Path & Present w/Baraka Blue

Cyrus Zargar is the Endowed Al-Ghazali Distinguished Professor in Islamic Studies at the University of Central Florida. He earned his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in Near Eastern Studies in 2008. Zargar’s research interests include Classical Sufism, Islamic Philosophy, Arabic and Persian Sufi Literature, and Ethics in Literature and Film.

He is the author of:

The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism. London: Oneworld.

Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love, and the Human Form in the Writings of Ibn ʿArabi and ʿIraqi. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press.

Dr. Xavier is a professor of Religious Studies at Queens University in Ontario Canada. She works on contemporary global Islam and Sufism, with particular regional interests in North America (United States and Canada) and South Asia(Sri Lanka). She broadly examines how Sufism transforms and/or maintains continuity as it is transmitted to new regions, such as through migration, diaspora, literature, and popular culture (i.e., Rumi). In doing so, she engages sacred spaces (Sufi shrines), rituals, practices, and memory, in addition to gender dynamics.

She is the author of Sacred Spaces and Transnational Networks in American Sufism: Bawa Muhaiyaddeen and Contemporary Shrine Cultures (2018), and the co-author of Contemporary Sufism: Piety, Politics and Popular Culture (2017). She is currently work on two book projects. The first is a case study on the development of Sufism in Toronto. For her second project, she is documenting Sufi shrines in Sri Lanka and its contemporary legacy, amidst growing anti-Sufism on the island.

Kabir Helminski is a Shaikh of the Mevlevi Order of Sufis, which traces its inspiration to Mevlana Rumi. He began his Mevlevi training as a student of the late Shaikh Suleyman Loras. In 1990 he was subsequently appointed a Shaikh. Under Kabir’s direction, the Mevlevi Order is working to apply traditional Sufi principles to the conditions of contemporary life. Kabir and his wife, Camille, founded and now direct The Threshold Society, a nonprofit educational foundation that has developed programs for practice and study within Sufism and spiritual psychology. He leads workshops and retreats for Sufis and the broader multifaith community.

sufism.org

Zachary Markwith is the Executive Director of the Hub Foundation. He is also a doctoral candidate in Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He earned an MA (cum laude) in Comparative Religious Studies at the George Washington University and a BA in Islamic and Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research and teaching interests include Muslim sacred texts (Quran, Hadith, and ahadith qudsiyyah) and spiritual traditions (ihsan, 'irfan, and tasawwuf), intrafaith and interfaith relations and dialogue, just war and nonviolence. Prior to joining Hub Foundation, Markwith worked for several non-profit organizations, including the Covenants Initiative, Council on American-Islamic Relations, the International Peace Project, and Food Not Bombs.

https://hub-foundation.org

"Hub Foundation is a non-profit organization located in San Ramon, California. We strive to empower and inspire individuals and communities through providing greater access to education and other resources that nourish the mind, body, and soul. We aim to gather and uplift positive Muslim voices and people of all faiths who are committed to seeking knowledge, loving thy neighbor, and serving humanity. Hub Foundation supports conscientious and gifted students and teachers through providing scholarships and grants, hosting talks and roundtable discussions, and other philanthropic projects."

Rory Dickson is Assistant Professor of Islamic Religion and Culture at the University of Winnipeg, Canada. He researches Sufism (Contemporary Sufism, Sufism and Islam, Sufism in North America).

You can find his books here: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_2?ie=UTF8&text=William+Rory+Dickson&search-alias=books&field-author=William+Rory+Dickson&sort=relevancerank

And other writings here: https://uwinnipeg.academia.edu/RoryDickson

Farooq Maseehuddin is the Founder of Tarjuma in Edmonton, Canada and has worked closely with Taleef Collective. His graduate research is a comparative study of Christian and Muslim communities in North America.

https://tarjuma.ca

Topics discussed include: History of Muslim community in North America - Unmosqued vs. Demosqued - Third Spaces - Social Media Culture - Internet Disruptions - Muslim, Evangelical, Hindu, Buddhist communities in North America - Virality as Authority - Religious Economies - Counter-publics

Omid Safi is an American Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University, where he is the Director of Duke Islamic Studies Center, and a columnist for On Being. Dr. Safi specializes in Islamic mysticism (Sufism), contemporary Islamic thought and medieval Islamic history. He has served on the board of the Pluralism project at Harvard University and is the co-chair of the steering committee for the Study of Islam and the Islamic Mysticism Group at the American Academy of Religion. Before joining Duke University, Dr. Safi was a professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Website:

https://onbeing.org/author/omid-safi/

Radical Love Book: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300225815/radical-love

Azhar is a standup comedian, actor, writer, playwright, and producer. He is one of Chicago's top standup comics; CNN called him "America's Funniest Muslim," and Georgetown University identified him as "one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World." In 2010, standup icon Dave Chappelle–for whom Azhar has opened over 50 times–commented "Azhar is untouchable. He's like a comedian from the future." He is a paid regular at the prestigious Comedy Cellar in New York City, and hosts a monthly standup show at his home club, Laugh Factory Chicago. As the co-founder of the international comedy showcase "Allah Made Me Funny–The Official Muslim Comedy Tour," he toured over 20 countries, on five continents.

Hunter Brown studied Art History and Physics at UC Berkeley. His core areas of research are early Buddhist art and ancient Asian art more generally. He is currently living in Bali and studying traditional Balinese Gamelan music.

You can support Path & Present here: https://www.patreon.com/pathandpresent

Michael Sugich is a native of Santa Barbara, California and studied at UCLA and the California Institute of the Arts. He was initiated into a traditional Sufi order in 1972. Since that time he has studied Sufi doctrine and practice with spiritual masters across the Arab and Islamic world. He lived for 23 years in the precincts of the sacred city of Makkah Al Mukaramah where he kept company with many men of knowledge and illumination. He has written Palaces of India (Pavilion Books), a travel book, and Living in Makkah (Macdonald Publishers), a children's book, and, most recently a feature documentary film on the life of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, Faisal: Legacy of a King.

Michael Sugich is author of 'Signs on the Horizons: Meetings with Men of Knowledge and Illumination', a memoir of 40 years with Sufi saints of the 20th and 21st centuries. https://www.amazon.com/Signs-Horizons-Meetings-Knowledge-Illumination/dp/0989364011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481132772&sr=8-1&keywords=signs+on+the+horizons