Healing Prayer from the "Gayan" of Inayat Khan

Nayaz

Beloved Lord, Almighty God,

through the rays of the sun,

through the waves of the air,

through the all-pervading life in space,

purify and revivify me,

and I pray,

heal my body, heart and soul.

- Sufi Pir-O-Murshid Inayat Khan

I first read this prayer over 30 years ago in a little hand-me-down book from Paul Reps' library called In the Garden, which was a collection of writings by and about the American Sufi teacher Samuel Lewis, affectionately known as Sufi Sam.

The book had been a gift to Reps and the hand written inscription on the first page read "Hi Reps, may your breath ever be sweet - Love, Wali Ali" (he was one of Sam's students and later also a sufi teacher.)

The message and energy of this short piece has stayed with me, as it's all about vibrations.

Both Sam and Reps were super initiated into the Sufi path by Inayat Khan around the same time in the 1920's and knew each other well.

This prayer has been coming back to me during my morning meditations ever since August when I began this blog, and in this week's mail came a package from England, addressed by a good friend, who had just returned from a short pilgrimage to Egypt. It was a copy of Inayat Khans' Gayan (or songs/prayers/sayings). And one of the first pages I opened was the above prayer.

Reps used to say that you can tell whether a book is a good one or not by holding it in your hands and feeling its vibrations.

Even before I opened this package, I could feel those healing vibrations as I held it in my hands. So Justin, thanks for this gift from the bottom of my heart.