- History of M.T.O. Shahmaghsoudi
- Hazrat Jalaleddin Ali Mir Abolfazl Angha
- Hazrat Mir Ghotbeddin Mohammad Angha
- Molana Shah Maghsoud Sadegh Angha
- Present Sufi Master
M.T.O. Shahmaghsoudi® School of Islamic Sufism
History
"Whoever knows the true self, knows God."
The Holy Prophet Mohammad (pbuh)
Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi® traces its roots through a lineage of successive Sufi Masters extending back to the Holy Prophet Mohammad, Amir-al Mo'menin Ali (peace be upon them) and Oveys Gharani (also written as Uways al-Qarani), who lived in Yemen at the time of the Holy Prophet of Islam.
The sanctity of the message of Islam and the tradition of the Holy Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) were kept intact through an unbroken chain of transmission by the great masters of Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi®. While mainstream Islam fell into the hands of the clerics and jurists, these masters passed on the inner message of Islam through their teachings, writings, and students. The truth of Islam would not have survived had it not been for the selfless sacrifices of these great spiritual leaders.
The name Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi® School of Islamic Sufism is due to the renowned master Oveys Gharani (Uways al-Qarani), whose way of inward cognition was confirmed by the Holy Prophet Mohammad (pbuh). The inspired and revealed spiritual knowledge has been passed down from the time of Hazrat Oveys to Hazrat Salaheddin Ali Nader Angha, the present Master of the school of Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi®, through an unbroken succession of Masters who are well known by historians and scholars.
For 1400 years the Masters have taught students not to be followers, but to be masters of their own lives through self-knowledge.
At times the Prophet would say of Hazrat Oveys , "I feel the breath of the Merciful, coming to me from Yemen." Shortly before the Prophet passed from this life, he directed Omar (second Caliph) and Hazrat Ali (the first Imam of the Shi'a) to take his Cloak to Hazrat Oveys. According to Hujwiri[i], Attar Niyshabpouri [ii]and Sheikh Mohammad Ghader Bagheri [iii], the first recipient of Holy Prophet Mohammad’s (pbuh) Cloak was Oveys Gharani.
In the famous book of poetry, Masnavi, by Jalaleddin Rumi, we find the following by the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) about Oveys Gharani:
The Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) says that the breeze brings O’men!
The divine perfume from Yemen.
The scent of Ramin comes from Veys
The fragrance of God from Oveys.
Oveys’ heavenly perfume from God,
Overjoyed the heart of the Prophet of God.
Forsaking his mortal being willingly
That earthly (Oveys) become heavenly.[iv]
Oveys Gharani says, "Keep watch over thy heart," in Arabic, alayka bi-ghalbik.
In so doing, the Prophet confirmed the method of heart to heart communication through which Hazrat Oveys had received the essence of Islam. The holy cloak is originally known to have been passed for generations from the prophet Abraham to the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh), then to Oveys Gharani and other enlightened teachers thereafter.
The History of the Holy Cloak
The holy cloak is originally known to have been passed for generations from Prophet Mohammad to Hazrat Ali inb Abi Talib (peace be upon them) to Oveys Gharani and Salman Farsi. From that time until the present over a period of 1400 years, the cloak has been in the possession of forty-two enlightened Masters of the M.T.O. School of Islamic Sufism® in unbroken succession. The present cloak–bearer and the 42nd Master of the school is Hazrat Molana Salaheddin Ali Nader Angha.
Hazrat Salaheddin Ali Nader Angha, known as Hazrat Pir, was officially appointed as the forty-second Sufi Master in the unbroken chain of transmission on September 4, 1970, when the Holy Cloak of guidance was bestowed upon him by Hazrat Shah Maghsoud Sadegh Angha, his great master and beloved father.
Hazrat Pir’s mother, Mah-Talat Etemad Moghadam, writes the following about her son in her book From the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) to the Great Sufi Mir Ghotbeddin Mohammad, which traces the unbroken succession of the Sufi Masters in the Oveyssi Order: "In the year one thousand three hundred and forty-nine S.H. [September 4, 1970], in one of the guiding sessions held in the presence of Hazrat Shah Maghsoud, with the attendance of a great number of devotees; and with the confirmation of Benevolent Allah, he was blessed by receiving the Cloak of Faqr from the hands of his father."
Hazrat Shah Maghsoud in Hamaseh Hayat (Epic of Life) states:
"The Cloak of Oveyssi Faghr* we hold, and we announce,
The Faghr status we manifest is that utter richness"
*Faghr - poverty: reaching a state of abundant knowledge.
The method of the passing of the Cloak represents two significant elements in the teachings of the Holy Prophet which constitute the method of instruction of the School of Islamic Sufism: cognition must take place inwardly, and cognition must be confirmed --as it was in the case of Hazrat Oveys, and Amir al-Mo'menin.
