Cute Polka Dotted Magenta Bow Tie Ribbon -->

Young revert living the cutie life while trying to keep her heart as soft as possible, iA.

Masjid Al-Rabia is Beyond Amazing πŸ•ŒπŸ’•


Over the weekend, something truly beautiful and amazing took place: Masjid Al-Rabia conducted a public marriage for two incarerated gay muslim men! Something this amazing took so much time and effort to happen, not in the least because of the prison the couple is at did everything in their power to disrupt and prevent the marriage from even happening. As if, because they are incarerated, they don't deserve happiness! But Mahdia Lynn, the co-founder and director of the masjid, didn't give up or become discouraged and made their marriage a truly blessed and happy day ♡

As you can probably guess, Masjid Al-Rabia isn't what you might call a 'normal' mosque. Instead, it's a women-run and women-led masjid and community center where there's no segregated prayer areas and they are accepting to anyone that belongs in the LGBTQA+ and disabled community. Most mosques and unfortunately, most in the muslim community are very discriminatory towards anyone that isn't cis or straight. Instead of just acting like decent human beings and loving and supporting one another, they turn against their marginalised brothers and sisters and can often cause them to leave islam. There's nothing more disgusting and awful than this and I really hope and pray that this shameful attitude will change, in sha Allah.


Mahdia Lynn is a disabled transwoman and founded the mosque in 2016 with the aim to make a safe and welcoming place for those in the community who really need it. As she said in an interview with Medill Reports Chicago, "Islam is too important to leave anyone behind, we aim to foster an Islam that is inclusive of everyone.” Sadly, she's true that many LGBTQA+ muslims are often left behind and blatantly excluded from the community and made to feel unwelcome in the place they should feel most safe and loved. I really believe this is unforgiveable and would like to hear why so many in the community feel perfectly justified in turning people away from their faith. Do they truly feel no shame? Someone comes to you wishing to join islam and instead, you bully and harass them until they leave the religion with an extremely negative view and experience. It's not our place as humans to judge others, instead we should love and respect one another, after all, isn't islam the religion of love and forgiveness?

Lynn works to help those incarcerated to get access to prayer rugs, qurans, tasbih and anything else they might need to fully practice their religion. She also runs a penpal correspondence for those who want to talk and encourage and offer comfort and support to those who really need it and might feel the most alone and at their lowest. For many incarcerated muslims, the already traumatic and alienating experience of being in prison can be made even worse by hate speech and attacks from fellow prisoners. And if they aren't cis or straight, they can be further alienated and abused by their fellow muslim prisoners. They can have their qurans and prayer rugs taken from them and be told that they're not really muslim simple for who they are attracted to or because of their gender. During all this, it must feel like everything around them is dark and scary and it makes me so happy that Masjid Al-Rabia is the light in the dark and offers them unconditional love and support ♡♡♡

Another thing I really love about Masjid Al-Rabia is that Mahdia has said that it is 100% completely ADA accessible!!! It's so ridiculous to think there are some mosques and other places of worship that aren't fully accessible and no one sees a problem with it until a disabled muslim points it out. My Darling is Deaf and that can make it a challenge when he wants to go to mosque or attend an islamic conference, because many places just don't even consider accessibility at all. I love that Mahdia made it an important point for her to make sure her mosque was welcoming and accessible to everyone who might want to join ♡ It really frustrates me when I point out the lack of interpreters for Deaf muslims and many people tell me to just interpret for my Darling when almost all mosques are segregated on top of inaccesible! Accessibility almost always takes a back seat, but I hope more mosques follow Masjid Al-Rabia's example and become fully accessible, in sha Allah.

Honestly, there's no way for me to fully explain how amazing and wonderful of a person Mahdia Lynn is or how important her mosque is for the community. Whenever I read about her work and the work she does with the mosque, I feel my heart swell with how much love and admiration I feel towards her. I will continue to support her and I ask all of you reading this to join me in this, as well as to remind us to humble ourselves and open our hearts to others, even if they aren't like us in every aspects.


No comments

Post a Comment

Blogger Template Created by pipdig
Cute Polka Dotted Magenta Bow Tie Ribbon