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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Yousra Samir Imran.

Good morning.

Did you know that today marks the beginning of Afternoon Tea Week? Having afternoon tea became popular in the 19th century, when society women would dress up and visit each other at four o’clock in the afternoon, usually for some good old-fashioned gossip, and be served trays laden with sandwiches, cakes, scones and tea.

It's said that it was the seventh Duchess of Bedford in 1840, who started the afternoon tea trend. Dinner in her household was served at eight o’clock in the evening, and by the late afternoon she would get hungry. So, she would ask that a tray of tea, bread and butter – the sandwich was still a relatively new concept back then – and cake be brought to her room. It became a habit, and soon she started inviting her friends over to join her.

Afternoon tea today, is no longer relegated to the upper class, nor is its prime purpose gossip. But what afternoon tea still achieves, is bringing friends together. The focus is spending quality time together, in a relaxed environment, where conversation and laughter can flow freely. It is excellent at maintaining friendships, and rekindling bonds.

In a society where we are increasingly living in the digital world, as opposed to the real one, many of us have unintentionally become lonely. Over half of the British population say they have between only one and four good friends. If there ever was the perfect setting to bring those friends together, it’s afternoon tea.

So today, I pray that we all get the opportunity, to have afternoon tea with our friends, very soon.

Ameen.