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In recent years many books have been published on Sufism and the spiritual life in Islam.

Each of them has touched upon a different facet of the phenomenon usually called Sufism. It is

almost impossible to define or describe it fully. In this regard, the best description is provided by

Ann in his book, liketheblind men in Rumisfamous story, when they were made to touch an

elephant, each described it according to the part of the body his hands had touched; to one that

elephant appeared like a throne, to anther like a fan, or like a water pipe, or like a pillar. But none

was able to imagine what the whole animal would look like.1 This is the case with Sufism.

Therefore, I would define Sufism according to two types of sources: Islamic and other eastern

sources, and Western sources. I will then examine the confusion between them. So, my main

questions in this paper are, what is Sufism and when and how did it arrive to the United States,

and who did found it here. Is there any relation with new age?

Sufism is generally described as being the mystical dimension of Islam. In fact, Sufism is

the very core of Islam. Sufi is distinctive in nurturing their spiritual dimension as well as being

devout Muslims. They pray five times a day, give to charity, observe fasting during the holy

month of Ramadan, and adhere to the outward observance of Islam. Throughout history a Sufi

was most often known as a person of religious learning who aspired to be close to the God. The

origin of Sufism dates back more than 1400 years ago, to the time of the prophet Muhammad

(the God bless him and give him peace). In general, social, cultural, ethnic, and tribal influence,

which shape and form religion by the hands of people, are mistaken for the genuine message of

religion. However, well-known scholars attest to the true origin of Sufism.

Ann Marie Schimmels the Mystical Dimensions of Islam, states that Sufism traces its

origin back to the prophet himself, as the prophet Muhammad is the first link in the spiritual

1Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975), 3.

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chain of Sufism. His ascension through the heavens becomes the prototype of the mystics

spiritual ascension into the intimate presence of God. She further describes that according to

tradition, esoteric wisdom was transmitted from Muhammad to his cousin and son-in-law, Ali

ibn Abi Talib (599 661, ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661. Sunni Muslims

consider Ali the fourth and final of the successors(rightly guidedCaliphs). Schimmed notes that

thediscoveries about the earliest Sufi show that some of the definitions attributed to mystics of

the ninth century can probably be dated much earlier. They also show how Shiite and Sufi ideas

were, at that early stage, inter-dependent.2

Reynold Nicholson also understood that the early ascetic movement could be explained

without difficulties from its Islamic roots and that, therefore, the original form of Sufism is a

native product of Islam itself.3 Kabir Helminski also mentioned in The Inner West: an

Introduction to the Hidden Wisdom of the West, that Sufism has taken form over the last fourteen

hundred years within the matrix of Quranic revelation, the most recent of the major sacred

traditions. Its spiritual power is generated by the enlightened state received by the prophet

Muhammad and passed on in verifiable esoteric lineage. Its style and flavor come from the lived

example (Sunnah) and words (hadith) of Muhammad. Within classical Sufism, the Quranic

revelation and the Sunnah of the prophet provide a matrix within which the human being matures

and comes to completion. In this tradition it is believed that the Reality we are seeking is also

seeking us and has offered guidance in the form of revelation and inspired teachings. It is

assumed that the sincere seeker will be guided step by step by his or her Lord (in Arabic Rabb,

2Schimmel, 42.

3Reynold Nicholson, 10.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidun_Caliphatehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunni_Islamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslimhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslimhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunni_Islamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidun_Caliphate

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which also means educator). And so Sufism consists of a balance between revealed guidance and

individual spiritual experience.4

The famous Muslim philosopher and historian Ibn Khaldon (fourteenth century) defines Sufism

as follows:

Sufism belongs to the science of the religious law

that originated in Islam. It is based on the assumption that the

practices of its adherents had always been considered by the

important early Muslims, the men around Muhammad and the

men of the second generation, as well as those who came after

them, as the path of truth and right guidance. The Sufi approach

is based upon constant application to divine worship, complete

devotion to God, a-version to the false splendor of the world,

abstinence from the pleasure, property, and position to which the

great masses aspire, and retirement from the world into solitude

for divine worship. These things were general among the men

around Muhammad and the early Muslims. Then, worldly

aspirations increased in the second (eighth) century and after. At

that time, the special name of Sufi was given to those who aspired

to divine worship.5

The beginnings of the Western study of Sufism lie in the colonial period (roughly 1750-

