Five Activities

Hazrat Inayat Khan envisioned and developed Five Activities (symbolized by the 5-pointed star) in order to navigate the inner or spiritual life and how it relates to living a conscious human life in the outer world.

THE ESOTERIC SCHOOL is the primary vehicle of Sufi training and education for initiates of the Inayati Order. This training is provided through various Inayati Order centres, programs and events, including the two-year curriculum of the Suluk Academy, Season of the Rose Summer School, and many other retreats and workshops with Inayati Order senior teachers throughout North America and worldwide.

UNIVERSAL WORSHIP is the inter-religious activity of the Inayati Order, promoting harmony between the world’s major religious traditions, primarily through the Universal Worship service. In this service, ordained facilitators (cherags) light candles symbolically representing the world’s religious traditions and read from their sacred texts, often introducing participants to an experience of the teachings, music, or chants of these traditions.

KINSHIP is the activity cultivating human connection and service in the world. Individuals as well as centres in the Inayati Order are encouraged to practice kinship through charitable causes, as well as in the countless ways of practicing social interaction with an evolved and sensitive manner and consciousness (adab). The Inayati Order operates the Hope Project (which provides nutritional and vocational assistance to those in need in Delhi, India, in the vicinity of the dargah of Hazrat Inayat Khan) and the Knighthood of Purity (promoting the service-oriented, chivalric values of Hazrat Inayat Khan). The Abrahamic Reunion is an interfaith endeavor bringing together people of different faiths in the Holy Lands with the objective of peace and harmony.

THE HEALING ORDER  offers education and training in the teachings and techniques of spiritual healing taught by Hazrat Inayat Khan, emphasizing attunement, prayer, breath, and concentration.

ZIRA’AT  is an esoteric activity which uses the symbols and processes of agriculture to promote an understanding of the earth’s sacredness, and to describe and facilitate growth in the inner life through a connection to nature. Thus, both the material and spiritual worlds are bridged.