‘I just wanted to hear your voice.’
Today I received a fascinating phone call. A former schoolmate in Tareem from Indonesia who went back home for good about last year.
He was actually the student leader and no title role was needed. It was clear by his conduct and the respect accorded to him, where his place was.
I’m not measuring his knowledge for I myself never sat with him proper or was not informed of what year of the program he was in. Such is leadership.
I was an Arabic student which meant I’ve yet to even enter the first year of the normal program that all students go through. So I was no peer of his.
He called wishing me Ramadhan. He shared that he’s been advised to go to West Java to help a scholar start a school from scratch. He’s from East Java.
He’s Sayyid Anis Alsagoff.
At the end of the conversation, I said in Arabic, ‘any service let me know.’ This does not just mean, anytime you need help you can call me.
It’s also an opener for that very moment, in case he called me to ask for something but was shy, this question is a subtle way to say, ‘don’t be shy, do ask.’
This is a common way to offer help. He kind of picked up what I was saying between the lines and said the same as he did at the beginning of the phone call,
‘I just called to hear your voice.’