1950), when many of the basic concepts and categories that govern the understanding of the term

were first invented. Since the very concept of Sufism is hotly contested among both Muslims and

non-Muslims. It is important first of all to examine briefly the historical development of the

Western study of Sufism. The modern Western concept of Sufism emerged from a variety of

European sources, including travelers accounts of exotic lands, and Orientalist constructions of

4Jay Kinney ed., the Inner West: an Introduction to the Hidden Wisdom of the West(New York: Penguin Group,

2004), 81-82.5Ibn Khaldon, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, trans. Franz Rosenthal, ed. N.J. Dawood, Bollingen

Series ( Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), 358-67 by Carl W. Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism(

Massachusetts: Shambhala, 1997), 17.

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Sufism as a sect with a nebulous relation to Islam. When this picture of Sufism is compared with

the internal documentation of Sufi tradition, a number of mismatches appear. For example, the

eminent British Orientalist, Sir William Jones (1794), and Sir John Malcolm (1833), -they were

associated with the British East India Company and were well versed in Persian- both defined

the essential features Sufism by insisting that Sufism had no intrinsic relation to the faith of

Islam. They relied on eccentric sources, particularly on a Persian text called the Pakistan. In the

west, this led to a misunderstanding of the roots of Sufism and its meaning.6Since that time,

Some Orientalists separated Sufism from Islam; they denied the significance of the Quran, the

prophet Muhammad, and Islamic law and ritual for Sufism so that it lost meaning. Because

Sufism is the core of Islam, when it is separated from Islam, it becomes like body without spirit.

For example, German professor of divinity.F.AD Tholuck producted the first comprehensive

western book on Sufism in 1821, but four years later change his definition quickly came to

understand that the Sufi doctrine was both generated out of the prophet Muhammads own

mysticism7

The word of Sufi is most likely derived from the Arabic word Suf, meaning wool. This is

because of Sufi habit of wearing woolen coats. Ibn Taymiyyah- (Islamic religion scientist) said:

there are people who have chosen and preferred the wearing of woolen clothes, claiming that

they want resemble al-Maseeh ibn Miriam (Josses). But the way of our prophet is more beloved

to us and the prophet (the God bless him and give him peace) used to wear cotton and other

garments.8Some Sufi writers highlight this meaning of the word, and they suggest that wool

6Ernst, 2-3,8-9

7. Ernst, 9-17. Mark Sedgwick,Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the secret Intellectual History of

Twentieth century(New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 65.8. Authentic Islamic Information and Resources, Sufism: its origins,

http://www.ahya.org/amm/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=145 (June 26, 2011).

http://www.ahya.org/amm/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=145http://www.ahya.org/amm/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=145

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was the preferred dress of most of the prophets as well. The world- denying attitude suggested by

this etymology had a sharp significance in the early Islamic era, when conquering Arab armies

featured an imperial court culture of lavish magnificence and self indulgence. Sufis were able to

point to the simple material lifestyle of the prophet Muhammad (the God bless him and give him

peace) and many of his companions as an important precedent for the ascetic way of life (another

etymology, first suggested by the philosopher al- Biruni, links Sufi with the Greek word for wise

man, sophist, and hence with Greek philosophy. This derivation has not played any role in Sufi

literature, however, though it has been revived again by Orientalists beginning with Jones and

