Varieties Of American Sufism

Download or read book Varieties of American Sufism written by Elliott Bazzano and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2020-08-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Rumi poetry and Sufi dancing or whirling, to expressions of Africanicity and the forging of transnational bonds to remote locations in Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Turkey, Varieties of American Sufism immerses the reader in diverse expressions of contemporary Sufi religiosity in the United States. It spans more than a century of political, cultural, and embodied relationships with Islam and Muslims. American encounters with mystical Islam were initiated by a romantic quest for Oriental wisdom, flourished in the embrace of Eastern teachings during the countercultural era of New Age religion, were concretized due to late twentieth-century possibilities of travel and immigration to and from Muslim societies, and are now diffused through an explosion of cyber religion in an age of globalization. This collection of in-depth, participant-observation-based studies challenges expectations of uniformity and continuity while provoking stimulating reflection on a range of issues relevant to contemporary Islamic Studies, American religions, multireligious belonging, and new religious movements.

Download or read book Sufism for Non-Sufis? written by Sherman A. Jackson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sherman Jackson offers a translation and analysis of Ibn 'Ata' Allah al-Sakandari's Taj al-'Arus, a work on spiritual education steeped in the classical Sufi tradition, yet directed to those who have no affiliation with Sufism in any institutionalized form. Written in classical aphoristic style, the text is a treasure trove of spiritual wisdom and self-refinement, free of all of the usual barriers between Sufism and the common believer.

Download or read book Living Sufism in North America written by William Rory Dickson and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2015-09-14 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers an overview of Sufism in North America. In this book, William Rory Dickson explores Sufism as a developing tradition in North America, one that exists in diverse and beguiling forms. Sufism’s broad-minded traditions of philosophy, poetry, and spiritual practice infused Islamic civilization for centuries and drew the attention of interested Westerners. By the early twentieth century, Sufism was being practiced in North America. Today’s North American Sufism can appear either explicitly Islamic or seemingly devoid of Islamic religiosity. Dickson provides indispensable background on Sufism’s relation to Islamic orthodoxy and to Western esoteric traditions, and its historical development in North America. The book goes on to chart the directions that North American Sufism is currently taking, directions largely chosen by Sufi leaders. The views of ten North American Sufi leaders are explored in depth and their perspectives on Islam, authority, gender, and tradition are put in conversation with one another. A more detailed picture of North American Sufism emerges, challenging previous scholarly classifications of Sufi groups, and highlighting Sufism’s fluidity, diversity, and dynamism. “Living Sufism in North America is the first book of its kind to bridge the gap between Sufi studies and the study of North American contemporary religious movements. As such, it is a comprehensive, pioneering work of potential interest to a wide array of scholars in the field of contemporary religion.” — Patrick Laude, author of Pathways to an Inner Islam: Massignon, Corbin, Guenon, and Schuon

Download or read book Sufism in America written by Julianne Hazen and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sheds light on the living tradition of mystical Islam by focusing on the Alami Tariqa in Waterport, New York. It explores how this order has acculturated to the American setting, why individuals are drawn to the tariqa, and what it means to pursue spiritual goals in a modern, Western society.

Download or read book Living from the Heart written by Chuck Davis and published by . This book was released on 2020-03-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Living from the Heart: Universalist Sufism in America offers a glimpse into the mystical path of Sufism as expressed in the universalist Sufi teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927) by contemporary Sufi teachers in America. A companion to the documentary of the same name, the book contextualizes Sufism as a spiritual path of the heart, addressing the distinction between Islamic and Universalist Sufism, and introduces readers to Sufi teachings on Love, Beauty, Music, God, and the Sufi practices of Zikr (remembrance) and Ziyaret (pilgrimage). Following Sufi teacher, Netanel Miles-Yépez, pirof the Inayati-Maimuni Order of Sufis, to Sufi pilgrimage sites across the country, the book also includes interview material with a variety of contemporary universalist Sufi teachers, including Murshida Taj Inayat, Pir Shabda Kahn, Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, Jennifer Alia Wittman, Deepa Gulrukh Patel, and Satya Inayat Khan.

Download or read book Sufism written by Mark J. Sedgwick and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A scholar with long experience of Sufism in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Europe succinctly presents the essentials of Sufism and shows how Sufis live and worship, and why.

Download or read book Before Sufism written by Christopher Melchert and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-06-08 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christopher Melchert proposes to historicize Islamic renunciant piety (zuhd). As the conquest period wound down in the early eighth century c.e., renunciants set out to maintain the contempt of worldly comfort and loyalty to a greater cause that had characterized the community of Muslims in the seventh century. Instead of reckless endangerment on the battlefield, they cultivated intense fear of the Last Judgement to come. They spent nights weeping, reciting the Qur’an, and performing supererogatory ritual prayers. They stressed other-worldliness to the extent of minimizing good works in this world. Then the decline of tribute from the conquered peoples and conversion to Islam made it increasingly unfeasible for most Muslims to keep up any such régime. Professional differentiation also provoked increasing criticism of austerity. Finally, in the later ninth century, a form of Sufism emerged that would accommodate those willing and able to spend most of their time on religious devotions, those willing and able to spend their time on other religious pursuits such as law and hadith, and those unwilling or unable to do either.