19 December 2025
Dear friends on the path of Spiritual Liberty,
It has been a while since I wrote, and as I listened to the symphony of my heart, these were the notes that wanted to be shared.
I am very excited about the Dawn of Friendhood! This new dawn was wonderfully shared in a programme with Pir Zia, Marcia Hermansen, and Omid Safi. It provided inspiration, understanding, and a renewed sense of hope about the future.
All of this unfolds against a background of daily heartbreak, as my friend Zehra Kasim recently named in a Suluk class — heartbreak born of what can feel like unending violence in homes, streets, cities, beaches, and entire countries. Often this heartbreak is matched by a sense of not knowing how to stop what is happening, or struggling with all one’s strength without knowing when it will end.
I was grateful that Omid shared the words of someone he considers a friend, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., spoken during the Montgomery Bus Boycott and printed in his memoir, Stride Toward Freedom: “The believer in nonviolence has deep faith in the future…He knows that in his struggle for justice, he has cosmic companionship. There is a creative force in this universe that works to bring the disconnected aspects of reality into a harmonious whole.”
I also see this cosmic companionship between our dear Pirzadi Shahida Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan and Shrabani Basu, the author of Spy Princess, a book about Noor’s life.
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of its first publication, a new edition has been released, including new materials and photographs, and reflections on Noor’s legacy in the UK, which Shrabani has helped create.
That legacy also continues in France, where a new stamp featuring Noor has been issued. In these gestures — and in her presence at Windsor Castle on Remembrance Day this November — I feel her accompanying us as we find the courage to live and embody the Message of Love, Harmony, and Beauty.
Noor is a Knightess of Purity, and it’s such a pleasure to see that the Knighthood activity in North America has launched an app to help us follow the ethical code of the 40 Rules.
I am always grateful to our friend Pir Zia for reminding us of our mission in these times: To embody our true nature, live with our friends, the illuminated souls, and form an alliance with nature, the planets and each other. His book Bird Language is a constant companion. This was the wisdom that came as I opened the book yesterday:
“The highest ease is won in the depths of struggle.”
In my own struggles, I know of nothing better than music to remind me of the eternal, ever-present light. As Murshid says:
“There is nothing in this world that can help one spiritually more than music. Meditation prepares, but music is the highest for touching perfection…It seems that nature gives its help to make the music complete, and music and nature both work together, for they are one.”
I am always happy to meet Murshid’s friends on my travels. Most often, they have come to Murshid through The Mysticism of Sound and Music. Thanks to my friend Jiordi, I met another friend of Murshid’s, Ganavya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMrYUvA98Qk
May we all find our notes, and may we become instruments of the Divine in these times.
I close this Western calendar year with the words that Marcia shared in the “Dawn of Friendhood” program, where she explained the meaning of Ya Fattah:
“The One who is the judge and revealer.
The One who opens what is closed.
The One who is the judge of what shall be opened.
The One by whose guidance that which was closed is opened and the unclear is made clear.
The One who lifts veils and who opens the heart.
The One who unties the knots, and softens that which was hardened.
The One who continually offers goodness and mercy.
The One who gives victory.
The One who opens the door to success.
The One who holds the keys to victory and success.
The One who reveals the solution to all problems.”
Ya Fattah, my dear friends! May the path be opened for the coming year.
In friendship,
Deepa Gulrukh
PS: There will be a gathering on the Grail with Pir Zia and friends in Glastonbury, UK, from 9th to 12th April, 2026.
Tauba is an Arabic word meaning “turning back to the One.” The One is Al-Tawwab, “the Ever-Turning,” who receives our sorrow and regret, transforms it, and returns it to us as healing guidance. Together, in retreat, we will go backward and forward at once–back to the Source of our being, and forward toward all that the coming year holds in store for us and for the world. Pir Zia Inayat Khan is our guide in this process, one that will lay the groundwork for further growth, integration, and spiritual maturity over the months to come. More details and registration.
This month, we have news to share from the Caravan. Read more…
The Zephyr is a monthly newsletter of the Inayatiyya, an interfaith mystical fellowship with branches worldwide. For more information, please visit us at inayatiyya.org.
