Kabir Edmund Helminski and Camille Hamilton Adams Helminski, founders and directors of the Threshold Society, have been working within the Mevlevi tradition of Sufism for about forty years. Kabir is the author/translator of several books of Sufi poetry, and Kabir and Camille have collaborated on several collections, including Rumi: Daylight, Jewels of Remembrance: 365 Selections from the Wisdom of Rumi,The Rumi Collection, The Pocket Rumi, and The Rumi Daybook: 365 Poems and Teachings from the Beloved Sufi Master. Their books are now translated into at least eight languages.
Kabir Edmund Helminski has developed programs that provide a structure for practice and study within Sufism and spiritual psychology. He has translated many volumes of Sufi literature, including many works of Rumi, and is the author of four books on Sufism: Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness and the Essential Self, was published in 1992 by Jeremy Tarcher/Putnam Publishing Group and reissued for it’s 25th anniversary. A collection of essays, The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation, was published by Shambhala in August 1999. In 2019 Threshold Books published Holistic Islam: Sufism, Transformation, and the Needs of Our Time, a critique of the issues facing Islam in the 21st century. In 2020, Threshold Books published a collection of talks: In the House of Remembering, The Living Tradition of Sufi Teaching. And in 2023 Shambhala published The Mysterion: Rumi and the Secret of Becoming Fully Human.
Kabir began the study of Sufism with Suleyman Hayati of Konya and was officially recognized as a Shaikh of the Mevlevi Order of Sufism in 1990, by the late Celalettin Celebi, Head of the Mevlevi Order. In 1980, he and Camille founded and began co-directing Threshold Books, one of the foremost publishers of Sufi literature. Between 1994 and 2000 they toured with the whirling dervishes of Turkiye, bringing the spiritual culture of the Mevlevis to more than 100,000 people. His books have been translated into Spanish, Portugese, Italian, Dutch, German, Bosnian, Turkish, Russian, Indonesian, Persian, and Arabic. He has an M.A. in Transpersonal Studies from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now Sophia University) and an honorary Ph.D. in literature from Selçuk University, Konya, Turkey.
Kabir has authored two volumes for the Book Foundation, The Book of Language: Exploring the Spiritual Vocabulary of Islam, and The Book of Revelations: A Sourcebook of Selections from the Qur’an.
In 2001 he was the first Muslim to deliver the prestigious Harold M. Wit Lectures on Spirituality in Contemporary Life at Harvard Divinity School. In 2009 Kabir was named as one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in association with Georgetown University. He is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding.
For more than forty years, Kabir’s focus has been developing and sharing a contemporary approach to Sufi concepts and practice, both within the Islamic community and outside of it. Kabir lives with his wife, Camille, near San Diego, California and now focuses on Sufi music, writing, teaching, and developing the resources for a unique contemporary approach to Sufi practice. For more information and videos see: kabirhelminski.com
Camille Hamilton Adams Helminski is Co-Director (and co-founder) of The Threshold Society, a non-profit organization rooted within the traditions of Sufism and dedicated to facilitating the direct personal experience of the Divine.
She has been working within the Mevlevi tradition of Sufism for over forty years and has helped to increase awareness of the integral contribution of women to the spiritual path of Islam with her book, Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure, Stories and Writings of Mystic Poets, Scholars, and Saints. She was also the co-founder and co-director of Threshold Books which helped to bring into English many classic texts of the Sufi tradition. She has co-translated a number of volumes of Sufi literature, including the Sufi classic Awakened Dreams, and Jewels of Remembrance (excerpts of the Mathnawi of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi) and is the first woman to translate a substantial portion of the Qur’an into English: The Light of Dawn: Daily Readings from the Holy Qur’an. She has authored two anthologies for the Book Foundation, The Book of Character: Writings on Virtue and Character from Islamic and Other Sources and The Book of Nature: A Sourcebook of Spiritual Perspectives on Nature and the Environment, as part of a new curriculum for Islamic education. With Refik Algan, she translated the Maqalat, the record of Shams’ teaching conversations, into Rumi’s Sun: The Teachings of Shams of Tabriz. She has helped to provide more in depth understanding of the Mevlevi tradition with the publication of Rumi and His Friends, Stories of the Lovers of God: Excerpts from the Manaqib al-‘Arifin of Aflaki. Her poetic reflections are captured in Ninety-Nine Names of the Beloved, Intimations of the Beauty and Power of the Divine and two volumes of “Songs of the Soul” series: Words from the East and Ramadan Love Songs. She most recently brought forth The Way of Mary: Maryam, Beloved of God which reveals our Oneness in Spirit, across traditions and cultures, nourished by Love.
Camille has been a core faculty member of the Spiritual Paths Foundation which promotes peace, respect, and mutual understanding between peoples of diverse religious and spiritual traditions through programs in Interspirituality rooted in contemplative practice. She is one of the mentors of the Snowmass Interspiritual Dialogue and has also been designated as one of the spiritual leaders of WISE (Women’s Initiative in Islamic Spirituality and Equality).
Kabir and Camille are closely associated with Sufi teachers from other Sufi lineages in Turkey, India, Pakistan, Morocco, and Syria, all of whom are committed to integrating the classical methods with modern needs.