Tholuck in their attempt to extra- Islamic origins for Sufism. Despite the importance of clothing

in later Sufi ritual, however, the etymological connection with wool was only of secondary

importance for the term Sufi, compared with its prescriptive meaning.9

Sufism is an Arabic word that means Islamic Sufism, or a specific word for Islamic

mysticism. Ragip Frager in his book,Love is the Wine: Talks of a Sufi Master in America,asserts

that Sufism is no different from the mysticism of all religions.10

But Islamic Sufism is different,

according to Islamic prescriptive. The origin of the wordTasawwuf,it may well be from Sufi, or

the person who does tasawwuf, which seems to be etymologically prior to it. Considering the

earliest mention of either term by Hasan al- Basri- who died 110 years after the Hijira (Islamic

calendar), and is reported to have said Isaw a Sufi circumambulating the Kaaba (in Mecca), and

offered him a dirham( kind of currency in that time), but he would not accept it it therefore

seems better to understand tasawwufby first asking what a Sufi is; Perhaps the best definition of

both the Sufi and Sufi way, certainly one of the most frequently quoted by masters of the

discipline is from the Sunnaof the prophet (the God bless him and give him peace) who said: the

9.Ernst, 19-20.

10.Sheikh Ragip Frager, Love is the Wine: Talks of a Sufi Master in America, 2nd ed. (Arizona: Hohm Press, 2009),

1-8.

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God most High says. He who is hostile to a friend of mine I declare war against. My slave

approaches me with nothing more beloved to me than what I have made obligatory upon him.

And my slave keeps drawing nearer to me with voluntary works until I love him. And when I

love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with

which he seizes, and his foot with which he walks. If he asks me, I will surely give to him, and if

he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely protect him.11

Sufism in Islam is Ihsan (the perfection of faith). The prophet talked about that in many

cases. For example, the hadith of Muslim, that Umar Ibn Al-Khattab12

said:

As we sat one day with the messenger of the God (theGod bless him and give peace), a man in pure white clothing

and jet black hair came to us, without a trace of travelling

upon him, though none of us knew him. He sat down before the

prophet (the God bless him and give him peace) bracing his

knees against his, resting his hands on his legs, and said

Muhammad, tell me about Islam. The messenger of the God

( the God bless him and give him peace) said Islam is to

testify that there is no god but the God and that Muhammad is

the Messenger of the God, and to perform the prayer, give

Zakat, fast in Ramadan, and perform the pilgrimage to the

House if you can find a way. He said you have spoken the

truth, and we were surprised that he should ask and then

confirm that answer. Then he said tell me about true faith

(Iman). And the prophet ( the God bless him and give him

peace) answered it is to believe in the God, His angels, His

inspired Books, His messengers, the Last Day, and in destiny,

11. Jocelyn Cesari, ed., Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States, vol 2(Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2007), 727.

12He was born in 586 and died in 644. He was leading companion and adviser to the Islamic prophet Muhammad,

and became the second Muslim Khalifa after Muhammads death and ruled for ten years. Nazeer Ahmed, Islam in

Global History: From the Death of Prophet Muhammad to the First World War(California: American institute of

Islam History and Culture, 2001), 34.

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its good and evil. You have spoken the truth, he said Now

tell me about the perfection of faith (Ihsan), and the prophet

(the God bless him and give him peace) answered, it is to

worship the God as if you see Him, and if you see Him not, He

nevertheless sees you. The hadith continues to where Umar

said then the visitor left. I waited a long while, and the

prophet (the God bless him and give him peace) said to me Do

you know, Umar, who was the questioner? and I replied the

God and His messenger know best. He said it was Gabriel,

who came to you to teach you your religion.13

Islam requires a Sufism that becomes specific action for Islam and it cant be separated

from Islam. Any separating would make the religion void of its essence. In other words, Islam

would become without spiritual meaning-just actions; like flowers without a smell.

Sufism in the United States took a different direction in many cases, especially through

the perspective of the New Age. Its goals are to create a universal religion outwardly and perhaps

politically behind them. And it encourages Sufi orders to engage in this age while ignoring the

religious roots of Sufism. Hamid Algar, professor of Islamic studies at UC-Berkeley, calls a

vague, universal mysticism that no doubt finds many buyers on the contemporary market of

esoteric. Algar and others criticize New Age Sufists for rewriting literature and ignoring

Sufisms religious roots and ethical dimension. Historically, Sufis strictly observed Islams

commands and prohibitions. But today, whether you are Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist or

Hindu, there is a place for you in the New Sufism.14

There are many government centers and

organizations that support and encourage Sufism, both in the United States and abroad. One

13Cesari, 728.

