Murshid Himayat Inayati

Himayat InayatiLeicester, North Carolina      Website

Himayat Inayati received the sacred transmission of Murshid Samuel Lewis, through bayat and training with Sheikh Mansur Johnson, and received the initiation of Murshid by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan in 2001, a post re-affirmed by the Ruhaniat Murshids’ Circle January 2020.

Himayat was a member of the Sufi Order of the West, and the Inayati Order, from the early seventies until 2020. During that time, he was a teacher in the esoteric school for several decades, the International Kefayat The Sufi Healing Order for 20 years, and a founding faculty member of Suluk Academy. Himayat founded and was headmaster of two private schools based on the teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan. He has been a catalytic figure in the ongoing dialogue between science, spirituality, and healing, organizing 26 national and international conferences related to these themes. Himayat has presented the teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan in 14 different countries and presently offers “Keys to The Divine Treasury” - an on-line series on the ancient Sufi masters that supports mureeds residing in Malaysia, Europe, Australia, Argentina and the USA. He is the founder of The Raphaelite Work ™, a method of healing and transformational process rooted in Sufism and updated by modern body centered therapies.

He rejoined the Sufi Ruhaniat International in 2020, in order to offer his every effort on behalf of this sangha that transmits the baraka stream brought by Hazrat Inayat Khan and furthered by Murshid Samuel Lewis. Himayat's essential focus is to support those who are called to find and savor divine intimacies. Himayat has two daughters and a son, and with his wife of thirty-five years, Shahida Whitney, he co-directs Light of the Mountains Retreat Center near Asheville, North Carolina.

 Himayat Inayati and Shahida Whitney