South Asian Sufism in America

Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 2022

The following essay studies the early history of Islamic devotional tradition in the U.S. particularly through the rise of the Sufi movements. I intend to approach this study primarily from the vantage point of historical origins and development of Sufi groups in the U.S. from the late-20th century. This approach will be grounded on the perspective of Sufism as a minority faith practice and its various manifestations in the U.S – spiritual practices, devotional exercises, artistic expression, and cross-cultural dialogue. Sufism being one such manifestation, its career in the U.S. can be identified along multiple positions of ideology and practice – drawing from normative Islamic teaching and morals, following an eclectic and universalist approach, and transplantation of Sufi practices from parent societies, like South Asia and Africa. The essay will conclude by focusing on the dimension of transnationalism through the career of a South Asian Sufi master in Philadelphia – Bawa Muhaiyadeen.

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Sufi Journal, 2014

Brill, Die Welt des Islams, International Journal for the Study of Modern Islam., 2021

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Sufism and the 'Modern in Islam' edited by Martin van Bruinessen & Julia Day Howell, 2007

2024

In 1976, the Indian Sufi shaykh Azad Rasool (1921-2006) began spreading the mystical teachings of his lineage to the Euro-American sphere. His two living successors, Hamid Hasan (b. 1961) of the School of Sufi Teaching and Ahmed Abdur Rashid (b. 1942) of the Circle Group, continue this line today, each in his own way. This study seeks to analyze the mysticism of this hitherto largely unstudied lineage and how its teachings have been introduced to the West, considering also the relationship of such mysticism to Islamic belief and practice as well as to social or political activism. Using a qualitative interpretivisitic research design, analysis of a broad range of textual sources is interwoven with ethnographic field data collected primarily in Germany and the US from 2015 to 2020. It is argued that this lineage expanded into two main markets in the West: those interested in non-traditional forms of spirituality as well as Muslims of various diasporic backgrounds, and that under Rasool, this transfer involved some changes in presentation to new audiences, but while retaining a mostly unmodified program of disciplined meditative practice. He additionally upheld its Islamicity, while also allowing non-Muslims to begin the practices, along with its quietist focus on Sufi practice over socio-political activism. Hasan has continued in much the same direction as Rasool and the shaykhs immediately preceding him, particularly their orientation toward practices. In contrast, Rasool’s American heir, Abdur Rashid, while also preserving much from his 19th- and 20th-century Indian predecessors, has also drawn upon broader Sufi and Islamic tradition to take this mysticism in some new-old directions, especially a restored and reformulated emphasis on the application of its asserted results through active positive societal engagement. In contrast to how other studies of Eastern traditions being transferred to Western settings have primarily seen change and declared the emergence of “New Religious Movements,” this study, through its emphasis on examining mysticism, also reveals remarkable continuity with both the immediate and distant past.

Despite predictions of widespread secularism, Sufism is establishing itself as an alternative religion in Western societies. This study explores how Islamic Sufism is implemented in contemporary America by focusing on the philosophy and practices of

Recherche, 2012