In the execution of my duties as a judge, Ostad Elahi said, I would do things that no one else dared to do, for I was answerable to God, not to the Ministry, and was not afraid of anyone. The following anecdote—a translated excerpt from the collection of Ostad Elahi’s sayings (Words of Truth), who departed from this world just forty years ago on 19 October 1974—provides a concrete example of the above. It shows how sincere faith is also a source of boldness and unshakable trust.

John Schaefer showcases an excerpt of the special commemorative CD-book issued by the Metropolitan Museum and Harmonia Mundi for the exhibit, “The Sacred Lute: The Art of Ostad Elahi”, on the New Sounds programme of 30 September 2014 (Episode #3643), on WNYC.

An exhibit opens this week at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, wholly devoted to the musical heritage of Ostad Elahi.

The exhibition runs from Aug. 5 2014 to Jan. 11 2015. Exhibition Location: The Hagop Kevorkian Fund Special Exhibition Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

What better way to honour Ostad Elahi’s memory, than through the account of those who have met him in person? The following testimonial, among others, was made available by ostadelahi.com. The Editorial Board would like to thank ostadelahi.com for sharing it with us.

I first met Ostad Elahi on an autumn day in 1963 in Tehran (I am French and at the time had been living in Tehran for 5 years). It was in the spring of 1964 that I really became his student. At first, the gatherings did not take place on fixed dates or at regular intervals. Gradually, a group formed that would convene once, sometimes twice a week; occasionally larger gatherings were also held in which many people participated. These larger gatherings would usually form to commemorate religious celebrations. In addition to these gatherings, some people used to visit him on certain evenings. I prefer to mostly talk about those informal gatherings, for it was during those sessions that Ostad Elahi would convey the majority of his teachings.

Prayer is the most universal spiritual practice. It connects the spirit of human beings to the Divine, thus preventing them from forgetting Him. But it also enables one to revert back to oneself, to one’s true dimension, which is spiritual in nature.

Ostad Elahi practiced prayer in various forms since childhood and referred to the essential conditions of prayer many times in his works. Some of his recommendations regarding prayer can be found in Words of Faith: Prayers of Ostad Elahi, which was published on the occasion of the centennial of his birth.

Ostad Elahi delivered the main thrust of his conception of wisdom in a prayer entitled “The Quintessence of Religions”. Leili Anvar chose this angle to shed some light in a concrete and personal way on some of the subtlest aspects of this thought which, while taking root in the mystical tradition, reverses the prevailing trend by replacing reason at its rightful place in the process of spiritual perfection. The question of evil, the meaning of true ethics and true humanness and the importance of faith are among the themes dealt with in this analysis.

Leili Anvar is Lecturer in Persian Literature at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales in Paris and a specialist in mystic poetry. This lecture was given on 10 September 2011 as part of a symposium organised by the Fondation Ostad Elahi around the question “What wisdom for our times?”.

Ostad Elahi was born on September 11, 1895. On the occasion of his 116th birthday, it was only natural to pay him homage by reviewing some of the salient aspects of his life and works. In the preface to his translation of Knowing the Spirit (SUNY, 2006), Prof. James Morris draws from various sources, including autobiographical conversations and remarks by Ostad himself. This lively portrait of an outstanding 20th century spiritual figure manages to uncover the inner connections between the rich and varied experiences of a lifetime and the central notions of a philosophy. The following excerpt is published with the kind authorization of the author and SUNY Press.

Nūr ‘Alī Elāhī—or Ostad Elahi (“Master” Elahi), the honorific by which he is most widely known today—was born on September 11, 1895 in Jeyhunabad, a village in western Iran(1). The outward course of his life, as he described it in autobiographical conversations and remarks during his later years,(2) falls into three distinct periods: his childhood and youth, entirely devoted to traditional forms of ascetic and religious training; his active public career, for almost thirty years, as a prosecutor, magistrate, and high-ranking judge; and the period of his retirement, more openly devoted to spiritual teaching and writing (including the composition of Knowing the Spirit), when he became well known as a religious thinker, philosopher, and theologian, as well as a musician. Ostad Elahi’s own later description of those outward events, summarized in a few of his sayings quoted further on, helps bring out the inner connections between those different periods of his life and the broader lessons he was able to draw from those very different activities and experiences.

This is a short excerpt from the French TV program “Les Chemins de la Foi” (The Routes of Faith) broadcasted on March 27, 2011. The significance of Ostad Elahi and Malek Jân Nemati’s spiritual heritage is discussed during an interview of two specialists of the mystical traditions of Iran: Leili Anvar, Associate Professor of Persian […]

James Morris, Ph. D., is professor of Theology at Boston College. A specialist of islamic philosophy, he has written authoritative studies on Ibn ’Arabi and Mulla Sadra’s metaphysics. His most recent publications include a translation of Ostad Elahi’s Knowing the Spirit (SUNY, 2006), a book which he also prefaced and annotated.

In first part of this video interview published by ostadelahi-indepth.com, Prof. Morris discusses the reasons that led him to study this particular work. He emphasises its relevance and place in today’s modern world by explaining how Ostad Elahi invites his readers to relate the arguments developed in his study to their own personal spiritual experience.

In this article published in december 1997 in the magazine L’Être et l’esprit, Bahram Elahi presents his conception of “natural spirituality,” reviewing its fundamental principles. “Natural spirituality” is a spirituality adapted to the very nature of man, it involves a daily practice based on what he calls “natural meditation”. “Natural spirituality” is not related to […]