The journey of the soul

After The Soul – Whence and Whither? was published (in

1924), Inayat Khan said that with this book (and its twin,
Character Building/The Art of Personality, published post-
humously in 1931) he had completed his Sufi teachings.1
Both books were dictated at classes at the 1923 Suresnes
Summer School. Inayat Khan would often dictate books
this way. To the surprise of his students, he sometimes
would ask the next day where he had stopped the previous
day and would continue flawlessly, as if the book – often
with a thought-out and tight composition – already was
written in his heart and mind. And, looking at the results,
maybe it was.
The first book deals with the arc of descent and ascent of
the soul. At her presentation in 1927 at the first Summer School after Inayat Khan’s
passing, Rabia Martin – Inayat Khan’s first student in the West and his first
Murshida – said that 'even if Murshid had never left anything but the introduction
to The Soul – whence and wither, he still would have left behind the work of a life-
time.’
In this introduction, Inayat Khan offers an Ibn ‘Arabi inspired summery of the cos-
mogenesis, using against his habit a number of technical Arabian words that often
relate to wazifas.2
After the introduction, Inayat Khan explains how the soul, being of a mirror-like
character, in its decent to earth picks up impressions from returning souls or from
souls that live permanently in the realms of the jinns and angels (representing pure
consciousness and pure light). This way, he explains what in the Indian traditions
often is seen as reincarnation.
In the ascent into the heavens, back to the source, the soul passes again through
the jinn world of pure thought and there realizes the fullness and all the conse-
quences of the life on earth without the veil of selective blindness, excuses, escape
routes, and other human efforts to justify one’s actions. No wonder some religions
depict this purifying and cleansing activity, needed to ascent to the higher parts of
the heavens in order to – as the Qur’an says – ‘return to the Face of the One, as ‘hell’.
With this metaphysics, for which we have to take his word that he didn’t give us his
ideas, but his personal knowledge, 3 Inayat Khan quenched at least some of the
thirst of his students, eager for metaphysical knowledge.
His purpose however most likely was not so much the metaphysical nature of the
lectures, but rather to make his listeners understand something of the divine na-
ture of the soul, and to advocate the Eastern understanding that the soul is perma-
nent and doesn’t die with the body.
With these lectures on the journey of the soul, Inayat Khan answers two of the
1
Wil van Beek, 1983, p. 243.
2
See for a summery W. van der Zwan: Attunement, Direction, and Forgiving, Meditations of Sura al-
Fatiha. PIM Publications, 2020, p. 105-106.
3
Vadan, Gamakas, Complete Sayings, nr. 909.
three main questions in life: ‘where do we come from?’ and ‘where are we going
to?’
The answers to these perennial questions, if fully understood and applied to daily
life, work as an antidote for the fear of the greatest unknown and ofttimes feared
factor in life: death. But mystics know better than to fear death. As Rumi says, ‘why
would I be afraid to die as a human, if I only gained by my deaths?’4
The aspect of human fear brings us from the realm of metaphysics to the realm of
human psychology, the subject of the second book, the journey of the soul in the
physical body on earth. This main subject of many of Inayat Khan’s lectures is an
answer to the third perennial question, ‘what are we doing here?’, the question of
the purpose of our life on earth.
The broad answer to that question is to go ‘Toward the One’ by fulfilling the pur-
pose of our soul, so we are drawn closer to the One, as is prayed for in the prayer
Saum. This is done by perfecting our humanity, for – as the Prophet Muhammad
said – if you know yourself, you know the One.

Blueprint
For his students and for students of future generations, Inayat Khan developed a
unique full-scale pedagogic system with the Gathas, the Githas, the Sangathas, and
the Sangithas, corresponding with different levels of spiritual progress and insight
and grades of initiation. This system is unique, as Inayat Khan was trained in the
classical Sufi style by way of assimilation, i.e. living with your teacher and getting
accustomed to her or her way of living in a process of fana-fi-shaikh (adapting to
the ways of the teacher). On top of that, the main teaching was to be drawn from
the atmosphere of the teacher, rather than through verbal teaching or reading.
Inayat Khan had to let go of this style of teaching as he was a traveling teacher and
– more important – his western students could not adapt to this method, used as
they were to receive teachings on the more mental level of lectures, explanations,
and reading assignments.
The set of teachings were designed for a ten-year study, corresponding to the ten
grades of initiation and the different levels of the body of Gathas, Githas et cetera.
Character Building offers a blueprint for this path towards perfection, thus offering
a clear pathway with a beginning and an end, albeit a pathway in a very condensed
form.
Here, we want to look closer at this blueprint, by also drawing from other text of
the Indian Sufi master. Character Building start with will power, which for Inayat
Khan equals the ability to concentrate. As he explains in the Sadhana Papers, we
live by the hope of attainment – without this one cannot exist.5 Sadhana (Mastery)
is achieved by fully concentrating on the goal one wants to attain, as any form of
wavering creates a negative atmosphere for the goal.
Next, he asks the question what really belongs to one. This question brings us to
the path of the real self versus the unreal self. This path is shared by Hindu and Sufi
alike, albeit in a different approach, as the Indian tradition says Tat Swam Asi (Thou

4
See his famous poem ‘I died as a mineral’ (Mathnavi III 3901 – 3904).
5
Opening sentence of the Githa Sadhana, Series I.
art That), equating the small self (atman) with the Divine (Atman), whereas an in-
carnate God would be blasphemy in the Islamic tradition.
The following chapter continues this theme by promoting an alchemy of the per-
sonality. This is done by not depending on our mental and emotional mood swings,
but by striving for self-control and equanimity. This in-difference (literally ‘making
no difference’) enables one to be like to lotus flower, not floating on the water of
our emotions, but elevated above the surface of our emotions.
However as explained in the following chapter, this doesn’t mean one should with-
draw from the source of emotions, the society and the world we live in, but we are
to follow the dharma and become conscious of our relationship, our obligation, and
our duty to other people. As Inayat Khan says, ‘In the country you see the glory of
God; in the city you glorify his name.’6
The use of dharma here comes close to the straight path of the Sura al-Fatiha, the
opening chapter of the Qur’an, and to the right behavior of the eight-fold Buddhist
path.
Life demands certain things from us and asks for other things, but as the Sufism of
Inayat Khan knows no dogmas, there are no do’s and don’ts, only adab, the noble
path of courtesy, which in a way can be compared with the social application of the
seventh spoke of the Buddhis wheel, mindfulness.
The book concludes with the higher stations of the soul, where satisfaction reigns
and we count our blessings and light a candle, rather than curse the darkness, end-
ing with the final station of the soul at peace. This is a peace that we can radiate
and share, resulting in generosity and charity, one of the pillars of the Islamic faith.

November 2021, Wali van der Zwan

6
Bowl of Saki for August 14.