Indonesia
Muhammad Zuhri
Muhammad
Zuhri was born in Kudus, a city in the island of Java, Indonesia, at
December 1939. He moved with his family to Pati, where he graduated
from School for Teachers and became an elementary school teacher from
1957 to 1964. He also joined Muhammadiyah, the largest Islamic
organization in Indonesia, during that period. After resigning from
his job as a teacher, he started to exploit his talent as a painter
and moved to Semarang and then to Jakarta, where he met a witch who
tried but failed to kill him. This encounter gave him his first mystical
experience, and finally a supplication from an ancient Sufi Master helped
him defeating the witch. The journey in Sufism took him to several Sufi
Masters, one of whom was Kiai Hamid from Pasuruan, a Wali (High Ranking
Sufi Master), who inaugurated him as a Sufi.
Muhammad Zuhri was married in 1961, and has two sons and three daughters
(a fourth daughter was killed in a car accident). Now he lives happily
with his family in Sekarjalak village, near the city of Pati. His daily
activity in his small house is to serve guests from various cities and
villages who look for advice and spiritual help to solve their personal,
family, or social problems. He also likes to explain his concept of
Sufism to those who want to understand. He formed a small halaqah
(a group to learn Sufism) in his village, with the name of Pesantren
Budaya Barzakh (Barzakh Cultural Study Group). In 1986, he formed
Jamaah Muslim Pembauran (Unified Moslem Congregation) with his
friends in Pati. Then in 1990, he also co-founded the Indonesian
Moslem Intellectual Organization (ICMI) during a National Symposium
in Malang. Once a month, he visits Jakarta and Bandung to meet his distant
pupils in those cities, who later formed Barzakh Foundation in
1994. Most of his disciples are young intellectuals, who regard him
as their father.
Muhammad Zuhri is also known to have spiritual power to cure people,
called the Sufi Healing method. For the last 20 years, people
has came to him from everywhere looking for alternative ways to be cured
from their illness. Since 1996, he has opened a worldwide service to
help people with HIV or AIDS, working together with Barzakh Foundation
in managing the patients.
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