Inayatiyya South Asia (Pakistan)

Our Murshida

Murshida Amat-un-Nur is the regional head of Inayatiyya South Asia and the national representative for Pakistan. She has been serving this Path for the last twenty years. She holds a Masters (Hons) in Comparative Philosophy and Islamic and Western Mysticism. To this is added her thirty or so years of personal study and research in the field of Sufism and Islam.
For many years she has been a presenter at international Sufi symposia and continues to offer regular classes, lectures and seminars on themes of Universal Spirituality, Tasawwuf, Islam and Esoteric Symbolism. Her passion is to inspire people towards finding their wholeness and living their full human potential through the retrieval of the Sacred Feminine in order to balance the Sacred Masculine. She has published a book of her compiled writings titled, “The Door of Peace” available online at amazon.

“Our coming into the world and departing from it are both veils over the permanent presence in the Eternal One. We must live as a child in the womb of God, perpetually fed by Her Mercy and sustained by Her Heart-Beat.”

Our Coordinator

Amna Shah (Qudsia) has been a mureed of the Inayatiyya since 2010. She lives in Karachi and runs an affiliate Centre of the Inayatiyya Pakistan. Qudsia has completed the Suluk course and Coordinator training. She holds an online seeker’s meeting on the first Monday of every month. This entails a reading from the Gatha papers, followed by a meditation. After which the circle is opened and there is a sacred sharing from all the participants.

Inayatiyya Pakistan (Regional Headquarters)

Since 2004, the Inayatiyya has been represented in Pakistan. We are the regional headquarters for South Asia, with our main Astana in Lahore and an affiliate centre in Karachi.

We are at the cusp of an incredibly crucial point in the history of humanity and Islamic revival. Two of the last famous counsels from Pir O Murshid Inayat Khan guide the ark of our spiritual ship in the South-Asian region. Murshid said, “When the Message returns to the East, our Work will have begun”, and , ‘I see as clear as daylight the time is coming when Woman will lead humanity to a higher evolution.”

Murshid Inayat Khan left four active successors in the West before his departure from this realm, and they were all women designated Murshida. Pir Zia Inayat Khan has appointed a female as well to head the work of bringing the Sufi Message back home to the East.

Murshida Amat-un-Nur is the regional head of the Inaytaiyya in South Asia and national representative of Inayatiyya Pakistan. She has worked for two decades now to spread the Message of Universal Sufism in the light of Universal Islam in this region alongside practicing and teaching traditional Islamic Tasawwuf. She holds the trust of the classical Sufi heritage and the Inayati stream with equal dexterity.

The uniqueness of Inayatiyya Pakistan is its particular dedication to highlighting Murshid Inayat Khan’s Sufi tradition within the cultural heritage of its Islamic roots in the Indo-subcontinental soil. It is a new-wave Inayatiyya Sufism in the East where inclusion of its Eastern-Islamic heritage is imperative to completing the wholeness of its originating impulse in the Message of Unity. We do not and cannot exclude the West but rather by including the East we follow in the footsteps of our founding father who espoused the cause of spiritual liberty and unity of religious ideals. In this world of reactionary will towards Islam we find ourselves at centre-stage for living, teaching and representing the Ideal of Love, Harmony and Beauty. We are upholders of the Muhammadan Trust of Islam which belongs to all humanity and His Mercy which is not just the right of Muslims as he is Rahmatulil Alimin/ Mercy for all worlds.

The nature of our Path is to call those who have the awareness to the Beauty of Allah for “Allahul Jamil wa Yuhibbul Jamal”, Allah is Beautiful and He loves Beauty. We can be the devoted followers of Muhammad salallaho alayhi wasallam without an exclusionary will for division. Hazrat Baba Fariduddin Ganj Shakar rahmatullah alayh, a Chishti saint of high repute amongst the Sufis of the Indo-Subcontinent, was once gifted a valuable gem-studded pair of scissors which he gently returned saying, “I would rather you give me a needle to sew together than a scissors to rend apart.” Khwaja Mui’nuddin Chishti of Ajmer, India, came as a beacon of spirituality and Islam for this region, sowing the seed of Love in the hearts of all and converting them by the power of mahabba (love) and sword of goodness, charity and service. His motto was “Love towards all, malice towards none.” Rabia al Adawiyya, one of the earliest women Sufi mystics was once asked if she hated the devil and her response was, “Time has not sufficed me for my Love for God, then how do I find moments to exercise hate towards the devil?”

The Work given in our hands is to serve the survival of humanity into a beautiful future that holds the promise of a blessed end. Our task is to invite souls into the Heart of the One Living Reality, Allah, Dhul Jalal wal Ikram, the Possessor of Majesty and Generosity. To know this Reality is to fulfill the Right of Tawhid and that is to rise above distinctions and differences which separate us on the basis of caste, creed, colour, faith, and gender. The world cannot sustain the man-created devastation through imbalance in the order of things which God commanded to be maintained through al-Qist. What does it mean to be an Inaytiyya and a Muslim ? A Muslim is an abd/amat of Allah, and the Inayati disciple is the servant of Allah’s Rahma, Jamal and Inayat. The trademark of our Prophet Muhammad salallaho alayhi wasallam was Mercy and Inayat is Loving-Kindness. We are here to serve, protect, guide, inspire, uplift and direct every soul we encounter to the Presence of the Nur e Muhammadiyya through Karam e Inayatiyya. May Allah, His Rasul salallaho alayhi wasallam and the Awliya Kiram guide us and inspire us towards a successful attainment of this divine goal. Amin.