Think about the best and worst times you’ve spent at the masjid. What draws you to a certain masjid? What makes you want to stay away from others? For many people, their favorite masjid experience is associated with how someone made them feel— perhaps someone greeted them with a smile, they were invited to an event, or they attended taraweeh on a Ramadan night and felt the livelihood of the community.
According to a survey conducted by the ISPU, the top quality that Muslims in America look for in a masjid is a welcoming space. The sense of community or lack thereof that people feel at the masjid is often the deciding factor that either keeps them coming back to the masjid throughout the year or further repels them from it. To think that one or two visits to the masjid could make or break someone’s connection to the Muslim community and thus profoundly impact their spiritual journey should really be a wake-up call for us to prioritize creating a masjid environment that feels warm, friendly, safe, and supportive year-round.
Ramadan may be over, but we can continue to nurture the sense of unity and camaraderie it leaves behind to ensure that we keep seeing those newer faces at the masjid and help them fully integrate into our community.
We’ve compiled a few tips from the Qur’an and Sunnah to help us do just that!
1. Be lenient with one another.
In Surah Al-Imran, as a response to the battle of Uhud, Allah (SWT) sent down verses with a powerful message on how to deal with others after they’ve erred.
Brief context on how Uhud unfolded: the battle was nearing an end and the Muslims were winning, just as they had won at Badr. The Prophet (SAW) had assigned a small group of archers to a lookout post and told them not to leave their position under any circumstance until they specifically receive an order. One event led to another, and some of them abandoned their post when they thought the battle was over. This resulted in a surprise attack by the enemy and many, many Muslim casualties.
Think about this moment for a second. If you were an army general and a group of your soldiers deliberately disobeyed your orders, resulting in fatal consequences, how would you react? In verse 159 of the surah, Allah says:
فَبِمَا رَحۡمَةࣲ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ لِنتَ لَهُمۡۖ وَلَوۡ كُنتَ فَظًّا غَلِیظَ ٱلۡقَلۡبِ لَٱنفَضُّوا۟ مِنۡ حَوۡلِكَۖ
“So by mercy from Allah, (O Muhammad), you were lenient with them. And if you had been rude (in speech) and harsh in heart, they would have been disbanded from about you.”
This ayah highlights an extreme case where not only did Muslims make a mistake, but their mistake cost MANY people their lives. And not just normal people, but companions of the Prophet (SAW). The BEST of Muslims. Yet still through the mercy of Allah, the Prophet (SAW) treated them with kindness. Why? Because if he had been harsh with them, they would have run away. If the Sahaba, the best of all Muslims to ever exist, would have run away from Islam upon facing harshness, then what outcome should we expect from being harsh to our fellow brothers and sisters today? If the Sahaba needed kindness and acceptance in order to maintain their iman, then most certainly we need it tenfold now.
2. Coach, don’t criticize.
Being lenient does not mean letting everything slide and turning the masjid into a lawless land. Rather, we should follow the Prophetic example of coaching others in a positive way without putting them down. An example that highlights this sunnah is the famous story of when a Bedouin man once urinated in the masjid.
The Sahaba were appalled; they were about to take action when the Prophet (SAW) held them back. Not only did he tell them to let the man finish, he also asked them to clean up his mess afterwards. Why? So that he (SAW) could teach the Bedouin man the proper etiquettes of the masjid to prevent the mistake from happening again, rather than criticizing him and almost fully ensuring this man would never enter the masjid again.
3. Make sincere du’a for each other.
In Surah Al-Imran, Allah continues the last ayah to say:
فَٱعۡفُ عَنۡهُمۡ وَٱسۡتَغۡفِرۡ لَهُمۡ وَشَاوِرۡهُمۡ فِی ٱلۡأَمۡرِۖ
“So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter.”
This ayah ties together all 3 of our action items. We should be lenient with others, coach them, and make du’a for them. Sometimes it isn’t easy to make du’a for someone who in our eyes may seem ignorant, careless, or is somehow in the wrong. But through the Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW), we learn that no matter how badly someone messes up, as long as they are our brothers and sisters in Islam, we should make du’a for their guidance and their forgiveness.
So, next time you see someone enter the masjid with a hijab that’s too loose, shorts that are too short, or any other fault that is much smaller than the mistake of the archers at Uhud or the act of the Bedouin man, just remember that everyone is on a different level of spirituality and knowledge, and assume that they are trying their best. Instead of meeting them with judgment, condescension, and criticism, the best thing we can do – in addition to being kind and coaching them – is ask for their forgiveness and their guidance.
If each of us implemented these tips within our communities, imagine the positive impact it could have on the Ummah! Share these tips with your community, and let us know how it goes.