Ramaḍān is the biggest Islamic festival of the year for Muslims all over the world, with fasting (ṣawm) being one of the five pillars of Islam. Taking place in the ninth month of the lunar calendar, Muslims are obligated to observe a period of fasting during daylight hours, in which one must abstain from food, water and sex until maghrib (sunset). The purpose of Ramaḍān is to cleanse the mind, body and soul of impurities. Participation in Ramaḍān rituals is widely regarded as non-negotiable, even for Muslims who are not socially conservative or ordinarily observant in their practice.

During my year living in Cairo, I witnessed how Ramaḍān materialises and reshapes the everyday rhythm of a society with a dominant Muslim population. As a student of anthropology, I anticipated the month with curiosity about how public life would transform: how daytime fasting would alter the business of the streets, how personal schedules would have to be adapted around the Ramaḍān timings of establishments, and how the festivities, ifṭārs and suẖūrs (daily meals) would take place. Living and occasionally participating in this environment enabled me to find these answers. Yet the reorganisation of time and space was not the only striking transformation to take place. The overwhelming saturation of media and advertisements that accompanied it was extraordinary. Hundreds and hundreds of billboards lined the highways with pictures of characters from the same TV shows. Any free space underneath a bridge was covered with a blown-up picture of a family sitting down to eat an ifṭār meal. Food brands, real estate, television shows, telecom companies and hotels all found a way to associate themselves with Ramaḍān’s rituals and values. The density of media was unavoidable, meaning that one could not help but wonder about the moral implications of commercialising a religious festival to this extent.

In a globalised modern world that is being driven by consumerism and that thrives off trends, these developments deeply affect all aspects of life, including long-standing religious traditions such as Ramaḍān. Commentators in Arab and South Asian media have begun to highlight the ethical issues that arise during Ramaḍān, as consumption begins to overshadow the true meaning of the holy month, and cities undergo complete transformations in lieu of the holy celebrations. The overwhelming discourse argues that piety and religiosity are being corrupted by capitalist movements and behaviours, and that, as a result, this distracts believers from focusing on their connection with their faith.

This essay aims to explore how spaces of consumption impact religious expression in today’s Islamic world, utilising Foucault’s theory of heterotopia and Lefebvre’s understanding of spatial practices as tools to do so. Physical spaces such as malls, streets, restaurants and hotels all undergo transformations during this month and promote the excessive expenditure of commodities, meals and media for the sake of Ramaḍān. Moreover, the development of social media has created a separate, virtual space that creates new opportunities for consumption and religious expression. This essay will draw on papers based on ethnographic research, specifically in Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt and Dubai, to explore these topics, as well as references to personal observations from Ramaḍān in Cairo, arguing that new expressions of piety, rather than the corruption of it, rise from these changes that are taking place.