how i remember him

we stopped over in our way to Alabama. it was a house of a friend of my-not-by-choice-travel-companions. i was about to pray when one of my travel companions who was a friend of the other two companions approached me and asked if I was going to pray. with my reply, he told me he would lead the prayer as my 'imam'. between his telling me he would lead me as the 'imam' and he said the 'takbeer', my mind ran over religious rulings i had came across...through my limited religious knowledge i could not recall any regarding a woman praying with a 'non-mahram imam' when there were only two of them praying. i looked at the others who were in the living room through the open door hoping they would join us but i supposed they had already prayed. i made up my mind within that few seconds i should use my best judgement.

fate had it...the two of us who were from different parts of the world chanced upon each other during a group-trip i half-heartedly took. fate had it...that day the two of us prayed, he the 'imam' and i was the only 'makmum'. never before then and never after that had i ever prayed following a 'non-mahram-imam', being the only 'makmum'.

how I remember him makes forgetting him impossible. may all the beauty of life cross path with him...amen!.