"If anybody asks you, 'What is Sufism?' ... you may answer: 'Sufism is the religion of the heart, the religion in which the most important thing is to seek God in the heart of humanity.'"

— Hazrat Inayat Khan

The Sufis tell us that Sufism has existed from time immemorial. It is the awakening of the heart to beauty and the divine, and thus, is as old as humanity itself. It has no specific doctrines or dogmas, but views itself as a ‘school of experience,’ emphasizing a personal search for answers through a practice of prayer, meditation and spiritual inquiry. It is a tradition anchored in the act of remembrance: remembering the breath as a conduit of divine life and energy; remembering the divinity inherent in all life and creation.

Remembrance, for the Sufi, is an act of love, and thus Sufism has often been called “the religion of love,” as emphasized in a poem of the Sufi master, Muhyiddin ibn al-’Arabi . . .

My heart embraces all,

it is a pasture for gazelles

a cloister for monks

a temple for idols

a ka‘ba for pilgrims

it is the tablets of the torah

the very pages of the qur’an

mine is the religion of love —

wherever love’s caravan turns

my faith and religion follow*

In the same way, Inayati Sufism—Sufism based in the transmission of Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927), the first Sufi master to come to the western world—is universalist in its approach and acceptance of all people and paths leading to the unfoldment of the light and power latent in the human being. It is not exclusively bound to any particular religious confession, but honors all as paths to the One.