Friendship reveals itself most clearly in difficult moments. Not in grand gestures, but in consistent presence. In showing up. In the simple act of sitting side by side, turning page after page.
The hospital lounge is an in-between space — not quite medical, not quite comfortable. Bulky chairs arranged in imperfect circles. In the one where I sit, there is no coffee or TV but there is a vending machine with sandwiches that nobody seems to ever want. There are also large windows that let in a lot of sun. It is here, amid the quiet conversations of strangers, that we open our copies of Dalā‘il al-Khayrāt, a Muslim prayer book, and create a small sanctuary of friendship.
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