An-Nudama
The closed number
Co-optation
The house is Al-Munya; the majlis is An-Nudama. Entry is by co-optation, which means that no application is filed and no file is examined: someone already inside proposes a name, and the company answers. It is not a club, and access is not bought as a service.
The closed number has a practical reason before it has a principled one. A company holds together as long as each person knows everyone and answers for his presence before the others. Past a certain size it becomes an audience, and an audience is no longer led, it is managed.
What is taken on, and what is not acquired
An entry share
Paid once, it capitalises the undertaking and serves the house rather than any person. Stays are then paid for by each member. Amounts are given on request, with a breakdown of their use.
No rights over the Riad
The resolutions of the house of formation belong to its majlis al-umanāʾ. Crossing the common door remains a gesture of those who live on the other side.
No priority in the workshops
Work leaves the workshops in the order of commissions, and an entry share does not move that order.
Discretion
What is said here stays here. The rule protects the guests from one another as much as it protects the house from what would be told about it.
The rule comes before the guest
It is not negotiated on arrival and is not relaxed to suit. Whoever finds it too firm is right not to enter, and the house takes no offence.