Sacred Roots Chronicles - Ramadan 2020 | 1441
إِنَّ هَٰذِهِۦٓ أُمَّتُكُمْ أُمَّةًۭ وَٰحِدَةًۭ وَأَنَا۠ رَبُّكُمْ فَٱعْبُدُونِ
Indeed this community of yours is one community, and I am your Lord. So worship Me.
Q. Surat al-Anbiyāʾ 21:92
The Sacred Roots team began planning for its first set of Ramaḍān programs in early 2020, eager about its first public-facing programs to celebrate the spiritual bounty of the month of Ramaḍān in Chicago. We were excitedly planning catering, programming, and were on our way to sending out invitations. However, in late February it became clear that we would not have the opportunity to commune with our burgeoning community in person due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully, our team was nimble enough to shift into virtual gear.
We are happy to report that, while it certainly was not in our initial plans to launch as a virtual community, our variety of virtual programs ran smoothly and received consistent compliments. Considering that the pandemic would limit our ability to engage with friends and family communally, we attempted to shape our programming around interactive conversations rather than lectures. To this end, we hosted three weekly programs:
The Early Rise virtually simulated a communal saḥūr; we gathered, exchanged stories, and reflected on a Covidian Ramaḍān. It was also a place of spiritual learning through a brief piece of spiritual advice; over the 4 weeks we explored the purposes and form of the Night Prayer (ṣalāt al-layl), the role of silence in strengthening connection with the Divine, the objectives of the worshipper during the Night of Ordainment (Laylat al-Qadr), and the importance of forgiving our friends and family for our spiritual journey. We had a small but regular group of attendees who joined us in the early-morning hours each Sunday. We ended an hour before prayer so that we could put theory into practice and spend time in vigil before Fajr.
Chai Chat was our interactive gathering where we put various Islamic teachings in conversation with contemporary social concerns. This was our most popular program, regularly drawing between 40 and 50 attendees with a core contingent of about 30 regulars. The conversations were dynamic and insightful. We read four articles to examine issues ranging from, but not limited to, Islamic culture creation, race in our communities, religious freedom, ethical approaches to the environment, communal living arrangements, and dynamic family life. We read:
“Think Little” by Wendell Berry
“The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake” by David Brooks
“Christian and Countercultural” by Rod Dreher
“Holding Our Own - Is the future of Islam in the West communal?” by Hamid Shadi
The Biblio Collective was our virtual Ramadan reading circle. We started and completed The Qurʾan in Islam by ʿAllamah Tabatabaʾi. This program brought in close to 30 regular readers each week to discuss a text that centers the Qurʾān as part of the Muslim’s spiritual and intellectual life. The text covered big picture ideas regarding the spiritual purposes and meanings of the Qurʾān as well as specific issues relating to issues of the Qurʾān’s transmission and the history of Qurʾānic exegesis (tafsīr) in the Muslim community.
To our surprise, we drew in regular participants from North Carolina, Texas, California, and New York in addition to our primary Chicago audience—we even had a couple of participants from Turkey and the Philippines. New friendships among people from across the country have developed due to the collaborative nature of our programs; we pray that those new friendships are deepened into the future.
Thank you to our community who helped make these programs possible through your contributions, advice, and participation.
؞ ؞ ؞
Feedback from our participants:
"I know I for one am glad you were able to go virtual as many of us non-Chicago people are able to benefit now. It worked out for us!"
"From my husband and myself, we thank you for this incredible space"
"Salaamun Alaikum, Just wanted to thank you for the excellent chai chat discussions...I will truly miss these gatherings and hope you choose to continue some version of this in the future"
"Firstly, I wanted to thank you for all your efforts and for truly unprecedented level of Ihsan that has marked your work with SR from the start..."
"Grateful that I could contribute. May Allah continue to bless you and the Sacred Roots Community. I hope to visit the space when it is ready..."
"Loving what you guys are doing masha'Allah. Allah grant you tawfīq and taysīr, āmīn!"
؞ ؞ ؞
Due to popular demand and our continued need for social distancing in Chicago, we are continuing our Chai Chat and Biblio Collective programs virtually throughout the summer—we list the details on the Events section of our website.
With that said, we are excited about continuing to build our community locally in Chicago and are hoping to weave our newfound national audience into our future programming. To that end, we are continuing to monitor the national health circumstances to decide on the appropriate time for opening a space in the city. The COVID-19 situation has forced us to be virtual for the time being, but the ultimate need is for a physical space for Chicagoans to commune, pray, study the legacy of the Messenger (ṣ) and his family (ʿa), and engage the broader Chicago community.
Please continue to support our fundraising to this end and please pray for our team as we continue to navigate these current choppy waters.
With prayers,
The Sacred Roots Team
