Others

16 Ramadhan, 1439

The temptation of Ramadhan I need to avoid, and never quite manage to, I'm afraid, is the temptation to turn too far inward in a time of otherwise useful self-examination. Fortunately there are devices in-built into the experience, as it were, that act as a corrective to excessive navel-gazing: amongst others, the need to worship in community and the necessity of giving charity.

I was reminded of just how important it is not to lose sight of others and their trials & tribulations on recalling that the terrible fire that almost consumed Grenfell Tower in London happened this time last year during the fasting month. And then I came across a quite astonishingly detailed account of the tragedy and its aftermath by Andrew O'Hagan at the London Review of Books. The rigour and quality of attention given to others in his article, simply yet tellingly entitled The Tower, seem to me to embody the kind of concern that we need to let others demand of us.