Weekly event on Rizwan Jaka’s FB Live and on Zoom:
Join URL: https://zoom.us/j/541582146
Meeting ID: 541-582-146

April 21st Special Guest: Rabbi David Greenspoon of Congregation Sha’are Shalom

DETAILS:
Salam, Shalom, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Peace to you!

We pray that y’all are in the highest state of faith during these trying times. As fellow believers, you are undoubtedly relying on your faith to guide you through this difficulty.

In the Muslim faith, God reassures us more than once in the Qur’an:

Verily, with hardship will be relief.
Indeed, with hardship will be relief.
[The Holy Qur’an, chapter 94, verses 5 & 6]

It’s important to note that this message specifies that relief comes *with* hardship, as opposed to the usual message that things get better after trials. While they do get better after, this ease that God promises us comes *with* hardship are to remind us to look for God’s blessings during difficulties. This verse is so deeply meaningful to us that we named our youngest daughter after it — Yusrah, which is the Arabic word used in the Qur’an for the word ‘relief’ in this verse.

In an effort to help provide some measure of relief to each other and to our respective faith communities, we (Rizwan Jaka & Priscilla Martinez) are beginning a weekly Zoom + Facebook Live broadcast: the Nations & Tribes in Harmony forum. Our intent is to connect one-on-one each week with a different faith leader to continue to nourish the relationships that we have spent our lives building.

We plan to highlight the following with each guest:

1. Introductions
2. What are the core beliefs of your faith tradition?
3. Tell us about your community/congregation.
3. How has your community/congregation adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic?
4. What can you share about your community’s/congregation’s plans in the long-term?
5. What one thing would you most like others to know about your community/congregation?
6. How has your community/congregation partnered with other organizations and elected officials? What opportunities for partnership do you see going forward?
7. Q&A from viewers

After several broadcasts during which we will have had the opportunity to host 7-8 of the ten planned faith communities following the above get-to-know-you structure for our viewers, we will then transition to hosting roundtable discussions during which we’ll include several faith leaders at once to discuss ethics, governance, rituals/practices, holidays, symbols, and the environment for starters — all within the context of each of diverse faith tradition.

Our broadcasts will be every Tuesday evening at 9pm Eastern on Facebook Live and on Zoom.

We also ask that you all share these events with your respective faith communities because, after all, God reminds us in the Qur’an:

“We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another.
Verily, the most honorable among you is the most pious of you.”
[The Holy Qur’an, chapter 49, verse 13]

No doubt you’ve heard one or both of us share this meaningful verse during our countless collaborations over the past decades. It remains one of our deepest inspirations for the work that we do, and the entire purpose behind our creating the Nations & Tribes in Harmony forum.

We’re both very much looking forward to connecting with each of you!

Peace,

Rizwan & Priscilla