Chance Meeting
JUST MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS UNTIL I WASN’T
On yesterday’s walk, I noticed a young man carefully removing a piece of art from his car. The gentleman had close-cropped hair, beard, and stylish business clothes. Notably, he held the art like he was holding a newborn. Within the gilded frame glittered gold hand-embroidered Arabic letters on deep, black fabric. Hello inspiration.
“What’s it say?” I asked him, tugging my headphones off.
The man peered into my eyes, then set the piece down. “Do you really want to know?”
“I do.”
Minutes passed as he told me that it was no accident that I had seen him at that moment. In fact, he insisted, there were no accidents in this life because God had a hand in every thought, feeling and action that humans and animals and every life form in the universe experienced. Growing animated, he gestured with his hands and spoke about the heart to head connection and God’s place in that. His passion for translating the piece really struck me. Honestly, I couldn’t believe deeply he wanted me to understand the meaning. Carefully pointing to one gold embroidered word at a time, you’d think I was a part of his family.
His real family, his cousin, cleared her throat from the doorway of her house, “C’mon,” she urged the young man. “You’re supposed to be helping me, remember?”
The man waved her off. At that moment, he was more interested that I, a total stranger, had my question answered. What’s it say?
He traced a few more letters and looked back at me. “This means that there is so much in the world we don’t see and can’t understand.”
Clearly his cousin was impatient, you could hear her tapping her foot on the concrete driveway. Ignoring her, he said, “Before you go, you need to know the most important word in the piece, the most important word a person can ever utter. Hamdullah.”
“What’s hamdullah?”
He struggled to sum it up. “It’s…everything.”
Later, I did a little online research. Hamdullah means “All praise is due to Allah.”
WHAT MAKES MEETING SOMEONE MEMORABLE, ANYWAY?
I think it was the openness of the young man himself. He was unabashedly reverent. He believed that we were all connected. Without knowing me, he assumed I was a good person. Someone deserving of respect and his time. Someone who might benefit from learning a bit about the Muslim faith.
Sandwiched in the day where work, paying bills, taking care of families, staying in touch with friends, and trying to avoid too many carbs, we need chance meetings.
Curiosity led me to ask: What’s it say?
Wonder brought the man to share his deepest beliefs.
WE DON’T HAVE TO HAVE THE SAME BACKGROUND TO MAKE CONNECTIONS
In a time when snap judgements and misunderstandings abound, a chance meeting reminded me that, once in a while, it couldn’t hurt to pluck out the proverbial earbuds and listen to others with different backgrounds and experiences. In doing so, I have to believe our humanity would shine as brightly as those gold Arabic letters in the sun.
