My heart.
My love for this beautiful woman continues.
She was a mentor a guiding song. a healing presence and a dear friend.
Seeing her dancing in a purple Sari with bells on her ankles.
” it’s.cultural appropriation on earth, but not here. I am free ! You’l see !”
In her masterful tone of wit and charm and humor.
She is throwing her head back, laughing.in harmony with those bells.as she spins.
Shimering purple Sari silk flowing in spirals.
I remember Mahdiah as a powerful soul with strong convictions. She was ready to express her concerns about our organization and share her wisdom about what needed to be done. Her counsel was full of caring and she was always open to hearing other points of view. I enjoyed her quick sense of humor and readiness to laugh at herself. Her interests in Jungian therapy and Sufi inquiry communicated a sense of the depth of her soul, her inquiring mind and compassionate heart. As a sensitive and insightful leader and guide she influenced many members of our family, helping them to a better understanding of themselves and a more fulfilling life.
Thank you, dear Devi, for letting us know that Mahdiah has gone beyond.
Through the years, Mahdiah was such a dedicated worker for the Message and a friend to all. Her spirit, inclusive vast mind, wisdom, and powerful healing services, supported so many of us on the path.
I will miss hearing her voice and enjoying her ease with life as it is.
Bon voyage, dear Mahdiah! May she be free, full of joy and bliss.
with love and light,
Aqdas
Mahdiah and I met 37 years ago in Los Angeles. In the past 20 years our ongoing spiritual friendship blossomed and I learned so much from her about Sufi healing and ways to be in the world. She was a sage; funny; had a deep institutional history of our Order;had a big healing presence; possessed a great “crap detector” with good ideas to improve many things; showed big compassion;had a sense of higher purpose; and was a good cook! We co-taught several Leaders’ Training modules. As a physician, I sometimes disagreed with her way to heal/treat things but we always respected each other’s views. As a Shafayat, I learned from her some healing techniques I never knew. I feel immense gratitude that I knew this light-filled being, who was a wonderful friend, and I know she is now at peace and in the Light of the Beloved. Ya Salaam!
Alia Eileen Yager
Denver
Dear Friends,
Mahdiah was one of my teachers in my ongoing Healing Conductor’s training.
I learned the healing conductor practices from her, and I do them exactly the way she taught.
Remembering and reliving that wonderful experience.
After leading the practices we would say the Healing Conductor’s Prayer, and with this mischievous twinkle in her eye, she would say, Happy Presence, and smile.
That presence is radiant in my heart, and I feel such love.
Thank you dear Mahdiah for all you have brought into this life.
Blessings on your journey on.
Love,
Zahur
A giant of the Inayati Order has journey to her eternal home. Mahdiah’s sparkling light will forever illuminate the hearts of those who knew her. She was a gift of insight, humor, compassion, healing, and joy and will be sorely missed. Shine on, dear friend.
Mahdiah’s compassionate heart blesses others.
I am grateful for her loving heart that prompts us to reach out in kindness and compassion to uplift the spirits of others.
I am also reminded that every act of kindheartedness that Mahdiah shared, no matter how small, created a ripple effect that inspired kindness and generosity in others and ultimately blessed the world.
Thank you Mahdiah for making a heart difference in so many lives.
We remember, we remember, for our hearts could never forget.
Dearest Family and Friends of Beloved Mahdiah,
I am sending you my sincerest condolences.
I feel very blessed to have had Mahdiah as one of my teachers and retreat guides for the recent Healing Retreat Guide Training, and as one of my teachers for the current Healing Conductor Training. Even though I only knew her for a few years, the impression she made upon my heart is great and everlasting. I appreciated her great wisdom, experience, and healing, loving nature. I also valued her honesty, realness, confidence, gentleness, and acceptance. Mahdiah’s presence was great, and I know that I and others felt very seen and appreciated by her, which meant a lot. May you all be comforted by her enduring love for you, and yours for her. Mahdiah, thank you for being you, and I send you much love, thanks, and peace. Salima Jenn Greaves
on 24 Aug 2023 at 2:16 pm10Karima Jan Busco-Diskan
I first encountered Mahdiah (then Shafiya) at Sufi retreats in the ’80s and felt so comforted in her presence and always since then I’ve been very connected to her across time and space. I remember new moon retreats and healing activities in So. Cal. Then more than thirty years passed.
