URS July 5, 2013
Hazrat Inayat Khan
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Beloved Brother & Friend,
What a gift you have given us, your friends.
You are in prayers as you journey through the changing spheres.
Love you beloved One,
Nurjamila
I’ll remember Haleem for the kindness and quiet bravery I saw in him. I knew him at NW camp mostly, he taught and led Sufi practice and Native American ritual as a seamless whole, showed us how to drum together and how to prepare prayer offerings for the fire in an unhurried, contemplative manner.
I understand he continued to participate in his beloved Sun Dance every year until near the end, with physically demanding activity and even ritual body piercings that must have upset his oncologist a great deal!
So to me. Haleem showed a beautiful example of living in two seemingly very different spiritual worlds, as one.
Halim was my brother from our first meeting. As he met this cancer challenge, I was struck by how shining he was in the face of his limited time. Wondering what that was like — each gifted moment a jewel, each glance a burning. He so beautifully chose to be with What Is and seemed to spend little time mourning for what he might certainly lose. I saw him continue to love, to offer, to receive, to Be Here Now. I see his smile, I am shattered. Precious Soul flying home.
He knew the plants. He knew the birds. He called me sister, and I knew I had a brother I could depend on. He was made to fit in the redwoods, and we were blessed to bring him to Humboldt Camp. There he shared his knowledge so beautifully we will never forget. Beloved Haleem.
Haleem is an inspiration to all of us, especially here in the NW where he held the post in too many circles to name. I met him at NW Sufi camp and was moved by his openness, his smile, and a presence that we all strive for. Look at the face of a happy grandpa. He also served our Eugene community many times as a presenter at the Interfaith Prayer service which has met every month for over 11 years. We will gather tomorrow night to share stories, songs, and prayers here. I may read a Rumi poem with this line, “Sweet outside, sweet in.” Loving you always brother
In the summer of 2009, I arranged for Haleem to speak at a Unitarian Universalist Congregation service in Salem on the topic of Native and American World Views, Images of Native Culture. It was my privilege to introduce Haleem and, in gathering information from him for how he wished to be introduced, I learned details of his life for the first time. Here is the introduction below.
“Haleem is a descendent of the Tutudin People, most who were driven off the Rogue River and relocated to Siletz Reservation. His relatives were some of the few who managed to remain on the river. Haleem has been very involved in efforts to petition for the restoration of federal recognition of the tribes of the lower Rogue River. He has been an LCC instructor for over 15 years and played an important part of a committee to institute teaching of a regional Native American language which meets the University systems foreign language requirements.
Haleem also designed and taught courses to offer Native American students cultural support who are entering community college life.
Haleem brought the Red Road perspective to the teaching of biology to the extent that his biology classes meet Lane Community College’s diversity requirements. Haleem is a long time follower of the Red Road path and also a teacher in an American order of Sufism, the Sufi Ruhaniat International. He is a pipe carrier and leads individuals and groups in Native American spiritual practice. He lives with his wife outside of Eugene and has two grown children.”
To begin the service, Haleem sang native songs and after his talk, the congregation danced the Beauty Way Dance, a dance Haleem chose for the service and for which he played the native drum.
As part of leading the dance I read words that Haleem and I agreed upon to describe the Navaho Beauty Way ceremony, words taken from a website about the ceremony.
“The term beauty way cannot be precisely translated but expresses concepts as beauty, harmony, goodness, well-being, blessedness and happiness. During the ceremony, the person is there to re-establish balance and beauty in their life. The reasons one may lose a sense of beauty or balance or harmony are many. But the cure for the Navaho is one and the same. One must find the way to beauty and if one wanders away from this way, from the Beauty way, then one must re-establish one’s link to the natural world to regain it. To walk in beauty means not only walking physically. It also and primarily in fact means being in harmony with all things and all people, with all objects, all the animals, all the feelings, the plants, the weather and all the events in your life. It means being at peace, serene in the knowledge that all around you is well and that you are well with everything in life.”
Haleem embodied the beauty way and when he spoke conveyed a sense of presence, gentleness and love that was palpable. In the last few weeks of his life, I had the good fortune to speak with him briefly by phone and we talked of his ongoing practice of cultivating love … becoming Quan Yin and cultivating a sense of all, becoming Quan Yin and becoming love and unconditional acceptance of all conditions.
The description in the obituary that his family wrote describes him so well, “Jerry had a beautiful smile that he shared with everyone he met. He was a positive thinker and was grateful for all that life provided. He faced every situation with interest, imagination, and passion. He brought the practice of love to everything…the present moment, his family, his friends, cancer…”
I understand that even in his last interactions with his family that the adventure they were on together was peaceful and he still had his beautiful smile.
Many blessings to you, dear one, in your transition.
Heartfelt gratitude for all you have given us.
Love you, dear one.
Rabia
Words from the Navajo Beauty Way Ceremony
In beauty may I walk
All day long may I walk
Through the returning seasons may I walk
Beautifully I will possess again
Beautifully birds
Beautifully joyful birds
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk
With dew about my feet may I walk
With beauty may I walk
With beauty before me may I walk
With beauty behind me may I walk
With beauty above me may I walk
With beauty all around me may I walk
In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk
In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk
It is finished in beauty
It is finished in beauty
Anonymous (Navajo)
I remember the day Haleem initiated me at the camp, It was a big change for me. He is such a loving soul. He accepted everyone as they were. I enjoyed his authentic view on the way life is. His Sweat lodges circulated a lot of energy. Watching him whirl during unity zikrs brought calmness to my heart.
Huuu
-Latif
Missing Haleem today, many different memories of him despite busy lives. Perhaps some others will laugh or smile at some of these.
First memory, my first zikr, summer of ’94, in a wooden yurt in Eugene. Haleem was leading, I think unusual for him then. I sat next to him in this tight circle, trying to follow the unfamiliar words, just starting to add in these head movements everyone was doing. Suddenly Haleem pushes the shreedie box over to me with the gesture to keep it going while he moves around and leads different vocal parts…..yikes! well, I gave up immediately on the words and movements, panicked at just keeping the rhythm. Yet the net result was I felt welcomed, recognized by Haleem as belonging, to this path and others.
Later, we take turn class together in ’96. I bring an 11 year old, Native heritage, who knows Haleem in that way…we all turn. In Konya, I turn thinking of Haleem, bringing him there with us in my heart, and later give him one of two dervish figurines I am given.
At LCC I visit him in the biology department, introducing my daughter as I show her where I fell in love with biology long ago. I bring my 3 and 4 year old granddaughters to a pow-wow, where I am proud of them for standing still respectfully for the prayers, as others do. Outside, we see Haleem and spend a short time walking the paths outside the new longhouse and admiring the native plants he helped make sure were planted. We all know the fuzzy leaves of a thimbleberry, soft friend in the Oregon forest.
We meet for tea and grandparent stories once or twice, for zikr and related gatherings more often. We meet at NWSufiCamp in the last few years, where I work with the kids and he brings the drum on Saturday, to help us ceremoniously disassemble our clay village and give most of the clay back to the land around us; to the trees, we give these minerals in gratitude for your shade and oxygen. Ho!
So tomorow and every day that I remember to do it, I will raise a glass of water to each of the 4 directions, in silent brief prayers, and take 4 sips. Thank you, Haleem. You were dearly loved and embodied Love; may your disassembled atoms find many beautiful new homes in the One Love. Amen.