إنا لله و إنا إليه راجعون

This is one of those things I can't work out whether or not to talk about on Livejournal. I'm friends-protecting it for now.

Last night we got an e-mail from a colleague telling us that one of our students, Fahad Al-Jefairi, was killed yesterday in a car accident in Saudi. He was buried today.

I didn't know him hugely well, except that in the last few weeks we'd gotten into some interesting conversations online on Qatarliving and here on my blog. On Friday I was all excited because, in a religious debate, he cited the allegory of the rings from Nathan the Wise -- a play our students got to see broadcast live from the Pittsburgh campus. I was going to write back, but didn't. It's just weird to think that now I can't. (Boy, how self-centered a reaction is that?)

Please keep the Al-Jefairi family in your thoughts, and also our students. They're a tight-knit group, and the loss of their colleague has got to be pretty rough.

إنا لله و إنا إليه راجعون
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un.
We belong to God, and to God we will return.