The religious festival is a month of fasting, prayer and community – not consuming and comparing ourselves with one another

• Nadeine Asbali is the author of Veiled Threat: On being visibly Muslim in Britain

Supermarkets have wheeled out the 20kg bags of rice. High-street stores have popped hijabs on mannequins. Cosmetic companies are churning out products scented with pomegranate, cardamom, saffron and “sticky date” – at Lush you can buy Salam shower gel, Noor lip butter and a massage bar that apparently smells like a turmeric latte. All this can only mean one thing in our modern, consumerist world: Ramadan is upon us.

Ramadan, the holiest month in the Muslim calendar, begins this weekend. Like many Muslims, I find it is my favourite time of the year (and not because I can bulk-buy rice for the entire year in my local Tesco). It is a time of spiritual growth and reflection, of turning away from our own desires and egos to focus on God, and of letting go of the trappings of the earthly world – including food and drink in daylight hours.

Nadeine Asbali is the author of Veiled Threat: On being visibly Muslim in Britain, and a secondary school teacher in London

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