14The Network for strategic Missions, New Sufism Celebration in New Age Style,

http://strategicnetwork.org/index.php?loc=kb&view=v&id=3536&mode=v& (June 29, 2011).

http://strategicnetwork.org/index.php?loc=kb&view=v&id=3536&mode=v&http://strategicnetwork.org/index.php?loc=kb&view=v&id=3536&mode=v&

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example is the Nixon Center, which called in 2004 to support Sufism by building Sufi schools,

publishing books and enhancing Sufi orders.15

If Sufism is Islamic mysticism from Eastern world, then who brought it to the United

States and when? The phenomenon of Sufism in the West, however, is not a product of

immigration. A number of Western Sufi orders have to be understood in terms of processes of

realization in Western societies since the1960s. At a time when secularization was widely

taken for granted as an irreversible process, many from the younger generation of the apparently

secularized Western world showed an increasing interest in spiritual traditions of other than

Christianity. However, Western curiosity about the spiritual traditions of the East was not totally

new. Some Western intellectuals had been fascinated by the ideas of Sufism at the end of the

nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century and absorbed it into Western esotericism

and the ideas of a perennial philosophy.16

In United States, the practice of Sufism was introduced by Western oriental travelers who

came into contact with Islamic mysticism during their journeys in the East, as well as by Western

travelers to the West, most prominently Hazarat Inayat Khan, who had, in 1910, founded the

American Sufi order. However, the main Western embrace Sufism began in the second half of

the twentieth century.17

Khan was influenced by the intellectual and political situation of that time. He claimed to

have founded a Sufi order, but in fact, it is not a Sufi order according to orthodox Islamic law

and other Sufi orders in the Muslim world. The teaching of Inayat Khans Sufi order were

superficially quite distinct from those of Sufi as found in the Muslim world, presenting Sufism as

15Zeyno Baran, ed., Understanding Sufism and its Potential role in US Policy, Nixon Center Conference Report

(Washington DC: The Nixon Center, 2004), 20-21.16

Ron Geaves, Markus Dressler, and Gritt Klink Hammer, Sufi in Western Society: Global Networking and Locality

(Rout ledge Taylor Francis Group: New York, 2009), 2-3.17

Geaves, Dressler, and Hammer, 2.

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something older than and separate from Islam, as the essence ofall religions and philosophies.

Khans early works are more likely to quote the Bible than the Quran. The content of his

teachings, however, is far closer to Sufism as found in the Muslim world than is the form of his

teaching.

In a sense, Khan took Sufism and dressed it up as something other than Sufism in order to

make it more palatable to modern Westerns. He is an example of a religious writer producing

spiritual texts. The practice of his followers, however, included Universal worship of the

churchof All. There was also no suggestion that it was necessary to become Muslim or follow

the Sharia. After Khans death, that part of his following led by his son Vilayet became closer to

Islamic norms than his father.18

Khan had decided to found a new international religion through the religious activities of

the Sufi movement, while at the same time not belonging to any religion, and he called it

Universal Worshipor the Church of All.Khan explains in his Sufi message that:

This Universal Worship which has been

organized in the Sufi movement was the hope of all prophets,

the prayer and the desire of all great souls: that the light given

in all the different forms such as the Buddhist scriptures, the

Quran and the Bible, or the teachings of Krishna or

Zarathustra, should be known by everyone. The work of the

Sufi Message is to spread the Unity of religion. It is not a

mission to promote a particular creed or any church or

religion; it is a work to unite the followers of different religions

and faiths in wisdom, so that without having to give up their

own religion they may strengthen their own faith and focus the

true light upon it. In this way a greater trust, a greater

confidence, will be established in mankind. Behind all wars

18Geaves, Dressler, and Hammer, 185.

