The Scent of a Rose: Imitating Imitators as They Learn to Love the Prophet

This chapter discusses the study of experience and affect in an ecstatic religious ritual.1 More precisely it focuses on the gatherings of zikr Allah, performed three times a week among Danish Pakistani Sufi brothers who follow the transnational tariqa (path, order) called Naqshbandi Mujadiddi Saifi, named after the late shaykh Saif ur-Rahman, who passed away in 2010 and has his shrine at the outskirts of Lahore in Pakistan. At the zikr gatherings, young murids (followers) receive nur (light) reflected onto them by their shaykh. Nur Muhammadi is the preeternai light that God used to create Adam. The purpose of the zikr is to cleanse the heart of evil influences and transform the murids into pious Muslims. Furthermore, nur awakens the lata’if, the seven centers of the ‘subtle body’ of the murid. When this happens, the murid will often experience wajd (ecstasy), a state in which he will have bodily tics, cry laugh, shake, scream, or fall to the ground and lose all physical control.