Just over a year ago in a time of pain and troubles, I found her again — and she invited me to join the healing service she was leading on Zoom. Today, I am blessed to still be in that same circle and it has helped bring me through some very difficult times into a still unfolding transition. Thank you Mahdiah/Shafiya for your gifts of beauty and healing.
There is so much to say. You were strong, independent, you always led by example and taught us so many lessons not just in a formal way of you leading retreats, workshops, but even when we worked together on different projects.
I loved being with you in classes or co-teaching, or just listening to your wisdom. Now thinking back to all the years I have known you I never got to ask you so many questions. But something tells me you will never stop teaching and supporting me. Travel well Dear!
Mahdiah.
Dear friend.
One great memory of you:
When you were married to George and living in Los Angeles we would meet often. I remember you calling your precious son ‘PRECIOUS’. I started called my two boys Precious 1 and Precious 2.
He is/was indeed precious to you and continues to be in life.
“On the day that I die when I’m being carried toward the grave don’t weep. Don’t say, She’s gone. She’s gone. Death has nothing to do with going away. The sun sets and the moon sets but they’re not gone. Death is a coming together. The tomb looks like a prison but it’s really release into union. The human seed goes down in the ground like a bucket into the well where Joseph is. It grows and comes up full of some unimaginable beauty. Your mouth closes here and immediately opens with a shout of joy there. ” Rumi
Peace, Musawwira
on 24 Aug 2023 at 11:40 pm13Abdul Shafee Ballinger
Gratefully remembering Mahdiah: I didn’t know her well but I did attende classes in Spiritual Healing that she conducted, and the Sufi Healing Services originated by Hazrat Inayat Khan when she led them. I recognized her profound caring and deep attunement to the healing work. May her soul’s journey onward be full of light!
I send heartfelt wishes for a joyful homecoming, and peace.
Mahdiah impressed me with her kindness, clarity, humility and power as a healer. This last Spring I had an exchange with her after she attended an Introduction to the Knighthood class, where she asked a question that struck me. It was about whether, without having undergone the whole process of being a Herald and a Knight, she could support and guide those who had/were. It was impressive that someone of her deep and long experience on the path would ask that! In our exchange she said “It is important to me to always be a student.” What a gift she has been!
Mahdiah was a great retreat guide, SHO colleague and friend on the path. We were roommates on the Rainbow Tour with Devi and the Grandmothers, and had a wonderful time throughout. Mahdiah would set me straight when I needed it, including when I first met her and received a call from my parents who got stranded while traveling. The call cut off and I was a bit unsettled, but Mahdiah quickly reminded me that they could do fine without me. We went on a boat ride up and down the Erie Canal once when she was visiting and she told me the amazing story of how her father’s brother was reunited with the family after being separated during the Holocaust, when he was mentioned on a radio show, heard by a friend of her father’s and found. Mahdiah was a gifted healer who worked with deep trauma. She seemed to know everyone and had many touching and often funny stories to tell. I will miss her very much and am grateful to have known her. Her friendship and her being are a treasure in my life. May the blessings of God rest upon you, my dear friend.
on 25 Aug 2023 at 12:56 am16Zebunissa Pamela Overeynder
Dear Sister of the Light,
You lived a good and beautiful life, faithful to your calling as a psychotherapist and as a worker for the Message. We are already missing your physical presence, your quick and intelligent mind, your truth-speaking heart,your eagerness to learn and to find countless ways to serve humanity. Since I met you I have often thought I would like to have you guide me on retreat and now in your physical absence, I feel you guiding me and so many others as we hold the grief of your passing with the joy we feel for your return journey. May you travel well as you return to the arms of your Beloved. Love, Love, Love.
Thank you for being my friend. I will miss sharing time with you, but will visit in my heart. Thank you for your sincerity, dedication and attunement to the Message.
Return again, return to the home of your soul.
Dear family of Mahdiah: I am so sorry for your loss. Please know that Mahdiah was very loved and appreciated by all who knew her in the Inayati Order. Mahdiah was a big presence, without even trying. Her magnetism drew many to her and made her presence felt in any room she was in. She was warm-hearted, wise, witty, supportive, friendly, kind, a good listener, a good story teller, real, truthful, funny, caring, in essence, a beautiful giving person with a healing personality! I am trying to fill this hole I am feeling at Mahdiah’s loss with all the light which I am feeling from the wonderful memories of Mahdiah that I have and now with all the comments I am reading from others who loved her too and from the imagined light of her presence continuing on to the next phase of her life’s journey, as an illuminated soul, part of the Spirit of Guidance. Love, Karima G.
