Read more of the R & E interview with Pir Zia Khan:

On the meaning of Sufism:
The word "Sufism" is a rather unfortunate translation, because the suffix "ism" would seem to imply a fixed ideology. Sufism in its essence transcends ideology. The English word "Sufism" is a translation of the Arabic word that means literally "becoming a Sufi."

The question then arises, if Sufism is "becoming a Sufi," what is one becoming? What is a Sufi? This was a question that was often asked when the word "Sufi" came into currency many centuries ago, and the Sufis themselves answered this in many different ways. Sometimes it was said a Sufi is "one who breathes well." Another said that the Sufi is "the son or daughter of the moment." And another said that a Sufi is "the one who is like an infant in the bosom of God."

All of these definitions draw our attention to an inner spiritual posture -- not an outer identity, not an ideology, but a presence, and this is what Sufism teaches.

On the relation between Sufism and Islam:
Islam itself can be distinguished between name-brand Islam and generic Islam. The Qur'an Sharif itself refers to a multiplicity of prophets. It says, "We have sent a prophet to every community." And in the hadith literature -- that is to say, in the transmission of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him -- there is reference to 124,000 messengers. These were all messengers of a single divine message, and that divine message is Islam in the generic sense, the essential religion within all existing religious forms, including the form that we call "Islam," which is really the Muhammadan version of Islam. That is name-brand Islam.

Sufism has a deep, essential connection with both generic Islam, with universal religiosity, which is the common dimension of the depth of human experience, which can be found in the depths of all world religions, and which can be traced back to the earliest prophets. And Sufism as a historical phenomenon also has a special connection with the dispensation of the Islamic religion, which is one form out of many of the "res'allah," of the message.

On bringing Sufism to the West:
My grandfather, Irim Mushid Hazrat Inayat Khan, was the first to teach Sufism in the western world. He studied under his own mushid [teacher], Said Abu Hashim Mudani. And at the very end of his life, Said Mudani looked into his eyes and said, "Go forth into the world and spread the wisdom of Sufism. Unite East and West within the awareness of the unity of being."

In 1910, my grandfather set sail with his brothers from Bombay and arrived in the United States. In the first years, he said he was learning, rather than teaching. He did not merely want to project a foreign teaching upon the people of this land but, on the contrary, he wanted to know most deeply the needs of these people, the callings, the aspiration -- to understand the psyche of the western world.

He married a western woman, and he gradually unfolded his teaching in response to the needs that he perceived in the western people. A number of disciples were attracted to him, and eventually he created an organization he called the Sufi Order in the West, which represented the lineage of Sufism he had inherited and perpetuated. [It] represented the message of the brotherhood of humanity, the kinship of all human beings within the greater family of humanity -- the realization that all nations and religions are organs of a single body, and that body is the body of humanity; only when all organs are functioning in harmony will the health of humanity reach its ideal form.

Pir Mushid said that each religion has sounded a note, but as the globe has unified in a single civilization, there is an opportunity for all of the notes to sound together, that we may hear the symphony of the message that transcends any single note and represents the fullness of the human experience over the millennia.

On teaching Sufism:
The transmission of the esoteric school of Sufism is passed on from heart to heart, from teacher to student, and can only be fully received through the profound connection that exists between two human hearts that are deeply attuned. When my grandfather first took initiation with his mushid, his mushid called him to attend him at his home, and my grandfather used to visit him every day. For months, they would sit together and his mushid would speak about the most ordinary things -- local events, the weather, and so on. It was only after many months that his teacher began to speak about esoteric subjects using the terminology of the Sufis. When my grandfather heard this, his curiosity was piqued, and he took out his notepad. And seeing this, his mushid just as quickly changed the subject back to mundane topics.

My grandfather always said he learned that the teaching must be dictated upon the tablet of the heart; it cannot be received in the mind. It must be assimilated in the most profound dimension of one's being, and this takes place through the attunement with the teacher. And the teacher has become attuned to his predecessor, who has been attuned to his predecessor over the generations, over the centuries, going back to the Prophet Muhammad -- peace be upon him -- and through the Prophet Muhammad to the previous prophets -- to Isa le Isalam, Jesus Christ, and to the Prophet Moses -- peace be upon him -- and the Prophet Abraham. And the prophets for all of the religions form a single hierarchy representing the divine message, which is transmitted and funneled through the channels of the esoteric orders through the embodiment of the mushid, the teacher, and in that way reaches the aspirant.

On Sufi orders:
According to the hadith, the sayings of the Prophet, there are as many ways to God as there are breaths. And within Sufism there are a diversity of approaches to ritual, to meditative practice. These are lineages of teaching that have developed from the transmissions of teacher to student. Many teachers have more than one student, and many of those students receive the full transmission and become teachers themselves. The lineage branches out like a tree. Each branch you could describe as an order that has certain common characteristics -- certain forms of recitation, of ritual invocation of God in common. And yet, they all share the basic, fundamental values that are the essence of Sufism.

On distinctive Sufi practices:
The essential practice in Sufism is "zikr," which means remembrance -- remembrance of God, remembrance of the source and goal of all being, remembrance of our true home. This remembrance is practiced ritually in the invocation of divine names, and especially in the recitation, "La il aha il Allah," "There is no deity but the one God." This recitation reminds us that all of our subjective conceptions regarding ourselves, regarding the nature of the universe are relative. The one reality includes, but transcends and outstrips, all such relative conceptions. That is what we call Allah, the one reality, the true Being, the Absolute.

This One Being is remembered through acts of recitation -- repeated recitation with movement, with coordination of breath, sometimes with visualization, using this chant, "La il aha il Allah," as well as variants and other divine invocations.