Zawiyah (Spiritual Retreat)
Retreat is a time away from the everyday world, for greater silence, rest, and to be deeply held in love. This is a guided retreat as taught by our guide, Sidi al-Jamal (pictured, may he rest in peace), or one of the teachers he authorized to give the Sufi Promise. In this structure retreat you experience traditional Sufi practices (along with the 5 daly prayers) such as remembrance, al wird, salawat, and writing the stations, to experience your heart turning to face only God.
Zawiyah Retreat
withNura and Wadude Laird
Aug. 8-14, 2026
Aug. 8, Community zawiyah day
Aug. 9-13 - Zawiyah with Nura and Wadude
Aug. 14, Community zawiyah day
7/18 – ROOMS are FULL – still a few spaces for daytime guests!
Our retreat includes morning and afternoon practices, starting around 9 or 9:30 (depending on teacher); writing from Sidi’s books, remembering our Lord, walking the farm and even naps. We pray salat together and lunch and dinner are served. Breakfast is on your own to suit your morning routine.
To register, click the button below. Questions? Email us or call and leave a message at (301) 276-0721.
Nura Laird, M.Ed.
Nura Lora Laird is co-chair of the Department of Peacemaking and a faculty member at the University of Sufism.
Nura has been a student of spiritual healing and Sufism since 1977 and has been teaching it for several decades. She has extensive training and experience in community and family mediation, and in teaching and counseling children and adults.
Based in North Carolina, Nura works professionally as a teacher, spiritual healer and counselor, and mediator, leading spiritual retreats and workshops internationally on Sufism, peacemaking, Sufi healing, and healing families through divine love.
Nura is especially inspired to help restore health, love and peace to marriages and families, and to guide her clients and students to bring more love and peace into our world.
John Wadude Laird, M.D.
Dr. Laird is a long-time student of our guide and was given the rank of Murshid by Sidi Mohammed al-Jamal.
Dr. Laird has taught Sufism and healing for several decades, including as a faculty member at the University of Spiritual Healing and Sufism, now the University of Sufism.
He has also practiced integrative patient care in a variety of outpatient settings for forty years and was an early proponent of holistic medicine.
Although schooled in several spiritual traditions, Dr. Laird’s personal spiritual practice for over thirty years has been classical Sufism. Spiritual healing in this tradition is based on deep and subtle understandings of the human heart.
As a co-founder and past president of the University of Spiritual Healing & Sufism, Dr. Laird played a leading role in shaping academic and clinical instruction on the application of these classical perspectives.
He has provided personal healing sessions to hundreds of people with a wide variety of physical, emotional and spiritual concerns. Having taught these approaches to several thousand people in the past 20 years, Dr. Laird is widely recognized as a sincere, engaging, fun and uniquely effective teacher.
Dr. Laird is based in North Carolina and currently serves as Shafiyy Institute’s President and Executive Director.
“When God made you, He made Beauty.” Sidi, Music of the Soul
“…You are indeed the Giver of All Bounties (al Wahhab).” Quran 3:8
More About Zawiyah
What might you experience?
A zawiyah space offers spiritual retreat as a holy opportunity to walk closer to God. Zawiyah with teachers can help students to move beyond the patterns and beliefs that keep their hearts from knowing God’s love. Through traditional Sufi practices such as remembrance, prayer, and writing the stations and other of Sidi’s books, participants can experience their hearts turning to face only God.
“I received a new understanding of what my next steps are in my walking and a deeper anchoring to God in my heart.” Zawiyah participant
The Farm of Peace offers a peaceful setting in which students can grow more familiar with the practices and prayers of the Sufi way and in which more experienced students can deepen their walking to God.
“In my zawiyah retreat, I experienced more surrender and received more of God’s light.” M.D.
Participants are held and guided through the walking of the 28 stations to taste the unity of God’s love. The program varies by teacher, but can include two daily group meetings and Sufi chanting practice (al-wird); group prayer; personal guidance from a teacher; reading and writing (copying by hand) the teachings of our guide, Sidi al-Jamal.
Note: Zawiyah with Salima Adelstein is currently held elsewhere and does not benefit the Farm of Peace
