Muslims Don’t Need Ramadan Laws

Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, began in the third week of February, bringing more than two billion Muslims around the world a deeper spirituality as well as a religious responsibility: fasting from dawn to sunset. It is not an easy fast, because neither a morsel of food nor a drop of water is allowed, which makes believers anxiously await the iftar – the fast-breaking meal that often brings families and communities together. Everyone at the table waits for the call to the evening prayer to sip their first cup of water – and to thank their Creator, whose blessings we all too often take for granted.

The Ramadan fast is not physically easy, in other words, but it is spiritually beautiful. The same is true of the communal aspect of Ramadan, which has been cherished in Muslim countries for centuries, with special decorations, gatherings, entertainments (especially for kids), and many acts of charity. Staying hungry during Ramadan, as the saying goes, helps you understand the suffering of those who are ever-hungry.

Yet it is hard to see anything inspiring about certain “Islamic” governments that have decided to police this religious obligation. They have “Ramadan laws,” which make it illegal to eat or drink publicly during fasting hours. Therefore, in every Ramadan, news comes from certain parts of the Muslim world where people get arrested for not observing the fast.

This year’s first news came right on the first day of the holy month from the northern Nigerian state of Kano: The religious police, known as the Hisbah, detained nine people, seven males and two females, who were seen eating food during fasting hours. The commander of Hisbah, Mujahid Aminudeen, said to the BBC:

We have arrested them and they are with us where we are going to be teaching them the importance of fasting, how to pray, read the Quran and become better Muslims.

As a Muslim who believes in the sanctity of fasting, praying, and the Quran, I would have sympathy with preachers who gently offer nasiha, or religious counsel, on these values. But should this be the job of police forces, who do not simply preach the faith, but dictate it by force?

This question is relevant not only to Nigeria’s northern states, which have enforced sharia since the early 2000s, but also to many other countries and regions that have Ramadan laws. Among them are Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan, Brunei, Malaysia, and the Aceh province in Indonesia, which impose fines or short prison sentences for Ramadan violations. Harsher penalties exist in Iran, where publicly breaking the fast can lead to imprisonment of up to two months or up to 74 lashes.

As one may expect, Afghanistan, under the Taliban, is also quite strict in enforcing Ramadan observance. The Taliban’s new Penal Code – which appears to justify slavery, among other controversial rulings – includes a specific provision imposing 20 lashes and two months in jail on a Muslim who “deliberately eats during the month of Ramadan.”

While these laws exist, many conservative Islamic scholars support them, believing that they help preserve the faith and public morality while fulfilling the Quranic duty given to Muslims: “commanding the right and forbidding the wrong.”

Yet there is also an Islamic counterview: that Muslims practice all their religious duties, including fasting, to please God – not the state, the police, or society. Therefore, no one should police their piety or otherwise interfere in an act of worship that should be between them and God.

In a new book that I edited, No Compulsion in Religion – No Exceptions: Islamic Arguments for Religious Freedom, I worked with a team of Islamic scholars to articulate this counterview, by exploring its grounds in Islamic texts and traditions. While we cover many controversial issues – from apostasy and blasphemy laws to the gentler interpretations of “commanding the right and forbidding the wrong” – Ramadan laws are also addressed in a chapter penned by Mohammad Lamallam: “Fasting for God, Not Society: The Religious Case Against Ramadan Laws.”

In this chapter Lamallam highlights Ahmed al-Raysuni, a prominent Moroccan jurist who also served as the president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars from 2018 to 2022. While most of his fellow clerics support Ramadan laws – which have become contentious in Morocco, too – al-Raysuni has a remarkably reformist view: Religious observance must stem from inner conviction rather than external compulsion. Ramadan laws, therefore, are pointless and should be abolished.

Al-Raysuni made this case in various occasions, including a 2016 interview, where he was asked whether those who publicly violate the fast constitute “a problem.” He responded that no one had the right to question their decision to avoid fasting. “The matter is between them and God… That is why I do not support the [Ramadan] law in this matter.”

Al-Raysuni also pointed out that Islamic jurisprudence itself allows exemptions from fasting for valid religious reasons, like illness, pregnancy, and travel. Therefore, if the state bans eating in public, it will be imposing fasting on Muslims who are not even religiously required to eat. (Non-Muslims, meanwhile, are not ever expected to fast.)

There is one more thing to add to this argument against Ramadan laws: They are simply unnecessary. Over a billion Muslim around the world live in countries without such laws – in more secular states such as Indonesia, Uzbekistan, or Turkey, or as minorities all over, including the West – but most of them still fast. They do this not because they fear being arrested by any “religion police,” but because they genuinely believe in God and worship him willingly – the only right reason for any act of worship.

In fact, Ramadan laws rather seem to undermine genuine religiosity. Just compare Iran to Turkey. The first one is an “Islamic Republic” with a draconian religious police and strict Ramadan laws. Turkey, despite the “stealth Islamization” some have observed in the past two decades, is a secular state where fasting is optional, and restaurants can freely serve food during Ramadan. Yet polls show that more people observe the Ramadan fast in Turkey than in Iran: While 2016 poll by Konda reported 65% of Turks fast during Ramadan, even with some recent decline, a 2020 GAMAAN survey showed that only 40 percent of Iranians really observe the fast.

In other words, policing Ramadan does not really make Muslims truly observe it. Those who do observe the holy month do it out of their sincere belief and heartfelt attachment to their tradition. They don’t need men with sticks and guns – the Hisba forces – to chase them on the streets.

That is why Muslims don’t need any Ramadan laws. Most already have the Ramadan spirit, and all they need is the liberty to cherish it.