The Muslim faith is as varied as the Christian faith. Some groups are more orthodox and conservative, and others more progressive, like this congregation of mystic Sufi dervishes, which welcomes women to take leadership roles. While some worship in grand mosques, others gather in a more intimate space like this, where musicians set the mood, the leader guides the congregation in prayer, and slowly, the dervishes blossom into a state where they’re ready to whirl.

Dervishes are like monks, inspired by the mystic 13^th-century poet Mevlana, also known as Rumi. Not all dervishes whirl, but all whirlers are dervishes. With one foot planted in their community—their family—and the other foot dancing around and around celebrating the diversity of God’s great creation, they whirl themselves into a meditative trance. In this mesmerizing form of prayer, the dervish contemplates how everything in the universe whirls—from the smallest particles to the earth and beyond. By whirling, the dervish “goes with the cosmic flow.”

Mevlana’s teaching is all about love and finding that elusive “oneness.” With one hand symbolically reaching up to their heavenly creator, and the other—like a fountain—showering that love on all of creation, the dervish meditates on how they can be a conduit of God’s love.