Jasmine Jiwani kneels at her husband’s gravestone at a cemetery in Lawrenceville, Georgia. She never thought—coming to America from East Africa a decade ago—that one day she would have to mourn alone.

Jiwani is part of Atlanta’s large Ismaili Muslim community, which believes in the power of communal prayer to worship and heal. Covid restrictions prevented the community from gathering for the funeral of her husband, who died of Covid.