Oh My! tears are immediate, Mahdiah your presence engulfs my heart, expands beyond the beyond.
Most recently in Zoom sessions Mahdiah always expressed a sincerity to listen, to be curious, to share from her place of knowing, to give understanding. On a more personal note, dear Mahdiah’s presence at our 2005 wedding in India was so special. She shared her joy and her matter of factness as we danced to Quwali singers, ate with our fingers and took the 3 day drive across the Himalayas.
I am truly honored to share this path where we can continue to feel your strength and light from the unseen.
on 25 Aug 2023 at 12:44 pm21Ruhiya Cynthia Mitchell
Mahdiah,
We were just getting started ,and yet, your encouragement already brought healing to my heart.
I shall behold your Light in the moon and the stars.
Thank you,
A step toward your own heart
Mahdiah,
“I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way”
Gratitude for your healing balm when it was needed and your inspiration that ignited a fire to move us forward. May your love, clear focus and dedication continue to resonate in our hearts
I met Mahdiah in 1985 in her Manhattan Beach California office where she had her psychotherapy practice and also conducted Sufi classes. I had just returned from a year in Europe, and of travelling in the Middle East. The tensions and enmity which I saw in my travels between Palestinians and Israelis were difficult for me to see. I had been influenced by Jewish culture in college but through my travels had been opened to the beauty of Sufism.
I was in search of a Sufi teacher. Mahdiah seemed to be an answer to the troubled prayers of my heart. She was both a Jew and a Sufi, something I had never encountered before meeting her. Shortly after meeting her I was invited to a Passover observance. The table was attended by multiple Sufi’s celebrating Passover! What a wonderful contradiction and miracle, an antidote to the tensions I had seen on my travels. I was initiated by her and became her Mureed for most of my “Sufi life”
I have wonderful memories: Mahdiah’s Winter Solstice – nightlong meditations, a beautiful celebration of Solstice with a fun women’s sleepover vibe; Women’s Healing retreat in the San Rafael Retreat centre. She seemed to discover beautiful places. Mahdiah loved the beautiful and was so wonderful at creating beautiful atmospheres which were also filled with lots of laughter and fun. Another group retreat stands out in my memory in the 1990s, a transgender woman in our group who cried at the end of the retreat with gratitude because Mahdiah engendered such a sacred and healing atmosphere within our group.
Mahdiah spoke often of believing in the “transformative power” of the process in our Sufi tradition, that people would change almost unrecognizably for the better. She attributed witnessing this from her contact with Pir Vilayat and through the Sufi teachings. I saw in her life the changes she underwent, the growth in wisdom, grace and depth. I held onto this idea with hope as there were things in my life and personality which I desperately wished to change. At one point she even told me out right “this must stop” and it did through the love, work and prayer I was lucky enough to have in my life.
As a Mureed I feel bereft and somewhat lost. I feel deepest gratitude for her presence in my life, for the love she shared and nurtured from the teachings of the Inayatiyaa.
I remember her beloved family and cherished friends and wish them Long Life, Good Health and the blessing of Peace in this time of loss. With Kindest Regards FaristaV
Mahdiah was my dear and treasured Elder Sister on the Path, and I depended upon her to keep me straight when I was taking the Universe’s occasional petty hazing a little over-seriously.
Her integration of the deepest Sufi teachings and psychological insight — which she *lived*, not just talked — was, I believe, underappreciated the way quiet greatness is often underappreciated in this world.
I love Mahdiah’s superior sense of humor, her ability to rise above the banal and mundane. She was an extremely gifted teacher for me. I told her frequently that her story of her life as a mureed was important and needed to be captured for new comers etc. Her stories were legendary. No doubt she is weaving new accounts with her soulful luminous heart.
Dear, dear Mahdiah,
Once upon a time at Sufi camp, I received some unexpected initiations and was wandering around open-mouthed, like a stunned mullet as they say in Australia. And there you were, standing firm on the Earth, with laughter and comfort and some practical steps to help me get started. Over the years you’ve offered me guidance and friendship and reality checks … and inspiration and extasy and delight. Friend, teacher, elder – you continue to be a powerful light in my life. May the Blessed Holy One whisper beautiful secrets in your ear forevermore. Shalom … Salaam … HU
” We need in love, to practice only this: letting each other go.
