Hybrid identity formations in Muslim America: The case of American Sufi movements

Muslim World

Volumn 90, Issue 1-2, 2000, Pages 158-197

  Hermansen, Marcia ^a  

^a LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 34547767790     PISSN: 00274909     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-1913.2000.tb03686.x     Document Type: Article

References (129)

1. In an earlier paper, Marcia K. Hermansen, "In the Garden of American Sufi Movements: Hybrids and Perennials": New Trends and Developments in the World of Islam, ed. Peter B. Clarke (London: Luzac, 1997), 155-78, I surveyed some of the same movements; therefore certain information and bibliographical citations are duplicated in the current study
2. Exceptions are the two articles which appeared in the collection Muslim Communities in America (Albany: SUNY, 1994), ed. Yvonne Y. Haddad and Jane I. Smith: Gisela Webb, "Tradition and Innovation in Contemporary American Islamic Spirituality: The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship," 75-108
3. and Francis Trix, "Bektashi Tekke and the Sunni Mosque of Albanian Muslims in America," 359-80
4. For example, Larry Poston, in his study of conversion to Islam in Islamic Da'wa in the West: Muslim Missionary Activity and the Dynamics of Conversion to Islam (New York: Oxford, 1992), pays little attention to the role of Sufism. He writes, "Sufism...has not (at least in a direct sense) been a significant force in the establishment of a Muslim witness in North America. I have found no allusions to any Sufi Order in any of my discussions with Muslims or in the literature of the various organizations actively involved in da'wa activity...", 63
5. David Nicolson Friedberg, "The Naqshbandis in America." M.A. thesis, Religious Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1994
6. "Sufism in America," in Timothy Miller, ed., America's Alternative Religions. Albany: SUNY, 1995, 107-8
7. Jay Kinney, "Sufism Comes to America," in Gnosis (Winter 1994): 18-23
8. Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World IV, ed. John L. Esposito. New York: Oxford, 1995, 107-8
9. The Book of Enlightened Masters. Chicago: Open Court, 1997
10. "In the Garden of American Sufi Movements: Hybrids and Perennials," in Peter Clarke, ed., New Islamic Movements
11. "The philosophia perennis has come to signify for those devoted to traditional studies an eternal truth at the heart of all traditions..." "It has in fact been given its most profound and genuine meaning...in the writings of Frithjof Schuon, which, following upon the work initiated by Rene Guenon and then Ananda Coomeraswami, may be said to be the most noble and complete expression of the philosophia perennis available in the contemporary world." Sayyed Hossein Nasr, preface to Frithjof Schuon, Islam and the Perennial Philosophy. London: "World of Islam Publishing, 1976, vii-viii
12. A recent study on Guenon in English is Robin Waterfield, Rene Guenon and the Future of the West. London: Crucible, 1987
13. See also M. Valsan, L'islam et la fonction de Rene Guenon. Paris: Editions de l'ouvre, 1984. Both Guenon and Idries Shah seem to have had links with occult movements and freemasonry
14. Brief bio-bibliographies of Guenon, Schuon and his circle may be found in Jean Borella, "Rene Guenon and the Traditionalist School," in Modern Esoteric Spirituality, ed. Antoine Faivre and Jacob Needleman. New York: Crossroad, 1992, 330-58
15. Some perennialists, such as Seyyed Hossein Nasr, while asserting the unitive essential truth underlying all traditions, would counsel against attempting to mix or mingle their discrete manifestations and spiritual practices. See Jane I. Smith, "Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Defender of the Sacred and Islamic Traditionalism" in Muslims of America, ed. Yvonne Y. Haddad. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, 87-88
