Accompanying this letter was an invitation to Center Leaders and Teachers of the Ruhaniat, which generously included me, for November 11 and 12 at Noor Mahal. In the invitation, it was stated: "Main topics will include a complete disclosure from Murshid Moineddin as to his health and his intuition concerning a definite transition of leadership and responsibility in the Ruhaniat." See Moineddin's letter to Taj dated October 28, 1978 for a report on that meeting.

Sufi Islamia Ruhaniat Society

Noor Mahal

758 D Street

Petaluma, California 94952

September 29, 1978

My dear Mansur,

Peace be with you!

Thanks for your letter of September 25. By golly, your handwriting more and more resembles the delicate penmanship of Pir Vilayat—except I can read yours! That can make all the difference in the world.

You say, “I sometimes wish I had a friend I could write to and tell him how I felt this moment or another without worrying about whether I was giving in to a psychological attitude which wasn’t good for me.”

I say, you have such a friend. Gosh, you could send me a blank page, and I’d read the perfect intention behind it. I suppose if we were true followers of the Buddha, an occasional blank page would serve to remind us of the omniscient Sunyata—without remembrance of which mental purification would be impossible! You have such a friend, Mansur; actually, you’d better make it plural: you have more than one such friend, alhamdulillah!

By the way, about that color shot of Murshid I wrote about. As it happens, Basira left her copy of the picture in Ayesha’s safekeeping when she left the area late last spring. It has been sitting on her altar ever since; but yesterday Ayesha drove up to Noor Mahal and placed the picture in my keeping until such time as Basira should ask for its return. Anyhow, it looks like it is in my keeping indefinitely—and I promise not to have any prints made.

However, since you mentioned in a recent letter that you may have lost the original negative, I would be only too happy to have a print and negative made and sent to you. If you wish this, just let me know. I wholeheartedly respect your inspiration to use the picture for the cover of your Murshid book, inshallah. It is really perfect for that.

“The Ninety-nine Names bewhisper resurrection’s art:

Behold the lilies of the field of Heart.”

Love and blessings,

Moineddin