For holding on comes easily; we do not need to learn it.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
Mahdiah was an example of love and letting go, offering the wisdom of her beautiful heart paired with her knowledge of the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, her experience as a therapist and healer. She was a beacon of light and love, holding aloft the light of truth amidst the darkness of human ignorance. She was also very much in life. Once when traveling to see Mother Mira in Germany, we ran into Mahdiah and other Sufi friends and shared in this sacred blessing. Mahdiah was the first one to introduce me to sweet potato fries, when she took me out to a local diner near the Abode. She proudly shared photos of her beautiful grandson and always had a way to make conversations meaningful. I will miss her beautiful being , her smiles and giggles and yet know that she will always be connected with all of us in spirit. I am holding her in my heart as she now travels in The ONE.
I have not known Mahdiah a long time. However during the last 14 years she has mentored me through major steps in my service to our order and to those seeking love,harmony and beauty.
Her sense of guidance included straight talk and steadfastness.
I am grateful for your light and guidance Mahadiah!
Blessings to you Michael and your son.
To my sisters and brothers who have lost a dear and beloved friend peace.
With gratitude,
Alia Nur
A brief, intense, insightful, and meaningful relationship. Lessons that will grow from and into eternity. Magnetism of her soul, so well refined, gives us an exemplar. Such immense gratitude for our time together. Sadness, yet reverence and joy and peace.
A dear friend, Mahdiah was a great truth sayer with beautiful grounded conviction and a delightfully real sense of humor. A font of knowledge and information, she had a delightful knack for calling things as they were. It was wonderful always to listen to her gossip, stories and insights about the earlier days in the Sufi Order.
As fellow guides and psychotherapists, we had ongoing planning sessions to teach a seminar together on Spiritual Emergency that never quite materialized( perhaps it shall in her honor) and her depth of understanding , compassionate awareness and conviction for teaching made our planning a joy.
She shall forever be held in my heart.
I can only imagine that in light, as in life, she is enjoying the journey and telling it real!
Thank you for coming to us, and for:
-Your grounded, generous approach,
-Humility in the face of your deep healing mastery,
-Respecting my journey and reflecting potential you saw first.
My heart.
My love for this beautiful woman continues.
She was a mentor a guiding song. a healing presence and a dear friend.
Seeing her dancing in a purple Sari with bells on her ankles.
” it’s.cultural appropriation on earth, but not here. I am free ! You’l see !”
In her masterful tone of wit and charm and humor.
She is throwing her head back, laughing.in harmony with those bells.as she spins.
Shimering purple Sari silk flowing in spirals.
I remember Mahdiah as a powerful soul with strong convictions. She was ready to express her concerns about our organization and share her wisdom about what needed to be done. Her counsel was full of caring and she was always open to hearing other points of view. I enjoyed her quick sense of humor and readiness to laugh at herself. Her interests in Jungian therapy and Sufi inquiry communicated a sense of the depth of her soul, her inquiring mind and compassionate heart. As a sensitive and insightful leader and guide she influenced many members of our family, helping them to a better understanding of themselves and a more fulfilling life.
Thank you, dear Devi, for letting us know that Mahdiah has gone beyond.
Through the years, Mahdiah was such a dedicated worker for the Message and a friend to all. Her spirit, inclusive vast mind, wisdom, and powerful healing services, supported so many of us on the path.
I will miss hearing her voice and enjoying her ease with life as it is.
Bon voyage, dear Mahdiah! May she be free, full of joy and bliss.
with love and light,
Aqdas
Mahdiah and I met 37 years ago in Los Angeles. In the past 20 years our ongoing spiritual friendship blossomed and I learned so much from her about Sufi healing and ways to be in the world. She was a sage; funny; had a deep institutional history of our Order;had a big healing presence; possessed a great “crap detector” with good ideas to improve many things; showed big compassion;had a sense of higher purpose; and was a good cook! We co-taught several Leaders’ Training modules. As a physician, I sometimes disagreed with her way to heal/treat things but we always respected each other’s views. As a Shafayat, I learned from her some healing techniques I never knew. I feel immense gratitude that I knew this light-filled being, who was a wonderful friend, and I know she is now at peace and in the Light of the Beloved. Ya Salaam!
Alia Eileen Yager
Denver
Dear Friends,
Mahdiah was one of my teachers in my ongoing Healing Conductor’s training.
I learned the healing conductor practices from her, and I do them exactly the way she taught.
Remembering and reliving that wonderful experience.
