The Urs of
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
July 5, 1882 — February 5, 1927
(In various Sufi lineages in South Asia, especially in the Naqshbandiyyah, Suhrawardiyya, Chishtiyya, Qadiriyya, the anniversary date of the death of a teacher, saint, or master is a time of great celebration and remembrance, called an Urs (Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu: عرس), usually held in the dargah (shrine or burial tomb comples) of the teacher, saint, or master. The word ‘urs’ literally means ‘wedding’, so metaphorically and mystically it pictures the death of the body as the Soul’s reunion with The Beloved. The Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Dargah Sharif in Ajmer, India attracts more than 400,000 devotees each year and is regarded as one of the most famous urs festivals around the world.
Following a bout with pneumonia, Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan departed from this world on February 5, 1927, at the Tilak Lodge, located along the river Yamuna near Delhi, India. His dargah (burial tomb/shrine complex) is in the Nizamuddin Basti neighborhood of Delhi, behind the dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya.
Pir-o-Murshid described the essence of his spiritual message with the following words, which are offered here to commemorate his life and teachings:
Our sacred task is to awaken among those around us, and among those whom we can reach in the first place, the spirit of tolerance for the religion, scripture, and the ideal of devotion of one another. Our next task is to make humanity understand people of different nations, races and communities, also of different classes.
By this we do not mean to say that all races and nations must become one, nor that all classes must become one; only what we have to say is that whatever be our religion, nation, race or class, our most sacred duty is to work for one another, in one another’s interest, and to consider that as the service of God. …
The central theme of the Sufi Message is one simple thing, and yet most difficult, and that is to bring about in the world the realization of the divinity of the human soul, which hitherto has been overlooked, for the reason that the time had not come.
The principal thing that the Message has to accomplish in this era is to create the realization of the divine spark in every soul, that every soul according to its progress may begin to realize for itself the spark of divinity within. This is the task that is before us.
Now you may ask, what is the Message? The Message is this: that the whole humanity is as one single body, and all nations and communities and races as the different organs, and the happiness and well-being of each of them is the happiness and well-being of the whole body. If there is one organ of the body in pain, the whole body has to sustain a share of the strain of it. That by this Message humankind may begin to think that his welfare and his well-being is not in looking after himself, but it is in looking after others, and when in all there will be reciprocity, love and goodness towards another, the better time will come.
( from “Addresses to Cherags: Our Sacred Task” [unpublished] )
The need of the world today is not learning, but how to become considerate towards one another. To try and find out in what way happiness can be brought about, and in this way to realize that peace which is the longing of every soul; and to impart it to others, thereby attaining our life’s goal, the sublimity of life.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume X – Sufi Mysticism: The Problem of the Day, Part 1 )