When Companions Depart… Yet the City Remains Within Us
Some friendships are not passing memories; they become part of who we are. And when those who shared them with us depart, we do not lose them alone we lose an entire chapter of our lives.
There are moments when sorrow does not arrive all at once.
It seeps quietly into the heart as if it is memory itself that weeps, not merely the eyes.
I received the news of the passing of my childhood friend and companion in the earliest stages of seeking knowledge first in secondary school, then at the Islamic University of Madinah my dear brother, Yahya Traoré. May Allah envelop him in His mercy.
This was not merely the loss of a person. It was the sudden return of an entire chapter of life not to relive it, but to remind us how much of it we have already lost.
In the corridors of the Islamic University of Madinah, we were not simply students of knowledge. We were being shaped.
The lecture halls that gathered us, the professors who were not merely transmitters of knowledge but builders of minds, the long debates that stretched between question and answer all of it formed a journey far deeper than formal education. And Yahya was present in all of it with a sharp mind, wide reading, and a fearless intellectual spirit.
He debated not to defeat, but to arrive. He questioned not to argue, but to uncover.
Yahya was not an ordinary student who came to be formed from the beginning.
He arrived already prepared carrying with him an early intellectual and media presence.
As I recall, he had hosted a radio programme in his home country,
and this was reflected in his character:
clarity in expression, confidence in thought, and presence in every discussion from the very first day.
His voice was never incidental in the classroom.
It was part of its very energy.
Yet alongside this intellectual presence,
he was light-hearted, warm, and deeply human.
To sit with him was to find yourself unsure were you in a gathering of knowledge, or in a gathering of companionship?
Among those close to him, he was known for a phrase he often repeated, as if it defined his relationship with knowledge:
“Said the one who possessed knowledge from the Book…”
It was not merely a phrase.
It was a worldview:
that knowledge is not accumulation,
but insight… empowerment… and depth of understanding.
Then there were the small details—
the ones history never records, yet memory never forgets.
The university bus…
its daily journeys to and from the Prophet’s Mosque.
How many conversations were born in those rides,
how many dreams took shape,
how many moments of laughter eased the burden of seeking knowledge.
We would leave the lecture halls for the bus,
and from the bus to the Mosque as though moving between two worlds:
the world of intellect… and the world of serenity.
And in the Prophet’s Mosque…
life took on another form.
The circles of knowledge small in size, yet vast in impact.
We would sit for hours,
listening, asking, moving from one scholar to another,
without fully realising that we were being built from within.
And Yahya was there too with a contemplative gaze and a restless question.
Then… life moves on.
We graduate.
Paths diverge.
Each of us carries his share of memories and continues his journey.
We think we have left those days behind.
But in truth… they never leave us.
I searched for him as one searches for a part of oneself.
Until the news came:
Yahya had passed away.
And here, sorrow is no longer a sound but a heavy silence within.
We come to realise, too late, that some doors do not simply close their keys disappear forever.
Today, as I revisit those years,
I understand something I did not before:
Places do not lose their meaning when we leave them…
they lose it when those we loved are no longer there.
The halls remain.
The bus still runs.
The Mosque is still alive with circles of knowledge…
But we are no longer who we once were.
May Allah have mercy on you, Yahya…
You were more than a friend.
You were an entire chapter of life.
And though the paths of this world have parted us, hope remains
That we may meet again,
not in a lecture hall,
nor on a passing bus,
nor in a circle of knowledge in this world…
But in a gathering where there is no parting,
in the company of the Beloved Prophet ﷺ,
in the highest gardens of Paradise.
“Indeed, the eyes shed tears, and the heart grieves, yet we say only what pleases our Lord.
By Prof. Dr. Faid Mohammed Said
Secretary-General of the European Council of Islamic Institutions and Centres
ملخص فعاليات اليوم التاسع لجناح مؤسسة محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم للمعرفة ضمن مشاركتها في معرض القاهرة الدولي للكتاب 2026، والتي شهدت تفاعلاً لافتاً من قبل الزوّار مع البرامج المعرفية النوعية التي يشهدها الجناح.
تدعوكم مؤسسة محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم للمعرفة لحضور جلسة بعنوان «الدراما التربوية والمسرح الرقمي» ضمن فعاليات معرض القاهرة الدولي للكتاب 2026.
تسلّط الجلسة الضوء على دور الدراما والمسرح في دعم العملية التعليمية، واستكشاف آفاق التحول الرقمي في تقديم المحتوى التربوي، ومناقشة سُبل توظيف الفنون في بناء وعي معرفي مستدام.
📅 الخميس 29 يناير 2026
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