Ramadan in Morocco: From a religious ritual to a cultural practice

By Larbi Arbaoui

Morocco World News

Tinjedad, Morocco, July 30, 2012

Fasting the holy month of Ramadan is compulsory for every mature and sound Muslim, just like the other four pillars of Islam except for Pilgrimage, the fifth pillar, which is obligatory once for a life time only for those who can afford it.

Fasting Ramadan, even though it comes at the third place after the five daily regular prayers, is a ritual that has a commanding authority over the majority of Muslims. There are many Muslims who are not committed to the regular five prayers a day, but when Ramadan comes they can’t help but fast with the rest of people.

Why such people turn a deaf ear to the daily five calls for prayers while they can’t eat in day light during Ramadan in a free of blame consciousness?

The five pillars of Islam are set in a sequential order, which calls the believers to carry out and put into practice in a logical order. Out of reason, one can’t perform the customary five prayers without announcing devotedly the “Shahadah” (the belief and sincere voicing that there is no God but Allah and Mohamed is His messenger). Also, it looks weird and out of the ordinary to see people fasting the whole Ramadan, while feeling reluctant to perform the prayers which come prior in the sequential order of the five Islamic cornerstones. For this category, responding to an Islamic preaching and rejecting the other may be understood as a religious hypocrisy. But if we look at it from another perspective, we may come to form another understanding of this phenomenon.

Unlike praying, fasting during Ramadan is perceived as a cultural ceremony more than a religion ritual. For this reason, people who don’t recurrently pray or even respond to the other Islamic teachings still feel jubilant and excited about the coming of this holy month. The strong social and cultural dimension of Ramadan in the common sense of the popular masses makes it a forcible duty on people. Any attempt to contravene the rite of fasting during Ramadan will leave the doer in a psychological discomfort under the mercy of the mockery of the invisible socio-cultural mechanisms governing the community.

Another reason that shows that Ramadan has a more cultural dimension in our society is when we see some people engaged in profane and immoral acts during the nights of Ramadan, but wake up fasting. More funny is the case of drunkards who stop drinking alcohol forty days before the beginning till the end of Ramadan in what they call respect for the holy month. There are even those who don’t pay any sense of respect to this “religious break” and keep their routine of smoking and drinking wine only at nights, whereas in daytime they, let say, don’t eat, smoke or drink anything till the Ftour meal. The most choking acts are those of adultery and licentious social evenings that are in stark contradiction with religion organized every night to celebrate the holy month.

All these practices seemed to be a far cry from religion, but, unfortunately, still exist. The people who are indulged in such immoral acts have no regard for religion. However, they tend to comply with the rite of fasting during Ramadan not as an act of obedience to the religious teachings, but only because Ramadan has another socio-cultural dimension from which it gains its authority.

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Mohamed oukaai

that s a nice article si Laarbi. Thanks for tacking this complicated issue. It is true that what remains mostly from ramadan month is the ritual and the traditional, and it is to a large extent voidedout of its spirit and the truth behind fasting Ramadan.
fouad

this is a good and balanced story.
Although I want to take it a level further.

I believe that religion is something primarily between the individual and God.
This directly implies that the individual is free to confess (or not) of their religion in freedom, as can be seen in:
Qur’an 2:256: “There is no compulsion in religion.”

So I personally see religion more as a cultural phenomenon that developed from the teachings of the prophets.

So I personally see religion more as a cultural phenomenon that developed from the teachings of the prophets.

If I want to fast, but not (regularly) pray or not doing the other rituals, then you can not see that as hypocrisy if I don’t claim that I practice my religious rituals the same way as most people do.

Drinking wine ( I do not because I don’t like alcohol at all) is not forbidden at all, it is merely not recommended, because it can do more harm then good, ( soura 2;219: They ask you about wine and gambling. Say, “In them is great sin and [yet, some] benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit.” ).

This is a clear message, like most souras, telling us to use our sane mind in everything we do.

I fast, because of it’s clear health benefit like detoxication and of course spiritually to be closer to the creator and solidarity with the poor and needy by donating to them ( not only in the holy month but as a general practice during my life).
khalique rahman

You have raised extremely legitimate issues, Larbi.
I think, out of the five compulsory duties you’ve rightly mentioned, only fasting during Ramadan and Eid Salats have acquired socio-cultural dimensions. That’s why many people fast but refrain from Salatuttarawih which of course is wajib, not fard.
In India, Iftar is a social occasion; political as well, because many politicians, even if not Muslims, throw lusty and luscious Iftar parties to promote a feeling of brotherhood beyond religion.
Let’s pray, we begin to follow religion, whichever it is, in its right spirit, so that we make better human beings out of us.