16. Arthur Butterfield, "The Pattern of the Sufis," in The Diffusion of Sufi Ideas in the West, ed. L. Lewin. Boulder: Keysign Press, 1972, 208-210
17. Idries Shah, The Sufis. New York: Doubleday, 1964
18. James Jervis, "The Sufi Order in the West and Pir Vilayat Khan," in Peter B. Clarke, New Islamic Movements, 211-60
19. Fazal Inayat Khan, Old Thinking: New Thinking. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1979)
20. James Jervis, "The Sufi Order in the West," 218-19
21. For a chronology of his life see Sufi Vision and Initiation: Meetings with Remarkable Beings. San Francisco: Sufi Islamia, 1986, 351-60
22. Andrew Rawlinson dedicates a biographical article to him in "The Book of Enlightened Masters," 396-403
23. Koszegi, "The Sufi Order in the West," 213-14
24. Jay Kinney, "Sufism Comes to America," 21
25. Hakim Muinuddin Chishti, The Book of Sufi Healing. New York: Inner Traditions, 1985, 6-7
26. Author of The Holy Biography of Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti. Tucson: Chishti Sufi Mission of America, 1977
27. and The Big Five of India in Sufism. Amjer1972
28. Author of Islamic Sufism. Lahore: Sufi Foundatiojn, 1982
29. and Maqam-e-Ganjshakar. Bahawalpur: Sufi Foundation, 1979
30. W.B. Sial Rabbani, ed., The Sufi Path. Rahimyarkhan: Association of Spiritual Training, 1989
31. An autobiographical statement is found at the beginning of The Unveiling of Love, tr. Muhtar Holland. New York: Inner Traditions, 1981, 1-2
32. This is available on audiocassette, as "Calling Out to Allah: Prayers and Chants in the Sufi Tradition." The Halveti-Jerrahi Dervishes. New York: Inner Traditions, 1981
33. For background on Turkish dhikr performances, see Walter Feldman, "Musical Genres and Dhikr of the Sunni Tarikats of Istanbul," in Raymond Lifchez, ed., The Dervish Lodge. Architecture, Art and Sufism in Ottoman Turkey. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, 187-202
34. The Most Beautiful Names. Putney, VT: Threshhold Books, 1985. Bayak has authored commentaries on several Sufi classics as well
35. Lisbeth Rocher and Fatima Cherqaoui, D'une foi l'autre: Les convefrsions a l'islam en Occident. Paris: Seuil, 1986, 165
36. David Nicholson Friedberg has studied this order from the perspective of the teachings and membership in "The Naqshbandis in America," M.A. thesis in religious studies, University of Colorado, Boulder 1994
37. See also Semra Galip, "Un Gourou Nakshbandi: Sheyh Nazim Kibrisi," 437-440 and Daphne Habibis, "Mahdism in a Branch of a Contemporary Naqshbandi Order in Lebanon," 603-619 in Naqshbandis Chimenments et situation actuelle d'un order mystique musulman. Actes de la table ronde de Sevres. 2-4 mia 1985, eds. Gaborieau, Popovic, and Zarcone. Istanbul: Isis, 1991
38. For a biography of Nazim see Shaykh Muhammad Kabbani, The Naqshbandi Sufi Way. Chicago: Kazi, 1994, 374-408
39. Disciples are said to include Malasian royalty and the Sultan of Brunei. Some have claimed that Nazim has an influence on the Prime Minister of Cyprus, Rauf Denktash. S. Galip, "Un Gorou Naqshbandi," 438
40. A Naqshbandi publication mentions that 60 people became Muslim (took shahada) during a visit of Shaykh Hisham to Montreal, while over 300 became disciples of Shaykh Nazim. An additional 40 became Muslim during Nazim's visit to Chicago. Al-Naseeha: Newsletter for the Haqqani Islamic Trust of Northern California 2 (Dec. 1993): 11, 20
41. Shaykh Hisham recently authored The Naqshbandi Way: History and Guidebook of the Saints of the Golden Chain (Chicago: Kazi, 1995), which is a comprehensive history of the order
