With a billion muslims in the world, I was not just talking to strangers in these Words of Faith, as many of them were my brothers and sisters of the muslim family or Ummah. So, many of them could recognise and identify with the fasting in a way that most Glasgwegians can't, whereas to most muslims around the world, the place that Glasgwegians call home must seem a very strange place indeed to be fasting through Ramadhan.

[From the Qur'an, the chapter called The Cow, vv. 183-186]

O believers, the Fast is prescribed for you, just as it was for those before you, so that for certain days numbered you might be consciously aware of God.

And if any of you be sick, or on a journey, then fast a number of other days; and for those who are able, the redemptive act of feeding someone in need. Yet whoever volunteers more it is better for him, as it is for you to fast if you but knew.

In the month of Ramadhan the Qur'an was sent down, as a Guidance for mankind, with clear signs as to that Guidance and the distinction of truth from falsehood. So let those of you who are present for the month fast it, but if any of you be sick, or on a journey, then a number of other days. God desires ease for you, not hardship for you, and that you complete the number of days, and praise God Who has guided you, and haply you will be thankful.

And when My servants ask you about Me - I am near, and I answer the prayer of one who calls on Me. So let them answer to Me, and believe in Me, and haply they will follow the true direction.

Ramadhan is here once more, the month when muslims fast from dawn to sunset. For most of the year, I can live as a muslim in Glasgow with few noticeable differences to distinguish me from the city's irreligious majority, but to refuse all food and drink during daylight for a month is behaviour that some find strange, disturbing, extreme or even threatening. That's because they cannot understand the purpose behind the fasting. They think it unnecessary self-imposed suffering, in obedience to unintelligible arcane religious laws. If it were a special diet for my health, O.K., or a stunt raising money for charity, but "doing it for God" is a reason few unbelievers understand.

Indeed, the fasting is beneficial to our physical health, but above all Ramadhan is for our spiritual well-being, revitalizing our God-consciousness, easy to lose in our daily round of work and pleasure. So each year one month is made so different that we find it harder to forget why we are really here, a reminder that we are on this earth not for work or play, but for worship. Which doesn't mean that we no longer work or play, we just remember to live in the service of God, and try to act as God would will.

And while we work to provide for ourselves and our families how comforting to remember who provides for us all. When we play how much more enjoyable to do so in a spirit of thankfulness for our dexterity, our ability to run and kick, throw and jump, balance and juggle. We revel in the ways we use our minds and our senses, to collect, count and categorise, the variety of our interests, and the complexities of our understanding of Creation.

In Ramadhan we remember that our thoughts, words and actions, may have value only as worship, but that our worship should be enjoyed. God wants us to have an easy time, but to do things with ease requires not self-indulgence but self-discipline. "Out of hardship comes ease" says Qur'an, and our spiritual well-being benefits from our striving towards goodness, just as the muscles of our bodies gain strength through the pain of exercise.

Here in Glasgow (as all around the world) muslims do their best to read the Qur'an from beginning to end in Ramadhan, a time when we try to strengthen our relationship with God. The Qur'an makes clear that muslims need no priest to talk to the Creator on their behalf, for God is as close as the jugular vein, and hears the voice that whispers within you. So God hears the call of whoever prays, and will surely guide those who listen with humility toward their middle way, a straight line from birth to death, the easiest way from point A to point B.