Kinship

The Kinship Ray is the most important and the least specific of the Sirat-i Inayat activities. The instructions are wide open because we are expected to practice friendship, kindness, tolerance and graciousness with all beings in all situations.

And, still, we benefit from a framework and some guidance.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan described humanity like a large fairy who looks into the windows of a dollhouse and wishes she could go inside to play. But she is too big, so she sends one hand through one window, a foot through the door, her ears down the chimney, her torso in through the root cellar, her elbows slide in through the mail slot. Once all her pieces are inside the house, they start bumping into each other and feeling irritated because they do not recognize that they are all parts of the same being. We, human beings, are just like those different parts of the fairy. We are all part of One Being, but we have become confused.

Intentional Kinship activities can help us remember.

The Kinship mu’alim helps coordinate activities, classes, discussions, community service projects, opportunities to connect with friends on the path. She coordinates support for people in the community that are experiencing hardship and need help. She organizes interfaith dialogues and events to help cultivate friendship between religions, and invites members of various Sufi orders to weave harmonious, mutually supportive and collaborative experiences.

Harmonious, healthy relationships are the ideal within oneself, within the family, the community, the nation, and the world.

A unique opportunity for friendship is also available for shaikhs, guides and initiators who serve mureeds. One of Sirat-i Inayat’s Kinship activities is a monthly peer support meeting for teachers who wish to learn and grow with each other, to share resources, and benefit from the wisdom of each other’s experiences in the Guide/mureed relationship. These meetings are open to Sufi initiators and guides in any Sufi order.

It is said that the Sufi path is the path of friendship. The Kinship ray helps us tend to that reality in our spiritual family.