Since that time, the cloak and the method of receiving knowledge through the heart, symbolizing the highest level of Divine Illumination, and conferring honor, recognition, and respect on the recipient, has been handed down through an unbroken succession of Sufi Masters. This significant act creates the only hierarchy within the M.T.O. School of Islamic Sufism®. The designated Sufi Master, called the Pir, is the essence of the Sufi Way.
Hazrat Pir's spiritual journey began in his childhood, under the tutelage of his grandfather Hazrat Mir Ghotbeddin Mohammad Angha, who was the 40th Sufi Master of the Oveyssi School. His training continued under the guidance of his father, Molana Shah Maghsoud Sadegh Angha.
Hazrat Salaheddin Ali Nader Angha, like all the great Sufi Masters of M.T.O.®, teaches the true principles of Islamic Sufism and presents them in scientific language. Under his direct supervision, the M.T.O.® centers across the world present the Sufi teachings to guide each person to know and achieve tranquility through self-cognition and also discovering and developing their individual abilities.
Sufism, as taught in M.T.O. School of Islamic Sufism®, is a method and a way that shows human beings how to discover the eternity that lies within them, not bound to custom, tradition, race, personal or social ideologies, so that they may know the truth of their being, and thus live in harmony and peace with themselves and with others.
People are free to attend M.T.O.® classes regardless of their ethnic and religious backgrounds to know about the reality of religion. Over 500,000 students attend M.T.O.® centers located throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia.
Genealogy of Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi®
The Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBH)
Amir-al-Mo'menin Ali (PBH)
1- Hazrat Oveys Gharani* & Hazrat Salman Farsi
2- Hazrat Moosa ibn Zaid Habib-ibn Salim Ra'i
3- Hazrat Soltan Ebrahim Adham
4- Hazrat Abu Ali Shaqiq Balkhi
5- Hazrat Sheikh Abu Torab Nakhshabi
6- Hazrat Sheikh Abi Amr Istakhri
7- Hazrat Abu Ja'far Hazza
8- Hazrat Sheikh Kabir Abu Abdollah Mohammad ibn Khafif Shirazi
9- Hazrat Sheikh Hossein Akkar
10- Hazrat Sheikh Morshed Abu-Isshaq Shahriar Kazerouni
11- Hazrat Khatib Abolghassem Abdolkarim
12- Hazrat Khatib Abolhasan Ali ibn Hassan Salebeh Basri
13- Hazrat Khatib Abolfath Serajeddin Mahmoud Mahmoudi Sabouni Beyzavi
14- Hazrat Sheikh Abu Abdollah Rouzbehan Baghli Shirazi
15- Hazrat Sheikh Najmeddin Kobra Khivaghi (Tammat-al-Kobra)
16- Hazrat Sheikh Raziyeddin Ali Lala Ghaznavi
17- Hazrat Sheikh Ahmad Zaker Jowzeghani
18- Hazrat Noureddin Abdolrahman Esfarayeni
19- Hazrat Sheikh Alaoddowleh Semnani
20- Hazrat Mahmoud Mazdaghani
21- Hazrat Amir Seyyed Ali Hamedani (Ali Sani)
22- Hazrat Sheikh Ahmad Khatlani
23- Hazrat Seyyed Mohammad Abdollah Ghatifi al-Hasavi Noorbakhsh
24- Hazrat Shah Ghassem Feyzbakhsh
25- Hazrat Hossein Abarghoui Janbakhsh
26- Hazrat Darvish Haj Mohammad Sodakhari Sabzevari
27- Hazrat Darvish Malek Ali Joveyni
28- Hazrat Darvish Ali Sodeyri
29- Hazrat Darvish Kamaleddin Sodeyri
30- Hazrat Darvish Mohammad Mozaheb Karandehi (Pir Palandouz)
31- Hazrat Mir Mohammad Mo'men Sodeyri Sabzevari
32- Hazrat Mir Mohammad Taghi Shahi Mashhadi
33- Hazrat Mir Mozaffar Ali
34- Hazrat Mir Mohammad Ali
35- Hazrat Seyyed Shamseddin Mohammad Noorbakhshi (Mohammad Amin)
36- Hazrat Haj Abdolvahab Naini
37- Hazrat Haj Mohammad Hassan Kouzekanani Naini (Tajbakhsh)
38- Hazrat Pir Agha Abdolghader Jahromi
39- Hazrat Jalaleddin Ali Mir Abolfazl Angha
40- Hazrat Mir Ghotbeddin Mohammad Angha
41- Hazrat Molana Shah Maghsoud Sadegh Angha
42- Hazrat Salaheddin Ali Nader Angha
* The conventional Arabic transliteration is Uways al-Qarani
