The Mystical Heart

Liz Maziarz

February 19, 2004

Charles "Jamal" Zuber, 39, is a lifetime resident of Queens. A musician by trade, and a mystic at heart, Zuber is a member of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order. He sits at a table in Starbucks on this warm February night and openly discusses his journey of faith.

Reared a Catholic, Zuber rejected the Church when he was a teenager. He recalls challenging the nuns with a theological question one day in CCD class. Rather than answer his question, the nuns told him that if he didn't like the Church he could leave. So he did.

In 1999, Zuber was in a Barnes and Noble bookstore not looking for anything in particular. He came across a book called The Mysticism of Sound and Music by Indian Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan. Intrigued, he sat down and began reading. "A new path unfolded before me, and I thought maybe that something just clicked," he says. His interest in Sufism was born.

Fascinated but a little skeptical, Zuber made his way to Sufi Books on West Broadway in Tribeca to find out more. There he met members of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order, who invited him to attend a ceremony. The first Sufi gathering that Zuber attended fell on the Mawlid, the celebration of Muhammad's birthday. Impressed with the "energy and love" of the group, Zuber became a member of the order. He has been pursuing his own Sufi path ever since.

Like any mystical tradition, Sufism can be extremely difficult to define. The accepted thinking among scholars on Sufism, according to Ahmad Ashraf, the managing editor of The Encyclopedia Iranica, is that it is the mystical branch of Islam. Ashraf adds that, in his experience, spending time with the Sufis is "better than any therapy." Tom, who runs Sufi Books on West Broadway, calls Sufism "the heart of Islam."

Traditional Sufism flourished in Mesopotamia and Persia in the centuries following Muhammad's death. These mystics, often called dervishes, embraced the idea not so much of "One God" but of "God as One." The dervishes sought to become one with God and creation through ecstatic trance. Music, dance, and poetry are important components of the Sufi worship experience. Sufism has parallels in Taoist and Buddhist philosophy. 'Amr ibn 'Uthman al-Makki, a Sufi Shaykh of the 10th century, said, "Sufism is that at each moment the servant should be in accord with what is most appropriate at that moment."

Some Sufis believe that the tradition represents thinking that is much older than Islam itself. In his book The Sufis, Indries Shah, who claims a "senior descent" from the Prophet Muhammad, argues that Sufism represents a more ancient knowledge that was only given true form after the Prophet heard the revelations of Allah. And though it is true that most Sufis are Muslim, many, like Zuber, are not.

The number of practicing Sufis around the world is difficult to pinpoint. Sam Welles, in his 1957 book The World's Great Religions, estimated the number at nine million. But since not all Sufis are members of an order, and there is no governing body, any estimates are just that. There are large Sufi populations in Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan as well as throughout the Muslim world. In the last century, Sufism has gained adherents throughout the West as well.

Like many Sufis, and most mystics for that matter, Zuber emphasizes the importance of moving beyond the boundaries of institutionalized religion. Though he prays to Allah within the context of his order's rituals, Zuber does not consider himself a Muslim. Sufism, for him, "transcends Islam," and a dervish should not be limited by a specific expression of dogma. Zuber calls Jesus "perhaps the greatest Sufi," because his teachings were essentially about love.

"Labels don't matter," Zuber says. "Dervishes, angels, bodhisattvas, everyone has work to do in this world. And without struggle there is nothing learned." While he says that Sufism has helped him to become more aware of himself, the most important thing it teaches is that people "be conscious of one another."

Zuber is respectful of all faiths, but is skeptical of people whose righteous words are belied by hateful actions. "God is energy. God is non-gender. God is everywhere and nowhere," he says. "To me, God is the transforming of energies."

For Zuber, it is action that makes a true person of faith. "If you are going to claim to be something," he says, "you better walk the walk." Which, perhaps, is at the heart of what Sufism is all about.

(Updated April 19, 2004)