Throughout FIELD MEETING: Thinking Pilgrimage, Yusuf Misdaq shared impromptu recitations of poetry, personal writings, and zikr (Sufi remembrance). Often unfolding at shrines and places of spiritual significance, these informal offerings became a recurring thread woven through the journey. As an artist, poet, and musician, Misdaq was invited to participate in this edition of FIELD MEETING in part because of his longstanding engagement with Sufism and his living connection to spiritual lineages rooted in Central Asia.

 

Throughout the pilgrimage, participants visited sites associated with Sufi masters whose teachings informed generations of seekers, including figures within Misdaq's own spiritual lineage. His relationship to these places, therefore, extended beyond historical or cultural interest; they formed part of a living tradition of spiritual transmission that continues to inform his life and work today. Grounded in decades of practice informed by his Afghan heritage, Misdaq's recitations and moments of zikr emphasized qualities that have drawn seekers to these sacred sites for centuries: devotion, humility, service, surrender of the ego, and the lifelong work of refining the heart. Central to his approach is a commitment to primal emotion and direct experience, privileging lived wisdom over overly intellectualized approaches to art, culture, and spirituality.