Welcome

Murshids · SamaSangha

Murshids Halima and Abraham

Murshida Halima and Murshid Abraham Sussman are senior mentor teachers in the Sufi Ruhaniat and Dances of Universal Peace lineages, inspired musicians, and experienced guides in the path of the awakening heart. They share joy and clarity arising from their own practice and tap a depth that arises from a lifetime of integrating spiritual practice, psychological exploration, and a love of the natural world. They travel and teach internationally, returning home to Massachusetts, local family, and sangha.

Halima seeded her love of the Sufi path in Murshid Sam’s Marin Dance Meeting.

Abraham is an original mureed of Murshid Sam.

Our Roots

In Sufism the silsila is the unbroken chain of heart-to-heart transmission from teacher to student. Ours flows through the Sufi Ruhaniat International.

Hazrat Inayat Khan

1882–1927

Pir-o-Murshid · Founder of the Sufi Message in the West

Hazrat Inayat Khan was born on July 5, 1882, in Baroda, India, into a family in which music and devotion were inseparable. His maternal grandfather, Maula Bakhsh — remembered as "the Beethoven of…

“Truth is a divine inheritance found in the depth of every human heart.”

→

Murshid Samuel Lewis

1896–1971

Murshid · Creator of the Dances of Universal Peace

Samuel Leonard Lewis — known to his students as Murshid SAM, and to the San Francisco newspapers as "Sufi Sam" — was born in San Francisco on October 18, 1896. His father, Jacob Lewis, rose from…

“One of the reasons I am teaching this music and dancing is to increase Joy, not awe towards another person, but bliss…”

→

Pir Moineddin Jablonski

1942–2001

Pir · Sufi Ruhaniat International, 1971–2001

Pir Moineddin Carl Jablonski (January 1, 1942 – February 27, 2001) was the first spiritual successor of Murshid Samuel L. Lewis, known to his students as Murshid SAM, and he guided our lineage — then …

“I am not Murshid; we are Murshid. I do not have all the answers; we may have the answers.”

→

Pir Shabda Kahn

Pir · Sufi Ruhaniat International, since 2001

Pir Shabda Kahn is the present lineage holder of the Sufi Ruhaniat International, the stream of the Sufi message that flows from Hazrat Inayat Khan through Murshid Samuel Lewis. Born Peter Kahn in…

“Here's a great line for everyone to practice in order to make friends with life: This is how it is right now.”

→

Elders and healers whose lives and work touched this lineage and the Cambridge community.

Frida Waterhouse

1907–1987

Godparent of the lineage · Seer & spiritual counselor

Frida Waterhouse (October 12, 1907 – November 18, 1987) was born in Gloversville, New York, to Jewish parents. Her early childhood was marked by…

Karmu

Healer of Cambridge

Karmu was a healer of Cambridge, Massachusetts — an auto mechanic by trade who, from his home, gave healing to everyone who came to see him, and…