How strange that some people can be so influential on our lives while at the same time being completely oblivious to our existence.
When I was young, I imagined that some old Muslim acquaintances must have had a hand in my guidance, perhaps praying for me when I moved amongst them.
But when I eventually encountered them again many years later, I discovered that not only had they no recollection of me ever having walked amongst them, but also that I had been a practising Muslim nearly two decades longer than them.
It turned out that I had projected my own constructions onto them and had in turn been influenced by that. In fact, nothing I imagined to be true turned out to be the case.
They were influential not because of anything they really did, but only as a result of all I subsequently imagined and projected onto them to explain events I could not comprehend at the time.
These, the imaginary influencers in the head of the introvert who once walked amongst them, unknown.
Last modified: 22 March 2025