42. A Turkish magazine entitled its piece on Shaykh Nazim "United Colors of Shaykh Nazim," a take-off on the ubiquitous Benetton advertisement. Tempo Magazine, reprinted in al-Naseeha: Newsletter for the Haqqani Islamic Trust of Northern California 2 (Dec. 1993):4
43. Eresa Watanabe, "A Holy War of Words in Islamic U.S." Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1999, A
44. Ikbal Ali Shah's book Islamic Sufism (New York: Weiser, 1971) shows a clear influence of Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi teachings
45. Peter Washington, Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums and Misfits who Brought Spiritualism to America. New York: Schocken Books, 1995, 396
46. Idris Shah essentially retired after an illness in the late 1980s. Omar Ali-Shah is the author of Sufism for Today. Paris: Tractus, 1991
47. and Course of the Seeker, 15
48. See also his latest work, The Sufi Tradition in the West. Alif Publications, 1995
49. For example, he refers to Sufism as developing "awareness of God" and signs himself Omar Ali-Shah "Naqshband" in the forward to Course of the Seeker, 15
50. Gurdjieff (d. 1949) was a popular esoteric teacher who operated primarily in Europe. Many claim that his teachings were inspired by Sufi teachers whom he met in the Caucasus. See George Barker and Walter Driscoll, "Gurdjieff in America: An Overview" in America's Alternative Religions, ed. Timothy Miller. Albany: SUNY, 1995, 259-65
51. The Diffusion of Sufi Ideas in the West: An Anthology of New Writings by and about Idries Shah. Boulder: Keysign Press, 1972
52. Arthur C. Butterfield, "The Pattern of the Sufis," in The Diffusion of Sufi Ideas in the West, ed. L. Lewin. Boulder: Keysign Press, 1972, 209-10
53. The Course of the Seeker, 15
54. On Tweedie and female leadership see Sara Sviri, "Documentation and Experiences of a Modern Naqshbandi Sufi," in Women as Teachers and Disciples in Traditional and New Religions, ed. Elizabeth Puttick and Peter B. Clarke. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1994, 77-89. Tweedie is profiled in Rawlinson, 578-81
55. Chasm of Fire: A Woman's Experience of Liberation through the Teachings of a Sufi Master. Tisbury: Element, 1979 and Daughter of Fire. Nevada City, CA: Blue Dolphin, 1986
56. See Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee, The Lover and the Serpent: Dreamwork Within a Sufi Tradition. Rockport, MA: Element Books, 1991
57. The Call and the Echo: Sufi Dreamwork and the Psychology of the Beloved. Putney, VT: Threshold, 1991
58. Sufism: The Transformation of the Heart. Golden Sufi Center, 1995
59. Most of the information about the Golden Sufis is based on their publications and on an interviedw with Michael Eccles at the International Association of Sufism Conference in San Rafael, March 26, 1994
60. Remembrances: Proceedings of the First International Milad al-Nabi Conference, ed. A.H. Godlas, 1995
61. Ahmad Kuftaru is mentioned by Frederik de Jong in "Les confreris mystiques musulmanes au Machreq arab," in Les Orderes Mystiques dans l'islam: Cheminements et Situation Actuelle, ed. A Popovic and G. Veinstein. Paris: Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etues en Sciences Soliales, 1985, 214. The Naqshbandi-Owaisi is a group under the guidance of Shaykh Akram Awan of Munara, Pakistan. Associated with a teacher from the Deoband madrasa, they plan a center near Baltimore. There is also a Naqshbandi group led by Maulana Zulfikar Ahmad from Jhang, Pakistan. Most of the followers are from the Indian subcontinent
62. Element Books, 1994
63. See Vargonen, Between the Loved and the Beloved. Napa, CA: Ansari Publications, 1994. This group publishes a newsletter, "The Call of the Divine," issued from Napa and maintains a computer home page
