Birthdate: February 24, 1947 URS: December 7, 2025
Donald “Shakur” Johnson, 78, of New Lebanon, NY, passed away peacefully on 12/7/2025.
Born on February 24, 1947 in Oakland, California, Shakur lived a life guided by faith, devotion, and quiet strength. He was a long-time resident of the Abode of the Message Sufi community in New Lebanon, New York, a spiritual home that deeply shaped his values and way of living. He was known by family and friends for his kindness, generosity, humor, and steadfast spirit. He was a pillar of his community and brought care and presence into the lives of those around him.
He is survived by his two sons, Abraham and Kyle; his wife, Aimee, though separated, remained a cherished friend; and his twin brother, Dave. He is also lovingly remembered by his expansive chosen family within the Sufi community, and dear friends.
Shakur held two master’s degrees and lived a life devoted to service, learning, and the land. Over the years, he worked as an organic farmer, a postman, and a teacher for children with special needs. In each role, he brought patience, care, and a deep respect for the dignity of others.
Shakur found meaning in daily walks, meditation, gardening, and service to others. He carried gratitude and humility in his daily life.
In the spirit of the path he walked, the following Sufi poem offers a reflection on his journey:
My heart, aflame in love, set afire every heart that came in touch with it. My heart has been rent and joined again. My heart has been broken and again made whole. My heart has been wounded and healed again. A thousand deaths my heart has died, and thanks be to love, it lives yet. I went through hell and saw there love’s raging fire, and I entered heaven illumined with the light of love.
– Hazrat Inayat Khan
Those wishing to honor Shakur’s memory may do so through prayers, acts of kindness, or a donation to The Hope Project, or The Abode of the Message, or The Abrahamic Reunion.
He will be remembered for the light he brought into the world, and his spirit will live on in the hearts of all who knew him.
Our dear brother Don Shakur Johnson passed away last Sunday.
Fifty years ago, in the earliest time that “Ziraat” rose on the horizon of the lives of just about any of us here today, Shakur was a young organic farmer in western Oregon USA, working the land within the spiritual instruction of the original teaching given by Hazrat Inayat Khan, in 1926, and carried forward over decades by a handful of mureeds including Inayat’s son, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, as well as by Shamcher Bryn Beorse.
Shakur was among the first of New Age Sufis to put the teaching into practice on the land. He embraced the Ziraat Ritual and the Purification of the Elements, and (I believe) faithfully kept up those practices for 50 years, and shared that with others. Most recently, since 2019 Shakur was able to share the ritual each month via Zoom, right up to November 19.
In 1975 Pir Vilayat founded the Abode of the Message Sufi community on American Shaker heritage land in New Lebanon, New York. In 1983, Shakur bought some land nearby and began farming there, growing grains and vegetables and small fruits. Though a continent apart, we remained connected, and each time our Jamiat (both Khas and Ahm) convened at the Abode over the decades, I tended to choose the road-less-traveled and stay off campus, at Shakur’s home. Each morning I would walk about one mile from there, through the often-snowy woods, down Chair Factory Road (the Shakers were famously makers of wooden furniture) to our Abode meeting place, often observing wildlife such as raptors, and passing one of the small fields that Shakur maintained.
The Shakers were the original American seed providers to the young republic in the opening decades of the 19th Century, and it is probable that some of those vegetable and flower seeds originated in or near those fields. In that sense, for me as a career seedsman, each walk down that road was a sacred pilgrimage and connection to a long-ago time; friendship with Shakur made that possible.
In one of our last (i.e., most recent) assemblies at the Abode, in autumn 2013, a number of us including several Murshid/as including (that I recall) our dear Asha, and Saadi Shakur took part in the Ziraat Ritual which was joyfully and reverently conducted in the Abode flower and herb garden, and several murshids chose Ziraat bayat at that time.
The thread of this narrative winds back to my dear now-departed comrade, Shakur Johnson, with gratitude for these decades of connection and for his quiet determination to nurture a heritage we were bequeathed by Hazrat Inayat Khan.
With love and some melancholy today,
Vakil
Shakur has been a longtime friend, neighbor and companion on the path for many years.