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there is a suggestion of religion. Whenever there has been a

wan, and even now in such wars as we have gone through. We

always see the finger of religion people think that the reason

for war is mostly political, but religion is a greater warmonger

than any political ideas those who give their lives for an idea

always show some touch of religion. This religions channel

which is Sufism exists in order to avoid greater catastrophes,

and to gather together the followers of different religion in the

understanding of the one truth behind them, so that they may

hold in respect all the teachers of humanity who have given

their lives in the service of truth. Instead of doing as the

theologians in colleges who only want to find what is difference

between Moses and Buddha, one should look behind all

religions to see where they Unite, to find out how the followers

of all the different religions can be friends, how they can come

to that one truth. To say that the whole world must belong to

one church, one religion is as absurd as for all people to wear

one kind of dress. The world would become interesting. Let the

people have churches, belief faith; let them have differentconception of things as long as they brought closer to

realization of truth. Then, they will naturally understand

better that it is true wisdom, which is, the real light, that it is

central wisdom, which is, brings them together and which is

the inspirer of humanity. Religion is something which touches

the depths of harts; and everyone has his own conceptions of

religion which he holds as sacred. By expressing ones opinion

too freely one may easily hurt that conception which another

holds as sacred. Nevertheless, the need of a Universal Worship,

a Church of All, has been felt at all times. It has been the ideal

of the great prophets to bring the whole humanity into one

religion; but as humanity has great variety of conception, this

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has never been easy. The Universal Worship is not another

church to be included among the variety of existing churches.

. Is a church whichgives the opportunity to these belonging

to different religions to worship together Also, it gives practice

in paying respect to the great ones who have come from time to

time to serve humanity. The different scriptures of those who

have thought wisdom one read at the altar of the Church of

All. Nevertheless, no Sufi compelled even to attend this Church

of All; a Sufi, to whatever church he goes, is a Sufi. Being a

Sufi is a point of view; it means having a certain outlook on life

but not necessarily going to particular church. And finally

there the fifth aspect, the philosophy side of religion one gather

through the Universal Worship that there is one source from

which all scriptures have come, and that in spite of belief in

many gods there is only on God. And in this way we come to

the realization which we seek through worship, through

devotion; that there is only one truth. For anyone who has ever

reached it or will ever reach it, it is one and the same truth.

Truth can be reached in all great ones who have come fromtime to time. Nevertheless, no community, church, or belief,

should keep one back from that realization in which lies the

purpose of life. Verily, truth is the seeking of every soul, and it

is truth, which can save.19

Inayat Khan was influenced by both Indian philosophy and the western philosophy. In

addition, he relied on mystical philosophy and intervened in how creation existed. For example,

he motioned the secret of the creation, he said the secret of the whole of creation can be traced

to the understanding what is meant by capacity. Capacity is, so to speak, the egg of creation; all

of this manifestation which is known to us, as well as that which is unknown to us. It is formed

19Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Heart of Sufism: essential writings of Hazrat Inayat Khan (Boston: Shambhala, 1999) 78-

80.

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in some capacity. The sky is a capacity. Capacity is that which makes a hollow in which

substance. All the stars and planets which we have discovered and those which are not yet

discovered what are they? They are all capacities. And what do they contain? They contain each

on according to its capacity, whatever that capacity is able to preserver within it and give birth

to; that is why one plane is neither like another planet nor one star like another star.20

When he talks about the western world and his evaluation for western world, you feel that

Khan believes he is the new messenger to the West and its savior from darkness. In this regard,

he said:

I came from the east with the idea, which every eastern personhas, that the people in the west are all Christian. But after coming, the

more I saw the western world and the more I knew about the general

attitude of the people in the west towards religion, the more found that this

idea of the eastern people was unfounded. I saw in the west people of three

categories; these who believe in God and hereafter, those who do not

believe the same and those who believe in Christian Church. Among

intellectual and lettered people and among the people of scientific trend of

mind I found most very materialist, who are truthful in confessing their

disbelief, who consider it false hand to profess life in something one does

not know. They found their faith upon things that are within the grasp of

their reason; many of them consider belief in God or the soul or inherit

after as a religious fad. There is other among them who think there may

be something perhaps which we dont know and its best not to trouble it.

