Dear Dore,

Reem here. To answer your inquiry about the cat: Jemima walked in while I was tracking the Sufi percussion instruments on track 10. She started tip-toeing over my frame drums and purring loudly. She looked happy and alive, and I was trying to stop myself from laughing/crying during the recording session. We kept her purring track, but did not know what to do with it.

A month after this incident, I was reading a book called The Cats of Cairo by the well-known and (sadly) late Anne-Marie Schimmel, a world-authority on Sufism. In her book, Anne-Mary mentioned that the Prophet loved cats, and that his pet cat was called Mu'izza (The Loving). One famous story was that when Mu'izza was once fast asleep on the Prophets coat, he did not wish to disturb her, and used a knife to cut around her in order to free his coat without having to wake her up. Anne-Marie went on to mention that in Sufism, the purrs of the cat are believed to be the mantra that the cat uses to praise God.

When I read this, I knew that Jemima was as holy as all her feline sisters and brothers, and decided to keep the purrs on the very song she did her deed. The only bit of doctoring was deciding where and when to have her on the song. You can hear her purr at the beginning and the end of 'Il-Hamdillah'.

—Reem