/April Message 2026
Beloved Family, After a 25-hour journey, I returned from Türkiye and Tunisia on Tuesday, April 14. On April 19, Tamam and I celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary! My hosts in Türkiye were my mureed Sinan and his wife Laylah who became my mureed April 1st! |
| We visited Patara, old Roman ruins on the southern Mediterranean coast. |
| We enjoyed the seaside town of Fethiye and had a one-day retreat with the locals. |
| On April 1-5, after a four-hour drive, we gathered with some 80+ folks at a retreat center an hour from Izmir near the ancient city of Ephesus. |
| Many people joined us from Iran after their long overland journey, thanks to the financial generosity of our family. Three women joined from Taiwan! Israel/Palestine was represented as was Kazakhstan. Several of my mureeds joined from Russia. And as we gathered it was heartwarming to feel that several hundred devotees also gathered at Atlantida Ecovillage in Colombia, South America for their annual Easter week retreat. |
| The hallway in our Retreat center, shown above, in Sirince, Türkiye |
Supporting me in the teaching and dance leading were Murshida Dakini from Estonia, now living in the UK, and Aliela from Moscow; I am so grateful to them both for their masterful support. We had a sweet mureeds gathering during the retreat. Please also welcome new mureed, Gunce Taspinar from Türkiye. |
| Immediately after the retreat in Türkiye we flew to Tunisia for another retreat. With several days off and hosted by my Dance mentee Mustapha, we visited many Sufi shrines and enjoyed the people, beauty, birds and food of Tunisia. |
| We met at a beautiful retreat center in "Village Ken" with some 40+ devotees. How powerful to lead the dances and give a Sufi retreat in a "Muslim" country! Naturally, everyone was just like you and me! |
Thursday, I travel to Portland for the Jamiat Ahm. Join Murshid(a)s Abraham and Halima and myself June 24-28 for the Lama Foundation Sufi Sesshin. July is the 52nd Annual Mendocino Sufi Camp. With all the turmoil in the world I suggest we return to reciting Amaan, which we did about 1 1/2 years ago. Much love, Shabda |
Wazifa Practice Recite 101x YA AMAAN “Ya Amaan means 'O the One Who gives safety and security'. Also generally, Amaan or Al-Amaan is used with Al-Hafeez which means: We seek refuge in Allah. It also means 'O God! have mercy! save us! preserve or protect us!" Pir Zia has written: "Reciting Amaan expresses our ardent and urgent prayer for the complete stoppage of the systematic destruction of human lives in these regions, the free flow of vital aid in the form of food, water, and medicine, the expeditious rebuilding of hospitals, schools, and neighborhoods, and the appropriate addressing of the rights of individuals and communities. Please continue to keep the living thought of peace and justice at the forefront of your mind and heart and continue the daily recitation of Amaan until the harrowing bloodshed ends, and it cannot end soon enough.” |
Text and Commentary to Study This month we continue studying the Sangatha Cosmic Language of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan with commentary by Murshid Samuel Lewis. Read and contemplate Chapter 13 on Intuition, pages 113- 123 Click below to download |
BIRDS IN TÜRKIYE |
BIRDS IN TUNISIA |
LOCAL BIRDS |
