Dr. Ali Kianfar is an Iranian American Sufi master of the Uwaiysi Tariqat. He is the co-founder and co-director of the International Association of Sufism, Chief Editor of Sufism: An Inquiry, founder of Sufism Psychology Forum, and founder of the 40 Days Alchemy of Tranquility Program.
Dr. Kianfarwas born in Tehran into a religious family. He graduated from the Police Academy in Tehran, and earned a master’s degree in law and a doctoral degree in Sufism and Islamic Philosophy from the University of Tehran, Iran.
He began his study of Sufism under the guidance of Moulana Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha, a 20th century Persian Sufi master (d. 1980) of the Uwaiysi Tariqa. Dr. Kianfar was among the first of Shah Maghsoud’s students to be given permission to teach and lead Sufi gatherings. He received the title of “Shah Nazar,” (The Sight of the King) given to him by his Sufi master Shah Maghsoud, who also has accepted him as a spiritual son. Dr. Kianfar continued his teachings in Iran and the United States even since.
Dr. Kianfar established a Department of Sufism and Islamic Philosophy at Yuin University in Los Angeles, and served as the chair of that department in 1980. In 1983, together with Dr. Nahid Angha he established the International Association of Sufism (IAS), a non-profit humanitarian organization and United Nations NGO/DGC based in Northern California. IAS was founded to create and provide a global forum for dialogue amongst Sufis, scholars, interfaith leaders, poets, and scientists, and in this same spirit, in 1988, IAS began publishing Sufism, An Inquiry, which remains the world’s longest running publication on Sufism.
In March 1994, IAS organized and held the first Sufism Symposium inviting the participation of the major Sufi Orders from all around the world with the goal of friendship, companionship, dialogue, harmony, and peace.
A few years later, in 1996, Dr. Kianfar organized a group of Sufi musicians, Taneen Sufi Music Ensemble, as a department of IAS. And in 1997, he created the Sufism Psychology Forum and organized a team of experienced Sufi Psychologists to introduce Sufi healing into the field of Psychology. Dr. Kianfar and the team then established Community Healing Centers, CHC to serve the community in different psychotherapy centers and began to publish a Sufi Psychology Forum newsletter.
In 1999, Dr. Kianfar created the 40 Days: Alchemy of Tranquility® program, a Sufi-Psychology system that brings together Western psychology, psychological principles, and Sufi teachings to establish a new and innovative approach in the realm of psychotherapy. This program has continued to the present time
