Belonging Beyond Merit or Preference

Favoritism ultimately rests on a premise: that belonging must be earned through merit, preference, or proximity. You belong if you succeed, if you're favored, if you're family in the right way. Rabia's vision inverted this completely—she taught that belonging is fundamental, that it precedes and exceeds any achievement or preference. Every being belongs to the Divine already, simply by existing. From this flows a radically different community: one where presence itself grants belonging, where a person's right to be included doesn't depend on earning it. This shift costs the structures that maintain favoritism because it removes all justification for preference. If someone belongs by existing, not by succeeding, then choosing to exclude them becomes a clear choice to harm, not a natural hierarchy. Applied to families and institutions, this principle transforms everything: hiring becomes about contribution, not about fitting a favored mold; parenting becomes about knowing each child fully, not about preferring the easier one; community becomes about radical inclusion, not earned membership. The cost of this shift is significant—it requires releasing the comfort of preference, the illusion that we can justify hierarchy through merit. Yet the gain is immeasurable: communities where every person knows they belong, fundamentally and unconditionally, regardless of what they produce or whom they please.