Hazrat Inayat Khan composed four sets of rules to cultivate a morally attuned culture and instill awareness in our inter-relationship with all beings. These belong to the tradition of spiritual chivalry (futuwwa), an essential part of the Sufi path.
General Instructions: At first, the rules may seem self-evident and obvious, but if you work diligently with them, you will find that each rule opens up onto a vast field of inquiry and awareness. For this reason, some take on the rules as a disciplined practice. Starting with the first one, you say a rule out loud every day for forty days and seek to apply it in your life. Then you do the same for the next rule, until all are finished.*
The rules come in four sets of ten rules, forty in all, called the Iron Rules, the Copper Rules, the Silver Rules, and the Golden Rules.
* If you would like to undertake this practice and receive a certification of completion when you are done, please visit the Knighthood of Purity.
Inayatiorder
Kategoria: The Chivalric Futuwwa Rules
The Chivalric Futuwwa Rules
Silver Rule 1: My conscientious self, consider duty as sacred as religion. For just a moment bring to mind a duty that you hold as sacred, a commitment toward …
The Chivalric Futuwwa Rules
Silver Rule 2: My conscientious self, use tact on all occasions. Tact is not deception. Tact is consideration. Murshid says: “Truth that hits like the blow of a hammer …
The Chivalric Futuwwa Rules
Silver Rule 3: My conscientious self, place people rightly in your estimation. What is the risk in overestimating someone, expecting too much? Can you recall such an experience, and …
The Chivalric Futuwwa Rules
Silver Rule 4: My conscientious self, be no more to anyone than you are expected to be. This might take us aback because we feel that it seems stingy …
The Chivalric Futuwwa Rules
Silver Rule 5: My conscientious self, have regard for the feelings of every soul. Now that sounds very challenging! Wouldn’t it incapacitate us? It is difficult enough to bear …
The Chivalric Futuwwa Rules
Silver Rule 6: My conscientious self, do not challenge anyone who is not your equal. When agitation builds up in the ego, one seeks a valve for release, and …
The Chivalric Futuwwa Rules
Silver Rule 7: My conscientious self, do not make a show of your generosity. One of the essential principles of Sufism is the insight that nothing is really random, …
The Chivalric Futuwwa Rules
Silver Rule 8: My conscientious self, do not ask a favor of those who will not grant it you. For a moment let us pause and revive the memory …
The Chivalric Futuwwa Rules
Silver Rule 9: My conscientious self, meet your shortcomings with a sword of self-respect. Shortcomings: we all have them. We are human. We are ephemeral and imperfect. And imperfection …
The Chivalric Futuwwa Rules
Silver Rule 10: My conscientious self, let not your spirit be humbled in adversity. The wheel of fortune continuously revolves and fortunes rise and fall; wealth is gained and …