He was kind and generous and very devoted to Ziraat at the Abode.
Every summer he would invite us for a cookout party and he was known for his chicken wings and carrot cake.
I will miss seeing him walk on the road every day. May the light of his beautiful soul shine on in the everlasting eternal life.
I too am so fortunate to have had Shakur as a friend and neighbor for over 40 years at the Abode. He loved and served the community in so many ways – farming, serving on admissions and executive committees and always showing up for workday as well as encouraging others.
He was a retreat guide and trained others, held the Ziraat concentration for decades, led Gathas and other classes, participated in Universal Worship when needed and most recently helped lead the Hudson Valley Inaytiyya Center teaching frequently on zoom. He loved the land and created a lovely garden in many ways. His physical presence will be missed.
Shakur has been a dear friend since the Fall of 1967 when we met working at the library at San Francisco State College. We shared living as room mates in S. F. in the late 60’s and early 70’s. When Shakur moved to Oregon in 1976 we stayed connected as well as when he moved to New Lebanon in 1983. He came out to California and was my best man at my wedding in 1990. He and his wife Aimee greatly supported me and my wife during her terminal illness in 2005. It has been difficult for me to travel to get back to visit Shakur and his family over the years and I hoped to get to see him in 2026. We had a close phone conversation on my birthday last November which I will always cherish. Reading these other posts helps me to more understand Shakur’s deep connection with the Sufi path and what he gave to so many who felt his love and caring for others and nature. Losing him is a devastating blow and I will always cherish him in my heart.
poem for Shakur
I didn’t know him as a farmer
but he brought the freshness of the plowed earth,
the deep roots of the oak tree,
new strawberries,
and the first sight of forsythia,
he brought these to us
as a farmer of the heart.
the short way to the river
and the winding path up the mountain,
he brought these to us.
the patience to wait for the spark to catch the fire,
the enthusiasm of a little kid at Christmas
at the wonder of the wide world,
he brought these to us.
the devotion to show up at every service,
his big heart and welcoming smile,
a feeling of acceptance,
he brought this to us.
And when we send our thanks to Shakur
we receive a double blessing back
because his life
was a song of thanks
I met Shakur when we lived on River Loop Rd. in Eugene, Oregon, in the late 70’s. I should qualify that. The house was our safe harbor: he lived in his teepee, I lived in my VW bus. He was solidly there in the garden, barefoot. I came to River Loop Rd. off and on between tree planting contracts, wearing calf-length leather boots.
He grew a variety of beautiful vegetables and flowers in less than an acre. I planted repetitive rows of Douglas fir trees over hundreds of acres. We both spent a lot of time working hard and getting in the dirt, but I can’t remember him ever looking tired. I think his bare feet just suckled into Mother Earth and never let go. Eventually, she reclaimed the body she loaned him.
One time, Shakur told me he was going to use the living room at the Riverloop house for a class on dying. The room had been cleared of furniture, but the floor space was only modest-sized. Shakur asked me if he thought there was enough room for the dozen or so people coming. I looked around, but I just couldn’t quite picture how everyone would fit. I said, “Yeah, I guess if people lay close to each…yeah, it would be close, but it could work.”
Shakur gave me a puzzled look, then smiled, laughed, and shook his head. Then he said they would be dyeing cloth, not practicing the final stages of life. Dyeing fabric was a typical Shakur activity like gardening, crafts, and building things. I say “seemed” because, beneath his quite deliberation, I always felt he was appreciating the unseen from which all those practical things arise.
I did not attend Shakur’s class on dyeing, but I did get to see him living, and I will remember his down-to-earth energy when I am dying.
Just recently was wondering about Shakur and found an obituary online. Shakur was ahead of his time by participating in activities of the past. He designed and sewed his own teepee while he was living in a cabin on Touch the Earth community in Cottage Grove, Oregon. He spun his own wool to knit hats for friends and the Saturday Market in Eugene. He strove to live beyond illusion…That was many years ago.
All are welcome to a Celebration of Life for Shakur at the Abode in the Meditation Hall, Saturday, June 20, at 2 PM, followed by a reception in the dining room in Rezak. 🩷🌹