It is shocking that nowadays it is the tinkle of cash registers, not the waning of the moon, that seemingly heralds the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan. For days we have seen in markets and supermarkets the pre-Ramadan rush in action as people walk off with sacks of rice, cooking oil by the caseload and enough pastry, vegetables and meat to feed an army. Try shopping today and tomorrow; it is going to be a nightmare. The last-minute rush to stock up before the new moon is to be avoided. Ramadan, supposed to be a time of fasting, has become a time of feasting. Every year it is the same. Nighttime is turned into party-time; tables groan under the weight of food; people stuff themselves with sambusas and other delicacies once the sun has set and then moan about how much weight they have put on.

And it is shop till you drop. During nighttime, the souqs and the stores are thick with shoppers by the family load. Businesses have been gearing up for weeks to meet the increased consumer demand and the expectation of massive profits. Many often take more money in Ramadan — and particularly the last two weeks of Ramadan — than they do during the whole of the rest of the year. Does anyone complain? Yes, but the complaint is of storekeepers taking advantage of the shopping spree to put up their prices, of being so tired spending the night eating, visiting family and friends, doing the shopping malls and watching videos that they cannot possibly be expected to work normally the next day. The few sincere complaints about the commercialization of Ramadan are drowned out by the din of money making, of fun time, of excess, of everything the Holy Month should not be. Each year, it gets worse. Twenty years ago, there was a bit of a buzz in the last week of Ramadan as people got ready for Eid. Now it starts toward the second week of Ramadan. Eid is almost an anti-climax.

It is not like this elsewhere in the Muslim world; people do not spend the whole night partying. They break fast and then, at a reasonable hour, go to bed, wake for sahoor and prayer, sleep a little more, then get up and go to work as normal. For them, Eid is still the big celebration, the real party.

What fast is there if people sleep all day and then wake up in time to break it at iftar? Ramadan is supposed to be a time of giving and giving up, a time to feel closer — physically closer by fasting — to the tribulations and hunger that the poor feel all the year. It is a time to deny oneself, for one’s own good and the good of others. It is a time of deeper prayer and reflection. It is not a time to get fat and sleep the day away. That is a travesty of the spirit of the Holy Month.

May this Ramadan be a time of true fasting, of deeper prayer and real identity with the poor, whose plight will not change when Eid comes.