The Sufi Path of Immortality
Dying Before Death & Living in God w/ Pir Zia Inayat Khan
June 25th - 30th, 2023, Omega Institute for Holistic Studies
Our week at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York begins in two weeks! We hope you join us Sunday, June 25th to Friday, June 30th, for a five day immersion into the life of the soul. Pir Zia welcomes special guests Nizam un Nisa Husain and Shams al Haqq who will take part in musical attunements, whirling, music and sama. It is not too late to sign up! The program description and registration link may be found below. Come be with many friends in the beauty of Omega!
THE SUFI PATH OF IMMORTALITY W PIR ZIA INAYAT KHAN
Our physical existence is a transitory interval between the preexistence of the soul and the looming hereafter. For a person of foresight, it is never too soon to step into the worlds that lie beyond. These invisible worlds are the hidden dimensions of what is already before us here and now. Each step takes the soul further on the path of awakening and closer to the Eternal Beloved.
Though the soul is the essence of our consciousness, its life has been long forgotten in a world preoccupied with what is quantifiable. To each aspect of our being – the soul, the mind, and the body – something is due. We are whole only when the soul, mind, and body are present to each other and to the Great Soul, the Great Mind, and the Great Body of which we are a part. Before long the physical body will return to its elements. But the life of the mind and soul will continue. What will have mattered when we are on the point of leaving the physical world? What is our work here, and what remains yet on the horizon?
Pir Zia Inayat Khan, Sufi scholar and teacher of Sufism in the lineage of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan, guides us in spiritual discourse (suhbat), contemplation (muraqaba), meditation (mushahada), and ritual remembrance (zikr). Together we explore the core Sufi teaching of initiatic death and renewal, resituating ourselves within a vast process of the endless disclosure of the One.
Registration is now open through Omega Institute for Holistic Studies.
BIOGRAPHIES
Pir Zia Inayat Khan, Ph.D., is a scholar of religion and teacher of Sufism in the universalist Sufi lineage of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan. Pir Zia is president of the Inayatiyya and founder of Sulūk Academy, a school of Sufi contemplative study and practice. He is author of Immortality: A Traveler’s Guide; Dream Flowers: The Collected Works of Noor Inayat Khan with a Critical Commentary by Pir Zia Inayat Khan; Mingled Waters: Sufism and the Mystical Unity of Religions; and Saracen Chivalry: Counsels on Valor, Generosity and the Mystical Quest. He is editor of Caravan of Souls: An Introduction to the Sufi Path of Hazrat Inayat Khan and A Pearl in Wine: Essays in the Life, Music and Sufism of Hazrat Inayat Khan. Pir Zia divides his time between Richmond, Virginia and Suresnes, France.
Nizam un Nisa is a Shaykha, Cheraga, Guide, Representative and Facilitator of the Anjumani-Islam group in the Inayatiyya. A student of classical Chishti Sufism since 1988 and a devoted follower of the Inayatiyya since 2004, she has led Inayatiyya centers in Lahore, in Dubai and now in Oakville, Ontario where she lives. A journalist and editor by profession with an MA in Journalism/Near Eastern Studies from NYU, Nizam un Nisa is a graduate of the first European Suluk class, Knight of Purity, and mentor to the Naubahar Suluk class. She has led Sufi retreats, taught Sufi meditation to Buddhist monks in Tokyo and been invited to the UN as part of an international delegation of spiritual leaders. She is currently working on setting the Urdu poetry of Hazrat Inayat Khan to music.
Shams al Haqq has classically trained in Sama. He has extensively studied the turn as well as mysticism and Persian mystical poetry. He has produced and taken part in many Sama Ceremonies and performances in the United States and Canada. He is the head of Rumi Canada and is a student within the Inayatiyya. He currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.