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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Acknowledgments -- Introduction / Marcia Hermansen -- The Message in Our Time: Changing Faces and Identities of the Inayati Order in America / Geneviève Mercier-Dalphond -- The Golden Sufi Center: A Non-Islamic Branch of the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya / William Rory Dickson -- The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship: Diverse Identities and Negotiated Spaces / Merin Shobhana Xavier -- A Shadhiliyya Sufi Order in America: Traditional Islam Meets American Hippies / Elliott Bazzano -- The Mevlevi Order of America / Simon Sorgenfrei -- From the Balkans to America: The Alami Tariqa in Upstate New York / Julianne Hazen -- 'There is an 'I' deeper than me': The Ansari Qadiri Rifa'i Tariqa and Transcendence in America / Melinda Krokus -- When the Divine Flood Reached New York: The Tijani Sufi Order among Black American Muslims in New York City / Rasul Miller -- Contributors -- Index.

This book focuses mainly on issues of inculturation or contextualization of Sufism in the West.