Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, daughter of Hazrat Inayat Khan, served as a British spy in France during WWII.  She received the highest awards possible both from the British and French governments – the George Cross and the Croix de Guerre – for her bravery and service in her commitment to Freedom.  Her code name as a spy was Madeleine.

When I was leading a Sufi Order center and conducting meditation classes in 1973, a woman named Deborah attended regularly.  She was a French speaker; as a young girl she had lived with her parents in Paris during the Second World War.  One day during a class I was speaking about Noor-un-Nisa and her important role as a radio operator for the British intelligence, operating undercover in Paris.  I mentioned that her code name was “Madeleine.” Deborah was visibly moved. “I wonder,” she said, “if it was her.” 

Deborah began to tell about her childhood in Paris, a story I’d never heard before. Her father had been a medical doctor who was active in the resistance.  Her parents ran a “safe house” for undercover agents of the Allies.  Deborah said they often had someone staying with them; it was all hush-hush.  One person stood out in her memory,  a woman who stayed with them for a while. Deborah was told it was a big secret, not to let anyone know about their guest.  Her name was “Madeleine.”  Before Madeleine left, she gave Deborah a necklace that she had made.

When Deborah told us that, we all became very excited. Could it be our dear Madeleine, the sister of my teacher and daughter of Hazrat Inayat Khan? She was frequently changing homes while working undercover.  “Madeleine” is a common name in Paris, but code names in the French resistance would be unique.   Could it be that Deborah was given her necklace?

I asked Pir Vilayat, Noor-un-Nisa’s brother, about this possibility.   He said he heard that Noor-un-Nisa had a necklace made, but he never saw one. He heard she gave them away.

The next time Pir Vilayat came to our center, Deborah brought the necklace to him.  Pir held it in his hand.  “Yes, he said, I feel my sister.”  That confirmed it for me, but there was one more convincing fact.

Pir Vilayat told me that Noor-un-Nisa had a favorite part of her favorite prayer, Salat: “Thou, whose heart constantly reacheth upwards, Thou comest on earth with a Message, as a dove from above when dharma decayeth.”  The prayer refers to the message-bearer, the prophet who was her father.  The necklace featured a small dove, descending from a special equal-armed cross, where the four blank spaces between the arms of the cross are shaped as hearts.  Noor-un-Nisa designed her necklace based on the prayer Salat, with the dove representing her father and the crossed-hearts representing the Source from which he descended!

Deborah rightly treasured the necklace given to her by Noor, and she would not part with it.  But she let me take a picture of it, and from that picture I have made identical copies.  I would like anyone who feels close to Noor-un-Nisa to have the necklace that she designed to represent her prayer about her father, the messenger.