Most of them believe in the phenomena of science which is the only source

on which they depend. Some of them sometimes in their life begging to

wonder at life, and show to know something of its source and goal and of

its latent power, which remains so for unexplored by science. They take no

other method than that of scientific research to explore the phenomena

20Khan, The Heart of Sufism: essential writings of Hazrat Inayat Khan 85.

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hidden behind life and as a natural. Consequence they arrive no definite

result.21

Most scholars in the western world demonstrated that the first one, who brought the

Sufism to the west, is Inayat Khan. And they insisted to use the word Sufism in Khans order. In

fact, the major Islam Sufi orders in the West, including Shadilyah order, Naqshbandi order,

Chishti order, Qadiriya order, Tijani order, Jerrahi order, Nimatullahi order, and Muridiyah

order. Khans order does not belong to any of these orders; Khan did not follow certain direction.

He shuffled between creeds of religions and was influenced by music in all of his teachings.

He was affected by western philosophy, through his journeys between western countries.

He visited many Western countries: America 1910-1912, England 1912-1913, France 1913

Russia 1913-1914,France (again) 1914 England (again) 1914-1920,Switzerland 1921 France

(again) German 1921, Switzerland 1922, America (again) 1923, France (again) 1923 Switzerland

to spread his Sufi massage. But I noted most of his activities were about the music and

philosophy more than Sufism. He said, On arriving in the Now York I began giving a series of

lectures in the city of New York for different societies interested in philosophical subject and

was glad again to see the smiling face of my friend in music.22

In another place he said the first

opportunity I had of making the acquaintance of some people in America, was in the studio of

Mr. Edmund Russell who gave a reception where I met with Sufi message, but the only means

which my carry out my mission was by music, my profession, in which my cousin Ali Khan and

my two brothers Maheboob Khan and Musheraff Khan assisted me. But my music which was

most valued and admired as science and art was put to a hand test in a foreign land. Where it was

as the old coins brought to a currency bank And he said:

21. Biography of Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, on the file PDF,

http://www.soefi.nl/attachments/article/197/BiographyofHazratInayatKhan.pdf(accessed June 22, 2011), 132.22

Biography of Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, 107.

http://www.soefi.nl/attachments/article/197/BiographyofHazratInayatKhan.pdf(accessedhttp://www.soefi.nl/attachments/article/197/BiographyofHazratInayatKhan.pdf(accessed

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My first address the people of America was arranged at

Columbia University in New York by Dr. Reebner and there I

found a great response Dr. Reebner, the Head of music at the

University was most interested in Indian music and we became

friends. Among the audience was Miss Ruth Denis who

invented Indian dances of her own and was making especially

of it, and for whom our music became as a color and fragrance

to an imitation flower. She tried to introduce the Indian music

on the program of her performance, which was to me as a

means to an end. We had an interesting tour together

throughout the states, and yet for the public, which was for

amusement, our music became merely an entertainment. This

was an amusement for them, and therefore painful for us. Also

it was not satisfactory to combine real with imitation. However

it helped to keep the wolf away from our door.23

Khans attitude was ranging from music and philosophy to Sufi message. These characters never

congregate in a righteous man throughout a history.

Khan was always careful when he talks about Islam with westerns and claims the Islam.

For example, he said:

The prejudice against Islam that exists in the

west was another difficulty for me. Many think Sufism to a

mystical side of Islam, and the thought was supported by the

encyclopedias, which speak of Sufism as having sprung from

Islam, and they were confirmed in this by knowing that I am

Muslim by birth. Naturally I could not tell them that it is a

Universal Massage of the time, for every man is not ready to

23Biography of Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, 85.

