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With more than 2 million Ukrainian civilians now living as refugees, the west is facing another humanitarian crisis. In what could be a protracted conflict, the images of women and children fleeing across borders into neighbouring countries compels us to examine our moral responsibility to those literally running for their lives. Even as nations across Europe try to retain checks and balances, many have opened their doors because how we welcome desperate people in desperate circumstances, reveals the very soul of who we are as individuals and nations. Becoming a refugee doesn’t define who you are as a person, it’s something which happens to you. The British writer Warsan Shire says in one of her poems, ‘no-one leave home unless home is the mouth of a shark. You only run for the border when you see the whole city running as well.’ After the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis, the initial outpouring of sympathy and empathy turned into suspicion for some. The refugee can go quickly from being seen as a victim of geo-political conflicts in need of protection, to threatening the nation-based order. War fatigue sets in and so can refugee fatigue. It seems to me that the world will only see a greater number of refugees and that we need to re- think hospitality not only as an issue of borders and citizenship, but intrinsic to our everyday responses to those around us. At its simplest level, hospitality is regarded as a virtue in most religious and ethical traditions. In the monotheistic faiths, the story of the scriptural figure of Abraham, remains central. It’s Abraham who acts as a host to three visitors, feeding them and giving them shelter, unaware that they were angels or even God himself. In desert cultures, offering food and water to strangers and travellers was like offering life itself. In pre-Islamic times, along with honour and chivalry, hospitality was considered as an act of unconditional surrender to the needs of others. And in Islam, its regarded as the highest virtue, reflected in the Prophetic saying, `there is no good in one who is not hospitable.’ If we see hospitality only as a watered down sentiment, we fail to recognise its far reaching potential for transforming societies. Hospitality helps to restore people their dignity, not just refugees who can already feel dehumanised, but ordinary people who may feel ignored or on the margins. It has the power to turn hostilities into friendships which are mutually enriching, and which in moments of need, allow all of us to become part of each other’s stories.