Radical Inclusion as Spiritual Practice

Rabia lived in a hierarchical society with rigid rules about who could speak to whom, which bodies could be near which other bodies, which people had spiritual authority. She violated these constantly, offering her spiritual presence and recognition to anyone. Her radical inclusion was not naive egalitarianism; it was a spiritual practice rooted in the conviction that every soul contained divine light worth witnessing. Modern communities often confuse belonging with gatekeeping: we create in-groups and out-groups, assuming belonging means exclusivity. Yet Rabia's model suggests the opposite: belonging deepens when a community practices radical inclusion. This doesn't mean boundary-lessness or accepting harm; it means expanding the circle of people you recognize as worthy of genuine encounter. When a community gates belonging—requiring certain credentials, identities, beliefs—some people will always be excluded and will experience fitting in rather than belonging. Rabia's radical inclusion created genuine belonging because no one was fundamentally outside the circle of her attention and love. The practice is examining your own gatekeeping: whom do you exclude from genuine belonging, and what would it cost to include them?