THE VIRTUAL REALITY
Virtual Umma Reloaded The vitality of Muslim communities in cyberspace is being replenished and reclaimed BY RASHEED RABBI
T
he pandemic has plunged Islamic institutions and Muslim rituals into the binary streams of the digital universe. Centuries-old traditions are being relocated and redefined, and not just in a shift from physical places into cyberspace. Rather, the rapidity of virtual communities’ resurgence and their distinct changes in behavior represent a transformative and defining moment for the umma and demands our immediate attention so that it can bloom to its fullest. While hajj, the world’s biggest Islamic gathering, was restricted again this year due to Covid-19, Muslim3D (www.muslim3d. io) and LabbaikVR (www.labbaikvr.com) offered innovative opportunities for individuals to embark on a similar virtual journey to recreate and reimmerse themselves in the hajj experience. Such experiences aren’t equivalent to actually doing so in person, but these sensory-enabling technologies supersede the limitations of constrained actuality and introduce an augmented reality to continue one’s cosmic wayfaring. Pilgrimage candidates can send their avatars on a virtual journey while remaining at home, where
they can remember and cherish the maximum mysticism of Islam. Such technology-embracing initiatives transcend the pandemic’s isolation and dislocation and, during Ramadan, were used to nurture societal connection and build community. Numerous interactive communities, among them Virtual Ramadan (www. stanfordramadan.org) and Online Ramadan (www.ramadanonline.com), were formed to offer fellow Muslims unique program sets for making yet another socially-distanced Ramadan more inclusive and accessible. They aptly complemented mosques and Islamic organizations’ unrivaled race for cyberspace. Islamic centers like Quba (https:// quba-center.com/) organized communal du’as during suhur so that Muslims wouldn’t have to wake up alone to begin fasting. Such communal sacrosanctity was supplemented by morning reflections on Quranic verses describing Paradise and the promises of better days by the ADAMS Center (www. adamscenter.org) and many other institutions. When reminiscing about hosting hundreds of the faithful for suhur and fajr
prayer, virtual participants felt held together by a “rope of faith” (3:103) extended online to overcome the experience of being isolated with others so close. While suhur was occasional, almost every mosque across the country arranged iftars that enabled isolated people to be physically present to recite the Quran and supplicate together. They then broadcasted their services via their websites, Facebook or other streaming options to reach wider communities. A similar hybrid style was employed to reinstitute the taraweeh prayers and qiyam-al-layl (late night prayer) to revive the communal Ramadan spirit. Of course, these online participations cannot fulfill religious obligations, as performing hajj or prayers online is not permissible. Rather, mosque leaders and practicing Muslims collectively competed to recreate and restore their communion on virtual islands. Devising and then presenting alternative virtual modes for every single ritual is radically remarkable for Muslim Americans, who during the pre-pandemic days struggled just to broadcast and archive their Friday sermons or to allocate resources for digitization. This change is not just a fleeting cultural shift, but rather a psychological reformation that seeks to bridge the breach that the digital or virtual umma was lacking in the past. Previously, virtual communities were formed primarily to exchange information, find alternative platforms and adopt technology and modernity. They sought free expression and access to all religious resources. Some scholars contend that these non-religious incentives to migrate to the “cyber world have weakened the universality of the umma” (Mohammed el-Nawawy and Sahar Khamis, “Islam Dot Com: Contemporary Islamic Discourses in Cyberspace,” 2009, p. 35). Now, in contrast, a strong desire for spiritual connection is driving Muslims to hop online and set up their sacred havens, uninhibited by the limitations of embodiment and physical presence. A wistful longing
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