Courtyard of Gathering Without Walls

Rabia lived within a tradition of Islamic hospitality and spiritual gathering, where the physical space of the home or courtyard became sacred through intentional presence and generous welcome. For diaspora found families, who often lack inherited family homes or stable housing, this concept reimagines gathering space as portable and generative rather than fixed and ancestral. A courtyard without walls acknowledges that found family may gather in apartments, parks, temporary shelters, or digital spaces, with the sacredness residing not in location but in intentional community-making. This framework honors both the precarity and the creativity of diaspora life: families that cannot rest on inherited homesteads learn to carry hospitality itself as a cultural practice. Rabia's example of opening one's inner and outer space to strangers becomes a practical model for diaspora kinship that prioritizes presence over possession.