After leading the practices we would say the Healing Conductor’s Prayer, and with this mischievous twinkle in her eye, she would say, Happy Presence, and smile.
That presence is radiant in my heart, and I feel such love.
Thank you dear Mahdiah for all you have brought into this life.
Blessings on your journey on.
Love,
Zahur
A giant of the Inayati Order has journey to her eternal home. Mahdiah’s sparkling light will forever illuminate the hearts of those who knew her. She was a gift of insight, humor, compassion, healing, and joy and will be sorely missed. Shine on, dear friend.
Mahdiah jacobs-Kahn
Common sense, wisdom,
Much loved and missed -teacher, friend
On the Sufi Path.
Love,
Nur Alima Smith
Mahdiah’s compassionate heart blesses others.
I am grateful for her loving heart that prompts us to reach out in kindness and compassion to uplift the spirits of others.
I am also reminded that every act of kindheartedness that Mahdiah shared, no matter how small, created a ripple effect that inspired kindness and generosity in others and ultimately blessed the world.
Thank you Mahdiah for making a heart difference in so many lives.
We remember, we remember, for our hearts could never forget.
Dearest Family and Friends of Beloved Mahdiah,
I am sending you my sincerest condolences.
I feel very blessed to have had Mahdiah as one of my teachers and retreat guides for the recent Healing Retreat Guide Training, and as one of my teachers for the current Healing Conductor Training. Even though I only knew her for a few years, the impression she made upon my heart is great and everlasting. I appreciated her great wisdom, experience, and healing, loving nature. I also valued her honesty, realness, confidence, gentleness, and acceptance. Mahdiah’s presence was great, and I know that I and others felt very seen and appreciated by her, which meant a lot. May you all be comforted by her enduring love for you, and yours for her. Mahdiah, thank you for being you, and I send you much love, thanks, and peace. Salima Jenn Greaves
I first encountered Mahdiah (then Shafiya) at Sufi retreats in the ’80s and felt so comforted in her presence and always since then I’ve been very connected to her across time and space. I remember new moon retreats and healing activities in So. Cal. Then more than thirty years passed.
Just over a year ago in a time of pain and troubles, I found her again — and she invited me to join the healing service she was leading on Zoom. Today, I am blessed to still be in that same circle and it has helped bring me through some very difficult times into a still unfolding transition. Thank you Mahdiah/Shafiya for your gifts of beauty and healing.
There is so much to say. You were strong, independent, you always led by example and taught us so many lessons not just in a formal way of you leading retreats, workshops, but even when we worked together on different projects.
I loved being with you in classes or co-teaching, or just listening to your wisdom. Now thinking back to all the years I have known you I never got to ask you so many questions. But something tells me you will never stop teaching and supporting me. Travel well Dear!
Mahdiah.
Dear friend.
One great memory of you:
When you were married to George and living in Los Angeles we would meet often. I remember you calling your precious son ‘PRECIOUS’. I started called my two boys Precious 1 and Precious 2.
He is/was indeed precious to you and continues to be in life.
“On the day that I die when I’m being carried toward the grave don’t weep. Don’t say, She’s gone. She’s gone. Death has nothing to do with going away. The sun sets and the moon sets but they’re not gone. Death is a coming together. The tomb looks like a prison but it’s really release into union. The human seed goes down in the ground like a bucket into the well where Joseph is. It grows and comes up full of some unimaginable beauty. Your mouth closes here and immediately opens with a shout of joy there. ” Rumi
Peace, Musawwira
Gratefully remembering Mahdiah: I didn’t know her well but I did attende classes in Spiritual Healing that she conducted, and the Sufi Healing Services originated by Hazrat Inayat Khan when she led them. I recognized her profound caring and deep attunement to the healing work. May her soul’s journey onward be full of light!
I send heartfelt wishes for a joyful homecoming, and peace.
Mahdiah impressed me with her kindness, clarity, humility and power as a healer. This last Spring I had an exchange with her after she attended an Introduction to the Knighthood class, where she asked a question that struck me. It was about whether, without having undergone the whole process of being a Herald and a Knight, she could support and guide those who had/were. It was impressive that someone of her deep and long experience on the path would ask that! In our exchange she said “It is important to me to always be a student.” What a gift she has been!
