Virtual Umma Reloaded

THE VIRTUAL REALITY Virtual Umma Reloaded

The vitality of Muslim communities in cyberspace is being replenished and reclaimed

BY RASHEED RABBI

The 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

pervades their spirits to be in connection with one another. Their renewed resilience prevails against the aggravation of technical nuisances that incessantly desecrate virtual communities. Such a spontaneous and committed online presence evokes a fresh image of an umma that is tangible yet illusionary, serving as a substitute but including all three essential elements of a real community: territory, a social system and a sense of belonging (https:// journals.sagepub.com/ doi/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1974.tb00026.x). not just meaning, but also the effect of that meaning and legitimizes these traditions as singular and undifferentiated Islam. ➤ From Passive to Interactive. Being an optional means of information exchange, previous virtual communities cared very little about facilitating interaction, which was limited to “clicking” and “scrolling” without generating adequate actions to engage and offer personalized experiences. However, current online communities are serving as primary modes to congregate and, there-

CYBERSPACE IS BECOMING THE LOCALE IN WHICH MUSLIMS PRACTICE THEIR FAITH TRADITION BEYOND VIRTUAL DISCUSSIONS AND PRESERVE THEIR RELIGIOUS IDENTITY. THESE VIRTUAL GATHERINGS INFUSE THE ORIGINAL SENSE OF ISLAM AND FORM AN IDEOLOGICAL SYSTEM THAT DEEPENS AND BECOMES MORE ACTUALIZED AS PARTICIPANTS EXCHANGE THEIR RELIGIOUS INPUTS AND REALIZE THEIR SPIRITUAL ASPIRATIONS.

Cyberspace is becoming the locale in which Muslims practice their faith tradition beyond virtual discussions and preserve their religious identity. These virtual gatherings infuse the original sense of Islam and form an ideological system that deepens and becomes more actualized as participants exchange their religious inputs and realize their spiritual aspirations. Their increasing religious ardor extends the public sphere’s discursive nature across time and space to facilitate ideological, ritualistic and social functions of Muslim communities to such an extent that it leads to a grassroots redefinition to virtual umma 2.0 – an umma reloaded.

Some of the prominent changes in nature and behavior are: ➤ From Explanation to Demonstration of Lived Islam. The recent outpouring of virtual Muslim communities is mostly prompted by practicing Muslims who focus less on discussing their Islamic understanding or compatibility and more on performing rituals to demonstrate their lived experience of Islam in cyberspace. Despite diversity, their shared participation in rituals provides fore, nurture members’ trust, confidence and empathy through innovative interactive engagements that also decrease bounce rates. ➤ From Cynicism to Realism. The perpetrator of the past unreliability of virtual communities was cynicism, which was further factored in by the optionality of online mediums. Currently, the digital platform’s indispensability and members’ proactive participation in the creation and imminent restoration of these communities exudes “hopeful realism,” even when that reality is steeped in the digital dilemmas. Any discontent, which would diffuse cynicism in the past, currently breeds deliberation. ➤ From Anonymous to Recognized. Anonymity, a key incentive for many, has now been overturned by the pandemic. While hiding in their “fox holes” and wearing masks, people became tired of being unseen and anonymous. They now want to be seen and recognized, even when they are distantly located and hidden by digital screens. ➤ From Hierarchical to Networked. Just as seating is relationally oriented, facing each other as if they are in a living room or coffee house, their ways of participation are also flattening and dismissing any hierarchy. ➤ Asynchronous to non-time bound. Virtual communities are unfettered by time or space. Two or more Muslims can gather in their virtual spaces to carry out any religious discourses at any time, across time zones and active round the clock. ➤ From Modern to Postmodern. Cyberspace is becoming an absolute world in and of itself by annulling ordinary reality and creating a hyper-real space of absolute simulation. Every aspect of time, space, pastiche, memory, simulacra and authenticity and the participation of current umma 2.0 can be grouped under the term “postmodernism.”

The experience of lived Islam, resuscitated by virtual umma 2.0 in cyberspace, is singular and unique as well as independent of technology. It also fosters a strong sense of spiritual union online. While such religiosity restores the umma’s spiritual depth, the changes move that sacredness toward expansive stakeholders – the physically disabled, the dislocated living in remote areas or on low incomes, as well as those unable to travel – to widen the umma’s reach. Such an approach of reinforcing its moral unity resembles the hajj, when millions of Muslims belonging of all colors, races and ethnicities convene and meet for the first — and probably for the last — time in their lives. As they worship together, their shared sense of communion reaches its peak and turns the imagined umma into a living reality.

Although virtual umma 2.0 is being revitalized, it remains in frequent conflict with traditional religious institution and practices, as they are “not quite” religious in the opinion of many individuals. Interestingly, the very nature of that persistent “not quite,” which continues to attract others to participate as outsiders or competitors, could act as a catalyst. So, instead of wasting too much time arguing about these platforms’ permissibility, let’s help reshape this new space. Our spontaneity to embrace virtual umma 2.0 wholeheartedly carries with it the promise of being able to overcome the age-old handicaps of prejudice, ignorance, and future calamities with the same old religion: Islam. ih

Rasheed Rabbi, an IT professional who earned an MA in religious studies (2016) from Hartford Seminary and is pursuing a Doctor of Ministry from Boston University, is also founder of e-Dawah (www. edawah.net) and secretary of the Association of Muslim Scientists, Engineers & Technology Professionals. He serves as a khateeb and Friday prayer leader at the ADAMS Center and a certified Muslim chaplain at iNova Fairfax, iNovaLoudoun and Virginia’s Alexandria and Loudoun Adult Detention Centers.