Sufism is a mystical practice that emphasizes certain unique rituals for guiding spiritual seekers into a direct encounter with God, and zikr is one of its most important rituals. Thus through a series of circumstances . . . God called me back to the time when I simply gazed into the heavens with wonder, awe, and love. In the midst of the isolated religious world I'd created within and without, I suddenly remembered the God of my early years.
— Mary Blye Howe, Sitting with Sufis