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understand this. Many felt that the idea of universal

brotherhood was a sin against the modern virtue, which is

called national patriotism. My message of peace was often

interpreted as what they call pacifism, which is looked upon

unfavorably by many. Many there are in the west who are

prejudiced against anything Eastern, either thinking that it is

too foreign to their nature or assuming that the Eastern people

who, cannot even take care of themselves, and are backward in

the modern civilization, are behind time; though in

philosophical and literary circles the philosophy of India is

considered to be antique.24

When he first time came to United States, he hidden his Sufi Message and did not declare about

it, because he was afraid that American people reject his ideas and then default his whole a task.

To better understand Khans order, we should focus on his biography. Khan had

experience in Asian religions and their philosophy, and was more affected by them than he was

by Islam. He also tried to strengthen ties between Islam and Hindus.

The impression of this meeting always remained with him and form

this time, he began to study comparative religions. In order to

make a diversion in Inayats life, his father took him and

Maheboob both with him to Idar in Kathiawar to the Court of

the Raja Kesri Singh, Inayat enjoyed this journey very much,

and traveling for part of the journey on the back of a camel

through hot sand, especially interested him. Raja Kesri Singh

24Biography of Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, 113.

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was very much impressed by the youth, who readily answered

questions about the music of India before it was necessary for

his father to utter a ward. This visit gave Inayat some insight

into the kind of life that the Rajas live, which revealed to him

the main cause of the downfall of India. His father observed

that every day Inayat looked more and more behind the

surface of things. Inayat happened to hear that there was a

yogi lecturing in his town. He hastened to attend these lectures

and was very much interested in the entire Yogi said. This was

Swami Hamsasvarupa. Inayat thought that life was only worth

living if man arrived at the stage of such an understanding of

life. Yet he could not link the religion of the Hindus with that

of his own people, the Muslims. Inayat personally was more

inclined to Hinduism than to Muslim faith, as was also his

grandfather Maula Bakhsh. His father also took interest in the

philosophy of Hinduism, being always in the society of Hindus.

Having learnt his first lesson in the Hindu school, naturally

Inayat was more inclined to Hinduism, but nevertheless he was

as interested in hearing the wise wiz, the preaching of theMuslim Moulvi and was regular in his prayers and had on

inborn love for Muhammad.25

Khan tried to make bridge between religions from philosophical perspective and He

forget the Holly Books and the Gods Messengers to create a new fade that is refused by most of

religions.

He seems that was affected by western philosophy, especially after his visits to Europe

and America. in his dairy most of the notes were about his profession as musician and

philosophy more than religious issue Sufism phenomenon took philosophical dimension with

Inayat khan, because he look at Sufism in isolation completely from religion, like most

25Biography of Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, 31-32.

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Orientalists view to Sufism is impacted by Islamic Sufism in the United States especially after

spreading Islamic Sufi orders in the second half of twentieth century. Mark Sedgwick

highlighted that During the twentieth century the view of Sufism as something separate from

Islam became widespread in the west, but it is essential to appreciated that this view is purely

western one and that the variety of non- Islamic neo- Sufism that has come in to being in Europe

and America is purely western phenomenon., Islam and Sufism were and are inseparable Sufi

are by definition Muslim, and the religious practices of Sufi are based on the careful observance

of Sharia.26

Sufism is road inside the Islam. In spite, the part of khans order practices that are

Islamic, like Zikar (remembrance of god; Sufi people make circles and repeat the names of God

by leading the Sheikh).

Finally, the Sufism is specific Arabic word and refers to Islamic Sufism, because it was

emerged after Islamic era. So, there is difference between Sufism of Islam and mystical of other

religions. According to orthodox Islam, the Sufism that arriving to the United States in 1910 by

Khan is not Sufism as we know. It is mysticism that creates kind of religious philosophy and

coincided with the goals of the New Age to be as introduce of it or important reason of its

reasons. The new age has the same characters of khans orders in terms of international and

secularization or invitation to adapting the religions. Khans order does not belong to any divine

religion, so it considers religious philosophy that influenced very much by music. Music,

philosophy, and religions, never congregate in one issue.

26Sedgwick, 65.

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