In the Loop

 

 Murshid saw Hazrat Inayat Khan in Moineddin. While not a master musician by profession, Moineddin's tenor solo on "Turning", a Sufi Choir classic was truly memorable.

This chapter is called "In the Loop" because it involves correspondence Moineddin had with other writers that he shared with Mansur; namely, to Siddiq [Hans von Briesen] and from Noor-i-din [Steve Durkee]. The occasion for Moineddin’s sharing his letter to Siddiq is the upcoming work camp to build a pilgrim’s hut near Murshid’s maqbara at Lama Foundation in New Mexico. Moineddin invited me [January 22, 1976] as Pir Vilayat had appointed me Khadim [guardian] of the maqbara. 

As I looked over these letters, I was filled with wonder about whether Lama would actually fund my trip to the camp from Boston. The answer appears in the March 9, 1976 letter below from Siddiq to Moineddin. Shortly after on March 12, 1976, Noor-i-din wrote on long letter on the relation between the American Sufis and Islam. It took days to copy it here, because the zerox copy was dim, and I had to use a magnifying glass to discern and copy the letter phrase by phrase. I took the time to do this because Noor-i-din’s challenge to Murshid’s presentation was sincere and may be the reason Pir Shabda Kahn was eager to change the name from SIRS to SRI, the Sufi Islamia Ruhaniat Society to Sufi Ruhaniat International: to avoid facing confrontations like the one Noor presents in the letter below dated March 12, 1976. 

Moineddin included with his letter the program from the San Francisco Interfaith Bicentennial Music Festival, held at Civic Auditorium on June 27, 1976. Besides a performance by the Sufi Choir of "Bismillah Er-Rahman Er-Raheem," was a song by the St. Mary's Cathedral Choir & St. Francis Assisi Catholic Church Choir, a rendition of "Kyrie Eleison," Cantor David Unterman singing "I hope in God," the San Francisco Inspirational Choir doing "The Only One," the Greek Orthodox Choir with a cantor answered by the choir, the Sikh Dharma Brotherhood Jatta singing "Anand Sahib (Song of Bliss)," the Ministers of the Buddhist Churches of America chanting the "Tri Ratna," with repeat performances by many of the above, including "Turning" by the Sufi Choir, featuring Moineddin's stirring solo mentioned above.