Called To Prayer

17 Ramadhan 1434

Enjoyed a communal iftar this evening with Muslim friends and colleagues from school just outside the Sultan Mosque - the oldest and, I suppose, grandest in this Far Place. This is one of the few areas here in which the sound of the azan - and the prayers themselves - are allowed to carry into the open.The effect is powerfully soothing, I find, especially when the muezzin has such a fine voice. It's as if a blessing descends, sacralizing perfectly ordinary chatter and the on-going business of living. Suddenly the world seems balanced.