Human beings aren’t what they are from the outset. Endowed with reason and free will, it is our duty to bring about humanity within ourselves by actively engaging in our process of spiritual perfection. But in order to direct our efforts toward real spiritual perfection, we need a road map to show us which way to go and how to actually get there. In this regard, Ostad Elahi talks about a right to divine guidance, which is the logical consequence of our duty to perfect ourselves.

Ostad Elahi has often insisted on the importance of the principle of causality in spirituality. This principle can be summed up in a simple phrase: nothing happens without a cause. The first consequence that follows is that it is—in principle—always possible to trace back the cause or causes that lead to a specific effect. As […]

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This Februray 28th will be the 95th anniversary of Hadj Nemat’s departure. The following excerpts from Prof. During’s The Spirit of Sounds emphasize the particular circumstances that accompanied Hadj Nemat’s spiritual conversion and the process through which he gradually came to be known and revered as a mystical pole. They also contain indications regarding certain salient aspects of his personality, such as his unfailing faith and courage.

A lecture and a series of concerts presented on 16 November 2014 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition The Sacred Lute: The Art of Ostad Elahi are now available in video on the website of the museum. This “Sunday at the Met” features an introduction by Ken Moore, Curator in Charge of the Department of Musical Instruments, a lecture by Jean During, Director of Research at the Centre de Recherche en Ethnomusicologie and performances by the Garcia-Fons Quartet and Parissa and Ensemble.

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In a book about self-esteem, the French psychiatrist Christophe André cites a number of social psychology studies according to which, in any given field, most of us feel just a little bit superior to the average person. We feel a bit more skilled, a bit more intelligent, we think that we have better taste, etc. “Based on these studies taken as a whole, he writes, 67 to 96% of people overestimate themselves in comparison to their peers. And that phenomenon is fully subconscious…”

If this is true when it comes to professional skills or taste, it is also true, and perhaps even more so, when it comes to ethics. Indeed, while we may sometimes nurture an inferiority complex with regards to our looks, general knowledge or intelligence, we rarely have similar doubts with regards to our moral values.

The musician, composer and writer Clive Bell dedicates his November column in the British music magazine The Wire to Ostad Elahi’s music and the current exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “The Sacred Lute: The Art of Ostad Elahi”.

Ken Moore, Curator in charge of the Department of Musical Instruments at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gives a tour of the exhibition “The Sacred Lute: The Art of Ostad Elahi” on NYC-ARTS’s latest episode.

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.