Mahdiah was a great retreat guide, SHO colleague and friend on the path. We were roommates on the Rainbow Tour with Devi and the Grandmothers, and had a wonderful time throughout. Mahdiah would set me straight when I needed it, including when I first met her and received a call from my parents who got stranded while traveling. The call cut off and I was a bit unsettled, but Mahdiah quickly reminded me that they could do fine without me. We went on a boat ride up and down the Erie Canal once when she was visiting and she told me the amazing story of how her father’s brother was reunited with the family after being separated during the Holocaust, when he was mentioned on a radio show, heard by a friend of her father’s and found. Mahdiah was a gifted healer who worked with deep trauma. She seemed to know everyone and had many touching and often funny stories to tell. I will miss her very much and am grateful to have known her. Her friendship and her being are a treasure in my life. May the blessings of God rest upon you, my dear friend.
Dear Sister of the Light,
You lived a good and beautiful life, faithful to your calling as a psychotherapist and as a worker for the Message. We are already missing your physical presence, your quick and intelligent mind, your truth-speaking heart,your eagerness to learn and to find countless ways to serve humanity. Since I met you I have often thought I would like to have you guide me on retreat and now in your physical absence, I feel you guiding me and so many others as we hold the grief of your passing with the joy we feel for your return journey. May you travel well as you return to the arms of your Beloved. Love, Love, Love.
I have never loved anyone more. I am very thankful for our relationship.
Thank you for being my friend. I will miss sharing time with you, but will visit in my heart. Thank you for your sincerity, dedication and attunement to the Message.
Return again, return to the home of your soul.
Dear family of Mahdiah: I am so sorry for your loss. Please know that Mahdiah was very loved and appreciated by all who knew her in the Inayati Order. Mahdiah was a big presence, without even trying. Her magnetism drew many to her and made her presence felt in any room she was in. She was warm-hearted, wise, witty, supportive, friendly, kind, a good listener, a good story teller, real, truthful, funny, caring, in essence, a beautiful giving person with a healing personality! I am trying to fill this hole I am feeling at Mahdiah’s loss with all the light which I am feeling from the wonderful memories of Mahdiah that I have and now with all the comments I am reading from others who loved her too and from the imagined light of her presence continuing on to the next phase of her life’s journey, as an illuminated soul, part of the Spirit of Guidance. Love, Karima G.
Oh My! tears are immediate, Mahdiah your presence engulfs my heart, expands beyond the beyond.
Most recently in Zoom sessions Mahdiah always expressed a sincerity to listen, to be curious, to share from her place of knowing, to give understanding. On a more personal note, dear Mahdiah’s presence at our 2005 wedding in India was so special. She shared her joy and her matter of factness as we danced to Quwali singers, ate with our fingers and took the 3 day drive across the Himalayas.
I am truly honored to share this path where we can continue to feel your strength and light from the unseen.
Mahdiah,
We were just getting started ,and yet, your encouragement already brought healing to my heart.
I shall behold your Light in the moon and the stars.
Thank you,
A step toward your own heart
is a step toward the Beloved.
In this house of mirrors
you see a lot of things –
Rub your eyes, Only You exist.
Rumi
Mahdiah,
“I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way”
Gratitude for your healing balm when it was needed and your inspiration that ignited a fire to move us forward. May your love, clear focus and dedication continue to resonate in our hearts
I met Mahdiah in 1985 in her Manhattan Beach California office where she had her psychotherapy practice and also conducted Sufi classes. I had just returned from a year in Europe, and of travelling in the Middle East. The tensions and enmity which I saw in my travels between Palestinians and Israelis were difficult for me to see. I had been influenced by Jewish culture in college but through my travels had been opened to the beauty of Sufism.
I was in search of a Sufi teacher. Mahdiah seemed to be an answer to the troubled prayers of my heart. She was both a Jew and a Sufi, something I had never encountered before meeting her. Shortly after meeting her I was invited to a Passover observance. The table was attended by multiple Sufi’s celebrating Passover! What a wonderful contradiction and miracle, an antidote to the tensions I had seen on my travels. I was initiated by her and became her Mureed for most of my “Sufi life”
I have wonderful memories: Mahdiah’s Winter Solstice – nightlong meditations, a beautiful celebration of Solstice with a fun women’s sleepover vibe; Women’s Healing retreat in the San Rafael Retreat centre. She seemed to discover beautiful places. Mahdiah loved the beautiful and was so wonderful at creating beautiful atmospheres which were also filled with lots of laughter and fun. Another group retreat stands out in my memory in the 1990s, a transgender woman in our group who cried at the end of the retreat with gratitude because Mahdiah engendered such a sacred and healing atmosphere within our group.
