative; "the effacement of the limited self in the Unlimited"), which raises the mortal to immortality, in which resides all perfection.