شاه نعمت‌الله ولی

While giving a series of lectures in Iran for the Commonwealth Club of California, I had the opportunity to visit the
shrine of Shah Nimatullah Vali in Kerman Province. Shah Nimatullah Vali was a Sufi master and poet from the 14th and 15th centuries. He is considered the founder of the Nimatullah Sufi Order. For years, it had been my dream to explore this special Sufi shrine in the Iranian town of Mahan, and I was elated to finally reach it.
I had the chance to photograph every inch of the shrine complex — from the peaceful gardens to the tomb inside. Since I had been familiar with the Nimatullah Sufi Order and its Sufi lodges in Boston, New York, Washington, and California (the Sufi Order can also be found in Mexico, Russia, Western Africa, Australia, and Spain), I kept thinking of those far-flung related sacred spaces from inside the heart of the Order’s most beloved shrine. The Nimatullahi Sufi centers in America were established by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh, a Sufi master and well-known writer on psychiatry and mysticism. About Sufism, he wrote: “The basis of Sufism is consideration of the hearts and feelings of others. If you haven’t the will to gladden someone’s heart, then at least beware lest you hurt someone’s heart, for on our path, no sin exists but this.”