Shaikh Kabir Helminski is a translator of the works of Rumi and others, a Shaikh of the Mevlevi Order (which traces back to Jalaluddin Rumi), co-director of The Threshold Society (Sufism.org), and director/founder of the Baraka Institute (barakainstitute.org). In 2009 and subsequent years Kabir was named as one of the "500 Most Influential Muslims in the World" by Georgetown University and the Royal Strategic Studies Center (Jordan). He has toured North America as Shaikh with the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey bringing Sufi culture to more than 100,000 people.
The focus of his work has been developing an “applied spirituality,” based in classical Islamic Sufism, that can meet the needs of our time. The Threshold Society offers spiritual training to small groups throughout North America, the UK, the Netherlands, Poland, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
In March 2017 Holistic Islam: Sufism, Consciousness, and The Needs of Our Time will be published by White Cloud Press. His books on spirituality, Living Presence and The Knowing Heart, have been published in at least eight languages. In 2017 Living Presence is being published in a commemorative 25th anniversary edition in the Spiritual Cornerstones series by Penguin Books. Among his recent publications are: Love’s Ripening, Rumi on the Heart’s Journey (Shambhala 2010); and The Rumi Daybook (Shambhala 2012). In total, his books have sold about 250,000 copies.
He regularly writes and blogs for The Huffington Post, Tikkun, Patheos.com, and The Times of India.