If it doesn't work out? We know the same people

Waalaikumussalam,

Thank you for your response.  That's unfortunate that your cousin left the community for a while. Hope things are better now insha'allah.

Yes, I agree - we need to turn back to Allah swt in both our actions and our intentions, and I ask Allah swt to purify my intentions insha'allah.

Wondering if anyone else on this forum has any experience with being involved in Muslim organizations and thinking of another volunteer as a potential .. but not doing anything because they share the same networks/friends.

Assalamualaikum,

I am really curious as to how Muslims who volunteer together (e.g MSAs, Muslims organizations, etc) progress from fellow volunteers to something more, and how people deal with rejection or heartbreak when both individuals are very involved that you can't really avoid each other?

There is a brother who I think is pious, seems to have good character, and is very involved in the Muslim community mashallah.

I have recently started getting involved in the Muslim community again, particularly the one that he is very involved in (not because he is in it, but it just happened that way).  Even when we are not volunteering for that organization together, I end up seeing him at other Muslim events that I volunteer at.

I want to stay being involved in the Muslim community, for the sake of Allah swt and for myself.
However, I am afraid of getting my heart broken.  We share many of the same networks, communities, and know the same people/share friends.  If, in the future, something were to progress to legitimate potential status (in a halal way of course) - but it didn't work out, I feel like I wouldn't really be able to "escape" from seeing him, as we are both pretty involved.  If things don't work out the way we want it to, we should turn to Allah swt, right? And probably also stay active, and in the presence of fellow Muslims.  But if I did that, I feel I would very likely see him in organizations, events etc, and it would be difficult.  Sort of a catch 22.

I understand that I'm worrying about something that might not happen, but I can't help but try to cover the possibilities.

It also doesn't help that there are lots of extremely gorgeous, younger, more accomplished sisters who also have a strong social media presence around as well.  Social Media is probably not helping me in the self-esteem department, but in today's age, where we even find out about Muslim events via social media, it's hard to avoid.

JAK