Cab

I rode in this cab the day before yesterday...It was quite a remarkable conversation, worth to be posted here.
The series of coincidences that led up to it are possibly the most remarkable bit of all...So I came out of college, stopped a taxi and jumped in. The driver had a light beard, high cheekbones and a narrow chin. He spoke in poetry whenever he felt like it (he stated pure and elegant Arabic poetry lines when he did so) and laughed heartily at his own jokes. I didn't find the jokes as funny but they were very honest and quite 'clean'...One finds himself laughing at such jokes naturally and without thinking. After almost ten minutes, another guy (seemingly about 17) stops the cab and jumps in...From the conversation, the driver tells us that he used to be an Imam and speaker in Ta'aif, Saudi Arabia. When he said that, I honestly wanted to look him in the eye and say, 'What damned times are we living in that make the Imam a taxi driver!'...But I did not, I didn't want to rub it in.

So he tells us (the cab driver) that if we have any question regarding religion, we shouldn't hesitate in asking him. Silence prevails for about five minutes before the dude who just rode in laughs nervously and says, 'I'm a Coptic man'. It startles me how the Imam does not have a faltering face, not even for a moment...He simply looks at the dude in the rear-view mirror, smiles and talks in poetry again, 'Mohammed's followers and Jesus' followers are the same; for we all worship the One God'. This man, right here, made the statement of the common word without having to sign a letter, or dig in research books...He said it in one simple and easy sentence. With a smile on his face and appearing joy in his eyes and pure honesty.

He then proceeded to state how we are all, universally, the same...I was liking his mind more by the minute. The Coptic dude replied that he was as startled as I am in that he is used to people going silent right after he tells them he's Coptic. The man then looked at him and started telling us a story. He told us that he used to be an Imam here in Alexandria before he traveled to Saudi Arabia and that the mosque he used to say his sermons in every Friday was located in a spot where all the store-owners were Christians. Oftentimes, he said, a Christian carpenter called Uncle Saad (he made sure that we knew that he called him that even in his absence out of respect) would be the one whom the would rehearse the Friday sermon in front of. He joked (the Imam) that he always told Uncle Saad that he 'was scared he'd have him go into Islam'! Uncle Saad, he said, was one of the best people he met...He offered him a hearing ear and, every now and then while hearing the sermon, would ponder and say, 'God bless you Sheikh'.

The Imam then spoke of hijab and the descent of society into the immoral and the haram (he clearly stated though, 'Except those who have Allah's mercy') and then stated possibly one of the most interesting and downright conclusions ever: You rarely see a good Christian and you rarely see a good Muslim. Forgetting religion is forgetting progress.
It striked me how sad this was, but more importantly; how excrucitaingly true.