Inayat Khan

• Honorific Prefix — Hazrat • Name — Inayat Khan • Native Name — ur • Birth Name — Inayat Khan Rehmat Khan • Born — 5 July 1882 • Birthplace — Baroda, Bombay Presidency, British India • Died — 5 February 1927 • Place of death — New Delhi, British India • Spouse — Pirani Ameena Begum • Occupation — Musician, Pir, Musicologist • Religion — Islam • Denomination — Sunni • Creed — Sufism • Jurisprudence — Hanafi • Children — Vilayat; Hidayat; Noor; Khair-un-Nisa Inayat Khan • Title — * Pir-o-Murshid • Shaikh al-Mashaikh • Tansen Zamanihal • Yüzkhan • Bakhshi • Shah • Mir-Khayl • Successor — Vilayat

Inayat Khan was born in Baroda to a noble Mughal family. His paternal ancestors, comprising yüzkhans (Central Asian lords) and bakshys (shamans), were Turkmen from the Chagatai Khanate who settled in Sialkot, Punjab during the reign of Timur. Inayat Khan's maternal grandfather, Sangit Ratna Maulabakhsh Sholay Khan, was a Hindustani classical musician and educator known as "the Beethoven of India". His maternal grandmother, Qasim Bibi, was from the royal house of Tipu Sultan of Mysore.

Inayat Khan's Sufi sources included both the traditions of his paternal ancestors (remembered as the Mahashaikhan) and the tutelage he received from Sayyid Abu Hashim Madani. From the latter he inherited four transmissions, constituting succession in the Chishti, Suhrawardi, Qadiri, and Naqshbandi orders of Sufism. Of these, the Chishti lineage, traced through the Delhi-based legacy of Shah Kalim Allah Jahanabadi, was primary.

Inayat Khan toured the United States with his brother Maheboob Khan and cousin Mohammed Ali Khan between the years 1910 and 1912. Further travels took him to England, France, and Russia. During the First World War, living in London, he oversaw the founding of an order of Sufism under his guidance. Following the war he traveled widely, and numerous Sufi centers sprang up in his wake in Europe and the U.S. He ultimately settled in Suresnes, France, at the house and khanqah (Sufi lodge) known as Fazal Manzil.

Ten principles, known as the Ten Sufi Thoughts, enunciate the universal spiritual values that are foundational to Inayat Khan's mystical philosophy. • There is One God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none exists save God. • There is One Master, the Guiding Spirit of all Souls, Who constantly leads followers towards the light. • There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader. • There is One Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfills the life's purpose of every soul. • There is One Law, the law of reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice. • There is One Brotherhood and Sisterhood, the human brotherhood and sisterhood, which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Parenthood of God. • There is One Moral, the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence. • There is One Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshippers through all aspects from the seen to the unseen. • There is One Truth, the true knowledge of our being, within and without, which is the essence of all wisdom. • There is One Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality, and in which resides all perfection.

In New York, he met the woman who would become his wife, Ameena Begum née Ora Ray Baker. They had four children: Vilayat Inayat Khan, Hidayat Inayat Khan, Noor Inayat Khan, and Khair-un-Nisa Inayat Khan.

• Balasan Gitmala • Sayaji Garbawali • Inayat Git Ratnawali • Inayat Harmonium Shikshak • Inayat Fidal Shikshak • Minqar-i Musiqar

• 1914 – A Sufi Message of Spiritual Liberty • 1915 – The Confessions of Inayat Khan • 1918 – A Sufi Prayer of Invocation • Hindustani Lyrics • Songs of India • The Divan of Inayat Khan • Akibat • 1919 – Love, Human and Divine • The Phenomenon of the Soul • Pearls from the Ocean Unseen • 1921 – In an Eastern Rosegarden • 1922 – The Way of Illumination • The Message • 1923 – The Inner Life • The Mysticism of Sound • Notes from the Unstruck Music from the Gayan Manuscript • The Alchemy of Happiness • 1924 – The Soul—Whence and Whither • 1926 – The Divine Symphony, or Vadan

• 1927 – Nirtan, or The Dance of the Soul • The Purpose of Life • 1928 – The Unity of Religious Ideals • 1931 – Health • Character Building; The Art of Personality • 1934 – Education • 1935 – The Mind World • Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow • 1936 The Bowl of Saki • The Solution of the Problem of the Day • 1937 – Cosmic Language • Moral Culture • 1938 – Rassa Shastra: The Science of Life's Creative Forces • 1939 – Three Plays • Metaphysics: The Experience of the Soul in Different Planes of Existence • 1980 – Nature Meditations

• 1960 – 1967 The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan, 12 volumes • 1988 – Complete Works of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan: Original Texts, 12 volumes (to date) • 2016 – The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan: Centennial Edition, 4 volumes (to date)

His recorded languages were English, Hindi and Urdu. His recorded confession was Sufism. He was the child of Rahmat Khan and Khadija Bibi. He married Ameena Begum.