Consider for a moment, what does this Qur’anic text and these two quotes have in common?
“…who respond to their Lord, establish prayer, conduct their affairs by mutual consultation, and donate from what We have provided for them..” (Qu’ran 42:38)
“In worship we have our neighbours to right and left, before and behind, yet the Eternal Presence is over all and beneath all. Worship does not consist in achieving a mental state of concentrated isolation from one’s fellows. But in the depth of common worship it is as if we found our separate lives were all one life, within whom we live and move and have our being.”
— Thomas R. Kelly (1938); from Quaker Faith and Practice published by Britain Yearly Meeting
“If we are great separate from each other, it’s going to sound horrible.”
Victor Wooten, Bassist and Music Educator
This Qur’anic verse is from the chapter called shura, which is my roman empire (i.e. subject of my daily thought). Shura– translated here as “mutual consultation” is to practice being together in community with one another. So much so, as this verse indicates when read alongside Kelly and Wooten, it is the source of connection with, and indeed blessing from, the Divine. Importantly, this does not mean that all our relationships are easy or even healthy as they are, but it must mean that we are gaining awareness of those realities and that we are building courage and capaciousness to confront them more effectively, together. In short, practicing relationality in this way, becomes revelatory.