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Never again — I hope — will I allow myself to wonder what happened to those I passed along the way. It began with me hypothesising that there was no way in the world our paths could ever again cross. It ended with the shocking realisation that just as those clamouring thoughts had been coming to a crescendo, causing untold agitation within, our paths were crossing, literally.

I’ve been taught a lesson, that’s for sure. About my complete and absolute ignorance. About how faulty my suppositions always are, how risible my conclusions, and how little my faith. Here, ancient wisdom made real: “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” For sure, I know nothing at all.

Of course, I have been here before. On hajj in 2006, I sat down in a tent amidst a sea of tents housing three million pilgrims and turned to the smiling brothers at my side. They were friendly and we were soon engaged in conversation. I’d soon learn that the first of them lived in the village of my childhood, the second of them the village of my adolescence — just around the corner, as it happened. No big deal: a coincidence.

More stupefying: that they both knew my mother from her days as hospital chaplain. In fact, I remember that in the mid 1990s, my mother used to talk about a “lovely Muslim doctor” who would come to the chapel to pray daily. My mind was completely blown that day in that tent in Mina, but only for the second time. There had already been a sublime surprise awaiting me when our little band of pilgrims — all of us converts — arrived on foot from Mecca.

The moment I wandered through the entrance, there I saw one of my closest friends from university days. “Salam alaikum Tim,” he said, with a grin on his face, “fancy meeting you here!” This chap was, I should add, the son of the old gentleman who used to overload my plate with food at every gathering in his unending mission to put meat on my bones. Small world, we might say.

So I have been taught another clear lesson this year. One that has humbled me completely. Nearly everything I thought to be true turned out not to be true at all. Everything has been challenged. All of my supposed knowledge has turned to dust. With humility I must now confess:

Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth declares the glory of God; to Him belongs dominion, and to Him is due all praise, and He has power over all things.

Quran 64:1