THE SULUK ACADEMY

Please see below for a variety of details specific to Suluk Europe. If you have additional questions, please email [email protected].

Over the course of two years, students, called Salik(a)s, deeply explore the fundamentals of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s school of Sufism under the rubric of Concentration, Contemplation, Meditation, and Realization.

Among the topics of study are the purification of body and mind, prayer, breath, the elements, light, the inner senses, the Chivalric Rules, the God Ideal, the Divine Names, the subtle centers, and the Spirit of Guidance.

A direct transmission is shared through a mix of practice, lecture, suhbat, and zikr, held within a container of spiritual companionship.

Pir Zia Inayat-Khan

Pir Zia Inayat-Khan - Photo Credit: Karamat HessSuluk Academy is taught by Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, the grandson of Hazrat Inayat Khan and current lineage carrier in the Inayati Order. He is often assisted and accompanied by additional Inayati teachers.

Pir Zia is a noted teacher of Sufism. His teaching is informed by decades of immersion in the mystical legacy of Hazrat Inayat Khan and Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, focused scholarly research in religion, and wide transreligious spiritual engagement.

Pir Zia holds a Ph.D. in religion from Duke University and is the author of several books, including Saracen Chivalry: Counsels on Valor, Generosity and the Mystical Quest (2012) and Mingled Waters: Sufism & the Mystical Unity of Religions (2017). For additional details on Pir Zia’s life story, please visit: http://www.pirzia.org/bio/

Shaykha Amat-un-Nur Naila Hayat

Shaykha Amat-un-Nur Naila Hayat is a Guide and Representative in the Inayati Order. She serves as the regional head for South-Asia and national representative for Pakistan. She is also vice-president for Kinship in the South Asian region as well as a Shefayat in the Sufi Healing Order. Amat-un-Nur is a graduate of the first European Suluk class and holds a Masters in Comparative Philosophy: Eastern and Western Mysticism. She has authored a book on Sufi teachings titled The Door of Peace: Pearls of Sufi Wisdom, published recently and is working on others. Her dominant interest lies in the revival of spiritual Islam through the lens of Murshid Inayat Khan’s Universal Sufism, which includes an accented focus upon the role of the Feminine in sacred traditions.

Ischtar Marita Dvořák

Ischtar Marita Dvořák serves as the leader of the Esoteric School in the German Inayati Order and as a member of the Esoteric Training Committee in Europe. She offers leaders’ training, esoteric classes and retreats, and is involved in interreligious activities.

She has worked as a teacher in all of the European Suluk-classes (special focus: contemplation and realization). Recently she translated Pir Zia’s book, Saracen Chivalry, and Murshid’s new Sufi Message Volume I into German.

Zumurrud Butta

Zumurrud Butta serves in the Esoteric Training Committee and as First Vice-President of the Universal Worship. She is representative of the Inayati Order center in Vienna, offers individual and group retreats and leads retreat guide training in German speaking countries. Deeply immersed in the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan and Shaykh al-Akbar Ibn al-´Arabi, she presents classical Sufi teachings in their significance for life in our time.

Deepa Gulrukh Patel

Deepa Gulrukh Patel is a campaigner and facilitator with a special interest in the arts, interdisciplinary collaboration, contemplation, diversity, and equality: working with organizations like the BBC, ActionAid and the Arts Council of England. Deepa has been a student of the inner life since her teens and is a representative and teacher in the Inayatiyya and the director of Zenith Camp. She is also currently working with the London College of Fashion, Sheffield University and UNHCR on a variety of projects with Syrian refugees in Jordan at the Zaatari Refugee camp. Volunteering is an important part of her life; in the UK she is Chair of Tamasha Theatre Company and The Loss Foundation, a charity that supports people bereaved by cancer. In the USA she is an advisor to the New Monastic Foundation.

European Mentors

Faz´l Stein

Faz´l Stein has accompanied people on retreat, on their spiritual journey, and also in daily life for many years. What has profoundly influenced him is the path of the Sufis, especially the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan. Some years ago, Faz’l became a Senior Teacher, Retreat Guide and Representative in the Inayati Order. His main focus is on supporting all those interested in connecting with their heart and the peace and happiness which is the essential nature of all beings.

Additionally, he is an environmental activist, yoga teacher, coach for breathwork, fasting and nutrition, a baker and a founding member of an organic, plastic-free, wholegrain noodle and bread company. He sees himself as a craftsman on all levels.

