Facebook friend request confusion?

I had send a friend request to someone on Facebook but apparently that person didn’t accept the friend request BUT I can see his status update, wall-, link-, image posts etc but I can’t “like” or comment that person’s post.

How is that possible?

And would this happen to me if I don’t accept nor ignore friend requests from other people? Would they see my status update and wall post etc even if I hadn’t accepted nor ignored them?