Mahdiah spoke often of believing in the “transformative power” of the process in our Sufi tradition, that people would change almost unrecognizably for the better. She attributed witnessing this from her contact with Pir Vilayat and through the Sufi teachings. I saw in her life the changes she underwent, the growth in wisdom, grace and depth. I held onto this idea with hope as there were things in my life and personality which I desperately wished to change. At one point she even told me out right “this must stop” and it did through the love, work and prayer I was lucky enough to have in my life.
As a Mureed I feel bereft and somewhat lost. I feel deepest gratitude for her presence in my life, for the love she shared and nurtured from the teachings of the Inayatiyaa.
I remember her beloved family and cherished friends and wish them Long Life, Good Health and the blessing of Peace in this time of loss. With Kindest Regards FaristaV
Mahdiah was my dear and treasured Elder Sister on the Path, and I depended upon her to keep me straight when I was taking the Universe’s occasional petty hazing a little over-seriously.
Her integration of the deepest Sufi teachings and psychological insight — which she *lived*, not just talked — was, I believe, underappreciated the way quiet greatness is often underappreciated in this world.
I will miss her deeply.
I love Mahdiah’s superior sense of humor, her ability to rise above the banal and mundane. She was an extremely gifted teacher for me. I told her frequently that her story of her life as a mureed was important and needed to be captured for new comers etc. Her stories were legendary. No doubt she is weaving new accounts with her soulful luminous heart.
Dear, dear Mahdiah,
Once upon a time at Sufi camp, I received some unexpected initiations and was wandering around open-mouthed, like a stunned mullet as they say in Australia. And there you were, standing firm on the Earth, with laughter and comfort and some practical steps to help me get started. Over the years you’ve offered me guidance and friendship and reality checks … and inspiration and extasy and delight. Friend, teacher, elder – you continue to be a powerful light in my life. May the Blessed Holy One whisper beautiful secrets in your ear forevermore. Shalom … Salaam … HU
” We need in love, to practice only this: letting each other go.
For holding on comes easily; we do not need to learn it.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
Mahdiah was an example of love and letting go, offering the wisdom of her beautiful heart paired with her knowledge of the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, her experience as a therapist and healer. She was a beacon of light and love, holding aloft the light of truth amidst the darkness of human ignorance. She was also very much in life. Once when traveling to see Mother Mira in Germany, we ran into Mahdiah and other Sufi friends and shared in this sacred blessing. Mahdiah was the first one to introduce me to sweet potato fries, when she took me out to a local diner near the Abode. She proudly shared photos of her beautiful grandson and always had a way to make conversations meaningful. I will miss her beautiful being , her smiles and giggles and yet know that she will always be connected with all of us in spirit. I am holding her in my heart as she now travels in The ONE.
I have not known Mahdiah a long time. However during the last 14 years she has mentored me through major steps in my service to our order and to those seeking love,harmony and beauty.
Her sense of guidance included straight talk and steadfastness.
I am grateful for your light and guidance Mahadiah!
Blessings to you Michael and your son.
To my sisters and brothers who have lost a dear and beloved friend peace.
With gratitude,
Alia Nur
A brief, intense, insightful, and meaningful relationship. Lessons that will grow from and into eternity. Magnetism of her soul, so well refined, gives us an exemplar. Such immense gratitude for our time together. Sadness, yet reverence and joy and peace.
She was many things to me but what comes to my mind right now is “a loving friend”.
Much gratitude for her life,
Nizam
A dear friend, Mahdiah was a great truth sayer with beautiful grounded conviction and a delightfully real sense of humor. A font of knowledge and information, she had a delightful knack for calling things as they were. It was wonderful always to listen to her gossip, stories and insights about the earlier days in the Sufi Order.
As fellow guides and psychotherapists, we had ongoing planning sessions to teach a seminar together on Spiritual Emergency that never quite materialized( perhaps it shall in her honor) and her depth of understanding , compassionate awareness and conviction for teaching made our planning a joy.
She shall forever be held in my heart.
I can only imagine that in light, as in life, she is enjoying the journey and telling it real!
Dear Mahdiah,
I am still hearing your laugh!
Thank you for coming to us, and for:
-Your grounded, generous approach,
-Humility in the face of your deep healing mastery,
-Respecting my journey and reflecting potential you saw first.
Love,
God-is-the-remedy-for-everything