LIFTING THE BOUNDARIES

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Following upon the history of Sufism presented in The Garden of Mystic Love, Lifting the Boundaries chronicles the life and teachings of one of the great Islamic spiritual teachers of modern times, Sheikh Muzaffer Ashki al-Halveti al-Jerrahi (1916-1985), who traveled frequently to America during his final years teaching the Sufi path of love to Western spiritual seekers. The text of the book is enhanced by powerful photographic images which convey the central ritual ceremony of divine remembrance, known as dhikr.

“In the eyes of Allah, there is only one religion. All the others are sects. This one religion contains Judaism, Christianity and the Muhammadan faith.”  -Muzaffer Özak

From the Introduction:

     Sufism is the mystical inner tradition of Islam, centered in the heart and in the realization that all life is one, an expression of the Only Being—the Source of Love and consciousness itself. Sufism (related to the Greek word Sophia) is a stream of wisdom flowing from the ocean of mystical revelation which has come down through thousands of prophets and sages, both those who preceded historical Islam, and by the Seal of Prophecy, Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.
     The rich legacy of Sufism first became known to the West through Victorian Era English translations of its mystic poets, such as Jalaluddin Rumi and Omar Khayyam, as well as the scholarly works of Brown, Nicholson and Arberry. Though rooted in the Vedantic rather than Sufic tradition, Vivekanda’s 1883 visit to the World Parliament of Religions, also generated much Western interest in the mystical traditions of the East. Theosophical groups and Masonic fraternities as well brought fragments of Eastern mysticism into Western culture; but beyond a vague awareness of the exotic ceremonies of the whirling dervishes, Sufism remained relatively unknown in the West until the early years of the twentieth century. Among the many spiritual teachers who contributed to the spread of Sufi ideas in the West during the early to mid-1900's were: the Armenian philosopher, George Gurdjieff, Murshida Rabia Martin, Frithjof Schuon, and Idries Shah. The first authentic Sufi master to teach in the West was Hazrat Inayat Khan, a gifted musician from India, who first visited America in 1910. He taught a universal form of Sufism, respecting all religions, and opened the mystic path of union with the Divine in a way that transcended any particular religious affiliations. While Inayat found some Western interest in Christian esotericism and mysterious hidden masters in the East, he noted in his writings that, as a result of centuries of anti-Islamic sentiment in the West, it was necessary to veil some of the more overtly Islamic teachings and practices of Sufism in order to gain their acceptance. He died in 1927, leaving behind a number of gifted Western students, including two sons (Vilayat and Hidayat), to carry on the work and to further familiarize the West with Islamic mysticism—or in the words of Inayat’s own murshid who sent him abroad, "to harmonize the East with the West..."
     Muzaffer Özak was born in Turkey shortly after Murshid Inayat Khan came to the West. A bookseller and imam by profession, Muzaffer studied Sufism with several gifted Sufi masters and, in time, gained renown as an Islamic scholar, spiritual teacher and sheikh. By the early 1970's, spiritual seekers from all over the world, including non-Muslims, were coming to Istanbul to visit him; many of these were Americans who beseeched the sheikh to visit their country and share the wealth of his knowledge of Sufism and Islam.
     In 1978, an opportunity opened for Muzaffer Efendi and a small group of his followers to travel to France and Germany in order to give a demonstration of Turkish sacred music and publicly perform the noble and ancient Sufi ceremony of dhikr. When the trip was extended to include a short visit to America, Efendi fell in love with the souls he met there and with America’s ideals of democracy and religious freedom, which he felt more closely reflected the authentic spirit of Islam than the regimes of many traditionally Islamic societies. Due to the Western protections of religious liberty, he was able to teach openly as a sheikh in America and lead dhikr ceremonies in a way that wasn’t possible in his native Turkey, a country which had adopted a secularist code of law which banned Sufi activities in 1925. Visiting America toward the end of the twentieth century, Muzaffer Efendi found a society with more mosques and more openness to Islamic studies and practice than existed in 1910. Yet for many Westerners, it was more the Sufi emphasis on divine love that attracted them than the shariat of Islam. As a lifelong Muslim and lover of Truth, Efendi embraced this attraction in America, acclimating new students with a gradualist, non-compulsory approach to the fullness of Islam and its noble shariat.



     This book chronicles the life of Muzaffer Efendi and provides an account of the rich legacy of Sufi teachings which he offered as a gift to the West. Like Bodhidharma’s transmission of Zen Buddhism to China in the fourth century, Muzaffer Efendi is honored as an important modern pioneer in the transmission of authentic Islamic mysticism to the United States. The teachings of Sufism are love-centered and pacifist, rather than penal-centered and retributive, a much needed balance to the restrictive and often violent interpretation of Islam so often featured in the world media today.
     Though this book stands alone as a spiritual biography and contemporary presentation of Sufi teachings, readers may also wish to read its companion volume, The Garden of Mystic Love, which covers the history of Sufism, and particularly the Turkish Halveti-Jerrahi line (Muzaffer Efendi’s spiritual lineage), from the time of the Prophet Muhammad to the beginning of the twentieth century.



All images on this web page are copyrighted and should not be reproduced without permission. Top: Detail from acrylic portrait of Muzaffer Efendi by the author. The two black & white photographs of Sufi dhikr were taken by James Wentzy.

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