BirthDate October 20, 1950 URS date May 19, 2011
1. He was born in Breckenridge TX 20 October 1950. His Urs was 19 May 2011.
2. He was a drummer and leader of the Dances of Universal Peace and a pipe carrier in the Lakotah tradition.
3. He was the love of my life, my most sacred trust and gift given me by the Beloved. We met at a Sufi camp and we hardly separated after that time. I was with him as he passed over. I was so blessed to have him as a husband.
Abdul Qayyoum and Ayesha Haqqiqa
AbdulQayyoum was the kind of person who would literally give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. I still remember being at a Dance camp with him. I’d given him a hand-painted tee shirt of Ganesh which I had made for him. At the end of the camp, another camper expressed a wish to have one like it-and he took it off then and there and presented it to her. As he explained later, he had to do it; he was becoming too attached to it, and it was his policy to give away those things to which he became attached. Besides, he said, he would always have the love with which it was made. He was all about service; the highest compliment he ever got was from Murshida Tasnim Fernandez. We were playing for her at a camp, and after one session, he went up and asked if his playing was satisfactory; Tasnim said, “I didn’t even hear you.” This was his idea of perfect service. To be there, to add something vital, but be so in the background that one wasn’t aware of it.
He was born with a speech impediment, and it was difficult for him to get up in front of people to speak, much less sing. And yet he was able to overcome these difficulties and led Dances in Ft. Worth TX, Fayetteville, Eureka Springs, and Harrison AR, and Springfield MO at various times over the years.
Gods blessings on you and Ayesha who loves you so dearly.
Abdul Qayyoum (Blessings be upon him) had a powerful presence and was an inspiration to me to take up the drum and serve the dances in that way. He did a great job of modeling the role of the musicians and the dance leader; that the drum is an instrument of the drummer, the drummer is an instrument of the dance leader and the dance leader is an instrument of Allah.