Taron Egerton

From Sarah Joseph, Editor of a Muslim lifestyle magazine:
Today is the 15th of Ramadan – we’re hallway through the month of fasting. I find the halfway mark - the middle ten days - the hardest to be honest. The first ten days I still have energy and the month is still new. Boundless enthusiasm gets me through. The last ten days, I realise that the month is slipping away, and I am want to make sure I make the most of it. There’s the intense focus of a pending deadline. But the middle bit – I find it tough. I’ve had people say – “miss out the middle bit”. Which is rather amusing, but kind of misses the point. Ramadan is a month of fasting for a reason. 
Committing to it builds rigour, determination, and resilience. I guess my experience is like the wall that marathon runners sometimes face… It’s the bit in the middle where you feel – I just can’t do this. It’s so hard! It’s TOO HARD! Which is how I have felt about a fair few trials in my life. There is a dark place that feels impossible to escape from. A moment of time when there feels like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, and you don’t have the energy to conquer the trial. Those are dark days. Hard days. I experienced a lot of them during my daughter’s illness. But my history of Ramadans has actually helped me on some very difficult days in my life. 
The Qur’an reminds in one verse, “with hardship there is ease”, and in another verse, “no soul will be tested more than they can bear.” In the midst of a trial, it is hard to believe these things. Ramadan provides some proof – some muscle memory, if you like, to know “I can get through this…” With its thirty days providing a clear beginning, middle and end, we can see the boundary of the test. It’s hard enough to be meaningful. Not so hard that it’s impossible. Now in life we often don’t know where the end of a test will be, but – as Christopher Robin tells Winnie the Pooh, “You are Braver than you believe, Stronger than you seem.” Ramadan – in some small way – has helped me learn that about myself over the years.