Rebel with a Cause: A Personal Journey from Sufism to Islamism and Beyond

Abstract

Turks do not use the word ima? very often. Instead, they use hoc?, which means teacher. My father was a hoc?, albeit a part-time one. Trained as an electronic engineer and a computer programmer, at a young age he became a muri?, a person who is formally “committed” to a Sufi teacher. Sufism is an Islamic spiritual movement that emerged as a backlash against the increasingly institutionalized nature of Islam in the eighth and ninth centuries. Sufis themselves trace their teachings back to the Prophet, although many Muslims are reluctant to consider Sufism as part of Islam. Seeing Sufi practices as “deviations” from the faith, many even brand Sufis as heretics. Nonetheless, Sufism can be found on several continents, and is practiced through various orders, or tariqa?. My father belonged to the Naqshbandi Sufi order, and his teacher was the leader of this order, Shaykh Nazim.