Kansas City, MO
Rahimah began life in southern California in 1947. One of five children, she was the only girl. Her father died at the age of 40 before the last child was born. She was six. Each member of the family was affected by his death.
Rahimah's mystical life began a year later, when she had a vision of her father in which he conveyed to her that her life would be good and there was nothing to worry about. It was a gift that helped her to remain confident as she moved through life.
Rahimah was raised in the Catholic religion and what was most notable for her was the accessibility of the Divine in the lives of the saints. The qualities that thrilled her most were courage and compassion. In Christian parlance the quality of compassion that is called charity - and combined with courage, it translated love into action as an ideal which pulled her forward on the path.
Rahimah married her first husband when she was twenty between her sophomore and junior years of college. Her last two years of college were spent in Berkeley, California during a time of great political tumult. It was particularly intense. She said goodbye to Catholicism and began to explore Zen Buddhism on her own. She sat in meditation exploring the vast emptiness. Her two children were born during the time that meditation was her primary spiritual practice.
During the period between 1967 and 1987 there were twenty moves around the United States and many adventures. On Valentine’s Day in 1976 she was introduced to the Dances of Universal Peace in Salem, Oregon. It was love at first feel. She began to experience an engagement that allowed for compassionate vastness of heart and mind. After a decade of solitary journeying, she found companions on the Sufi path in the Ruhaniat. There was another flourishing of mystical experiences.
Since that time there were life markers including completing graduate school, a career as a psychologist, her marriage to Marty Amin Kraft, marriages of children and births of grandchildren in their blended family.
Included in the last three decades has been service as an initiator and teacher in the Ruhaniat. Simultaneously, Rahimah studied Sat Nam Rasayan, a Sikh healing meditation. She is in a Diamond group affiliated with the Ridhwan School founded by A.H. Almaas. She participates in Shared Presence groups with her husband, Amin Kraft. Rahimah has also studied additional Sufi practices with Imam Bilal Hyde and took Islamic shahada in 2001.
The thread of union with the Divine continues to guide her life.