64. Their publications feature the slogan, "Shafi'i in Fiqh, Ash'ari in Creed, and Rifa'i in Tariqa."
65. As in their pamphlet, "Allah Exists Without a Place." Anon. Philadelphia: A.I.C.P., 1994
66. See the pamphlet by Riad Nachef and Samir Kadi, "The Substantiation of the People of Truth that the Direction of al-Qibla in the United States and Canada is to the Southeast." Philadelphia: A.I.C.P., A.H. 1414
67. A biographical portraint of the Sherif Baba is included in Hugh Talat Halman's unpublished paper, "A Silk Road Runs in the U.S.: The Rifa'i-Ma'rufi Tekke in America," 7-8, presented at the first annual Islam in America conference, Chicago, Sept. 1995. Salik Baba is profiled in Steven Barboza, American Jihad. San Francisco: Harper, 1992, 187-89
68. Talman, "A Silk Road...", 3
69. See Martin Lings, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaykh Ahmad al-Alawi. London: Allen and Unwin, 1971. Sayyed Hossein Nasr mentions that Schuon met al-Alawi in 1932. The Essential Writings of Fritj of Schuon. Amity, NY: Amity House, 1986, 53
70. The Darqawis are in the same lineage as the Alawiyya-Shadhiliyya. See Abdallah Schleifer, "Sufism in Elgypt and the Arab Middle East," in Nasr, Islamic Spirituality II, 194-205
71. Some of the international activities of'Abd al-Qadir's movement, including centers established at least for a time in Pakistan and Nigeria, are mentioned in Islamic Sufism by Wahid Bakhsh Sial Rabbani. Lahore: Association of Spiritual Training, 1990, 197-8
72. See Abdul Wahab el-Affendi, "A False Dawn," Inquiry Magazine Qanuary 1988):50-56
73. Among his recent works are Footprints in the Sand (Longmead: Element, 1988) and Reason is Powerless in the Expression of Love (Seattle: Chalice Guild, 1990)
74. See his Living the Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness and the Essential Self. New York: Putnam, 1991, vii
75. The Tijaniyya Order is widespread in West Africa. For the history and doctrines of the order, see Jamil M. Abun Nasr, The Tijaniyya. London: Oxford, 1964
76. Tijaniyya activities in the U.S. are briefly reported in Amina Beverly McCloud, African American Islam. New York: Routledge, 1995, 93-94
77. He performed the Qur'an recitation during the "Million Man March" on Washington in October 1995. A contingent of African American Sufis from Chicago participated in the March
78. See Francis Trix, Spiritual Discourse: Learning with an Islamic Master. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993
79. and "Bektashi Tekke and Sunni Mosque of Albanian Muslims in America," in Haddad and Smith, Muslim Communities, 359-80
80. "Sufis - Die Reinen. Interview with Adnan Sarhan," in Der Sufi-Weg Heute: Interviews und Information, ed. Bruno Martin. Sudergellerse: Bruno Martin Verlag, 1983, 39
81. One of the group's publications is The Way of the Spirit with Adnan Sarhan: Remarkable Experiences. Torreon, NM: Sufi Foundation of America, 1989
82. See Gisela Webb, "Tradition and Innovation in Contemporary American Islamic Spirituality: The Bawa Muhaiyadeen Fellowship," in Haddad and Smith, Muslim Communities
83. Gisela Webb, "Sufism in America," in America's Alternative Religions, 256
84. For a history of the Nimatullahi order, including a brief section on the biography of Javad Nurbakhsh and the history of the order in America, see Javad Nurbakhsh, "The Nimatuallahi," in Islamic Spirituality II, ed. Hossein Nasr, 144-59
85. A further historical source is Nasrollah Pour̈javady and Peter Wilson, Kings of Love: The Poetry and History of the Ni'matullahi Sufi Order. Tehran: Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, 1978
86. Nurbakhsh has written many books in Persian , of which a number are now available in English translation. See Nurbakhsh, In the Tavern of Ruin. New York: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi, 1978
87. "Sufism," Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World IV, 108
88. Shaykh Muhammad Hasan Salih Ali Shah, The Illustrious Treatise of Salih's Advice. Tehran: , 1986, 10
89. For a time the group issued a magazine entitled Nuradeen, An Islamic Sufi Journal. Blanco: Zahra Publications, 1983