I consider myself second to none since I have realized in myself the One alone.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan

Latifa Irene Johanna Weiss

Latifa Irene Johanna Weiss joined the Sufi Healing Order in 1993, and the Sufi Order in 1995. While originally from Switzerland, Latifa lived in Johannesburg, South Africa for nine years with her husband and during this time they had two children. There she was involved in Indian philosophy and anthroposophy. Back in Switzerland, she studied Naturopathy and afterwards specialised in Classical Homeopathy and had her own practice until 2017. Latifa’s focus has been on healing, getting healed, and getting whole professionally and personally. She is a graduate of Suluk’s first Suluk Class and a Shefayat of the Sufi Healing Order.

Let me grow in Thy garden, let me grow, as a silent plant, that one day, my flowers and fruits, may sing the legend of my silent past.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan

Shaffya Noëlle Philippe

Shaffya Noëlle Philippe met Pir Vilayat in 1977. She was attracted to healing, being a psychotherapist already. She became the first Shefayat in France and worked with Sarida Brown to develop international healing seminars in Europe.

She has been a psychotherapist for 45 years. For her the main question is: how can we help persons in their everyday life, acknowledging their suffering and limitations together with their qualities, talents and inner beauty? Balance and kindness towards oneself are the core of her work.

She is the author of a book : La Bienveillance, un Chemin de vie.

Suluk Europe meets over the course of a little over two years, three times a year in 2020 and 2021, and with one session in January 2022. There are five days per session. This is a total of seven in-person sessions and 40 days of study. Dates for the upcoming class are:

Meditation

Meditation I with Pir Zia and Meditation II with Gulrukh Patel: Friday 6th to Sunday 15th August 2021, arriving from 16.00h Thursday 5th August

Realisation

Realisation I with Ischtar Dvorak and Pir Zia: Wednesday 19th January to Sunday 23rd January 2022, arriving from 16:00h, Tuesday 18th January

Realisation II with Ischtar Dvorak and Pir Zia: Thursday 11th August to Monday 15th of August 2022, arriving from 16:00h, Wednesday 10th August

All sessions arrive the first day in time for the program to begin at 7 pm. Departures are the last day after 12:30 pm. There is homework between sessions including reading and writing assignments. There is also a requirement to participate in a three-day, individual Suluk Retreat.

SCHEDULE

8:45 am Sitting Meditation
8:55 am Announcements
9:05 am Sarafil Bawa or other faculty
10:30 am Tea Break
11:00 am Sarafil Bawa or other faculty
12:45 pm Lunch
3:45 pm Mentor Groups*
5:00 pm Tea Break
5:20 pm Pods**
6:30 pm Community Dinner & Evening Program

*Mentor Groups are small groups of 10-12 people, led by a mentor, that Salik(a)s belong to throughout the course of the program. These groups are meant to provide a home base as one processes and assimilate the teachings.

**Pods are smaller, self-guided groups, involving 5-6 people from each Mentor Group. Pod mates support one another as spiritual friends throughout the program.

The sessions will be held at Prieuré Saint-Thomas, Épernon, France (40 minute train journey from Gare Montparnasse, Paris) www.soeursduchrist.fr .

Tuition for the full program is €3,680 and can be paid annually or per session (€460 a session). You also need to pay a €20 application fee.

Tuition includes all teachings, mentoring during and between sessions, and the logistical support necessary to run the program.

Salik(a)s are responsible for their own travel and should anticipate paying for a required three-day Suluk Retreat (€45-€90day), and for books assigned for reading assignments (€50-€90).

Housing and meals are additional costs and will range between €270 for single room and  €245 for a double/dorm room.

Expenses may be reasonably reduced by sharing books, travel, housing, meals, and anything else that is needed.

Partial scholarships are available and can be requested as part of the application process.

Our goal is to make Inayati Order programs accessible to all sincere seekers taking the steps necessary to enter and participate in a given program. Please always inquire about scholarship or work exchange opportunities.

Suluk Academy is designed for initiates within the Inayati Order, as well as devoted students of sister groups with membership in the Federation of the Sufi Message. If you are a student within the Inayati Order, it is highly recommended that you do the Suluk program sometime during the course of your Sufi studies.

If you are interested in applying for a future class of Suluk Academy, please share your information with us below. Upon receipt of your information, we will send additional details and a link to the application.

    



Questions

Please contact us at [email protected] with any questions and we will happily guide you through the Suluk process.

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Sufis, instead of teaching the lesson of indifference, have taught the lesson of love and sympathy, and have called it the cultivation of the heart. In Sufi terminology, this is called Suluk, which means the divine manner, the loving manner. When a refined manner is directed by the heart quality, it becomes a loving manner, the manner of God, and all such attributes as gentleness, tolerance, kindness, forgiveness, mercy, and compassion spring from it. The great teachers and prophets did not become what they were by their miracles, their wonder-workings; what was most apparent in them was the loving manner.  – Hazrat Inayat Khan, Sufi Message Volume VIII (original edition) on “The Heart.”