Sweeping Out the Chambers of the Heart A non-residential retreat with Sheikh Muiz Brinkerhoff and Jilani
12-13 September 2026
Calderdale Yoga Centre, Hebden Bridge
Saturday 12 September 10 – 5
Saturday evening Rumi Night 7 – 9.30 pm (entry is £15 – included in the full retreat price)
Sunday 10 – 4
Please bring food to share for lunch each day, and for Saturday evening.
£150 / £130 / £110 self-selecting sliding scale. We have deliberately set the pricing low to help include those whose resources are limited. Please be generous, and you could even consider making an additional donation if you find you are in abundant circumstances. If you can only attend for part of the weekend, or if you are in financial hardship, please contact us. Money should not be an obstacle.
Join us at the Calderdale Yoga Centre after the session on Saturday 12th September for another popular Rumi Night – a beautiful evening of live music, Rumi poetry, sohbet and zikr!
£15 stand-alone price (£10 if booked in advance), included free in the weekend retreat price
https://calderdaleyoga.co.uk The Yoga Centre ask us to remove our shoes, so you might want to bring indoor slippers or thick socks.
Muiz Brinkerhoff, from northern California, USA, has been walking the Sufi Path since 1975, guiding his initiated students since 1987, and offering the Dances of Universal Peace and Sufi spiritual practices internationally from 2003.
He and Jilani have been co-leading evenings, weekend, and week-long retreats since 2016, deeply enjoying and looking forward to each collaboration.
Muiz also offers individual and class-based, formal Sufi training to his and other initiated students, and informal guidance and perspective to those who resonate with his methods for cultivating Waking Up into greater Awareness.
His approach to his own growth and development includes equal measures of common sense practicality, a keen sense of humour, taking his human ego-self very lightly, and ongoing cultivation of gratitude and kindness — which all carry over into his work with individuals and groups.
The combination and balancing of these tools and perspectives seem to be a powerful protection against getting caught up in two common pitfalls on the Spiritual Path: spiritual bypass or a joyless, dour “sober” spirituality.
As an openly-identified gay man since 1975, he has been acknowledged as a trail-blazer and role model by both younger and older LGBTQIA+ and gender non-conforming members of the Ruhaniat and Inayatiyya communities, demonstrating that there is a respected place and spiritual home for them, and helping them feel safer to come out themselves.
Jilani Cordelia Prescott has been a mureed (Sufi student) of Muiz since 2005, taking formal initiation with him in 2007. In 2016 she was empowered to guide her own initiated students, and she has travelled widely since then, working with mureeds and leading retreats based around Sufi practices and the Dances of Universal Peace. It is always a special pleasure and privilege for her to work alongside her beloved guide and teacher Muiz.
