Today, the 5th of February, people around the world are celebrating the life of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan. Perhaps they have followed his teaching, or read his inspiring lectures and his precious phrases in the Gayan that shine like living jewels, or they have felt the magic of his personality, and therefore they remember the date that he passed away in Delhi in 1927. But there are others, an untraceable number, who may know nothing of the significance of this date, and may not even know the name of the saint who brought Sufism to the west, but who, if they. knew, might also open their hearts in gratitude for in some way their lives and spirits have been uplifted by the powerful message of love, harmony and beauty that Sufi Inayat gave not only to his students but to all the world.

It is a custom of Sufis to celebrate the date on which a great being dies, a custom that seems out of harmony with the way in which death is usually regarded in the West, but it is because a realized being has gone beyond the shadow of fear, and steps from this world to the next as easily as we might pass from one room of our house to another. What is more, it is a joyful transition for it means leaving behind at last the limitation of the physical world and going to the home of the Divine Beloved. The word ‘Urs’, which is often applied to this day, means wedding.

Let us be happy today for our beloved Hazrat Inayat Khan, and let us also be grateful – to him for his lifetime of sacrifice, and to the Divine Will that sent him to us to help guide us through our confusion toward the light of truth that stands eternally waiting for all.