Shaykh Issa, a native of the San Francisco Bay Area now based in Istanbul, is a representative of the Chishti-Qadiri lineage, having received initiation from his teacher, Sayyid Najmu’l-Hasan Chishty of Ajmer Sharif. He has also received permission from Faruk Hemdem Çelebi, head of the Mevlevi lineage, to teach the Mevlevi sema and its spiritual tradition.

Shaykh Issa teaches and guides within a Sufi community with centers in Turkey and Mexico. He is engaged in graduate research at Istanbul University; his work focuses on Sufi ritual and music in the Ottoman Empire.