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A Message from Pir Zia Inayat Khan

9/26/2001

Dear Sufi Family:

The recent terrorist attacks have powerfully shaken our nation.  We are
suddenly confronted with the fragility of the peaceful environment that we have come to take for granted, and are bluntly reminded of our own physical mortality. As Sufi mureeds, our training prepares us to greet every challenge, however adverse, as an opportunity for growth.
Thus, even as we support our nation in pragmatic efforts to safeguard our collective security in the future, we may also avail ourselves of this opportunity to reflect deeply upon the transitory nature of the phenomenal world (samaras), and endeavor to downplay the denial of impermanence that qualifies the unripe tissues of our psyche.  Or, to put this positively, to reaffirm our existential orientation to the eternal now: to work as if we had only one day left to live and as if we had a century to live (paradoxical maxim of Mother Ann Lee): to become children of the moment.

This spiritual posture of tawakkul, of unflinching trust in the eternal
immediacy of the Divine Presence, is, I sincerely believe, the only stratum of human experience that can provide a sure foundation for the building of an abode that will provide refuge and solace to all who are suffering throughout the world.

O Thou, Who art the Maker, Molder, and Builder of the universe, build with Thine own hands the Universel, our Temple for Thy divine Message of Love, Harmony, and Beauty.  Amen.
In heartfelt solidarity,

Zia Inayat Khan