Universal Sufism

Sufi Order Ināyati refers to a contemporary Sufi order and related groups that are derived from or connected to the teachings of Inayat Khan. It is commonly referred to in the literature as "Universal Sufism". However, from the perspective of many traditional Sufi orders and groups, the Inayati Order is in fact another sub-branch of the main Chishti Order of South Asia, adapted to broader Western contexts.

Traditional Sufism is seen as a branch of Islam that provides a more personal and mystical connection to its enlightenment or “divine love”. It arose in Central Asia, the Middle East, and North East Africa as a facet of Islamic practice that internalized Islamic beliefs around personal mystical experience. Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan was a representative of the Chishti tradition and was the first visible Sufi teacher in the West. The Order he founded is now known as the Sufi Order Ināyati and is led by his grandson, Zia Inayat Khan.

Inayat was born and raised in India in 1887. He studied many sacred texts and soon went to the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, the founder of the Chishti order in India where he decided to follow the Chishti Sufi path and find a guide, or murshid, to teach him Sufi beliefs. For four years his mentor, Syed Mohammed Abu Hashim Madani,Chishti, guided Inayat down the Sufi path. Before his death, Inayat's mentor gave him a message to unite the East and West with the “music” of Sufism. Shortly after, Inayat traveled to America and began spreading the Sufi teachings. The spread of Sufism in the West began with Khan’s immigration to America where he first founded the Sufi Order. As he began to spread the Sufi teachings he did so with significant adaptions to the needs of Western seekers and gave women the most prominent leadership positions in his organizations.

Inayat Khan died in 1927. Leadership of the Sufi Order he had founded first passed to his brother, Shaikh Maheboob Khan; then in 1948 to his cousin Ali Khan; then in 1956 to his youngest brother, Musharaff Khan; and then in 1968 to his grandson, Pir Fazal Inayat-Khan. In 1985 Pir Fazal accommodated differing trends within the movement by proposing the creation of three separate groups: 1) The International Sufi Movement, associated with Inayat Khans' original message, 2) The Sufi Order, associated with the teaching of Khan's son (and his uncle) Vilayat Khan, and 3) The Sufi Way, based on his own eclectic synthesis. In 1988 Pir Fazals' father Hidayat Inayat Khan became Pir-o-Murshid of the Inner School of the International Sufi Movement. Following the death in 1990 of Pir Fazal, his group The Sufi Way was led by the first woman leader of the Tariqah (Sufi path), Pirani Sitara Brutnell. She died in 2004, naming Pir Elias Amidon as her successor.

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