Types of Community

I nearly lost interest in this blog because no one seemed to be reading, but now we have two followers, alhumdulillah! Talk about community…two followers plus one author makes three, and that’s one more than is necessary to make community. We now have community on this blog, and I invite anyone who reads and follows to submit responses or even full-length posts on subjects of interest to those of us who face isolation and lack of Muslim community in our face-to-face lives.

Writing one’s story can be a powerful exercise to help establish an on-line community that may lead to other types of community as well.

This morning I woke up to a new snowfall, and I wonder whether it is deep enough to bring out the plows. I also wonder whether I’ll be able drive to my local mosque– fifteen minutes driving in good weather– to attend an event this evening.

Lack of community can occur because of factors other than, well, lack of community. Today, I face lack of community due to bad weather. Some of us face lack of community due to illness, poor or no transportation, caregiving responsibilities, employment commitments, and…

These conditions are often temporary, al-humdullilah, and while they persist, the on-line type of community will be better than nothing. Phone contact can also serve well.

While I lived in Riyadh, I did not have a driver, and was unable to travel even to the grocery store unless my husband could take me or my girlfriend could send her driver. We did have the phone, however. Every morning, after our husbands had gone to work and our kids to school, I and several of my friends would take turns phoning each other for lengthy conversations over cups of coffee in our own private home bubbles. Those conversations uplifted all of us and strengthened our faith, as well.

If you do not have community, or are unable to get to it, please find a talkative fellow convert and get busy on the good, old-fashioned telephone! The benefit of the telephone connection is that it is not limited to local contacts. You can seek out conversation with any willing person in the country. In fact, if you wish, you may provide me with your phone number in a private message, and I will be happy to exchange it with other interested people (of the same sex, of course.)

Community, or the lack of it, often makes the difference between strengthening or weakening of faith.