In loving memory of Pirani Amina Begum Inayat Khan

8th May 1892 - 1st May 1949

Beloved  Sufi Brothers and Sisters,

In view of the coming 55th anniversary of the passing of my mother on the 1st of May, may I  kindly bring to your deeply appreciated attention some few details, offered as a humble contribution to her memory.

Once upon a time, an ancestor of my Mother, a Bavarian by the name of Kempf immigrated to the USA…

Another ancestor from her Mother's side was a relative of Claude Bernard, the French Scientist, which explains why her two Family names were Baker and Bernard.

My Mother's maiden names were Ora-Ray Baker-Bernard. Her Sufi name “Amina-Begum”.

My Mother was born on the 8th May, 1892 in Albuquerque (New Mexico) USA. One of her Uncles from her Father's side was the historically well-known politician called "Judge Baker", whose statue is placed in a main center in Albuquerque. Her Aunt, from her Father's side was Mary Baker-Eddy, founder of the "Christian  Science Church' in the USA. (There is a "Christian Science Church" in The Hague, at the other end of the Banstraat, just over the small bridge).

In 1926, Hazrat Inayat Khan gave my Mother an exceptional initiation as "Pirani", which was only to be given to her. That special initiation was not to be given to any one else in the Sufi Movement, either in  the present or in the future. (see the Book called "Once upon a time")

Hazrat Inayat Khan often said that without Amina-Begum's loving and precious help he would never have been able to bring the Sufi Message to the Western world.

Pirani Amina-Begum Inayat Khan died in Paris on the 1st of May in 1949, and left a collection of 101 Poems called “A Rosary of one hundred and one beads”. Many of those most inspiring poems were lost in the war of 1940, but a few have been preserved. See the book called "Once upon a time".

Hoping to have offered a small contribution to her memory…

With kindest greetings from Hidayat and Aziza

AUBADE

...and she was known as ‘Ameena Begum’, and Lo! A most trustworthy queen of an ‘inner call’ she was.

Her light blue eyes opened to twilight in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the 8th of May, 1892, and her name was “Ora-Ray”, and Lo! An “aura of rays” she was.

Bright sunny days had threaded away alike seventeen beads of fairy-tale years, when suddenly those very same shores of her own motherland had stayed for ever ayond; whilst her golden curls became cradled by the winds, as she sailed over the ocean toward the Goal of her life, her “Daya”, her ‘All’.

Four little Angels, answering the appeal of her fairy-like dream, were henceforth to be treasured as precious jewels in the “Abode of Prayer”, where the King of her heart would sing:

Happiness be with our little ones.
Right guidance from Above.
I wish Good Luck in this Home,
and my deepest Love.

Once upon a time – as the fairytale goes on telling – passers-by would pay homage to the “Home”, the “Shrine of Love, Harmony and Beauty”, where tones of Celestial Music vibrated in the hearts of those who awakened to the Blessings of the Spirit of Guidance.

Here again she was seen, offering her Devoted Mission to the Altar of Self Sacrifice, at every instant of daily turmoil.

Soon came the day when the sky grew pale and grey, and the “Call of Return” had carried away all happy days, leaving behind naught but grief and tears. And the voice within her broken heart would resound each day and night and say:

Be not anxious, my Sharda.
On his service I must go,
Though parting is hard to bear,
but it’s God who wants it so.

“I shall be no more,” she said, en Lo! She was no more but skin and bone. Her soul would weep aloud:

O Death, come take me by the hand...
Then lay me at Beloved’s feet,
And with the dust my form secrete-
there let me rest.

Then again and again, on Duty’s plea she would toil from morn till eve, caring for her ‘Rubies Four’, with only the shadow of the moon to stand aside her pain.

Who could ever know how close she came to the Sanctuary of that very God-Ideal, where only those can be, whose hearts are shining with light?

She died in Paris in May, 1949, but the Inner Call of her “Rosary of a Hundred Beads” shall live and live for evermore...

In deepest homage to “Amma”, my “Graceful Mother”.