90. The Secret World (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1989)
91. The Approaching Promise (UPA, 1989)
92. and The Fragrance of Sufism (UPA, 1996)
93. Shah Maghsoud Angha, al-Rasa'el, 119. Molana Salaheddin was appointed successor by his father in 1970
94. Nahid Angha, Principles of Sufism. San Rafael, CA: International Association of Sufism, 1991
95. and The Journey (IAS, 1991)
96. Ali Kianfar, The Zekr. IAS, 1985
97. Siddiq Osman Noormuhammad, "The Sufi Tradition in Toronto," in The Message International 6 (Aug. 1995):42
98. Sheila McDonough, "Muslims in Montreal," in Haddad and Smith, Muslim Communities, 321-22
99. See his "Sufism and the Source," in Gnosis Magazine 30 (Winter 1994):40-47
100. and I Come From Behind Kaf Mountain: The Spiritual Autobiography of Murat Yagan. Putney, VT: Threshold Books, 1984
101. and The Teachings of Kehzeh: Essentials of Sufism from the Caucasus Mountains. Vernon, BC: Kebzeh Publ., 1995
102. Kinney, "Sufism Comes to America," 20
103. Yagan, Teachings, 4, 18-19
104. In the 1990s there has been a trend toward more publication of spiritual autobiographies such as Muhyiuddin Shakor, The Writing on the Water. Chronicles of a Seeker on the Islamic Sufi Path. Element Books, 1994
105. Noorudeen Durkee, Embracing Islam, unpublished ms. Quest narratives include those produced by the Idries Shah circle
106. For a highly critical expose of Shah and his intellectual spectrum, see L.P. Elwell-Sutton, "Sufism and Pseudo-Sufism," Encounter (May, 1975):9-17
107. John Mercer, The Ibn Arabi Society, personal interview March 26, 1994. They publish the academic Journal of the Muhyiuddin Ibn Arabi Society, and sponsored the volume Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi: A Commemorative Volume, ed. S. Hirtenstien and M. Tiernan. Rockport, MA: Element, 1993
108. See his A Young Muslims Guide to the Modern World. Chicago: Kazi, 1993
109. Pir Vilayat Khan, Introducing Spirituality in Counseling and Therapy. Santa Fe: Omega Press, 1982
110. Growth to Selfhood (1980) and Rumi the Persian. London: Routledge, 1974
111. At some point, Aresteh seems to have become associated with the Idries Shah movement. See Elwell-Sutton, "Sufism and Pseudo-Sufism," in Encounter (May, 1975), 16
112. Aresteh's "Psychology of the Sufi Way to Individuation," in Sufi Studies: East and West, ed. L.F. Rushbrook Williams. New York: Dutton, 1973, 89-113
113. Freedom from the Self: Sufism, Meditation and Psychotherapy. New York: Human Sciences Press, 1985
114. God's Will be Done I: Traditional Psychoethics and its Personality Paradigm; II: Moral Healer's Handbook: Centering the Self; III: Moral Healing Through the Most Beautiful Names. Chicago: Kazi, 1993
115. The connection of this movement to Sufism in the West may be partially traced through J.G. Bennett, Enneagram Studies. York Beach, MD: Weiser, 1983)
116. and Claudio Naranjo, Character and Neurosis: An Integrative View. Nevada City, CA: Gateways, 1994. 131
117. Daniel Atesh Sonneborn, abstract published in Ethnomusicology Research Digest 6/29 (Oct. 12, 1995) for doctoral dissertation in music, University of CA, L.A., 1995
118. Postmodernism for Beginniners. Cambridge: IconBooks, 1995, 160
119. Lewis, Sufi Vision and Initiation. Meetings with Remarkable Beings. San Francisco:Sufi Islamia/Prophecy Publications, 1986, 320
120. Many membes in theSan Francisco Bay area are jointly affiliated with the Mevlevi Order of America
121. Lewis, Sufi Vision, 24-27
122. Webb, "Sufism in America," 254
123. Friedberg, "An American Sufi," 6
124. Webb, "Tradition and Innovation," 24-25
125. Taher Siddiqui. Computer posting, "Tariqas list," March 22, 1994
126. Posting by Abdullah Nooradeen Durkee, Tariqas computer discussion group , Feb. 28, 1995
127. Faridi was perhaps the earliest Westerner to become a Sufi master, successor to Dhauqi Shah, an Indian Chisti Sufi. Among his English writings is Everyday Practice in Islam. Karachi: Mahfil-e Dhauqiyya, 1979
128. Fareed H. Nu'man, The Muslim Population in the United States. Washington: AMC, 1992, 163
129. Sheila Musaji, who published The American Muslim Magazine, said in a private communication that 20-50% would be an accurate estimate