Personal Reflection: The Masajid Are Full But Feel So Empty

I was very excited for ramadan to come this year

But when I stood for the first Taraweeh, I experienced an unexpected heaviness.

After several years of being blessed to spend Ramadan in the Prophet’s city ﷺ, this was my first year back in the West.

In Masjid al-Nabawi, there is a strange intimacy in the rows.

You can be a total stranger to the person shoulder-to-shoulder with you, yet you never feel alone.

Here, it is different.

You can know everyone in the masjid and still feel alone.

I’ve been trying to put my finger on why the atmosphere feels so different.

Lately, it feels as though our religiosity has shifted. It has taken the shape of personal goals rather than a communal identity.

What is intended to be a collective, transcendent experience is increasingly being approached with a productivity mindset.

It reminds me of the gym: a room full of strangers getting their reps in before heading for the exit.

Any socializing rarely goes beyond surface-level small talk.

If our masajid are full but still feel empty, we need to look past the attendance numbers and look at the bonds we are forming

The connecting of the rows is meant to be symbolic of the connecting of the hearts.

No matter how many bodies fill the masjid, if the hearts remain disconnected, the spirit of Ramadan and the masajid will remain empty.